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How to be a Chris Morris fan in 2006

Started by Neil, January 11, 2006, 04:33:21 PM

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Neil

Quote from: "humanleech"
Quote from: "Neil"I really am repeating myself now, but, 'You just don't like x because Chris Morris isn't doing his Jeremy Paxman impression!'  That's a really stupid and pointless argument which has been repeated ad infinitum.  Look out for it if The IT Crowd turns out to be shit.
Who said that, then? Who would want Morris to just do his Jeremy Paxman impression? What post on this thread are you answering?

Eh, I was adding to the original list of Morris fan-cliches.  For example, if you google then you will find crap like this:

Quote from: "[urlhttp://www.doctorvee.co.uk/2005/10/29/nathan-barley-dvd/[/url]"]
Opinion on Nathan Barley still seems sharply divided. Most seem to hate it, but that might just be because I visit Cook'd and Bomb'd, a Chris Morris "fan" site that actually hates Morris' guts, and whose visitors go wibble if he isn't doing his Jeremy Paxman impressions.

Oh and he does actually have an unintentionally amusing thing on his site too (there's another Jeremy Paxman observation on this page as well):

Quote from: "[urlhttp://www.doctorvee.co.uk/2005/03/19/nathan-barley/[/url]"]
A common criticism of Nathan Barley is that the characters were far too cartoony for them to be funny — just way over the top. But it's been too easy to see real-life examples of the characters in Nathan Barley. Last week, for instance, walking home in Edinburgh there was this guy on a bike. The thing that made me notice him was his walkie-talkie type thing. It was very loud; the sort of thing a policeman would have, except he clearly wasn't a policeman. He wasn't properly riding his bike. He was sitting sideways on the frame and using it more like a scooter or a skateboard, and generally going nowhere fast and getting in everybody's way. I thought, "That guy is such a Nathan Barley."

There was another time on the train when somebody was doing something loud with their phone; the person across from me looked at the guy in disgust, just like Claire Ashcroft.

Haha.  Anyway, a common complaint if you don't like a new Morris project is that it's because 'you want him to go on recycling news parodies for the rest of his days'.  Which is just bollocks, really, and doesn't take into account the high regard the likes of the R1 shows or Blue Jam are held in.

dave

wow this forum really IS full of twats. How do you all cope in this world being so utterly intelligent and above all the other lowlife humans that inhabit this planet?

Neil


dave

Quote from: "Neil"Heh, cheeks burning are they?

nah i'm just pished and venting.

Quote from: "dave"wow this forum really IS full of twats. How do you all cope in this world being so utterly intelligent and above all the other lowlife humans that inhabit this planet?
Speaking for myself, I come to this forum and put up with posts like yours.

And anyway, I don't think it's a question of intelligence so much as open-mindedness.

dave

Quote from: "Seymour Clufley"
Quote from: "dave"wow this forum really IS full of twats. How do you all cope in this world being so utterly intelligent and above all the other lowlife humans that inhabit this planet?
Speaking for myself, I come to this forum and put up with posts like yours.

That simple sentence shows you up for the stuck up snob you are.

Quote from: "Seymour Clufley"And anyway, I don't think it's a question of intelligence so much as open-mindedness.

You aren't open minded though.

Quote from: "dave"wow this forum really IS full of twats. How do you all cope in this world being so utterly intelligent and above all the other lowlife humans that inhabit this planet?

As a stuck up snob (and I say that in complete seriousness) I find living in a world of moronic lowlifes a constant ego boost.

Utter Shit

I wouldn't agree that it's full of twats, by any means, but this thread is indicative of the general nasty, snidey tone that seems to dominate most of the topics discussed. It doesn't seem to happen anywhere near as much in General Discussion, for whatever reason.

TJ

Quote from: "Utter Shit"I wouldn't agree that it's full of twats, by any means, but this thread is indicative of the general nasty, snidey tone that seems to dominate most of the topics discussed. It doesn't seem to happen anywhere near as much in General Discussion, for whatever reason.

I find GD a million times more snidey, cliquey and playground mentality-dominated, but there you go.

Dave, I can see how this might look on face value, but bear in mind that people's patience does tend to wear a bit thin after twelve months of continuous "Fuck me anyone who doesn't have laughs at nathan barley is some kind of repressed gay mongspazz, cant u see what he is tryin to say about these twats in soho*, Morris is takin the piss out of u u cunts and u dont even realise it, have a beer, roll up a spliff and take a chillpill, and let tha comedy wash over you, you'll get it in the end dude".

