Rebecca Front's Dark Mind

[Jemble Fred]

Today's Guardian, My Italics:

Who needs enemas?

Rebecca Front
Tuesday August 3, 2004
The Guardian

A blow to conspiracy theorists appeared in this paper the other day. According to scientists, Napoleon Bonaparte was not murdered, as has long been suspected, but instead died as the result of a potassium imbalance. This, it's now thought, was brought about by a well-intentioned doctor being over-zealous in his use of enemas. I'm aware that the mere mention of an overzealous enema will have led many of you to start turning the page, but stay with me if you will.

To historians and medics, you can see why Napoleon's enemas would be of interest. To ardent fans of colonic irrigation, such adverse publicity may be seen as a pain in the arse - but that, after all, is nothing they won't have dealt with before. To the would-be humourist, however, such a story presents a problem. Enemas. A great word, ripe with comic possibilities. There may never again be such a golden opportunity to use the old gag: "with friends like these ..."

But puns are so last century. In the age of darker than dark, bitter without the sweet comedy, the sort of comedy in which I so often work, puns are simply not done. They're considered cheap, cheesy and a bit juvenile.  Some might argue that that's what makes them funny. Puns are, after all, pretty harmless faux-confusions of two words that sound alike; surely hating them is... well, it's homophone-bia. But trust me, I write from experience.

Some years ago I began working on a news satire show called The Day Today. The rest of the team were actors and writers too, but most had stand-up comedy experience. Not me. While they had been treading sticky, beer-sodden stages and helping to create the new wave of hard-hitting, postmodern irony, I had been sitting in radio studios with middle-aged actors, listening, between takes, to anecdotes with tag lines such as "stark bollock naked in front of Princess Margaret!" Of course, I had a lot of comedy experience, but when a show has a title such as The Nice Man Cometh or Rabble Without Applause, you know you can go for it all puns blazing. (Damn, there goes another one.)

For the first few improvisation sessions on this new show, I felt too intimidated to utter a word. Then one day, someone set up an idea about capital punishment. I could see it rolling towards me ... a glorious, multi-layered pun. Someone was bound to get there first, to pick it up and run with it, but no. So I took a deep breath and said it: "No noose is good noose", then looked down modestly and waited for the guffaw. Silence. When I looked up again, some of my colleagues were pretending they hadn't heard me, others were frantically doodling on their notepads. One, sensing my bewilderment and fearful that I might repeat my crime, whispered: "No puns. No innuendo." I was mystified. This was a comedy. It was as if I'd been told to drive up a motorway with no gears and no steering wheel. But the comedy ground had shifted, and I had to jump on or fall through the gap.

To many people, the kind of jokes you use are irrelevant. To Conservative party members in Congleton, for instance, the fact that their MP Ann Winterton made that irredeemably duff gag about Chinese cockle pickers has not deterred them from reselecting her. But the comedy world is as much dominated by fashion as... well, the fashion world. So I have learned to resist puns and innuendo, but it isn't easy.

At a Blue Peter children's Prom this weekend - and let us just pause to consider the resonant potential of "Blue", "Peter" and "Prom" - I tried to sit stony faced while the presenters breathlessly praised the Royal Albert Hall's finest feature:

"9,999 pipes! That's quite an organ, isn't it, Liz?"

"Yes, Simon, that's certainly one powerful organ."

I have to tell you it was hard. Keeping a straight face, I mean, not the organ. (Damn, I just can't help myself.)

Which brings us back to Napoleon ... Bonaparte ... (I'm resisting the innuendo locked within those three syllables, but it's killing me.) My brief for this column was to find a story that shouted to me and run with it. I could have chosen anything, but while Napoleon didn't shout to me, his enemas did. For all the wrong reasons.

And, as I have my reputation to consider, instead of basing a column on a cheap joke, I've wasted one explaining my decision not to. But in doing so, I have created a spurious link between me and the great Corsican: Napoleon was defeated by Nelson; I, alas, was crushed by the column.

