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March 28, 2024, 04:14:37 PM

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Garth Marenghi

Started by nixon, February 05, 2004, 09:09:27 PM

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nixon

I have a feeling that I may be saying controversial stuff here..

I think "Dark Place"  Is brilliant.  So damn funny.

Anyone else think so?

Silver SurferGhost

You great big troublemaker. :winks:
Just as I'm on my way out the door as well.

Don't worry, I'll be back.

Vermschneid Mehearties

For all the hassle, I agree.

I got the picture that in the bombd shelter, most people who disliked it had 'seen it all before'. Which is fair enough.

I thought it was really good, probably the best comedy of this year so far.

imitationleather

Well, I managed four minutes. I have never turned off a comedy so quickly.

Complete and utter bile. They'd obviously got all their knowledge of '80s sci-fi from Stuart Maconie because it is so completely inaccurate that you can't really call it a parody. The script is terrible and littered with the sort of half-baked jokes you'd expect from an Edinburgh show put on by some first-timers.

Can the people who like it please tell me what it is that's supposed to be funny?

Vermschneid Mehearties

That was even better than last weeks. Is it having a 6-episode run? I do hope so. Very, very funny. Oddly reminiscent of the movie Ghostbusters, so the parody can't have been that lame!

"In the end, I realised that I'd have to tell Liz that she smelt nice, or her hair had been done well. Which ever seemed plausible at the time. I'd have to buy her flowers, and not complain when she asks to pay for the bill proportionally to the amount of people at the table- even though that's only fair."

Hans

Most of the jokes had been done before.  The long laughs, the long NOOOO, the running from a non-scary object.

The bad-dubbing was ok but I can see that getting old very quickly, same for the model hospital.

Quote from: "imitationleather"the sort of half-baked jokes you'd expect from an Edinburgh show put on by some first-timers.
This is pretty much what I thought except it reminded me of the jokes I wrote a year ago in a 'comedy' 'zine I used to do.  I read it again the other day, it was awful.

fbb bastard

"i felt muscular and compact....like corn beef"

overall enjoyable....and good to see stephen merchant doing something away from gervaise for a change too............."son of a bitch"

Hans

Quote from: "fbb bastard"and good to see stephen merchant doing something away from gervaise for a change too

When you consider that Marenghi is just David Brent doing sci-fi then I don't think what you said really counts.

a bald avuncular jew

This show is complete tripe, not one funny line in it.  As others have said, there are about three "jokes" which are repeated constantly: loud over-long laughing, voices going out of sync, and bad acting (although even crap acting seems to be beyond the range of those wankers with the sideburns whose names I can't even be bothered trying to remember.  "Wankers" is a more apposite title for them anyway.  The wankers.)  We've all seen this kind of thing before, god knows how this nonsense got commisioned, the joke has been done a million times.  Give me the short local news parodies in Inside VLS over this bollocks any day.  

This show ranks down there with Litle Friends and The Pilot Show.  

Are we supposed to laugh at being able to see the wires suspending objects?  Is that meant to be a fucking joke?  What a pack of time-wasting bastards.

Darrell

Ayoade's character going on about people mentioning the wires being idiots was amusingly hypocritical. Again, said effects in a 1980s series would have always been done with chromakey, not strings (especially not reflective plastic thread).

GET YOUR DETAILS RIGHT IF YOU'RE GOING TO ATTEMPT TO MAKE A SERIES OUT OF THEM. DON'T JUST CLING ON TO A DESPERATE VISION OF WHAT YOU ASSUME AND HOPE OTHERS WILL BELIEVE EIGHTIES TELLY WAS LIKE SO YOU CAN ALL DO YOUR ALAN PARTRIDGE AND RICKY GERVAIS IMPRESSIONS WHILST DOING YOUR POOR 'BAD ACTING' ACTING AND LOOK SMUG AT HAVING CREATED 'IT'S THE NEW CULT SHOW EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT IT YES YES YES IT IS GOOD HAHAHAHAHA' (copyright Alison Graham's deformed fucking head), YOU TALENTLESS WANKERS.

