"6/10", "It's Comedy With L - plates" - David Davis Reviews The Day Today

[Retinend]

Yesterday, former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis was on Marcus Brickstocke's BBC4 show "I've Never Seen Star Wars" - a show where high-calbre celebrities admit to not having done something which most people have done... then, er, they do it, and then they discuss whether or not they thought it was good or not.

In this most recent episode, Brigstocke gives David an episode of The Day Today to watch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00k21gn/Ive_Never_Seen_Star_Wars_David_Davis/
- stream the episode on the bbc iPlayer - the TDT bit is the first item, and starts from 2:20.


_{P.S. I've been trying to make a capture of this for the YouTubes, but my screen recorder is shite and doesn't sync audio properly. Know of any good screen recording programs?}

[The Pan Shandies]

I knew Brigstocke was shit but I had absolutely no idea that he was completely shit AND a thick, mediocre cunt until I saw what I could stomach to see of this prog. He really, really, for real did the joke about walking out of an in-flight movie. It wasn't like a comment on how fucking ancient and played out that joke is. He did it as if he had just come up with it. Quite literally unbelievable. I'm not kidding. I am absolutely appalled by what I've just seen.

Didn't see the bit about 'The Day Today' due to outrage but I imagine it was spectacularly unnecessary.

[The Mumbler]

An utterly astonishingly vapid series. In the case of last night's, Davis has nothing to say, and Brigstocke did nothing to elicit anything. The latter may well be one of the worst interviewers I've ever had the misfortune to witness on television. Although the Day Today section did at least underline just how much of Morris's shtick he's lifted for his own ends. I bailed out before I found out what insights Davis gained from listening to Never Mind the Bollocks...

[Jemble Fred]

An utterly astonishingly vapid series.

While I can't really disagree with that, what does that make 'Genius', seeing as this format is, in comparison, multi-layered entertainment gold?

[SavageHedgehog]

Davis included Get this party started by Pink as one of his records when he was on Desert Island Discs recently. Just as an FYI.

[jennifer]

The one with Nigel Havers was good, but only because Havers is such a cheery little pixie and did genuinely interesting things - the bit where he went to get a tattoo was lovely, because he was so relaxed and keen, seemingly pointed at the first thing he liked from a display board and bouncing around on the chair while the bloke tattooed him (only realised later that he probably picked a scorpion because he's a scorpio?) and gleefully announcing he was going to get another one straight afterwards "A bulldog on my buttocks". And the look of genuine pleasure when he bit into his first big mac was a treat.

I even didn't mind that he didn't like the Smiths, because he's such a perky chap you can imagine he'd never experienced any of the emotions contained in a Smiths song and just found it baffling. Far worse was Brigstocke, who claimed to be a huge Smiths fan, utterly failing to explain the hardly unfathomable lyrics of This Charming Man:

Brigstocke "Morrissey's on a hill, and he sees a punctured bicycle and it makes him feel like a loser for noticing it" (huh?)

Havers: "And in this charming car, this charming man...so Morrissey's driving a car?"

Brigstocke: "Yeah".

[Mob Bunkhaus]

Ha, fucking hell! Is it really that bad?

[The Mumbler]

The level of analysis would make junior school children scoff.

[jakethunder]

Is Marcus Brigstock any relation to the other Brigstock - Dominic is it?



I don't like him. I don't like his appearance. I don't agree with the idea of Marcus Brigstock.

[Mob Bunkhaus]

When I want to see an expensively educated man berating the poor for not being as clever as him, he's the first man I turn to.

[Famous Mortimer]

I think he's funny...not because of anything he does or says, but because of how desperately he wants to be the same as the much funnier and more talented Jon Stewart, or Stephen Colbert. Hahaha that show he hosted was the absolute shits.

[hpmons]

I went to see this a few weeks ago.  I have very little memory of it, except that it was very dull.  Annoyingly what made the audience laugh the most was when the topic of Max Mosley came up, and Brigstoke called him a "Nazi prick".  Which Im guessing didnt get aired.  Even my friend who likes Brigstoke found the programme tedious.

[vrailaine]

I like how his wiki page has a section for one joke, makes it look like he built a career on it.

the wording of it is identical to how it has been delivered in my stand up routine for 6 years

6 years?!

[thehungerartist]

Is Marcus Brigstock any relation to the other Brigstock - Dominic is it?

Nepotism at the BBC? Surely not!

I actually like Brigstocke, M. - he makes me feel like a talented bastard. FML

[Parkin]

I like how his wiki page has a section for one joke, makes it look like he built a career on it.

I trotted off to wikipedia to research the joke to which you refer (it's actually a good'un..) and found out that he's been on Just a Minute - does anyone remember hearing this? I'm genuinely interested as to how he fared. I'm presuming - abysmally, given that it's one of the few shows where it's quite difficult to hide behind the smug regurgitation of tired material. Mr Brigstocke's never struck me as having a fantastically quick wit (or indeed much of a wit at all - although, again, the pac-man joke is free of repetition, so could have been shoehorned in somewhere I suppose).

[Johnny Townmouse]

Can I just say how much I enjoyed reading this thread, jake and mob's contributions being particularly enjoyable.

[Famous Mortimer]

I'll throw in this story as I love mentioning it. Brigstocke did a standup show at my old Uni sometime in the mid-90s. One of the guys in the front row, he noticed, wasn't paying attention to him, looking off to one side. He started laying into this bloke, and for the next few minutes really gave him a verbal lashing. Until one of the people at his table chimed up with: "he's blind, you twat". Wow, but he lost that audience quickly.

[koeman]

I trotted off to wikipedia to research the joke to which you refer (it's actually a good'un..) and found out that he's been on Just a Minute - does anyone remember hearing this? I'm genuinely interested as to how he fared.

