Harry Hill's Cunty Single [split topic]

[CaledonianGonzo]

A comedy album by Harry Hill has been hit by another series of setbacks, with 90,000 copies being scrapped over copyright issues – including complaints from his ITV employers.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2010/10/31/12045/harry_hills_legal_hell

[Custard]

Heh great news.

Btw, does anyone know anyone in "real life" who likes the single, or finds it funny? Cos i'm yet to, which is quite heartwarming.

[Artemis]

There is all the objectionable message of it, but the tune is also fuck-awful, as is his voice.  In short, it doesn't have any redeeming qualities.

This, basically. Can someone explain the attempt at humour in this? Are we supposed to be reacting by saying "haha, that's right, they do want a baby don't they, those 14 year old chav girls!! Haha!!" or does this allude to being some kind of cleverly made comment on What's Wrong With Society? Either way, it's really, really shit. Why did he have to go and do this? I'm quite saddened by it, really. I never like to think of people who have made me laugh regularly as cunts.

[Tiny Poster]

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2010/10/31/12045/harry_hills_legal_hell

Well, Johnny Marr's an arse.

[Mildly Diverting]

Well, Johnny Marr's an arse.

In general, or because he didn't want an hilarious Harry Hill/George Formby homage to The Smiths?

[Subtle Mocking]

After meeting him I'd say he's a general arse.

[HodgerMccodger]

Harry Hill is on Jools Holland tonight (10.00-10.30 BBC 2) discussing this album

[Recurring Villain]

After meeting him I'd say he's a general arse.

CARRY ON....!

[Garfield And Friends]

After meeting him I'd say he's a general arse.

Hill spat at my niece when she politely asked for his autograph. He rolled his eyes and tongue, and said it was a punchline we hadn't got.

[Subtle Mocking]

I was talking about Marr being an arse (I thought it was a given, really).

[Garfield And Friends]

I was talking about Marr being an arse (I thought it was a given, really).

What did he do to displease you when you met him?

[Subtle Mocking]

It might just be what you should expect with him but he has this irritatingly pompous attitude about him. He was in the Fred Perry shop swanning about like fucking Jesus, generally sneering upon people and being a bit loud and obnoxious. I put it down to the fact that he's really quite short.

[Blue Jam]

After trying to ignore this thread the Stephen Fry flouncing thread finally made me click, and like everyone else I wish I could unhear the song. Offensive lyrics aside, changing the lyrics of popular songs is the lowest form of wit, best left to Howard from the Halifax and other people digital video recorders can skip over.

The reason this song is cunty is because it exists in a context of 'chavs' and 'pram-faces' and all the hatred that the press and the media have built up. There's this nonsense idea that the UK has gone down the tubes because of poor people - not the good, hard-working poor people reading The Sun or The Mail of course, but the other poor people, probably the ones who live next door to you, it's all their fault, especially if they're annoying. It's definitely not the fault of the rich, powerful people who run the country or their corporate buddies, but the powerless and vulnerable.

Too many comedians seem to be facing the wrong way now, they are supposed to be mocking the rich.

I first became aware of Harry Hill back when I was applying to medical school and remember being annoyed that, while myself and some of my friends were unable to get places ourselves, he'd been given the opportunity only to abandon medicine for comedy. I'm not saying he was wrong to make a career change but I do wonder if he ever thinks about how he received an expensive and unused education at the expense of taxpayers and considers that he may not be a million miles away from these people he's now mocking for spending Our Taxes on pitbulls and iPods. These things are at least cheaper than medical degrees.

[Nelson Swillie]

Interesting to see someone quoting Enigma19833's comment on the Harry Hill video, given that the very same Enigma19833 is responsible for the slanderous, poisonous shit spouted here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqrIb8GEfXI

"Hello there. This is [banned troll]'s 34th youtube account. Yes, I'm a paedophile. Yes, I'm a far-right-wing, Daily Mail reading cunt who hates those both more and less privileged than myself. No, I don't actually have Aspergers, that was just to provide a flimsy excuse for my rampant, persistent cuntery. I'm an utter failure in life. Everything I have tried has turned to shit. My comics are appalling, my stand-up was worse. I make fun of decent people who are now tragically dead. I wish I was dead."

So which one of you lot wrote this? Come on, own up. The evidence is stacked against you.

[Custard]

What's that got to do with Harry Hill, though?

