"Comedy is the new rock and roll"

[Z/Sb]

I think the original "comedy is the new rock 'n' roll" thing began with the Goons and Peter Sellers (solo), continued with Python, then it was the Goodies and on to Not The 9 O'Clock News and the Young Ones. From those fertile comedy seeds came the rest of the rock 'n' roll comedy tree...

If anything, the phrase "comedy is the new rock 'n' roll" is one of those things where you know what it means but don't really know how to describe it. Basically comedy performers/shows which achieve a certain cult/popular status not just with the public but with the famous, mainly rock/pop stars or media people like DJs, talk show hosts, whatever, who namedrop them or made memoroable performances with them... Basically when comedy has a connection to pop music. eg. Pythons/Beatles, Peter Sellers/Beatles, the Goodies obviously had a few hits and appeared on Top of the Pops and have connections to Python, Banana Splits - namechecked by Michael Stipe of all people, Beatles/Kenny Everett, Morecambe & Wise/Beatles/Des O'Connor, Rob Newman/Robert Smith, Vic & Bob and Steve Coogan are/were mates with a stack of indie/alternative/pop stars, etc.

Now I'm out of here! And I accept your apology, Neil. Cheers! :)

[The Mumbler]

Janet Street-Porter said "comedy is the new rock'n'roll" pretty early on (very early 90s, I seem to remember), in a piece for one of the Sunday newspapers - probably the Independent on Sunday as that was the only one I was buying in 1990 and 91-ish.  I also remember Baddiel contributing to a Sean O'Hagan-penned piece about "the new lad" which was written about the same time.  Did I keep either article?  Obviously not.

[Peking O]

A side point perhaps, but I think this and the 'naming' of Grunge and Britpop signified the end of an era when journalists would go down the pub and make up scene names for a laugh while quaffing about 10 ales. Hence, "The Scene That Celebrates Itself," "Arsequake" and so on. "Comedy is The New Rock & Roll" clearly spluttered forth from the mind of some pissed up journo or other. Now if a scene is invented, it seems to be done by committee to maximize possible sales targets for all involved (or something like that). Shame.

[Ciarán2]

A side point perhaps, but I think this and the 'naming' of Grunge and Britpop signified the end of an era when journalists would go down the pub and make up scene names for a laugh while quaffing about 10 ales. Hence, "The Scene That Celebrates Itself," "Arsequake" and so on. "Comedy is The New Rock & Roll" clearly spluttered forth from the mind of some pissed up journo or other. Now if a scene is invented, it seems to be done by committee to maximize possible sales targets for all involved (or something like that). Shame.

And don´t forget the "Lion Pop" of Cud, Kingmaker and Pulp. Thanks for that one go to...one Stuart Maconie. (I quite like the term "lion pop", better than "britpop" isn't it?

[Johnny Yesno]

Oi - I've got your number, and any more abusive terms like the one you've used will be dealt with in the severest terms possibe ;-)

Sorry, I just needed a good swear there. I'll tone my language down a bit in future, you fucker!

is it true that the BBC fucked around with the broadcast times of the 1st series on BBC 2, meaning that it's picked up virtually no viewers?

I'm not sure how many viewers it got but the scheduling confused the bejesus out of me. And I didn't see a single trailer for it. The first I heard of it was hans's thread on here. I saw a couple of double episodes on BBC2 then I think the series may have ended on there and the new one started on BBC4 but even that had an episode in the small hours. It seems to have settled down now, though - once a week on Fridays, repeated on Wednesdays. Bit late now as I've missed loads of them (AFAIK).