Topic: Brass Eye interviews - Help required

[BaronMunchausen'sSyndrome]

Hi

Just wondered if anyone could help me win a bet with a friend. Well, not a bet, more a deeply divisive and unpleasant argument.

Introduced him to Brass Eye at the weekend, and he's convinced that a lot of the interviewees were in on the joke from the start. He can't get his head round people such as Blackwood, Amess and Rayner being stupid enough to say the things they did.

My argument being, perhaps they realised something was up, but nevertheless it's not Morris' way to bring the sleb in on the joke.

Can anyone provide me with some cast-iron proof that the interviews in Brass Eye were all genuine, and that none of those taking part in them were aware they were being set up till it was over?

Cheers

[Purple Tentacle]

I'm sure a more knowledgable whore will be along with better answers, but as I understand it:

Rayner rumbled Morris mid-interview, if you actually watch that drugs segment you can see her about to question the "Cani-Bliss" segment before it choppily cuts back to an earlier part of the interview.


Amess attempted to sue Morris I believe.... besides, why would an MP raise a question in Parliament for a laugh?


Your mate doesn't believe Richard Blackwood is stupid?  Jeeeeeze.



The two celebrities I personally suspect on being "in on it" are Tommy Vance and Bruno Brookes as they've worked with (or at least around) Morris before, but I'm sure I've been told I'm wrong in the past.

[Darrell]

Bruno Brookes does what is essentially a Brass Eye-style hoax (but with him definitely in on the joke) in the second series of Armistice (summer 96), which would have been recorded at virtually the same time as Morris's.

There must be at least one person in the series who was in on it, it makes sense as a detail. It could well be Brookes, actually.

Everybody was convinced that Vance was, until he appeared on Top Ten TV Rebels and said he wasn't, though even this could have been a double bluff. I'm still undecided on this one.

[Purple Tentacle]

For some reason I've always found Jimmy Greives' "Help Fukd and Bombd eliminate this evil!" thing a bit far fetched, but given Amess' docile acceptance of the name to the extent that he wears a fucking T-shirt, I suppose it's not that hard to believe.

[BaronMunchausen'sSyndrome]

I figured they interviewed the gormless ones, such as Richard Blackwood and Foxy, then once they had a few, showed them to the more savvy interviewee to persuade them it was a genuine topic.

[Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer]

Blackwood's pathetic attempt to sneer after BES, 'If you think kiddie porn's funny then you should have a real laugh' (or thereabouts, this is from distant memory), and John McCririck's wrathful diarrheoa on Top 10 TV Rebels, proves that at least they weren't in on the joke. I can't think any of the celebs were, maybe Vance, who was very mild and quite complimentary about Morris on the above clip-show.

 I still get so much joy from watching McCririck, after Morris does his '...and he just went (trails off indistinguishably). What are you meant to do when somebody does that?,'  shaking his head and sighing 'I know, I know.'

[Lewis]

Blackwood's pathetic attempt to sneer after BES, 'If you think kiddie porn's funny then you should have a real laugh' (or thereabouts, this is from distant memory)

Remember seeing an interview with Noel Edmunds after the cake episode where he said something like "I've no problem with being 'Gotcha'ed' but the problem I had with Brass Eye was the subject matter being used" (or something to that effect... again from distant memory) he also tried to defend his stupidity by saying he constantly does charity videos and simply read the script straight to camera without checking the content in depth. Clearly he's talking bullshit as his "Can we lose this slow crushing of the skull?" clip proves.
He then attempted to discredit CM further by claiming to work less with charities these days 'because of programs like Brass Eye'  (again from distant memory)

[TJ]

Bruno Brookes is clearly on the verge of laughing throughout. That's the clincher for me.

[alan strang]

Noel Edmonds' 'Telly Addicts' occasionally showed clips from The Day Today y'know. Noel was often to be found giggling afterwards.

[rjpeters]

John Challis in Moral Decline is quite clearly in on the gag. You watch the way he so poorly feigns shock and it's almost impossible not to think he's in on it.

[rjpeters]

Noel Edmonds' 'Telly Addicts' occasionally showed clips from The Day Today y'know. Noel was often to be found giggling afterwards.

I remember those. The audience would be laughing away at the clip from Dad's Army, where Mainwaring tells Pike not to give his name away, and then Morris comes up, announcing that Marlon Brando had been sold to the vatican, and the audience suddenly stops laughing. Brilliantly surreal.

[Darrell]

John Challis in Moral Decline is quite clearly in on the gag. You watch the way he so poorly feigns shock and it's almost impossible not to think he's in on it.

I think he's showing himself up as a tad insincere rather than being in on the joke.

[rjpeters]

I think he's showing himself up as a tad insincere rather than being in on the joke.

Probably right. Have been watching the DVD a bit too much recently and thanks to this thread, have been analysing each interview for signs of them being in on the joke or not. Also watching for seeing how much Channel 4 cut up the show before it was eventually broadcast. You can see some really badly done edits if you watch closely. Even though it was re-edited in 2001, you can still see that there was a hell of alot cut.

[Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer]

I've rewatched Animals and Drugs, and it's a joy to see the odious Peregrine Worsethorne getting a bit confused over whether snakes sting or not. The add-on to that scene is excellent too actually. He's obviously not 'in on it,' like Carla Lane or indeed any of the slebs in Animals. I think Paul Daniels' performance proves that well enough.

