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Limmy's World of Glasgow (podcasts) [split topic]

Started by kitsofan34, July 29, 2011, 07:40:14 PM

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kitsofan34

Just finished the World of Glasgow podcasts, absoloutely fantastic stuff. The Christmas special didn't have a very climactic feeling, I was expecting something big to happen after the culmunation of 86 episodes but magic nonetheless. Every single character was brilliant too, the weakest probably being Tom.

The Dee Dee goes to Yoker clip was linked in the b3ta newsletter today. Great stuff. Really need to get the DVDs when series 2 is available.

SimonJT

Quote from: kitsofan34 on July 29, 2011, 07:40:14 PM
Just finished the World of Glasgow podcasts, absoloutely fantastic stuff. The Christmas special didn't have a very climactic feeling, I was expecting something big to happen after the culmunation of 86 episodes but magic nonetheless. Every single character was brilliant too, the weakest probably being Tom.

Oh, man, I loved Tom, partly I think due to the odd delivery. It's one of those sketches where you know where it's going, but that can be great if done well.

kitsofan34

I didn't mean to say it as if he's bad, just compared to Phil and Benjamin he's the weakest of a very strong bunch.

Bennygaylord


Retinend

I think Tom is great. The slow, elaborate way he talks and the emphasis he chooses to put on things is often hilarious, e.g. "or... if you were to say.... Look Out... here comes... a Jew".

I'm surprised you think the special was anti-climactic. Seeing all the characters intersect in some way is very satisfying, and the way in which the characters are revealed - with you unknowingly having 'seen' them already - is very clever indeed.

The podcasts are a major accomplishment, and tell stories in a way that that the TV series don't have time to. Or rather, if the TV show plays to the visual side of the medium, the podcasts really go for what's funny about the way people talk and the way people tell a story. Those characters are beautifully crafted, and despite how merciless Limmy is writing for them, there's a great deal of heart to how they're acted. The humour is something intrinsically linked to the characters.

kitsofan34

I just thought something bigger would happen to end the series,as opposed to Phil dry humping Jaqueline.

Artemis

Quote from: kitsofan34 on July 30, 2011, 09:07:46 PM
I just thought something bigger would happen to end the series,as opposed to Phil dry humping Jaqueline.

I haven't heard the podcasts yet, so thanks for that.

Just starting them now. I absolutely love Limmy (aside from his relentless tweets, which are a bit much for me) and am totally baffled that he gets overlooked by BBC England despite his show being immeasurably better than nearly everything that gets commissioned for us to watch south of the border.

hummingofevil

Brilliant. Love them and I too am a massive fan of Tom in particular. The prostitute story is one of the funniest things I have ever heard.
Spoiler alert
"Run.... run... run for your life!"
[close]
gets me every time.

I wonder how many people have actually heard these? What is a good number of downloads for free podcasts? Credit where its due. The effort that went into this for what appears to be zero financial reward is remarkable.

kitsofan34

It reached the top 10 in ITunes during the time of release, if that helps.

papalaz4444244

Quote from: Neil on July 30, 2011, 09:09:02 PM
I'm still only a few episodes in, but I love the evil marketing genius.  He's got a natural flair for story-telling, and it makes him one of the few worthwhile reasons to use Twitter.  He actually uses it in a creative, unique way, baiting his fans at times with the same sort of pedantry that is on display on his show... however, the best thing is when he tells night-time stories.  They're totally extemporaneous, and are formed round a suggestion from one of his followers.  He will quite often include his followers in the stories, too - for instance, last night the story was about a performer talking about palindromes, 'such as ASDA'.  Then he RT'd the comments from people saying 'that's not a palindrome.'  This doesn't sound like much, but it's a great touch that adds to the reality of the story.  Above and beyond that, it's just a clever way of using Twitter, and far removed from all the topical one-liner bull-shit you see on there from every other comedy type.

He hid a message in his avatar last night, too, and you got a charming little message when you decoded it.  Extremely creative bloke, always looking for new ways to do things.

Wow I wish the previous post had spoiler tags.
Aww bollocks. I thought that was one of his windups. Didn't bother to look.