· Rebecca Front is a comedy writer and performer, who recently appeared in the BBC's Nighty Night

Nighty Night? Well there's a claim to fame. Sorry, but this whole article reads like tripe to me.

[The Region Legion]

Sorry, but this whole article reads like tripe to me.

What about it? The part about The Day Today certainly interested me - it's the kind of anecdote that would have been great as part of a commentary - and it's no worse than most of the columns in newspapers, which take something out of the news and then talk about something completely unrelated, and then try and tie it back into the news story at the end. What about it is "tripe"?

[Purple Tentacle]

What is she talking about with TDT not allowing any puns?

"The bride, not the cake, will have the most tiers"

Terrierists, a "green gauge", "all shook up", oh I could go on.....

[Ambient Sheep]

What about it? The part about The Day Today certainly interested me - it's the kind of anecdote that would have been great as part of a commentary...What about it is "tripe"?

Agreed.

I too am mystified by the "no puns" bit.  If Chapman Baxter had ever died by hanging, I could just imagine Barbara Wintergreen grinning greenishly at the camera and saying "...and for Baxter in the morning, no noose is good noose!"

What the hell would be non-TDT about that?!?

Do we think the helpful cast member was Marber?  I can just imagine him muttering "no puns, no innuendo" in a Peter O'hanraha'hanrahan voice.

[SimonJT]

Maybe because they're jokes at the expense of puns, rather than simply puns as jokes? I dunno

[Ambient Sheep]

Maybe because they're jokes at the expense of puns, rather than simply puns as jokes? I dunno

I think we'd need to know the context in which the discussion took place, but given that TDT spends quite some time satirising the media's use of cheesy puns, I really can't understand why there'd be such a reaction.

[burpmitosis]

The puns she mentions are not funny though.   If TDT had used puns in a Giles Brandreth on Countdown friendly "let's make the crowd groan" way, it wouldn't have been funny.  It's so easy to make puns, even I do it sometimes, but the boring, obvious ones only appeal to drunk or slightly stupid people and that wasn't the audience TDT was going for, from what I can tell.

[Gavin]

Don't be affronted(!)

2,343KB of Puns

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

I saw a documentary awhile back which suggested that Napoleon was killed by his wallpaper.

I'm not joking - see here:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/napoleon/napol3.htm

[Ambient Sheep]

The puns she mentions are not funny though.   If TDT had used puns in a Giles Brandreth on Countdown friendly "let's make the crowd groan" way, it wouldn't have been funny.

No, but:

If Chapman Baxter had ever died by hanging, I could just imagine Barbara Wintergreen grinning greenishly at the camera and saying "...and for Baxter in the morning, no noose is good noose!"

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Interesting that Front makes the comparison between fashion and comedy. After all, 'dark' comedy is naught but a fad. Sadly, all the talented people seem to have bought into it - and end up playing roles that are beneath them.

Puns are great in the right hands (the ISIHAC team or Frank Skinner), but they shouldn't be your only comedic tool.

[Neil]

Interesting that Front makes the comparison between fashion and comedy. After all, 'dark' comedy is naught but a fad.

Is it though?  Let's hope so, however when I was watching that "Who Killed Saturday Night Telly" show the other week it did make me a tad anxious.  They were describing the change in TV comedy during the 80's, the move away from the end-of-the-pier style blokes in dinner-jackets comedy of the likes of Cannon & Ball, Little & Large etc, and the way that alternative comedy gradually took over and became the new mainstream.  The way the chaps on there said "TV had changed forever, it'll never be like that again" was actually kind of chilling, it does make you wonder how it will change from where we are now.  Look at a sitcom like Swiss Toni, very deliberately "old-skool" style of sitcom, and yet it's relegated to BBC3, whereas something self-conciously dark like Nighty Night gets reshown on the main terrestrial channel.  