[Ignatius_S]

...I first became aware of Harry Hill back when I was applying to medical school and remember being annoyed that, while myself and some of my friends were unable to get places ourselves, he'd been given the opportunity only to abandon medicine for comedy. I'm not saying he was wrong to make a career change but I do wonder if he ever thinks about how he received an expensive and unused education at the expense of taxpayers and considers that he may not be a million miles away from these people he's now mocking for spending Our Taxes on pitbulls and iPods. These things are at least cheaper than medical degrees.

But laughter's the best medicine, so it's very possible that Hill's moving into comedy was in fact a sincere desire to improve health.

Unlike other famous comedians who trained to be a doctor, such as Graham Chapman and Graham Garden, Hill (as did Jonathan Miller) actually worked in that profession after qualifying – so it's probably fairer to say the training was underused, rather than unused.

Garden has replied when asked he should have worked as a doctor:

"I don't think I would have done it as well. It's an interesting question – whether you've contributed more to the vast store of human enjoyment by doing comedy or by being a doctor, but the answer for me is that I don't think I would have been as successful or as happy being a doctor."

Hill has also talked about it and once said:

If I'd carried on in medicine I'd probably have gone down the GP route. I wouldn't have been bad but I wouldn't have been great either.

He's also said that he found medicine terrifying and I'm pretty sure that he found the work depressing as well. When he qualified, it wasn't a good time to be a junior doctor and he said that the vast majority of consultants advised leaving the profession (NHS anyway).

One of my friends caustically claims that the main problem with practicing doctors is the number who simply shouldn't be in the profession – with some of her horror stories, I would rather that the money invested in those people was chalked up as a bad debt, rather have them near patients. Just because someone manages to get vocational training doesn't mean they're going to be any cop.

[Blue Jam]

Oh yes, I'm not slagging him off for abandoning his medical career. I said I didn't have a problem with him making a career change, and the chances are I would have hated medicine as well so it's a good thing I didn't get in. Deciding on spending an entire lifetime in one career at the age of 17 is a bit much so I'm not surprised so many people drop out. Still, they're given the opportunity to try it out, and the state generously lets them off if they realise they've made a mistake. Why shouldn't this generosity be extended to someone who makes the mistake of having a baby at 15? Hill was probably right to abandon medicine, and it was probably the best thing for everyone concerned, but I don't think he's a million miles from young working-class people who get benefits after making the mistake of having a baby at an early age. Can't Hill see that he has also benefited from the state, in a way that most students in the next four years won't?

Hang on, don't answer that. Harry has already told us that the working classes all choose to have babies because they want them, working-class people don't make mistakes, they do everything with intent.

[Ambient Sheep]

...I do wonder if he ever thinks about how he received an expensive and unused education at the expense of taxpayers and considers that he may not be a million miles away from these people he's now mocking for spending Our Taxes on pitbulls and iPods. These things are at least cheaper than medical degrees.

Oh yes, I'm not slagging him off for abandoning his medical career. I said I didn't have a problem with him making a career change...Deciding on spending an entire lifetime in one career at the age of 17 is a bit much so I'm not surprised so many people drop out. Still, they're given the opportunity to try it out, and the state generously lets them off if they realise they've made a mistake. Why shouldn't this generosity be extended to someone who makes the mistake of having a baby at 15?...

Hang on, don't answer that. Harry has already told us that the working classes all choose to have babies because they want them, working-class people don't make mistakes, they do everything with intent.

Nicely put.

[Blue Jam]

Hey, I really wasn't slagging him off in the first post, the "expensive and unused" was for emphasis, as was "Our Taxes". When I was 17 he annoyed me but now I've been through the whole medical school application thing and changed my mind about it myself I understand, plus I really didn't know what I wanted to do until I was 26, 17 is very early to decide on a career. I was just putting an idea out there:

"My name is Harry/I got a medical degree/But I don't use it/'cause I like comedy"

...but for the record I'm for Ignatius's idea of chalking up a few bad debts rather than inflicting bad doctors on patients, and miserable careers on the doctors. I was also going back to the idea discussed back in mini goatbix's post:

There's this nonsense idea that the UK has gone down the tubes because of poor people - not the good, hard-working poor people reading The Sun or The Mail of course, but the other poor people, probably the ones who live next door to you, it's all their fault, especially if they're annoying.

Hypothetically then: is it alright for one young poor person to get a free education from the state, but wrong for another young poor person to get child benefit or anything at all from the state because they're one of those other poor people? Or do they both deserve some help for their respective situations?