 I was thinking about Bernard Manning on Drugs (as that's the only sensible way to experience him...boom-boom), and what got me was his swearing. I always got the impression that Morris told the slebs that the programmes were for schools or were for prime-time viewing, so why is Manning cursing like a docker? Surely he'd thought something was up if Morris had told the show was for educational purposes, yet let him get away with swearing. Conversely, Manning is a big fucking moron, and I doubt (hope, too) that Morris wouldn't let him in on the joke.

[Rev]

I've always wondered about the Manning bit, too, for the same reasons.  The only thing I can think of is that the bits in the programme might have just been an on-camera rehearsal, with cussin' aplenty because it ain't real, before the proper recording.

[mrpants]

I thought that maybe he was told it was for a yoof programme or something similar.  Especially with a campaign called Fuckd and Bombd.

[Munday's Chylde]

I thought that maybe he was told it was for a yoof programme or something similar.  Especially with a campaign called Fuckd and Bombd.

I would imagine so. He was probably told 'these kids really need shocking into learning not to take drugs'

[Purple Tentacle]

As the only person in the world with a genuine liking of Michael Winner, I used to reguarly read his columns back in the nineties (this sweet old man who saw terrible things in the war used to give us his old News of the Worlds, except every now and again the page 3 was cut out, bless him), and Winner wrote that he found Brass Eye very funny, and congratulated Morris on a hoodwinking well done. That's one of the reasons why I like the corpulant fat cunt, he's always seemed to be a good sport.


Aaaah, isn't it lovely to have a good old fashioned Brass Eye (original series) discussion?

[Dang]

I always assumed that if the celebrity reads the Morris spiel off a script then that's probably just a rehearsal. Surely in the proper braodcast they'd have learnt their 'lines'? This makes me think that the sections where they're reading it off a piece of paper are probably the best takes, so maybe each of these slebs got a bit suspiscious and stopped?

If this theory is true, then Noel Edmonds is being genuine when he says:
'So if you don't want to be part of the summer of death, then take care and I do mean, take care.'!

[Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer]

As the only person in the world with a genuine liking of Michael Winner

 I think a journalist once said of Winner, 'He's the man you'd love to hate, if he wasn't so charming.' Despite most of his films being schlocky, deeply unpleasant and promoting a barely neanderthal breed of mob justice, he always comes across as terribly nice.

[rjpeters]

I always assumed that if the celebrity reads the Morris spiel off a script then that's probably just a rehearsal. Surely in the proper braodcast they'd have learnt their 'lines'? This makes me think that the sections where they're reading it off a piece of paper are probably the best takes, so maybe each of these slebs got a bit suspiscious and stopped?

If this theory is true, then Noel Edmonds is being genuine when he says:
'So if you don't want to be part of the summer of death, then take care and I do mean, take care.'!

But Morris wants to make the slebs who read this stuff out to look as stupid as possible, in this case that they will literally read out what is put in front of them, thus confirming what most people know that minor slebs will put there name to anything in an attempt to get publicity off the back of it. That Vanessa Feltz bit when she pretends to be that victim and reads that speech off the screen. What makes that so funny is that she takes it so seriously. Another example is the Nicholas Owen piece from BES. If he hadn't shown that bit where he asks them to hold the script under the camera, it would have been nowhere near as funny.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Britt Eckland standing there with her mic in shot - that's presumably a rehearsal.

[Johnny Yesno]

As the only person in the world with a genuine liking of Michael Winner, I used to reguarly read his columns back in the nineties (this sweet old man who saw terrible things in the war used to give us his old News of the Worlds, except every now and again the page 3 was cut out, bless him), and Winner wrote that he found Brass Eye very funny, and congratulated Morris on a hoodwinking well done. That's one of the reasons why I like the corpulant fat cunt, he's always seemed to be a good sport.

I can't dislike him because he had a go at Littlejohnson for taking the piss out lesbians.

[Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer]

Why was Richard Littlejohn never on Brass Eye? He's a stupid cunt who likes to propagate his laughably ill-informed and juvenile opinions whenever possible. CM could have duped him instead of Richard Briers and Steven Berkoff.

 Remember Littlejohn vs. Self on Nicky Campbell's Radio 5 show? Ah, memories.

[rjpeters]

Why was Richard Littlejohn never on Brass Eye? He's a stupid cunt who likes to propagate his laughably ill-informed and juvenile opinions whenever possible. CM could have duped him instead of Richard Briers and Steven Berkoff.

 Remember Littlejohn vs. Self on Nicky Campbell's Radio 5 show? Ah, memories.

Littlejohn is too clued up where things like this are concerned. Even if Morris had used some alias, like he usually does, Littlejohn would've still recognised him. But I agree with you. Richard Littlejohn is another of those smug, self satisfied cunts/journalists (delete as appliciable) that we British seem to specialise in. Him, Piers Morgan and Garry Bushell. They can all fuck off for all I care.

My lingering memory of Littlejohn is his C4 chatshow for the early 90's when he had David Ike on and Ike got so pissed off at RL that he stormed off saying "If you had a braincell, it would die of loneliness" I still think that is one of the best put downs of all time.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Remember Littlejohn vs. Self on Nicky Campbell's Radio 5 show? Ah, memories.

That was great:

SELF: Does it turn into Tolstoy at page 205?

LITTLEJOHN: No it doesn't turn into Tolstoy. I don't set out to be Tolstoy. It is a much more complex book than that.

SELF:Than Tolstoy?

No one happens to have a recording do they? (The transcript is here by the way.)