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Big Brother 8

Started by weirdbeard, May 25, 2007, 11:49:19 PM

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Ciarán

Quote from: gazzyk1ns on May 26, 2007, 03:54:31 AM
You of all people should know that actually, if you consider the lillies, everyone makes a difference to the world.

No, you don't make a difference to the world by just existing. You make a difference by what you do. Form AND content. Not one or the other. Big Brother does absolutely nothing. It's worse than the most plastic pop I like. It sells a few extra copies of Heat/ The Sun etc. It doesn't give anyone any pleasure except in that it allows people to feel smug in feeling superior to others. It's utterly bound up in bullying mentality. Every year a victim, a national hate figure, is created. That's not culture. Even The Reynolds Girls have contributed more to society than that.

gazzyk1ns

Oh Jesus, forget it.

(and sorry, I just edited that second paragraph in instead of posting again, I think it would have done the same thing anyway in the absence of your post)

Quote from: Ciarán on May 26, 2007, 03:59:46 AM
Big Brother does absolutely nothing.

Well then you've got nothing to get annoyed about then, have you? Eh? EH!!??, etc. etc.

glitch

Did anyone see the "What happened after BB?" thing last night?

Had an interesting whitewash of certain housemates, chiefly Shabaz who wasn't even mentioned.

Funcrusher

Quote from: Ciarán on May 26, 2007, 03:50:24 AM
Bollocks to it! Why does anybody give a flying fucking fuck about that pile of shit?? I fail to understand it. Big fucking Brother! We're supposed to be intelligent. We're supposed to have a sense of right. You mean to tell me you give a shit that bloke (a) shags bird (b) on live TV? Get a fucking life!!! It has zero to contribute to our understanding of humanity, unless you think that only the most morbid fascinations carry any weight. Just switch the fucking thing off or you forego your right to criticize the state of TV (comedy and otherwise) in my opinion.

I agree, I fucking hate it. It just feeds the whole micro-celeb culture, and becomes nastier and more sadistic as it gets more desperate to keep ratings up.

Hollyoaks omnibus

Quote from: LeboviciAB84 on May 26, 2007, 02:32:56 AM
Inspired by Warhol, you say? Ah, so the last forty years of British art and graphic design didn't happen, then? Terry who?

Well  er,  no -actually...

Quote from: BB
In homage to Brit art bad boy Damien Hirst, Big Brother has suspended a split rubber chicken in clear boxes.

LeboviciAB84

Well, I was exaggerating a bit. I just find it amazing that a graphic device can be borrowed from the Royal Air Force by a British artist, then appropriated into Mod culture, revived in the late seventies (thanks to Quadrophenia and suchlike), passed on to Britpop and then attributed to an artist from Pittsburgh. It's like saying, "This year's house is covered in clapboard, with a big Gothic window the housemates can pose in front of, holding a pitchfork. As a tribute to Constable."

It doesn't really annoy me, it just puzzles me.

Emma Raducanu

Last year there was a Welshman who took girls up to the top of a hill and sodomised them, or so he said. He was the most cultured one wasn't he? even if he didn't know how to boil an egg.

I'll probably watch it again this year which is worrying.

Oscar

Quote from: glitch on May 26, 2007, 09:03:05 AM
Did anyone see the "What happened after BB?" thing last night?

Had an interesting whitewash of certain housemates, chiefly Shabaz who wasn't even mentioned.
Yes. I don't really watch BB because I find it exploitative and cruel, but I was interested to see what happened to the poor fuckers afterwards. I was surprised because the What Happened? program seemed completely unsneery and was focussing on positive stories of happy ex-housemates. I found myself thinking "Ah see? It's all fine really. I can finally make my peace with BB" then I realised that that was probably the point of such a show, after all the controversy, they wanted to create the impression of "It's only a game show! Everyone's just having a bit of fun!"
But I'm not sure that is true, from various news stories I've read, people have been genuinely fucked up by the show - people who were mental messes to start with perhaps, but anyone who is a mental mess shouldn't be put on a show like that.
Still, I get my jollies from reading the BB threads in here, so my sanctimony is nonsense.

