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How come there's no interest in archive Chris Morris?

Started by Neil, November 15, 2013, 11:36:29 PM

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Neil

Spent 3 or 4 hours making a Chris Morris clip - got the customary 8 or so retweets, it'll get about 40 views. It's a pisser, but I couldn't afford cider, and once this stuff is up, it's up for a long time, hopefully.

What am I doing wrong with this stuff though? There's been very little interest in it for years now. I want loads of people to enjoy this stuff, partly to help source more, but mostly because I fucking love it and always chop up the best bits, but there's just no audience for it.

Is it a side effect of CM moving behind the camera almost exclusively now, or am I just shit at social networking and stuff?  I do feel totally inept, with regards getting more CM fans in here, these days.

Thomas

If I still had Twitter, I'd no doubt have devoured it. I'll do that now, in fact.

I was going to message you earlier, asking after something I'd seen posted in an old Children in Need thread - 'Chris Morris, Helium Bags, And Sue Cook', I think it was titled.

EDIT - oh. That answers that question. Thanks, Neil.

Small Man Big Horse

Perhaps one sticky thread in the main Comedy Chat forum might help, then it'd always be seen by new folks coming to the board who might ignore the Chris Morris forum as they're not specific fans / aware of his past in radio.

Neil

Thomas, that was the GLR version where he also talks about the joy of helium balloons. I LOVE the Sue Cook bit. A classic CM horse reference.

SMBH no one really looks at stickys. They're like the warnings on feg packets, the eyes just automatically phase them out. I would live to get loads more CM fans in, but have no idea how. This separate sub forum was supposed to help, but it's so dead we end up using CC for certain topics. Anyway, I know this is all a bit "oh boo fucking hoo", but it has puzzled me for years. The kids/internets used to be mad about Chris Morris and his big mad hair.

Thomas

Were there a deal more visitors to the site in the wake of Four Lions?

acrow

could it not just be that he's a relative unknown to a lot of younger comedy fans? people will probably constantly be discovering or rediscovering his work but not all those people are going to want to download some obscure early radio work he did, no matter how good it is. we can't all be thomas, basically.

the people who are big fans probably already have all the available radio shows.  i know that thanks to this site i was able to listen to a lot of material i would never have heard otherwise. maybe the people who know how good the stuff is might not be interested in a segment they've already heard.

i don't have a twitter or facebook or any of that malarkey so i don't know how you could attract more people. tits?

#6
Yeah, I don't use twitter but I always check the Morris thread when it (rarely) updates.

The fact that there is a whole subforum dedicated to him is really doing your best with the site. To expand on SMBH's idea, perhaps you could sticky and lock a very brief introduction of Chris Morris, his work and why they should check him out in Comedy Chat. Just really a really short, concise one so the lazy bastards actually read the full thing.

I remember hearing an interview with some social media fella a few months ago, and the importance of shameless self-promotion. Even though it'll go against the very core of a lot of people, especially on a forum here dedicated to taking the piss, you shouldn't underestimate the power of actually asking people in these posts to "please retweet". It'll make you cringe even thinking about it, but every single person who does is inviting a whole bunch more to actually check out your work. I assume most of us here are a big fan of the site and all your efforts so we'll help out as best we can. I mean, I personally don't have a twitter because they're for bastards and I already have too many forms of procrastination, but still.

And possibly get the Facebook site going again with updates of any important news and specific funny or interesting threads, and again, ask people on Facebook to like and share them.

I've finished Uni for the year so I'm on holidays for a couple months, so I'm able to help out and update that if you're busy, and I'm sure there's a few others who'd help you out.

I think there is an audience for this stuff, and a lot just need to find it for themselves these days, but you should maybe put your pride on hold and actually promote your work more shamelessly.

EDIT:

Quote from: Thomas on November 15, 2013, 11:57:49 PM
Were there a deal more visitors to the site in the wake of Four Lions?

Yeah, that's also a thing to consider. I'm sure there'll be more traffic after his next project, or even if he steals some scenes in the new Ayoade film. People will go check out who that guy is and they'll quite likely stumble upon here. There's only so much you can do, his private nature's a two-way street, because it adds to his mystery whilst also giving him his privacy and keeping him out of the public eye, but it also means that he's less in the public consciousness and it's harder to promote his stuff. Clearly he did suck it up and hence why he did so many junkets and got out there for Four Lions.

I'm sure when he makes his next film, and I don't have a doubt he'll make another film, he'll be out doing publicity again because he wants his film to be a success, and other people's money is on the line, and by that point, there'll be more people here again.