Still think my point about tapes etc is perfectly valid though. It does piss me off that I get more mails saying "is this website law of the playground by CHRIS MORRIS?" than I do saying "thanks for finding all those GLR shows, I really enjoyed them".

*and no, they never do explain what it is.

Hope you're doing well by the way, nice to see you again etc!

Utter Shit

Quote from: "TJ"
Quote from: "Utter Shit"I wouldn't agree that it's full of twats, by any means, but this thread is indicative of the general nasty, snidey tone that seems to dominate most of the topics discussed. It doesn't seem to happen anywhere near as much in General Discussion, for whatever reason.

I find GD a million times more snidey, cliquey and playground mentality-dominated, but there you go.
Really? I'm genuinely very surprised about that. Then again, I tend to stick to certain threads in there, larger threads that tend to create their own in-thread 'atmosphere', if that makes sense...the football thread, the Lost thread etc.

But generally from browsing the other threads in there, I don't notice nearly the same snideness (snideyness? snideosity? Dunno.) that I do in here.

humanleech

Quote from: "TJ"Dave, I can see how this might look on face value, but bear in mind that people's patience does tend to wear a bit thin after twelve months of continuous "Fuck me anyone who doesn't have laughs at nathan barley is some kind of repressed gay mongspazz, cant u see what he is tryin to say about these twats in soho*, Morris is takin the piss out of u u cunts and u dont even realise it, have a beer, roll up a spliff and take a chillpill, and let tha comedy wash over you, you'll get it in the end dude".
But more people have slagged off Nathan Barley, and insulted its supporters in equally nasty terms. Also your and Neil's parodies are over the top - you'd be much better off giving actual quotes. People who endorse NB may be may be strange or sycophantic, but they do deserve the respect of being quoted right. If they're as bad as you think, that shouldn't be difficult.

Neil

Christ Almighty.  How is it you and Utter Shit miss all the posts like this then?  Oh, and:

Quote from: "humanleech"But more people have slagged off Nathan Barley,  and insulted its supporters in equally nasty terms

Simply untrue.  I invite you to take a walk through Site Updates.

EDIT:  And I did give some specific quotes on this very page.  I don't do that in general as I think it would be far more snidey, actually, and I'd rather attack attitudes than individuals.

TJ

Quote from: "humanleech"But more people have slagged off Nathan Barley, and insulted its supporters in equally nasty terms. Also your and Neil's parodies are over the top - you'd be much better off giving actual quotes. People who endorse NB may be may be strange or sycophantic, but they do deserve the respect of being quoted right. If they're as bad as you think, that shouldn't be difficult.

Leaving Neil out of this, because you're taking direct issue with something that I said myself - I have never, ever said anything about Nathan Barley that was any stronger than essentially (and I'm paraphrasing here) "it didn't really make me laugh, it's not my kind of thing when it comes down to it, I found the choice of targets quite narrow-minded and alienating, and (based on thoughts extrapolated from a gut reaction instinct rather than examination under this 'comedy microscope' people keep telling me I own) I felt there were some weird flaws in it, not least the fact that the 'idiots' and Nathan were more likeable than Dan or Claire", I may have got a bit shouty in one of the episode discussion threads, but that was with some berk who was trying to claim that The Day Today was "dated when you look at it" and that the original Brass Eye went for "safe targets who have lost their relevance". Who was probably just saying it to cause a ruckus now that I think back over it. I also may have fumed over the Brass Eye special, but that was a loathesome piece of television that gave good reason to hate its mean-spirited, badly-focused attempts at 'humour'. And several years ago too. jam I liked, My Wrongs I was indifferent to, Smokehammer I thought was drivel but scarcely worth commenting on. So all in all, I'm not really the big spoilsport enemy of 'Nathan Barley' that some people like to think.

But that's the problem - some people do like to think that. For some reason I get routinely caricatured (mostly by anonymous posters in site updates) as some kind of humourless embittered loser who 'refused' to enjoy Nathan Barley. Sometimes it's weirdly amusing, like when I got bawled out by a failed 1980s indie musician tosser who based his criticism on his own strange rewriting of my comments to create quoted sentences that I'd never even said, but it's just so fucking tiresome when roughly once a week a post appears in Site Updates restating (and I don't believe I was exaggerating at all) the type of lazy stupidity I was referring to above.