Funcrusher

Quote from: LeboviciAB84 on May 26, 2007, 12:22:10 PM
Well, I was exaggerating a bit. I just find it amazing that a graphic device can be borrowed from the Royal Air Force by a British artist, then appropriated into Mod culture, revived in the late seventies (thanks to Quadrophenia and suchlike), passed on to Britpop and then attributed to an artist from Pittsburgh. It's like saying, "This year's house is covered in clapboard, with a big Gothic window the housemates can pose in front of, holding a pitchfork. As a tribute to Constable."

It doesn't really annoy me, it just puzzles me.

Did Warhol do anything that used targets anyway? Don't they mean Jasper Johns?

LeboviciAB84

Jasper Johns did use roundels, but (I'd say) as a way of emphasising the visual textures of his works rather than as a purely graphical device – it was his flags that stuck around in Public Consciousness. In fact, it was former RAF painter Terry Frost who, while studying at  Camberwell School Of Art, first incorporated target shapes into paintings. That's what got picked up by Pete Townshend, along with Gustav Metzger's theories of autodestructive art. As a result, said Consciousness now bubbles with roundels and rock stars who smash up their equipment.

Hollyoaks omnibus


LeboviciAB84


drberbatov

The worry for me is that as each series goes on the contestants are getting more desperate and more emotionally vulnerable.

Neil

Ah, I was going to split those posts off to have a new anti-BB thread, but I just can't be arsed. 

I enjoy it greatly.  Why?  It's about human nature, bitching, cliques forming, relationships beginning, etc.  I was snobby about it when it began, and adamantly refused to watch it in the first year - missing what most consider to be the best (and most innocent) BB ever.  Then I caught some of the second series in a friends house when it was about halfway through, and I was instantly hooked.  You may as well spout your vitriol towards soap operas, because that's largely what it is.

However, I do hate a lot of the way it operates, and I think Endomol are shit-heels.  But I've learnt so much about editing and the like from it, that I almost consider it an education.  In a way. 

Sorry, but it's not at all about bloke (a) shagging bird (b).  I mean, it just isn't.  The romance stuff tends to get overblown as it gets them ratings, but the heart of the show is actually the stuff I've already out-lined.  It's watching a snobby ginger prick like Tim shaving his chest and then hiding under the duvet when someone comes in, so they don't bust him as a ginge.  Or laughing at him saying "Comprende?" in the most hilariously poncey affected tone.  It's watching Brian being flat-out hilarious, and ad-libbing lines that blow away most C4 Friday night comedy offerings over the last five or so years.  It's watching cocky, gobby, louty fucking wank-pots like Maxwell think they've got the British public in their pockets, and then seeing their face when they lose to someone they deem way more annoying/unpopular than them. 

How much of it have you seen?  It's great, when you actually watch it.

Ja'moke

I agree with Neil. I was the same, never watched series 1 and had no intention of watching series 2 until I caught a bit of it a few weeks in and it did intrigue me, I watched a bit more and from then on became hooked.

I like to see how different people from different backgrounds get along, see how each react to certain sitautions, see what type of people group together etc. Yes it has become very desperate the last couple of series and I'm hoping that after the disastarous Celebrity series that we have a return to more normal yet fun housemates, we need more of a BB2 and less of a BB6/BB7.


I just watched the retrospective - there have been some great characters. I didn't see 5 and 6, but maybe it's good that I didn't. It is one of my many guilty pleasure. It's just pure panto.

Maybe it's a little different for me, living abroad - I don't have to deal with the wankerish media saturation that accompanies it.


Nice to see that Spoiral is still a knob, him spitting some dope rhymes was one of the highlights of last year.

Braintree

Didn't a few Whores audition for this? Can they at least sayif they didn't get in or is that not allowed?

I must admit I'm intrigued by the audition process. In the sense of "Would I get any further than the first stage if I auditioned" I don't think they would like my face. I just want them to beg for my presence and me to go "NO. HAHAHA"

chocky909

Though probably immoral and bad for the human race, BB is amazing TV. Maybe the fact that no creative input is needed puts people off? I really don't understand people who say it's for stupid people. It's an observation show so what you get out of it is up to you. I'm not happy with the way the producers are going with it though, too many unstable characters and deliberate antagonism.