Thursday

Is it possible podcasts have killed people's interest in archive radio? With so much new audio to get through this stuff just falls behind an ever increasing pile.

It's already a fairly niche market anyway isn't it?

Depressed Beyond Tables

I'd love to read about this. If you stuck it in the Comedy Chat forum it would get many, many views. Plus it would get a lot more discussion.

Ironically, giving Chris Morris more precedence over comedy has made the topic less popular.

Please post a link to a download or a Youtube channel where we can listen to these rarities.

Thomas

If/when he does make another film, I'll be shooting off to a Q&A showing. I 'got into' Morris' work shortly after a Four Lions screening just one bus ride away. Dang, I think they say.


Neil

Quote from: Thomas on November 15, 2013, 11:57:49 PM
Were there a deal more visitors to the site in the wake of Four Lions?

Sadly not. I hoped there'd be masses, and there just weren't. CaB links being removed and then banned from wiki certainly hasn't helped.

And yeah, guess this is indeed niche stuff, and rare GLR/Radio Bristol recordings don't have much currency. Which is shite, as they're fucking brilliant. And I suppose, after 14 years of this, there's now so much available that the general fan simply won't be that bothered.

The ones who are though: where are they?

Neil

Quote from: Depressed Beyond Tables on November 16, 2013, 12:25:49 AM
I'd love to read about this. If you stuck it in the Comedy Chat forum it would get many, many views. Plus it would get a lot more discussion.

Ironically, giving Chris Morris more precedence over comedy has made the topic less popular.

Please post a link to a download or a Youtube channel where we can listen to these rarities.

Yes, I agree.

Plus I was very anxious about putting stuff on YouTube for years, so people took all the best stuff from here and beat me to it, meaning the loss of a certain amount of fans finding the place.

Try these:
http://audioboo.fm/chilled.cream.org
http://youtube.com/user/cookdandbombdcouk

TIAL

I gave it a retweet, I know a few of my friends (who aren't on the forum) will enjoy it as they are massive Chris Morris fans. Might be a bit late and they're in bed, so will hopefully see it tomorrow.

I'm just guessing here but maybe the name of Chris Morris isn't known to many people these days? His shows might be known more by name than him in particular.

Neil

Thanks, preciate it! And yeah, that's what I wonder about. It's SEEMED like that for years now, but I bet there are still shitloads of folks out there who think he's boss. I guess it's a long, long time from TDT, Brass Eye etc.

Speaking more generally, I think there's definitely still interest in Morris, and new people are discovering him all the time. I've put together best-ofs of Blue Jam that have gotten a great response from listeners that have never heard of him (let alone Blue Jam) before.

(Actually, on those, I only recently put two and two together and figured out the MP3s I had of the show were from here, because the files were untagged. I hope you don't mind that we're using your transfers to put our compilation show together.)

This likely isn't the greatest venue to bring this up Neil, but I was wondering if you'd mind me putting up a Blue Jam archive site to host the episodes of the show? This would obviously be on my own servers; it would give people an opportunity to get the programs without going through a filesharing service. I'm asking because these are your transfers (so far as I can tell! though perhaps I've gotten it wrong again) and you put the work into assembling/collecting them. We could do it in association with CaB if you like -- linking back to you guys, etc. I'm actually more interested in doing this for the CMMS, but I think Blue Jam draws more of an audience now, in as much as you don't have to be British to get most of the references given it's more abstract.

Depressed Beyond Tables

Over time Blue Jam will be recognised as his most important work.

hummingofevil

I always forget to check this section of the forum. Maybe it's psychologically the same as the sticky thing.

Secondly I find twitter is simultaneously brilliant and shite at actually sharing things. Too much information and you miss the gems. Need to unfollow a load of shite.

What about having a Chris Morris specific account that only tweets Morris stuff? Might get less followers but it would be a neater way to archive stuff actually on twitter.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: acrow on November 16, 2013, 12:00:27 AM
could it not just be that he's a relative unknown to a lot of younger comedy fans? people will probably constantly be discovering or rediscovering his work but not all those people are going to want to download some obscure early radio work he did, no matter how good it is. we can't all be thomas, basically.

the people who are big fans probably already have all the available radio shows.  i know that thanks to this site i was able to listen to a lot of material i would never have heard otherwise.

I agree. I'd count myself as a huge Morris fan and I don't think I've ever clicked on the Chris Morris Forum bit. CAB has given me access to the On The Hour stuff which I've listened to but the GLR stuff doesn't interest me at all. I don't know if Brasseye has ruined me for old Morris radio stuff of if I'm too old at 35 to give much of a fuck about the archive.