Anyway thanks for the article, interesting read, fascinating story about TDT, DevlinC is right, it makes you think what we missed by not getting a commentary or two on there.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

I meant fad in the context of 'empty, hollow trend that people erroneously ahdere to'. How many years since Blue Jam went out, now? I don't think 'dark' is going to go away until we get a new wave of comedians who kick it out of the window.

[Lt Plonker]

Puns are great in the right hands (the ISIHAC team or Frank Skinner), but they shouldn't be your only comedic tool.

From Duck Soup

Prosecutor: You haven't been paying your taxes.
Chicolini: Taxes. I have an uncle who lives in Taxes.
Prosecutor: No, Money. Dollars.
Chicolini: Dollars, Taxes. That's where my uncle is a-from.



That's the way to do it.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Puns are great in the right hands (the ISIHAC team or Frank Skinner), but they shouldn't be your only comedic tool.

From Duck Soup

Prosecutor: You haven't been paying your taxes.
Chicolini: Taxes. I have an uncle who lives in Taxes.
Prosecutor: No, Money. Dollars.
Chicolini: Dollars, Taxes. That's where my uncle is a-from.



That's the way to do it.

Yep, that's lovely. I was only talking about contemporary punsters, really. I left out Milton Jones as it does seem to be his only comedic trait.

[Jemble Fred]

Tim Vine makes me laugh when he speaks. Often.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

I saw Tim Vine on Des and Mel, dressed as a Beefeater, trying to do as many gags as he could in a minute. It was great! The perfect atmosphere for Vine to do his act. He always seemed out of place doing sets on the 90s Saturday Live and other such series.

His act does involve puns, but isn't solely pun-centric, though.

[neveragain]

I'm sure he's stolen some material from Tommy Cooper. I like his act nevertheless.

[Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer]

'No noose is good noose' could have worked quite well as one of those terrible send-off lines reporters give. I guess the 'helpful member' could have been Iannucci playing the producer-boss card, although to be honest the 'no puns, no innuendo' rule seems a bit twattish as in the right hands puns and innuendo can be as good as anything seen as alternative (Swift and Pope were obssessed with bodily functions, like Gulliver shitting in the cathedral or pissing on the palaces - I know it's not quite the same as innuendo). I thought Nighty-Night and Monkey Dust had a more extreme attitude or elitism of  "there are no 'jokes'  in here that will make you laugh, but they will make you laugh on a higher sphere of comedy, where 'jokes' cease to exist."


It's interesting what she says about most of the cast being stand-up comedy experience, because Morris didn't (unless he was in a revue at Bristol) because he came from radio, as did Iannucci; and I didn't think either Marber or Schneider had been at the circuit (I'm probably wrong). Front had some comedy experience, because she was the first female president of the Oxford Revue[/i]

[alan strang]

'It's interesting what she says about most of the cast being stand-up comedy experience, because Morris didn't (unless he was in a revue at Bristol) because he came from radio, as did Iannucci; and I didn't think either Marber or Schneider had been at the circuit (I'm probably wrong). Front had some comedy experience, because she was the first female president of the Oxford Revue

Marber was a stand-up for a bit. Not sure how much of the 'circuit' he endured but he was the hoset of the stand-up showcase 'Hey Rrradio!' I think he appeared on Saturday Live too. Schneider did a lot of stand-up stuff - in fact he and Iannucci were in a double-act show which they took up to Edinburgh. Baynham was of course on the stand-up circuit for years.

I don't understand that article at all. It infers that the workshopping of the serial killer sketches started on The Day Today when I'm sure they were doing it that way from On The Hour. And, as mentioned elsewhere on the thread, the Chapman Baxer stuff is surely an exercise in getting as many strained, insensitive puns together as is humanly possible.

She seems to have turned into Arabella Weir.

[Gavin]

I don't understand that article at all. It infers that the workshopping of the serial killer sketches started on The Day Today when I'm sure they were doing it that way from On The Hour.

It implies. You infer.