ZoyzaSorris

Yes, they are absolutely amazing. Tried to push them on some mates but didn't seem to have much joy.
Sat at work with my headphones on listening to the lot back to back for a few days, having to regularly bite my tongue to avoid drawing attention to the fact that I was listening to non stop comedy rather than concentrating on whatever dull shit I was supposed to be doing.

non capisco

The Dee Dee 'Yoker' podcast rightly gets a lot of praise (he did a good job of transferring it to a shorter sketch format but the original, nearly the length of a whole 'Limmy's Show', astounded me the first time I heard it) but I love the 'Finneston Crane' episode as much. The relatable idea of
Spoiler alert
not being sure whether you'd actually done something in real life or merely dreamed it
[close]
is comic gold when put through Dee Dee's befuddled filter. You also know the character well enough by that stage for the premise to be made even funnier. There's a lot of that sort of thing in World Of Glasgow, he really builds on your growing familiarity with the characters as the run progresses. There's a lot of fun in the later Vijay episodes just in the setups. We're already guessing how things are going to go tits up for the poor thwarted sod, Limmy's aware of this and has a blast with it.

If I had to pick a favourite it's probably still 'Phil: Directions', the very last line of which had me in fits the first time I heard it and still amuses me now.

Bennygaylord


I accept the terms of the


Retinend

Quote from: non capisco on July 31, 2011, 07:21:51 PMThere's a lot of fun in the later Vijay episodes just in the setups. We're already guessing how things are going to go tits up for the poor thwarted sod, Limmy's aware of this and has a blast with it.

Spoiler alert
The episode where he goes on The Apprentice constantly plays on your expectations, and creates a really heartwarming moment when you can breathe deep and congratulate this fictional character. There's something extremely cathartic about it, since the typical comedy loser is always doomed to remain one.
[close]

QuoteIf I had to pick a favourite it's probably still 'Phil: Directions', the very last line of which had me in fits the first time I heard it and still amuses me now.

Yeah, all of Phil's episodes are highlights. Comedy like the Directions episode shows up how even shows like The Office use a lot of punchlines in their humour. In LWoG the laughs are entirely in the journey, not the destination. The thing is that there's tons of laughs, too.

kitsofan34

In relation to people whinging about me posting spoiles. First of all I apologize, didn't know it was a spoiler free thread. Secondly I've been on multiple threads on this forum where people have posted spoilers for shows I was in the midst of watching and no one complained then.

SimonJT

Quote from: I accept the terms of the on July 31, 2011, 07:46:36 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG2b0BdWLMM if you want to listen.

I love his terrible English accent.

I'm can't decide whether it's terrible... or brilliantly specific. It is oddly believable, oddly familiar.

madhair60

Quote from: Neil on July 30, 2011, 09:09:02 PM
He hid a message in his avatar last night, too, and you got a charming little message when you decoded it.  Extremely creative bloke, always looking for new ways to do things.

What was the message?

AlkyBastard

Anyone have any idea when Limmy's Show S2 is out? No word on Amazon, and it doesn't seem to have been submitted to the BBFC. Did the first series not sell well?

Neil

#20
Finished listening to them this week, and absolutely love this series.  Really draws you in as you go along, and slowly builds in back-references, making it more of a cohesive, realistic comedy world.  Just little details like talking about things that happened in past stories works really well to ground them in their own reality and gives a pleasing sense of continuity, and then when you finally get to the Xmas Special... this will contain spoilers, but I'll tag the worst of them.  Still, if you've not yet heard it, I wouldn't read on...