Some people, like Peking O, are brilliant at presenting counterarguments in a way that makes you think and doesn't set out to cause offence. Others aren't and are rude and sneering and unimaginative and can go fuck themselves.

Neil

Look, let's all make the effort, let's get rid of these meaingless and wafer-thin stock phrases.  Let's get rid of this bloody hit-and-run mentality in Site Updates, where people turn up and say the exact same thing as everyone else.  If you think that Nathan Barley 'doesn't have jokes, and it's great that it doesn't have jokes', then stick around when I ask you to explain that, don't just ignore my questioning.  Let's have a conversation, let's discuss it, let's chat about it, convince me that you're not just defending a show like Barley by unknowingly giving it all these back-handed compliments like that blog bloke up there, who managed to praise the show while simultaneously highlighting just what a one-dimensional under-written character Claire Ashcroft is.  Explain to me what your definition of a joke is...explain to me what your definition of a joke isn't.  Tell me why and how we are expected to 'do something about it' when we have a straw poll of the years worst comedy shows.  Explain why we really should have had some positive awards 'just to balance things out.'  Get rid of all the stock phrases, slap yourself on the back of the hand if you find yourself typing 'you don't like it because essentially you ARE Nathan Barley.'  Know why that's a cliche on here?  Because it is a cliche, on here and elsewhere.  Let's have a debate, let's have a two-way discourse.  Please, for gawds sake, stop telling us that we don't like something because Chris Morris isn't endlessly remaking TDT or Brass Eye.  I fucking love sitcoms!

And where is the logic in some of these arguments?  The person who doesn't like everything Morris does is a fan-boy, and yet the person who likes all his output and tries to use the forum to communicate with him personally isn't one?  Hello?  Do we even need the word fan-boy, what does it mean, does the person using it even know?  PLEASE, someone, back up the argument that 'none of CM's output has ever been laugh out loud funny.'  Don't just drop it into conversation like a stink bomb and then scarper.

You want quotes?  Here's your quotes:

QuoteIf you are considering boycotting future Chris Morris works (which you wouldnt be able to do anyway, as your funny little brains cant work right without him), then just take a few moments to find a chair, sit beneath it and pray that Mr. M comes to provide sufficient salvation for you and your family to be able to function something like normally for the next/your final ten minutes, before Mother Theresa decides that all you are all good for is boiling in a large glass pot with some milk and liquid electricity.

People change. Maybe its YOU aswell as him??!!

QuoteJust to confirm the arguments so far:

Rrrrrrrroll a joint, chill the fuck out, watch Nathan Barley... and laugh 'til you feel sick.

Believe...

Quoteim with u on this 1, barley was fuking ace, taking the piss outta the people that thought they were untouchable by morris, i recon morris see's him self as Ashcroft, to many arse lickers licking his arse, so he's done a classic 180 and bit the fucking lot of you, he prolly pissing himself if he reads this, UR ALL SPOSED TO HATE IT BECASUSE ITS ABOUT U.

QuoteConsidering he is still gaining fans on the strength of 10 year old comedy, to say that Morris isn't funny anymore is just plain daft.

Episode One of Nathan Barley was great. A logical way to attack the one remaining class he had left to humiliate.


Im with u on this 1
The guys still fucking funny and always will be, its a usual caase of build them up, then knock em down the moment the person(s) in question do something u didnt think was good as the last, frankly very bored of this nature.

i hope they run another series to fuck all u media fukers off, ur so far up ya own arse u have forgot whats decent.

Baz

QuoteBlah blah blah
aint u got something else todo with your day apart from wacking up messages as to "wether morris has lost it or not"

my post wasnt meant to b funny or any kind of "amazing observation"

it was purely a dig at at u fools that think that your opinion is worth a shit.

Morris got mouths to feed, bills to pay, if he can do it and make people laff, then hasnt he done his job?