[Jemble Fred]

The original copy probably said 'On The Hour', but the Guardian sub took a sip from their Nighty Night commemorative mug and thought 'No-one's heard of that, I'll just put The Day Today instead...'

[alan strang]

It implies. You infer.

Infer a penny, infer a pound...

[Almost Yearly]

^ Yay.


I like the weak, kinda shoulder-relaxing laugh a pun elicits. Half way to a sob. Lovely. If you've been up all night on the Friday, by Sunday pub lunch you're well into pun territory, I find. Sub-pun-day lunch ... either way, funnier than Nighty Night, yes. And I like Tim Vine's act a lot.

[TJ]

Nasty Conspiracy Theory Ahoy:

The biggest pun-lovers on the OTH team, who revelled in sending up their ridiculousness, were Lee and Herring. Fast forward a couple of years. L&H are out of the picture and certain parties are determined to ensure that they remain so, letters complaining of articles mentioning them being 'Factually Inaccurate' and all. Chapman Baxter aside, TDT features far, far less puns than OTH.

Could Rebecca Front have in fact been misrecalling a later incident from after the Stalinist 'nothing remotely Lee and Herring-like' party line had come into force?

Something to chew over, anyway.

[Partridge's Love Child]

But puns are so last century. In the age of darker than dark, bitter without the sweet comedy, the sort of comedy in which I so often work, puns are simply not done. They're considered cheap, cheesy and a bit juvenile.

Cuh, she's got some Front.

This and Paul Scholes in the same day.  I think I've lost the will to live.

[Purple Tentacle]

Could Rebecca Front have in fact been misrecalling a later incident from after the Stalinist 'nothing remotely Lee and Herring-like' party line had come into force?
Something to chew over, anyway.

The impression I got from reading what L&H have said in the past was that they were considered an irrelevence by the rest of the cast, that ditching them wasn't seen as "that big a deal".... would they really be so affected by these two nobodies that they would conciously try to purge them?

Ooooh, guesswork guesswork with nothing to go on.....

[burpmitosis]

The puns she mentions are not funny though.   If TDT had used puns in a Giles Brandreth on Countdown friendly "let's make the crowd groan" way, it wouldn't have been funny.

No, but:

If Chapman Baxter had ever died by hanging, I could just imagine Barbara Wintergreen grinning greenishly at the camera and saying "...and for Baxter in the morning, no noose is good noose!"

It's the way they're used, I suppose.  Maybe it was the context in which she came out with it that was the problem, and she just took the non-laugh she got to heart and misremembered the whole event based on her hurt pride.  Maybe someone just meant, no puns, no inuendo in context of the piece they were thrashing out at that exact moment.  Or maybe they were all a bunch of elitist wankers at the time, and after a while realised they couldn't do it without puns and inuendo and gave in to Front.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Not quite a pun, but TDT didn't have any of the "Sit in a pen and save a hen" or "as well as the footballing skills that made him famous" wordy silliness that Lee and Herring brought to OTH.

I think it must have been Marber or Iannucci that curtailed Front's puns, if we suppose that TJ's theory is correct, as Marber didn't get on with them (for well-documented reasons), and Iannucci went to the trouble of re-editing that compilation. I doubt Coogan and Schneider would have been too worried about 'emulating' the L&H style. I don't know when Mackichan's differences with Herring occurred - anyone have any idea?

[Ambient Sheep]

It's the way they're used, I suppose.  Maybe it was the context in which she came out with it that was the problem, and she just took the non-laugh she got to heart and misremembered the whole event based on her hurt pride.  Maybe someone just meant, no puns, no inuendo in context of the piece they were thrashing out at that exact moment.  Or maybe they were all a bunch of elitist wankers at the time, and after a while realised they couldn't do it without puns and inuendo and gave in to Front.

Absolutely.  I've got no argument with that.  I was thinking something similar to some of that myself but was unable to articulate it.

I don't know when Mackichan's differences with Herring occurred - anyone have any idea?

I didn't know there WERE any?  What happened there?