Oh, and whoever that bloke is who does the Pegg/Serafinowicz oh-so-hilarious deep-voiced person deserves his fucking face blown off.

This is probably the worst comedy series I have ever seen, and I'm not exaggerating here. I am furious at its badness.

alan strang

Quote from: "nixon"
I think "Dark Place"  Is brilliant.  So damn funny.

Not seen much comedy then? Well, apart from your Partridge DVDs, obviously.

I suspect this may be the final straw. All those tedious little gits still trying to get wet by wriggling around in the rancid muddy puddles left behind after the last big 'new wave' of comedy (i.e. the On The Hour/Day Today) have got to die out soon. All those half-arsed look-at-my-whimsy Iannucci copyists, all those miss-the-point spoof-celeb-interview pillocks, and this abomination (which is just Partridge for people who don't understand Partridge)... It's not even comedy in a state of flux or development - it's just opportunists repeating jokes from the stuff they enjoyed when they were students.

I really hope the next new wave comes along soon. And I really hope Ayaode and Holness are the first against the wall.

Yeah, I'm in that kind of mood.

a bald avuncular jew

Give me Acorn Antiques over this pish any day.

Silver SurferGhost

Hello again.

I think nixon was possibly cheekily alluding to this comment I made in the Directors Commentary thread earlier:
Quote[rolls up sleeves]Right. Who's going to bring back that Garth Marenghi thread then? [/rolls up sleeves]
Okay, bit difficult as I'm in a good mood now (possibly because I haven't seen tonight's episode).
Shall I just give you the lowdown on my views from the last thread(s) about it?

Matt Holness blah blah Bruiser was shit blah blah piss-poor attempt to parody The Kingdom and transpose it to the 80s blah blah badly 'researched' blah blah agree with Darrell about the techy details blah blah might have been acceptable as a parody of early 70s TV blah blah but still crap blah blah laughed once (blush) blah blah Noble and Silver artless cunts.

I think that about covers it.

PS: Blimey, alan.

The Plaque Goblin

Pah, I'm really enjoying it.

Silver SurferGhost

...and if you do then you do,  just because I don't like it doesn't mean you shouldn't.
All I'm doing is telling you why I don't like it.

Not having a go at you, by the way.

Me.Pissed. Go. To. Bed.

The Plaque Goblin

Yeah, but you now have one up on me becuase I haven't stated why I like it, and I am unable to at this time because I can't quite get my brain into gear because it is 2am.

Rev

Quote from: "Darrell"GET YOUR DETAILS RIGHT IF YOU'RE GOING TO ATTEMPT TO MAKE A SERIES OUT OF THEM. DON'T JUST CLING ON TO A DESPERATE VISION OF WHAT YOU ASSUME AND HOPE OTHERS WILL BELIEVE EIGHTIES TELLY WAS LIKE

I wouldn't get too hung up on this.  It's clearly supposed to be late 60s/early 70s, but as the show is on Channel 4, it has to pretend to have originally been made for Channel 4 back in the day.  Invoking the BBC would probably cause headaches all round.  So there's only so far back it can go.

It is a right pile of old shit, though.

Smackhead Kangaroo

Not being a seen it all before type I have to say it had potential. However it does rely on the same jokes repeatedly, and certainly lacks restraint, constant ove rthe top parody becomes cloying and dull.

I did watch it again tonite and it introduced me to a whole new experience... laughing without pleasure.