In fact I could write a lot about what I hate about it (editorialising, the press coverage), but I can't deny the sheer joy in watching a load of strangers on camera 24/7. It reveals SO much that is rarely seen in any other circumstances. It teaches you so much about the human condition. It is more appealing to antisocial people who don't get out much because they see things they would never see in real life. And that's probably why I love it. I hate myself for it but that's how it is.

And this is why no one is making good comedy anymore, this is far funnier.

Hollyoaks omnibus


Oscar

Quote from: chocky909 on May 26, 2007, 09:21:03 PM
Though probably immoral and bad for the human race, BB is amazing TV. Maybe the fact that no creative input is needed puts people off?
The fact that it's immoral and for the human race maybe what's putting people off.
Quote from: chocky909 on May 26, 2007, 09:21:03 PMAnd that's probably why I love it. I hate myself for it but that's how it is.
I've known a lot of people (perfectly intelligent people, I don't claim it's for the thick at all) who say they watch it, but hate themselves for it, that seems like a heavy price to pay for a bit of telly ;)
Whoever said it's like a soap has a good point, I'd say it's too unrealistic to be a study for the human condition, but while it's all good harmless fun to hate characters in a soap, BB contestants have to return to the real world and be hated. Maybe I'm being oversensitive, but the idea of sticking a group of narcissistic, emotionally unstable and unself-aware people in a tense, closed environment and then after ten weeks release them into a community that has come to obsessively hate them and blasts the reasons why across newspaper headlines, just seems very very wrong to me.
(Don't worry Neil, the BB criticisers are likely to shut up when the program actually starts showing).

gazzyk1ns

Quote from: Hollyoaks omnibus on May 26, 2007, 09:42:32 PM
Here it all comes...again.

Heh, that article is really annoying to read, I think it's mainly the impression that the author thinks she's being original or controversial. All BBs over here have been the focus of the summer "mainstream media", but plenty of people were slagging it off from before the first one started, and they've never stopped.

I don't really get the massive fuss about this Austrailian dad-death incident, it would depend on exactly how they work it over there. For our BB, they specifically ask the contestants pre-isolation what action they'd like taken should a friend or family member die or fall seriously ill, don't they? So as far as I'm concerned, that's 100% fine. You can start talking about how their absence at the funeral/wake/whatever will affect the rest of the people involved; but surely that's irrelevant when talking about BB itself, because the decision was taken by the sane adult* in quesion? So, on their shoulders be it.

I remember the series very fuzzily now, but I was a bit surprised to hear that C4 got punished for airing the whole race row on the last celebrity one. At the risk of sounding like I think BB is more important than it actually is, wasn't it good that Jade and the other two cronies got exposed to the masses? Nobody actually said "I fucking hate [insert racist term here]." and no physical violence occured, but I bet a lot of people watching realised for the first time how nasty that sort of sly, casual, supposedly (but not actually, of course) harmless racism is. Especially because of the age of a lot of viewers. I've not read or heard exactly what C4 were found guilty of by the way, some of the linked transcripts I read earlier might have been relevant because C4 should have put a stop to it sooner. If so then fair enough, I suppose... although that's a fucking complicated one in itself, again, if you consider that all involved are sane adults who knowingly consented to the whole BB thing and were free to leave at any time, then... hmmm, I dunno. Either way I don't think it affects the point I've just made.

Heh, despite defending BB pretty vehemently here, I do feel a bit silly for talking about it like this. Actually, no, I don't, whoever added that I SHALL BE READING DESCARTES tag down there did make me smile. Big Brother snobs are very hypocritical because in a certain way, they take it and its effects at least as seriously as most people who follow it closely.

*...Hah...hah... I don't know how many UK BB contestants can be described as "sane" or "adult", ahahahaha, etc. etc. vomit etc.

joeyzaza

BB is definitely a guilty pleasure for me, but without the annual thread here at cab I don't think I'd enjoy it quite as much.

Quote from: Caitlin Moran, in today's TimesI have heard a rumour that, at the auditions this year, the producers were told to adhere to a "no more dimwits and slags" policy, in an attempt to broaden the show's social mix.

