Possible Inspirations/Icons in Morris' Own Development

[NaCl]

Given we've gathered because of our garnered respect for a man named Christopher Morris, it is expected he is influencing many a creative mind, one of the positive by-products of putting out any type of media; I was wondering, for an interesting turn of discussion, if any of you well versed ladies or gentleman knew where a young Morris might've found his own inspirations.

Peter Cook is the only possible influence I could bring up, but given that 1) he's influenced every satirist since his heyday, and 2) Morris is quoted as saying...

It was a very different style of improvisation from what I'd been used to, working with people like Steve Coogan, Doon Mackichan and Rebecca Front, because those On the Hour and The Day Today things were about trying to establish a character within a situation, and Peter Cook was really doing 'knight's move' and 'double knight's move' thinking to construct jokes or ridiculous scenes flipping back on themselves, and it was amazing. I mean, I held out no great hopes that he wouldn't be a boozy old sack of lard with his hair falling out and scarcely able to get a sentence out, because he hadn't given much evidence that that wouldn't be the case. But, in fact, he stumbled in with a Safeways bag full of Kestrel lager and loads of fags and then proceeded to skip about mentally with the agility of a grasshopper. Really quite extraordinary.

...in reference to "Why Bother?" that he wasn't someone Morris would've swooned over in his youth.

Well, what have youlol?

[Lollypopthecat]

I imagine Steve Wright influenced him, some what. Well, he certainly got a lot of material out of him.

What do you say Dog Boy...?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Victor Lewis Smith would no doubt have something to say about this.

[Absolute Guff]

Arguably John Cleese IMHO, given Morris' similarly domineering style of comedic acting, thesaurus style of writing, obsessive attention to detail...

[Glebe]

Arguably John Cleese IMHO, given Morris' similarly domineering style of comedic acting, thesaurus style of writing, obsessive attention to detail...

Also physically, they're both quite tall and domineering - the bit at the start of the Crime episode of Brass Eye where he's running around madly is pure Basil Fawlty.

[DJ Solid Snail]

Viv Stanshall, definitely. In particular this vox pop at the start of Shirt by The Bonzo Dog Band was surely an inspiration for his feedback reports:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWrU3kROXww

[Neil]

It was - he's specifically admitted that now, as I recall, and he started messing about with that idea as a student. What's truly remarkable is that this tiny little bit of an influence gradually became stretched and developed so far that it ended up culminating in Brass Eye.

[Tiny Poster]

Doesn't Disgusting Bliss mention an aborted Stanshall/Morris collaboration?

[Neil]

Yes, wasn't there an attempt at getting him on the GLR show? And then If I recall correctly Stanshall was going to be in the rejected idea about a lighthouse keeper who was taunted by birds, which was written with Quantick and Swells.

I loved seeing that mention of Stanshall in Brass Eye when I rewatched it last week.

[DJ Solid Snail]

From Disgusting Bliss (pg. 199):

He had a similar idea [to Blue Jam] back in the GLR days, when BBC2 still closed down for the night with the picture fading and a long tone playing for those still dozing in front of their TV. It was then that Morris imagined a sinister voice enquiring, 'Are you still out there? Let's have a little story...' To deliver it, Morris enlisted his childhood favourite, former Bonzo Dog Band singer and artist Vivian Stanshall. Morris had seen him perform live and thought his rich, sepulchral tones would be perfect drifting unannounced into the half-dream state of the audience. But the recording session didn't quite work out the way they planned.

Morris smuggled them both into GLR late one night, Stanshall late in his career and fragile. As they approached the studio, Morris accidentally let go of the heavy studio doors. It was, he says, an anxious moment: 'Fuck, I nearly killed a legend,' he remembers thinking at the time. When they came to record, Stanshall, then in one of his attempts at sobriety, seemed to be lacking in confidence. Morris later had his part re-recorded, but the BBC were sufficiently unimpressed not to acknowledge receipt of the resulting tape.

A real shame that didn't work out. A decent collaboration between those two would have been comedy heaven.

[Neil]

Thanks for that. I love that he wasn't remotely intimidated by these people - he just went straight to the greats, and then still rejected it if it wasn't perfect.

You have to admire the balls of a man who said, "I know, I'll improvise with Peter Cook", and then threw him nothing but fast balls, when he realised that Cook's mind was uttrerly unaffected by his physical deterioration. Then he sets a really dominant, aggressive tone, as if he's determined to test Cook, and see if he can possibly get him on the back foot.