Anyway I really don't think the intention of this show was to parody 80's television at all so you can take that bee right out of your bonnets and start hating it because it's just effortless shite instead! As I said in the bombdshelter you are supposed to get from the opening titles that it is a vanity programme financed, produced, written by and starring a pulp horror author, his mates and his publisher (and as such one that's badly made, badly acted and looks shoddy). A show that channel 4 wouldn't touch back in the day but are now forced to show due to a lack of new programmes and which the creators now labour under the belief was daring and clever. Yes it's set in the 80's but only for the sake of the soundbite retrospectives, I really don't get a 'this is what 80s tv was like' vibe from it at all.

It's a joyless affair though isn't it? I'm giving up now, it's had it's two episode chance - mind you it's had good reviews (as has directors commentary) and a few people on here seem to really rate it so I guess it's just a love it/hate it show and one of the ones I don't 'get'.

I bet it becomes cult viewing by the time of it's repeats and then rest assured I shall be pretending I always liked it in the first place. ;)

mwude

Quote from: "imitationleather"Well, I managed four minutes.

Not bad.  That's about 2 minutes longer than I managed.  Fucking dross.  

Has Garth Marenghi done anything funny ever?  I've seen some clips of his other stuff & I've never laughed once.  If there's anything to get then I really don't want to get it to be honest.

Purple Tentacle

I agree with every single thing Mundays said.

I was prepared to give it a chance last week, as it brought back fond memories of some terrible student films I've seen in the past, but no, that was pretty awful, Steven Merchant being the only decent thing in it.

It IS supposed to be a vanity project rather than representitive of the 80s though, which would have been better served by making it contemporary, the 80s feel gives it a really cheap laugh. That isn't funny.

It wouldn't have been BAD as a quick 15 minute thing at a film festival or whatever, but to stretch it out over 6 episodes is incredible. Whoever had the cruel idea of scheduling it after THE BEST COMEDY EVER that is Father Ted is a very cruel man. Christ Father Ted was funny last night. That bit in the bath, jesus.

I digress.

Anyway, not very funny,  there were a few lines in the first episode that made me laugh, but not this. Apart from "sonofabitch", which raised a tiny titter.

EFB

Anyone else get the feeling it was originally a 30 second sketch on some other comedy show, and got deleted from the final cut due to shiteness?

Plank

Dark Piss has been getting good reviews? Did Davro's Sketch Pad and Bottle Boys get good reviews back in their respective day? "Robin Askwith's portrayal of a milkman had me cringing between my sofas. A new cult classic that'll have everyone talking about it by the water cooler etfuckingcetera".

I have a horrible gut feeling that the next wave of comedy will be even worse. They'll they dump any pretence of being funny and instead adopt the notion that being "dark",  putting no effort in and being as nasty as possible is the way to go.

oldfart_sd

Quote from: "Munday's Chylde"Anyway I really don't think the intention of this show was to parody 80's television at all so you can take that bee right out of your bonnets and start hating it because it's just effortless shite instead! As I said in the bombdshelter you are supposed to get from the opening titles that it is a vanity programme financed, produced, written by and starring a pulp horror author, his mates and his publisher (and as such one that's badly made, badly acted and looks shoddy). A show that channel 4 wouldn't touch back in the day but are now forced to show due to a lack of new programmes and which the creators now labour under the belief was daring and clever. Yes it's set in the 80's but only for the sake of the soundbite retrospectives, I really don't get a 'this is what 80s tv was like' vibe from it at all.
I saw the show the other night, and there was definately an (mid-to-late) 80s pop-culture reference made by one of the characters. (One of those terrible "It's less spontaneous than a Five Star dance routine!!!" type comments.) I don't remember the exact reference because it was so shit, but I do remember it was specifically mid-to-late 80s, which clashed with what I perceived to be an late-70s/early 80s vibe, referencing stuff such as "Hammer House of Horror" and "Sapphire & Steel". (The psychic women with the black eyes is a complete rip-off of the latter, click here if you want proof.) Mind you, Sappire & Steel had better production values. And better acting. And a better script. And you were more likely to want to watch the next episode.

