Doug Stanhope in 'Making a stranger's life horribly unpleasant'

[Hank_Kingsley]

Yikes:

This fuck stealing my stuff verbatim and passing it off as his own writing. Please ruin his day. http://exmypa.blogspot.com/2010/07/working-hardprisondrug-war.html

This was posted up on Stanhope's Facebook page, following which he created a specific page called 'Occupy Troy Holm' and linked to this guys profile.

His rather rabid fanbase have gone insane on the guy, with Doug leading the abuse with personal comments on the guy's public photo albums (not a smart move on this bloke's part making it all public, but..christ).

This must be the most extreme example of a comedian/minor celebrity using his fanbase to go after someone, but hang on...this is a blog from 2010 which NO ONE seemed to be reading. This is not a hack comedian ripping him off, it's just SOME GUY.

Very unpleasant...

[alan nagsworth]

This is the chap who had a bit on Brooker's 2011 Wipe isn't it? His voice makes me want to punch through a door and his comedy is shit. Therefore he is a cunt. CASE CLOSED.

[Baby Woodrose]

But who are we to criticise - we have the Royal Family!

[Rachel]

Urgh, that's saved me from bothering to investigate his back-catalogue. He's a regular on Charlie Brooker's various wipes so I thought there must be something to him, but no. He's just a shouty cunt. Get to fuck, Stanhope.

[Artemis]

I find Stanhope sporadically funny on Brooker's shows and enjoyed his part in Louie, but this kind of thing is pretty ugly. Uglier still are his fans who have obeyed him, and demonstrate a lack of wit I wouldn't have expected from his fanbase, based on the little I know about his stuff.

I kind of get why Stanhope would want to do this (although it does seem like the kind of thing anyone decent would regret in the sobriety of the morning), but I don't understand why anyone would dutifully go and act like a cunt because someone they don't know told them to.

[Barberism]

This is just a bit of a twat parade isn't it. Doug Stanhope is funny but very much a twat. His fans are twats for attacking some random twat. The twat's website suggests he is a bit of a twat. 

Of course the mature thing to do is have pity on the twat. All the pictures of him with girls, the controversial persona he has created on his website are to hide the fat he has a receding hairline.

Doug was staying up late in a hotel room, came upon this blog and imagined the hipster twat using his material to get laid and it made his blood boil. Doug comes across as very angry and petty over this. By not being the guy in the blog you have already won. He could have ripped on the guy on stage, not got his fans to do it for him.

[notjosh]

Off-putting though this may be, I would encourage anyone who doesn't know Stanhope to listen to Deadbeat Hero - one of the finest comedy albums I've ever heard, and possibly the last time that he seemed to really give a shit. It's fearless and radical and thoroughly uncunty.

[BlodwynPig]

i'm going to see him in March - i won't bother to report back

[CaledonianGonzo]

I've moaned enough about my 'Doug Stanhope Live Experience' on here, but I would encourage anyone thinking of going to see him live not to bother.

[BlodwynPig]

I've moaned enough about my 'Doug Stanhope Live Experience' on here, but I would encourage anyone thinking of going to see him live not to bother.

Can you expand on this?

[notjosh]

I've moaned enough about my 'Doug Stanhope Live Experience' on here, but I would encourage anyone thinking of going to see him live not to bother.

Yeah, I'd second that. I've seen him be spectacularly good live, but the last two times he was at the Leicester Square theatre, he spent two hours moaning about how much he hates this country, and working in one place for weeks on end. Yet he keeps booking month long runs at the same theatre, twice a year. His 'good' days are getting few and far between.

[Wet Blanket]

I saw him at the Leicester Square Theatre early last year and thought he was fantastic. It was a warm-up show for his big gig at the Hammersmith Apollo, however, rather than part of a long run. Maybe the quality dips over the course of a long run. Plus he seems to genuinely be a drunk, so that must fuck up his performances sometimes.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Can you expand on this?

Well - at the risk of going over old ground, Stanhope's audience proved to mostly constitute a bunch of beered-up wrassling fans who interrupted his (mediocre) stand-up with a flow of questions about his favourite drugs and greeted his most sexist bits of material (disabled women needn't claim unemployment benefits when they can become prostitutes because "dicks are always gonna need sucked") with whoops and high-fives.  It just all felt a bit Andrew Dice Clay.

I know that's not everyone's experience, but it certainly made me wary of venturing out to see him again.

[Hank_Kingsley]

On reflection, and further reading of their blog/facebook, I feel this person may actually deserve some of the negative attention. I feel I can take the moral high ground by not adding to it but being sickly fascinated by the whole episode.

[Noodle Lizard]

Heh, I knew this would get mentioned here as soon as I saw it happen.  I'm not sure why anyone's surprised, though, Doug used to do this kind of thing all the time.

[Theremin]

He has a history of fucking with people, sometimes funny, sometimes not.

Though I can't really remember a time when I thought it was unjustified. I wouldn't say this was on the same level as Gervais' Twitter dalliances.

[Noodle Lizard]

He has a history of fucking with people, sometimes funny, sometimes not.

Though I can't really remember a time when I thought it was unjustified. I wouldn't say this was on the same level as Gervais' Twitter dalliances.

Actually, didn't he do almost exactly the same thing, telling his fans to attack a disability rights website because they condemned some of his material?

It was around the time of this incident http://www.dougstanhope.com/journal/2011/8/7/heres-what-happened.html

The difference is that Doug never pretends that he's anything more or less than he is, and doesn't pretend that all of his humour is completely defensible.  That's where Gervais went wrong with the "mong" thing - eventually even pretending that he didn't know it was a bad word at all!

[Theremin]

I'd forgotten about that.

Also, right.