(For my own selfish reasons completely unrelated to the success of cab (sorry, being honest))

Are any more full radio shows/ >15 min parts of ep's being released soon/have recently been released that I am unaware of? How do I get them?

In relation to the topic of the thread: I'm not saying I consider myself an average CAB user but I personally only really look at deeper into movies and comedy chat. And dont EVER notice stickies.

If you're concerned about getting more discussion/listeners within the site, I'd suggest starting an ongoing Morris discussion topic in comedy chat. Then any new finds/updates thenW the thread can be bumped.

Wrt this sub-forum, I'm not the biggest Morris fan. I like his work but outside of Armando, and maybe Quantick. Don't think there's any comedians that I'd be expectantly waiting on finds of their early work from 20 years ago. I'd guess other people feel the same with their fave comedians.

Outside of the site, I know nothing about nothing.

2pintz

The problem with twitter is that (so boring ass studies that got barked at me at some caffeine fuelled PR twatery course I went on) tweeting something is only current for about 20 minutes. Maybe its as simple as having five clips on the go, or just tweeting it again a few hours later with slightly reworded text to try and hook more people.

In terms of the website, One option could be to have a bit on the front page with "just added" or "XX years ago this week" to make people think its current. I myself have literally just realised that the Music Shows and D2D will be 20 years old next year, so there will be probably more interest in his Morris-ness during 2014.

Also - seeing as it is Christmas, a Chris Morris Festive Gutchute Audio Advent Calender of old clips could be another way of getting new stuff out. :-)

BTW - keep up the good work. I have been reading this forum off and on for about 13 years now and, although silent, think you are doing a grand job.

TJ

It's the way it seems to have gone in general unfortunately - largely due to the internet being bigger and moving faster (it's interesting to reflect on the fact - which might be a bit surprising for newer converts - that CaB used to be genuinely FAMOUS - not just among net-heads, proper magazine feature famous - without actually doing anything to court it) and the fact that the early pre-fame material of big names now routinely gets rounded up into easily digestible compilations the second that they hit the big time. Morris really is the one exception to that which is a shame, but I'd wager partly his doing too. Plus in this post-Live At The Apollo World, 'interesting' pre-fame projects are the sort of thing that the next generation up did; you don't get anyone up-and-coming doing their own equivalent of The Atkinson People now. Or if they do, they put it out as a podcast.

That said, it really is fantastic to hear some great new Morris stuff after all this time, so major thanks to Neil!

Shoulders?-Stomach!

You're stuck with someone who picks his projects infrequently and very carefully these days, so no surprise interest wanes.

I think lots of people are aware of quite well known TDT and BE stuff without necessarily knowing the shows themselves off by heart. In the past comedy fans may have been more dedicated to series as well as completists. With the internet fragmenting things into clips, perhaps its doesn't encourage that kind of behaviour, instead pick n mix youtube surfing.

klaus

I'm sorry if it's been mentioned, not sure if this is illegal, but where you have Home Forum Shop etc. underneath could you have GLR Blue Jam etc and the ability for Cookers to hear those while riding through the forum. If I didn't have to go to YouTube etc to listen but could just go to The Cook to hear the back catalogue that would be great.

imitationleather

I was at a football match recently and said "This is a conversation" (I was with people, I wasn't just saying things out loud by myself) and the person behind me who I did not know answered back "Yes" and then we chatted about Chris Morris for a while.

So there's still fans out there. You just need to get out there and get quoting to find them.

Quote from: imitationleather on November 20, 2013, 10:51:13 PM
I was at a football match recently and said "This is a conversation" (I was with people, I wasn't just saying things out loud by myself) and the person behind me who I did not know answered back "Yes" and then we chatted about Chris Morris for a while.

So there's still fans out there. You just need to get out there and get quoting to find them.

I know comedy boy. And I have absolutely ZERO idea what "This is a conversation" relates to.

I know who Chris Morris is though.

Old Thrashbarg

You know comedy, you know Chris Morris, but apparently you don't know Brass Eye.

Hymenoptera

Quote from: imitationleather on November 20, 2013, 10:51:13 PM

So there's still fans out there. You just need to get out there and get quoting to find them.

I bought a Brass Eye themed t-shirt (it's got W.O.F.D.C.A.P. written on it, alongside the little monkey-being-shot logo) to encourage this, though sadly to no avail.


amnesiac

I never come into this bit because I think it doesn't get any traffic/footfall. CM as a comedy entity is dead. He is dead.

zomgmouse

I think I got to this site from being brainwashed by the bookend announcements on the radio show files I downloaded found. So that worked, at least.