He's done Just a Minute 11 times now - I must admit when I first heard he was going to be on it I wasn't exactly thrilled, but to be fair they're all very listenable episodes and his contributions are fine.

[rudi]

While I can't really disagree with that, what does that make 'Genius', seeing as this format is, in comparison, multi-layered entertainment gold?

Indeed, and Genius had further to fail, at least being occasionally quite witty on the radio.

[Jemble Fred]

Can nobody see that Genius just doesn't work? Never before has such a great guestlist been utterly wasted, none of them have any reason for being there at all. At least INSSW is basically a quirky chat show, Genius is completely inane – and their guests are ten times better!

[rudi]

Oh for sure the guests aren't needed, but then neither does the other one need 'celebrity' guests. The former's all about the ideas thought by the public (some of which I've found very funny), the second is about exposing people to things we've nearly all of us done in order to reexamine our own experience (rather like reading/watching news about the UK when abroad).

Neither need a celeb guest, just interesting ideas, and neither are improved by being on TV.

[Jemble Fred]

Well, no, sorry, can't agree with that – for what it's worth, the INSSW format really would be pointless unless it was well-known folk trying new things. It's just a Room 101 flipside in many ways.

[rudi]

Nah, I disagree. I'm no more interested in whether it's Little Jimmy Krankie trying lager for the first time or if it's someone I've never heard of who might have something interesting to say about it without having a public persona to live up to/defend/shield.

[Bracing Skegness]

He really, really, for real did the joke about walking out of an in-flight movie. It wasn't like a comment on how fucking ancient and played out that joke is. He did it as if he had just come up with it. Quite literally unbelievable. I'm not kidding. I am absolutely appalled by what I've just seen.

I quite like that joke - thank you Pan Shandies - do you have any more jokes you don't like?

[The Pan Shandies]

I quite like that joke - thank you Pan Shandies - do you have any more jokes you don't like?

You've misunderstood me entirely. As a joke it works brilliantly, does everything it's supposed to, etcetera. I can't fault the joke. However it's so fucking ancient and played out that to even consider doing it without any kind of reference to the fact that it's so fucking ancient and played out is just across-the-board shit. I do have lots of jokes that I don't like though if you're still interested. This one for example is extremely shit:

I quite like that joke - thank you Pan Shandies - do you have any more jokes you don't like?

[An tSaoi]

Watching the Rory McGrath episode on YouTube. I don't know which one annoys me more, McGrath for thinking Fawlty Towers is embarassingly shit, or Brigstocke for being utterly charisma-less. He makes Michael McIntyre seem like the most likeable man in the world. All he does is come across as snooty and sneering. That comment about him being a rich boy making poor people feel stupid is spot on. What a twat.

What's even worse though, is that he doesn't seem to know anything about the subjects at hand. The Smiths interpretation has already been mentioned, but the one that really got me was McGrath asking how long ago FT was made, "Was it seventy something?" and Brigstocke calmy stating "Seventies, yes" as if he was spot on and that nobody else even knew the decade. And it is supposedly one of his very favourite shows. What a twat.

[An tSaoi]

Moved onto the first one with Clive Anderson, so at least one of the two people on the show doesn't make me want to punch them repeatedly in the face. Clive goes in a flotation tank, and says he acted in much the same way as an eight year old boy would (as in messing about, not lying still), to which Brigstocke replies; "Oh I hope not! So that's why you took your trunks off!" and gets a big laugh. What an easy joke. But my question is: how many eight year old boys masturbate? Actually that sounds highly pervy. What I mean is, isn't that a bit early?

Oh fuck, now he's doing jokes about floaters, and Clive is only half jokingly complaining that "You've lowered the tone of this conversation right from the start." What a twat.

EDIT: After reading the summary of Withnail and I, he adds "... they go off to Uncle Monty's cottage in the country, with hilarious results(!)" in a very cunty way, as if to sneer at the film slightly. What a twat.

And no Clive, they didn't spike Richard E. Grant's drink to get him drunk, he agreed to it. Although I do like Marcus' line about how the movie would have killed Daniel Day Lewis.

[Parkin]

I think that's my main problem with this show (I've only seen 1 1/2 episodes, but still): it seems to rouse the inner snidey-cynic in me at every turn. My immediate reaction to each section is essentially either - 1) what do you mean you've never seen / done (x)? You must be an arsehole and, as such, I don't want to know what you think about it now you HAVE seen / done it; or 2) who the fuck thought that (y) counts as something that EVERYONE should see / do? It's clearly pointless and, as such, I don't want to know what you have to say about it.

Of course, this may well say far more about me being a prejudiced dick than about the programme. But I like to think it's something to do with the show itself.

Also, I really like Genius. It's fun. And Dave Gorman is a nice man.

He's done Just a Minute 11 times now - I must admit when I first heard he was going to be on it I wasn't exactly thrilled, but to be fair they're all very listenable episodes and his contributions are fine.

- oh fair play to him on that score then. And I've just learnt that I really need to pay more attention to when Just a Minute's going to be on.

[An tSaoi]

I have no doubt that Dave Gorman is a nice man. He seems like a thoroughly pleasant chap, but I think Genius is even worse than INSSW. I've never heard the radio versions of either, so I'm going for television only. The guests on Genius are - as Jemble Fred pointed out - wasted. At least on INSSW you get to know a little about them, on Genius it's just "Well that was alright/ a bit stupid/ utterly useless".

[rudi]

I've just learnt that I really need to pay more attention to when Just a Minute's going to be on.

Every Monday evening for the rest of your life. Finding a funny one requires either time-travel or the luck of a lottery winner.

I've never heard the radio versions of either, so I'm going for television only.

Ah, well there's your problem - neither works on telly.