Ur all fuking barleys anyway

BS

QuoteWhy does everyone on this site hate Nathan Barley so much?? It was a step into the mainstream for Chris Morris but I still think it was hilarious. I fear that most people on this forum are jumped up media types who felt that Nathan Barley was a little too close to home! Chris Morris was effectively taking the piss out of some of his fans! Good on him! Not one to shy away from controversy, he is probably loving the notoriety this show has brought him within these sad little communities. I am sure he revels in the hatred as much as the adoration. A sign that Chris Morris is 'not as funny as he used to be' is possibly a good thing if the voters are a bunch of unfunny arseholes themselves!

Quote...

Please don't be like Bob Dylan's fans shouting out "Judas" when he started using electric instruments. So "Blowin' in the Wind" was a great song, but if the folkies had had their way there'd never have been "Like a Rolling Stone" or anything that came after. It's the same with Chris Morris. The guy's a fucking genius - don't expect him to keep doing the same thing for very long. The "newsorama" format was fantastic, and I'm sure he'll come back to it at some point, but isn't it so much better that he branches out and tries his hand at new stuff rather than risk sterility? Look at poor Harry Hill, for God's sake!

"Newsorama" is now mainstream - everybody's doing the Morris thing from Ali G to Trigger Happy TV (yawn yawn yawn). With NB, Morris is giving us something, yet again that breaks out of the mainstream. Don't be the mainstream - swim against it! I really believe that if you look for the good in NB you'll see a lot of parallels with everything you most like about the other stuff.

Quote
...
Secondly, I too know Nathan Barley. I've met people like him, and I think I feel the same way about them as CM does, based on how Barley comes across in this series. I think the comparisons with The Office are apposite but Barley works a little differently. For example, the comment at the start of this thread about the "Muff Fanny Minge" game (or whatever it was) seem to have missed the point. The game in itself was not supposed to be funny. The humour in the situation for me arises from the fact that these idiots *think* it's funny. They think they're being clever or postmodern by behaving like idiots, but in fact they're just behaving like idiots.

In the end for me, the Barley series seemed like one long scream of frustration from CM. A wake-up call, to let us know that the people who write the magazines that influence our ideas and culture are just greedy, self-obsessed idiots and don't deserve the time of day, let alone our respect.

I've never found any of Morris' output laugh-out-loud funny. I'd have been very disappointed if there were any 'jokes' in Nathan Barley. Morris' work makes you think, it makes you search for the humour and in so doing you discover both the humour and the tragedy of the situation. Work like this should be applauded, if only because it's the antithesis of the idiot regime of Little Britain and other one-idea shows.

QuoteGreat post. Totally agree. Morris' work for me too has never been about laugh out loud-funniness, its about exposing and highlighting the tragedy and problems in today's society in a humourous fashion. Like the above chap said, I too would have been disappointed to find 'jokes' in Nathan Barley. Its very far from the likes of The Office and Little Britain in its intentions.

Quote
Re: Nathan Barley.
You boring fucking bastards.

Quotething is though, its not his best work yeah,
but cunts like you hate people you arse as soon as they finish their underground and early stuff anyway
i think morris is allowed to do what he wants now he doesn't have to pay any dues to satisfy anyone anymore for fucks sake
barley's not the best but it attacks a worthy culture n as an un-confident art-student its about time all these self-promoting wankers got spun

Quotewhat the fuck is this website about? Someone's face, who i assume to be the webmaster is emblazoned on the banner of the site. What a full on cunt for starters. So you have a website dedicated to someone elses comedy. BIG DEAL. Who the fuck cares if Morris is funny as he used to be, do you wish he was still doing news spoofs all the time? And as for the poll, fuck that.

QuoteI enjoyed it, let's see you do better.

Quotei dont understand why you would make some kind of fansite about morris then slag him off on it(barley), like now you have this site you have the right to comment on his work because you know him better than he does? goon.

Ciarán2

You should have that as a permanent banner on the front page, Neil. Well said.

mayer

Quotewhat the fuck is this website about? Someone's face, who i assume to be the webmaster is emblazoned on the banner of the site. What a full on cunt for starters.

That's still fucking hilarious every time I read it!

humanleech

Thank you Neil and TJ.
I did a search on 'barley' on this site and it seems to be 'thewomb' and various trolls on 'Site Updates' that you're objecting to here. I don't see the other sites so I don't know about them. There are plainly some idiots out there, but they they seem to have thinned out a lot on Cookd and Bombd itself - The Happy Funtime Nathan Barley thread doesn't exactly seemm to have taken off.