One other thing which annoyed me about the single: the mention of Corfu. I've been to Corfu myself, on the type of holiday the lyric is probably referring to. If he means Club 18-30-type holidays as I think he does, the one I went on was a post-A level holiday and the clientele were overwhelmingly middle-class. For that the song reminded me of Blur's also sneery Girls And Boys, maybe if Harry and Paul had done their Beatles sketch about Blur being trapped in their Parklife/Great Escape era they'd have written something like I Want A Baby.

[Ambient Sheep]

Hey, I really wasn't slagging him off in the first post, the "expensive and unused" was for emphasis, as was "Our Taxes"...

I know you weren't, and I knew they were!  Are you thinking my "Nicely Put" was sarcastic or something?  It wasn't at all, it was genuinely meant.  I was thoroughly agreeing with you, and I just pulled the bits of your two quotes that I liked the most.  I wasn't trying to highlight any contradiction or anything, because I didn't think there was one...

[Blue Jam]

Sorry, I thought you were implying I was a hypocrite, I'm aware I probably look like one, or that I had a chip on my shoulder regarding medical school, which I don't. Anymore.

[Lfbarfe]

What's that got to do with Harry Hill, though?

He's just suggesting that Enigma19833 is a hypocrite for being concerned about the poor while being willing to put the boot in on an individual not a million miles from Mr Swillie himself.

[Ambient Sheep]

Sorry, I thought you were implying I was a hypocrite, I'm aware I probably look like one, or that I had a chip on my shoulder regarding medical school, which I don't. Anymore.

It's fine, in the sarcastic and cynical atmosphere in which this board tends to operate, it's an understandable mistake.  Reading back my post, I might have jumped to the same conclusion you did had it been written to me.  I should have written something like "Nicely put.  No really, no sarcasm, nicely put."  :-)

[Custard]

He's just suggesting that Enigma19833 is a hypocrite for being concerned about the poor while being willing to put the boot in on an individual not a million miles from Mr Swillie himself.

Ah. cheers for explaining that for him ;)

[Harpo Speaks]

Luckily for me I've just seen an advert for the album on TV, complete with 'I wanna baby' playing in the background.

Other songs mentioned as selling points for said album were Big Mag, Subo, Ken, and Flat Screen TV.

[scarecrow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MibPtW2VT0

Ugh. I do like how the voice-over sort of laughs each time he says the word 'funny' though. It's as though saying the word itself evokes memories of things that have amused him in the past and he can't help but crack up a little.

[buntyman]

I really hope none of my relatives, knowing my history of Harry Hill appreciation, get me that for Christmas

[Ian Mildcheddar]

Why does that advert seem to linger in an eerie scilence at the end?

[Lfbarfe]

Ah. cheers for explaining that for him ;)

I know, I know, but I thought it would save time and trouble.

[dr beat]

On the  comedy podcast Neil makes the point about how its important for artists to have people around them who are prepared to be honest, and who aren't scared to criticize when necessary.  I'm interested in the kind of people who are surrounding Hill right now, and also Fry. I'm talking about PR people here.  All of a sudden Hill is bringing out this album, and then there's the internet stuff, which is getting pushed by someone to appear on Facebook.  And then there's Fry with all his bells and whistles etc.

What gets me is that there's a different thing going on here than compared to say, the way in which a company like John Noel operates.  OK so JNM's clients get rubbish autobiographies published, do the circuits of the tv panel shows etc but in that case it just feels to me like they're doing what showbiz agents are meant to do and always have done.  With people like Fry and Hill it feels like there's something going on which is even more...contrived?  I feel an overpowering sense currently that the likes of Hill and Fry are being pushed not just as 'brands' (which they are), but like they are trying to get people to buy into something more, a whole cult of personality, or worldview perhaps.  It's a bit more sinister even.

Sure, creating and sustaining a way-of-seeing is always what comedy has been about to an extent, but here, its more the way in which the latter is being taken over by PR types rather than comedians themselves which is interesting.  Because in delegating the cult-making to PR people (if that's what is happening) things get lost in translation.  The kind of effortless world-making that someone like Hill can do becomes something a PR person might try to get a hold on (because its their job), but they can't grasp because of the difference in vested interests.

So I guess what I'm interested in then, is how people around Hill, who have an interest in profiting from him, see his comedy, and how and why some kind of process of mis-translation might occur.  By saying this I'm not absolving Hill of any responsbility, I should add.

I hope this makes some kind of sense btw, been mulling over this for the last couple of days.