Well, I'd heard on here in other threads about how good it was, and from this thread I knew the basic format, but as I was listening on my phone, I didn't even know the special had started.  So as the next part of the story kicked in, I was very impressed by how we
Spoiler alert
were now getting to see the same story from multiple angles
[close]
, which is a great technique, used very occasionaly in a few sitcoms, but feels unique to this format.  I think it might also be the first time we get to actually hear what some of the characters look like, albeit through the eyes of the other characters, who may be playing down how attractive they are in certain cases.  Also,
Spoiler alert
it's great how you only learn in retrospect that John Paul got away with it by the skin of his teeth!  A lesser comic would have put the Benjamin section first, so you'd be thinking 'oh, he's dead, he's going to die' as you listen to John Paul.  This way round, you only learn that John Paul got away with it after the event has actually happened, giving new context to the story.
[close]
A very clever way of revealing the narrative, and no syrupy, Hollywood shite with the baddie getting his comeuppance in the end.[nb]You could say here, well, what about Tom and Wee Gary?  Is that not syrupy? Tom has form in letting people get away, so it wasn't in any way jarring.  And, again, Limmy made the right choice of only revealing the victim - and the danger - after the event, making you realise how close you'd come to losing one of the most endearing characters.  Wee Gary took a little while to grow on me, but his cynical 'schoolboy Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction' persona really grew on me a lot.  Especially when he eventually takes a fall ("Polecrusher") - again though, no mawkish shite here, he's got one eye on future investments.  It's still ultimately a noble, self-sacrificing act, but with the exact same sort of 'flawed hero' situation I love in that Simon Blackwell episode of the latest series of Peep Show.  People win and lose at the same time, because life's not easy or uncomplicated.  You can be a goodie and a baddie at the same time.[/nb]

Also loved that he ended with Dee Dee, walking into the whole spectacle.  Again, this plays off existing character traits brilliantly - all through the series we see instances where Dee Dee is unable to distinguish reality from fantasy - and here, as an aside, I must say that the ending shot to the Limmy's Show transferral of Finnieston Crane is fucking brilliant

Anyway, finally, Dee Dee walks into a bizarre scene that is actually happening, and he thinks it's all fantasy, a set-up!  His drug-induced paranoia kicks in, and he thinks it's the world conspiring against him - his loves ones having a laugh at his expense.  These are the same people who he tried to get to affirm his reality in previous shows, and now, he thinks they're all fucking with him, pulling the strings.  Amazing.

Limmy knows these characters back to front, and portrays them with an extraordinary amount of skill for his first major project.  I mean, it's very rare to see someone come out with something as accomplished as this series of podcasts - when you add in that they're only really starting comedy, it's staggering.  How did he start this good, with the confidence to perform, to eschew easy routes and to make something that's so completely drive by character?  It's bafflingly assertive and competent. 

There's affection for all the characters too, which I know I commented on when first encountering Dee Dee in Limmy's Show.  The sort of light touch and warmth that the likes of Frankie Boyle could never achieve - he did plenty of that type of Dee Dee character in Tramdol Nights, for example, and they were all just hateful, and ultimately dull.  One-dimensional and pointless.  By contrast, Limmy's characters have a rich background that's communicated in the way they speak, the experiences they touch upon, and the things that happen to them.

These are complicated, brilliantly-drawn comedy creations.  Jacqueline McCafferty is still one of my absolute favourites, sometimes her past catches up with her, and sometimes she slows right down, and lets it overtake her, by virtue of the enormous insecurities she has about her past as an addict, and her all-consuming obsession with social status.  Always delivering her junkie script, which is a very, very accurate portrayal of recovering addicts.  I'd kill for a film following all or some of these characters. 

Started relistening to some of the podcasts already, and like all good character comedy, they get even better as you get more familiar with the protagonists traits.  Limmy's a natural and gifted story-teller, with a keen eye for how people feel and react to things.  He picks up on detail, which is the cornerstone of the best comedy.

Today (Sunday) marks the fifth anniversary of the first podcast, by the way.  If you've not heard them before, you've really, really got to get into them. 

Neil

Just noticed that there are actually pictures of all 9 characters on Limmy's site.

I was thinking too, another reason he might have structured the Xmas episode in that way is because they're all people talking about things that had happened to them.  So, in that format, you simply couldn't have much real tension by putting them in danger, because you know they'd get out of it, otherwise how would they tell their story? 

Did I make that clear about Dee Dee?  For me, it totally turns his usual reaction upside down brilliantly.  He goes from thinking fantasy is real in previous episodes, to suddenly thinking reality is actually some kind of contrived, constructed set-up. 

Also, Phil's voice really is superb, and I also love how it's the seedy underbelly of Glasgow that he is so strongly drawn to, and which he constantly romanticises.  The only character I'm not that fond of is Tom, but he has his moments.