Hmmm, we'll see...

buntyman

Quote from: Neil on May 26, 2007, 05:54:02 PM
It's watching Brian being flat-out hilarious, and ad-libbing lines that blow away most C4 Friday night comedy offerings over the last five or so years. 

How much of it have you seen?  It's great, when you actually watch it.

I'm not going to let that comment slide. Surely you jest Neil? I've seen this bloke on Loose Women (one of my current favourite programs - is there a thread on it?) and the ITV late night quiz shows and he's the vagrant's own Graham Norton.     

Quote from: gazzyk1ns on May 26, 2007, 10:59:40 PM
I don't really get the massive fuss about this Austrailian dad-death incident, it would depend on exactly how they work it over there.

From the comments on that article:

QuoteMarina, the news about the Australian BB contestant, Emma and her dearly departed father, is as you suggest very sad and tragic. But, in the usual manner of the GU newspaper, you present a half-baked truth here. In the Aussie media, the story goes that Ms Emma has had nothing to do with her father for many years due to a major falling out. Only before she entered the BB household here did she reunite with him having heard that he was ill. In his will, he asked that she not be notified of his death (should she still be in the BB house) until after her departure from the show. Should the wishes of the father be overriden or should we just mind our own business? Gosh, this news has received more media play in Britain than it has in the person's home country.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: buntyman on May 26, 2007, 11:30:58 PM
I'm not going to let that comment slide. Surely you jest Neil? I've seen this bloke on Loose Women (one of my current favourite programs - is there a thread on it?) and the ITV late night quiz shows and he's the vagrant's own Graham Norton.     
He was very funny during the series' run though. He showed himself to be quick witted, and formed a genuinely funny partnership with Bubble, that sadly came to an end when Bubble got kicked out far too early.

Yes, everything he's done since has been poor (though admittedly I've only seen him on "Brian's Boyfriends" and one of those quiz shows briefly), but during BB2 he was fantastic. I always think that the winner should be the one who has entertained me the most, which hasn't been the case some years (I mean what did Anthony do apart from try to avoid Craig's drunken lecherous advances?), and with that in mind Brian's definitely been the most deserving winner out of all the BB's.

weirdbeard

I used to really enjoy the bedtime pranks the boys used to play on Brian.  That sounds incredibly sad but, fuck it, it's true.

thomasina

I loved Brian. I really do think he's genuinely talented and funny. 

On the old 'racist bullying' thing, I agree with Gazzykins.  I found it a bit of a breakthrough that lowish-level racist bullying, of the kind that i've seen in several workplaces, was being recognised for what it was.  I don't think channel 4 was irresponsible for showing it, it would have been irresponsible not to. 

buntyman

Quote from: thomasina on May 27, 2007, 01:24:44 AM
I loved Brian. I really do think he's genuinely talented and funny. 


Do you have any examples or clips of YouTube evidence to support this? I remember catching bits of that big brother series and remember him being the typical constantly attention-seeking, shrieking, camp buffoon that shows up on every series.
In fact there has never been anyone that I remember on Big Brother (apart from maybe Victor) that i've enjoyed watching.

hoverdonkey

Mrs Donkey and I flew to Italy a couple of months before BB2, or whichever one Brian was in, and he was our air steward on Ryan Air. He was hilarious, getting into all sorts of arguments with stroppy Italians and muttering obcenities under his breath. Couldn't believe it when he showed up in the telly a couple of months later

Hollyoaks omnibus

Quote from: Ciarán
Bollocks to it! Why does anybody give a flying fucking fuck about that pile of shit?? I fail to understand it. Big fucking Brother! We're supposed to be intelligent. We're supposed to have a sense of right. You mean to tell me you give a shit that bloke (a) shags bird (b) on live TV? Get a fucking life!!! It has zero to contribute to our understanding of humanity, unless you think that only the most morbid fascinations carry any weight. Just switch the fucking thing off or you forego your right to criticize the state of TV (comedy and otherwise) in my opinion.

In my opinion, I think that the show is only ever as smart or as dumb as the person who's watching it.  Though, is it even a show these days?  It's starting to look more like an event.  It seems that one way or another you either take part in Big Brother or you don't,  so surely the only sensible thing to do if you totally object to it would be to ignore it; unless of course you love to hate it in which case carry on...