I mean, if a real show like Dark Place was made, even in the 60s, it wouldn't be as badly made, acted or written as the show here. Production line soaps like Crossroads might have had cheapo production values (Which is why something like "Acorn Antiques" works better as a parody.) but generally drama stuff had a bit more money and bit more time, and could look a bit more convicing, or edit out the not-so-convincing bits. That bit at the start of  the Darkplace episode where the cat is obviously dropped onto the set by someone in a cupboard- that would have been edited out, or another take would have been done. TV directors at the time like Douglas Camfield, etc. weren't exactly Fellini, but neither were they  Ed Wood. It's made even worse by being in "film" style, since filmed dramas from the pre-"field removed" era were generally more expensive and had better production values. If they did it in PAL video and used some crappy chromakey effects at least it would look a bit more like the sort of cheapo production that would think it could get away with dodgy production values. (Still wouldn't be as good as "Sapphire & Steel" though.)

To be honest, I get the feeling they're not particularly strict about making a convincing parody (set in the 60s or 70s or 80s or whenever the four fruit marmalade it's supposed to bet set!!!!) and instead chucking in references from all over the place, and doing it in the style of "Plan 9 From Outer Space". In fact, "Garth Marenghi's All Over The Place" would be a good alternative title.

BTW, it got a right slagging off in today's Glasgow Herald.
QuoteI used it [my remote control]  to rewind things such as Garth Marenghi's Darkplace just to prove to myself that I really did sit through something so dire. When will programme-makers grasp that a spoof of bad TV is, as often as not, just bad TV?
Garth (Matthew Holness) may be someone's idea of a comedy horror writer – "the Orson Welles of horror, and not just because of his weight" – but that genre has been satirised so often another attempt is hardly worth the bother.
Bad acting isn't funny; it's just bad acting. The 1980s were not intrinsically hilarious. And bad 1980s acting in an uproariously spooky hospital? Darkplace is in desperate need of an editorial exorcism.

Yeah but oldfarts (and i dont know why im defending this toss, i just think if you're going to hate something then hate it for the right reason) the point is that this fictional programme hasn't been made by a proper telelvision production crew, it's been made by Garth, his publisher and his relatives, presumably from money of his book sales - just look at the opening titles for a clue, the same three names over and over (music based on a whistle by Garth). This is not only why it's poorly edited and directed but also why it's a mishmash of other shows and british/american styles. It's painfully serious in it's approach - if it's lampooning anything then it's leather jacket clad 80's pulp horror novelists (shaun hutson anyone?) who consider their craft a little bit more of an artform than it is.

Sherringford Hovis

I've got no idea whether if Morungy is funny or not - there's no laughter track to tell me.

Matthew Holness gets more credits than some of the other more well-known (and I hate to sound pejorative, but much funnier) names here:

http://www.chortle.co.uk/standup/sufeatures/footlights.html

Is he any relation to



I need to know..


Quote from: "Blue Jam"Ooh, look at me, I'm the new Chris Morris! Marvel at just how "dark" and "weird" I can be!

Cunt.

And what exactly does that have to do with Chris Morris? In what way is he trying to be like Chris Morris?

Jemble Fred

Brigstoke voice. Guy who thinks he's talented, but, hey, he isn't!? Lots of screaming. And yes, Noble & Silver are unfunny fuckers.

Enough reasons to hate. But I still find the coloured gentleman rather funny.

Mister Six

Oh come on, now you're all just being silly. That website's intro page was quietly amusing ("that mouse in your hand - does it not feel more like a rat?), and you should remember that it's the Marenghi character who boasts about being "dark" and daring, not the comedian who plays him.

I'm honestly baffled be the level of antipathy directed at this programme, especially PLC's comments about not being able to see ANY jokes in the first episode. Even if he didn't find the gags funny, I'd still expect him to be able to identify them.

For the record, the only time I've seen a comedy show and been at a loss to identify the actual jokes in it was the first episode of 'Orrible.