Depressed Beyond Tables

Does anyone know is it possible to download these without installing iTunes?

Bob The Skutter


Retinend

Quote from: Neil on September 04, 2011, 01:58:42 AMAlso loved that he ended with Dee Dee, walking into the whole spectacle.  Again, this plays off existing character traits brilliantly - all through the series we see instances where Dee Dee is unable to distinguish reality from fantasy - and here, as an aside, I must say that the ending shot to the Limmy's Show transferral of Finnieston Crane is fucking brilliant

Really liked this post! It's great to read detailed thoughts on the podcasts because they're so rich with detail themselves.

I thought Dee Dee's anecdote was the perfect climax of that episode. Like you say, it's really funny when you first hear "pure fuckin'...", and then "...the Social..." and you can immediately see ahead to the kind of effect the scenes there will have on him. Then there's a second set of laughs when he sees something, and you know what he's seeing, but you have to wait for Dee Dee to catch up and process it. Like when he first sees Vijay and Alexander, and after having already told us about a "mad asian fuckin... cunt" and a "mad... pure... gay guy... gay guy's pure like, 'chase me, chase me'", and concluding that he's "overdone it" this time, he reminds us again of what he's seen: "token(?) fuckin asian guy innit with this... fuckin... camp as fuck... fuckin mad... pure... queer... mad fuckin... womany... gay guy man", in a way which really milks how funny his outrage is. It's also very funny to hear him tell this story as if you, the listener, will be as nonplussed as he is, when we know the rational explanations behind what he's seeing. The punchline - that he'll be asking "a serious fuckin amount of questions" when he meets his Dad and Sister at hogmanay is a nice backreference to the Finnieston Crane episode. You can see a whole unmade episode just in that line. The characters are so well drawn and consistent that just a small suggestion like this can bring to mind a very vivid image.

There's also the payoff to Dee Dee's observant side - shown in the Jan Hammer and Yakult episodes - as he notices Benjamin's protests of "stop, you wee ruffian"; "nay cunt.... n fuckin ruffian?... what is this fuckin... pure fucking oliver twist or somethin?". Like he says in the Jan Hammer episode - it's something that probably no one else spotted. "But I fuckin see cos I don't work I spot a lot of things, I think I do a lot of thinking and that... cunts have got nae time for all that"

Depressed Beyond Tables

Quote from: Bob The Skutter on September 06, 2011, 03:45:15 AM
there's an RSS feed somewhere, I'm sure that's how I downloaded them

Edit: here we go: http://www.limmy.com/podcasts/worldofglasgow/wogblog/?feed=rss2

Links don't seem to be working but if you go to the bother of renaming them you can get them.

e.g. http://www.limmy.com/podcasts/worldofglasgow/07of84_phil_madness.mp3

or

http://www.limmy.com/podcasts/worldofglasgow/04of84_jacqueline_versace.mp3 etc.

I suppose this way it won't register on iTunes charts but that program is a ball of shite.

Mini

I'm late to this particular party, but I just finished listening to these and, like everyone else, loved them. The characters are all so fully realised and Limmy properly inhabits each one, with their own unique way of looking at the world. Some writers struggle to create one character with so much depth, he manages a world of them. And as has been said, the attention to detail and particular turns of phrase are stunning.

What I find most fascinating is this theme of boredom. Most of these characters are just so beautifully aimless. John Paul's own brand of utterly nihilistic boredom is strangely hypnotic. Dee Dee is driven paranoically insane by boredom, in a brilliantly existential fashion. I loved the way he ends up being the one who sees the world for the absurdity that it is. I know this has all been said ages ago, but I had to spout my love for these podcasts somewhere.

Thanks for the bump. Good reminder for me to look if these are available in Instacast (for iPhone). They are.

Unoriginal

How do you find these now? Can't find them anywhere

Utter Shit

I'm sure they are available somewhere but if not I can upload them.

I was late to this as well but they really are great. Weirdly, "Polecrusher" got quite an emotional response from me, building Wee Gary up into the genuinely heroic figure that he tries and fails to be in all the other clips.