EDIT:

Except for the fact that, on reading that, he didn't actually tell his fans to attack anyone, just raged against the charitiy's decision, and encouraged his fans to contact the BBC's complaints department.

But I still see your point. He's not trying to pretend that using disablist language makes him a nice person.

[Noodle Lizard]

Except for the fact that, on reading that, he didn't actually tell his fans to attack anyone, just raged against the charitiy's decision, and encouraged his fans to contact the BBC's complaints department.

I think he may have done a bit more than that on Facebook, but I can't be bothered to look it up, so I may be right or wrong.

[ThickAndCreamy]

Off-putting though this may be, I would encourage anyone who doesn't know Stanhope to listen to Deadbeat Hero - one of the finest comedy albums I've ever heard, and possibly the last time that he seemed to really give a shit. It's fearless and radical and thoroughly uncunty.

I love much of Stanhope's stuff still. I completely disagree with a lot of it and think he's a twat, but as a comedian he does often seem to present a rather unique and sometimes hilarious view on life. Deadbeat Hero is a fantastic album, and his others are excellent as well.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I love much of Stanhope's stuff still. I completely disagree with a lot of it and think he's a twat, but as a comedian he does often seem to present a rather unique and sometimes hilarious view on life. Deadbeat Hero is a fantastic album, and his others are excellent as well.

I'd agree with that, though also echo that when I saw him live he attracted the worse audience I've ever been a part of. Many of them were heckling throughout in the hope that he'd pick on them, and one American woman did it so much he almost lost it with her (telling everyone in the room to scream "Fuck off" at her at one point) but she still wouldn't stop, ruining the gig for almost everyone. And considering how much it cost, I wouldn't risk seeing him again, at least not in London.

[Noodle Lizard]

In my experience (three times seeing him in London last August), he dealt with hecklers pretty well, and got one guy thrown out.  I've never been to a comedy show where there haven't been dickheads of some degree, though.  Same goes for music ... at least not in the UK, I've had all-round good experiences elsewhere.

For what it's worth, Stanhope's one of my favourite (if not my absolute favourite ever since Louis CK went a bit wrong) living stand-up comedians, so I can't let the fact that a large portion of his vocal fanbase try and emulate his "hedonism" etc. put me off seeing him.

As far as being a twat goes, I don't know.  Him and his girlfriend were always really friendly after the shows, putting up with some of the more obnoxious fans and spending a lot of time talking to the others.  Very approachable.  That being said, I had a great time after one show watching him completely humiliate a young wannabe stand-up who told Doug that he "shouldn't pace around on stage so much".  I can't call him a twat for that, though.

[Theremin]

That being said, I had a great time after one show watching him completely humiliate a young wannabe stand-up who told Doug that he "shouldn't pace around on stage so much".  I can't call him a twat for that, though.

What was his response?

[Noodle Lizard]

What was his response?

I can't remember verbatim, but he said something along the lines of "tell that to Chris Rock" and basically explained why it was such a stupid thing to say.  I think this young guy had been attending comedy workshops or something and thought he'd pass on his great insight to someone who's had a relatively successful stand-up career for two decades.  I wish I could remember more of what Doug had said, but everyone watching the confrontation was in hysterics.  He's a naturally funny person.

On topic, though, I have to admit to this very simple post on the Occupy Troy Holm page making me laugh:

‎"I'm Doug Stanhope, and that's why I drink" ~ Troy Holm

[Noodle Lizard]

And http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Holm

[Theremin]

This is the best bit:

In cooperation with the mayor of Reykjavik, comedian Jón Gnarr, Holm has scheduled a performance in Iceland's only maximum security prison, Litla-Hraun, for September 25th 2011. Fans who want to watch the show would have to commit a crime; for them he invented The Stanhope Defense.

[vrailaine]

I don't like him, his whole act doesn't really work when he a fairly large cultish following, and it's not one I'd like anyways. Definitely one of those people who I found an awful lot harder to like after hearing what he's actually like and all too.

...by the way, that Icelandic comedian is the guy behind Naeturvaktin.

[I accept the terms of the]

I wonder how many of his followers obediently attacking this man also claim to support The Pirate Party.

I'm glad to see a rip-off merchant getting some grief, but this is bleak and so is Stanhope (and not in the way he's been manufacturing for years instead of being funny).

...by the way, that Icelandic comedian is the guy behind Naeturvaktin.

And Fangavaktin, which is set in the same prison.

[BritishHobo]

He has a history of fucking with people, sometimes funny, sometimes not.

Though I can't really remember a time when I thought it was unjustified. I wouldn't say this was on the same level as Gervais' Twitter dalliances.

In a rare defence of Gervais though, he did only direct his fans to the comments page of negative reviews and told them to fight back, while Stanhope kind of lead his to the guy's Facebook page and joined them in going nuts on all the different photos and such destroying him with brilliant comments like 'you're a fag' and 'you're still a fag'. Granted his blog is sub-Tucker Max (who himself is sub-fucking-human) bollocks, but still.

I really don't want to start an argument about privacy and how careful you are online, how if you leave yourself and your profiles and comments open you deserve what you get, just a thought. Still, I think the two comedians are quite familiar anyway which always surprises me because I always thought they couldn't really be more different.

[rudi]

His first two "proper" CDs are fucking brilliant. The two occasions I've seen him live were ruined by the audience. I actually think the fact he's touring this time round will help as it should "dilute" the percentage of gobshite fanboys missing the point (ie it's not about being shocking and drunk for the ske of being drunk and shocking) and will hopefully require him to hone a set somewhere approaching his heyday.

I'll let you know.

As for the OP: well, don't go nicking people's shit wholesale without credit would be my advice.