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Nathan "Still-born" Barley Prediction Thread

Started by Neil, December 08, 2004, 03:36:18 PM

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slim

I predict that, in spite of the horrible sounding preview in that there article there, it will actually be rather fun. I think I will enjoy it whilst watching it, perhaps even laughing out loud at times. I predict that, at the end of the show, I will remember who the person behind it is and start to wonder if I should've expected more. Then I expect I'll watch it again and not find it quite as funny.

Then I'll come on here and see some more cleverer people explain to me why I didn't find it as funny the second time and I will slap my forehead, mouth agape.

Please, please let this be the scenario. I don't want another disappointing comedy to bollocks up the start of next year, just average to slightly-above-average will be better than the scene that article paints.

Edit: As for actual predictions about the content of the show, I have absolutely no idea. So I've totally missed the point of the thread it seems. I blame the dissenters derailing it - introduce CaB ID cards and we'll soon wheedle them out.

TotalNightmare

....And Heat will give every episode its lowest rating ever... 5 stars!

Neil

Quote from: "MrManson"So yeah, when's this thing on? I'm very lazy and the main page is too far for me to reach at the moment.

Well you could try reading the first page of this thread:  February 2005.

Trying to work out if I still agree with myself about the spunk joke thing.  He has done funny ones in the past, but... I still just think it's cheap cackling shit.  After watching that 11OCS the other night and picking out all the spunk jokes I was able to see just how cheap and easy they really are, guaranteed laughs from a certain section of the audience.  With details like the bumphuck/co.ck web urls and sugaRAPE leaking out I am worried that the show will just be full of this kind of easy base material.  Will there be one single solitary moment which causes you to think "Wow!" the way the GLR shows do?

Solid Snail

Barratt and Fielding do a Mighty Boosh style song.

JCBillington

Quotehuge authentically cool record collection bought on eBay from a provider of huge authentically cool record collections

That sounds like a Douglas Adams Joke.

Quotegastropub Regime, where your food is chosen for you by "assessing your electrolytes on a sensor at your table"

That is a Douglas Adams Joke. It's the Nutrimat machine.

The rest of it sounds like a bad Martin Amis novel. In fact...(time for my prediction.)

A hack will describe it as being like "Martin Amis...On Acid!"

Particle Man

I tell you one thing that will happen... A lot of people I know, who wouldn't know who Chris Morris is if it wasn't for me, will watch it to "See who this Chris Morris chap is" and then if it isn't very good, I will look like a fool.

Again.

Johnny Yesno

I predict I'll be alone in thinking it's "quite good".

Jet Set Willy

Nathan Barley - Thursday 10:30pm

With its farcical storylines and even more farcical acting from Mighty Boosh stars Fielding and Barrat, Nathan Barley could have been Coupling for the Nighty Night generation. However it has ended up as more like Swiss Toni for the Carrie and Barrie generation.
To not call it anything other than a million miles from a failure would not be ever so slightly unfair. Its packed with amusing references and throwaway gags, while the plot is interesting enough to keep you watching, its hard to feel nothing other than apathy towards the 'characters'. Why should I care what happens to these people? And was I supposed to laugh at those shiny trousers?

2/5 - We'll be watching next week but hoping for much better.

[sic]

Emergency Lalla Ward Ten

Who else had to look up 'obfuscate' just now?

Anyway, my predictions:

1. It will constantly mock trendy music fascism but at the same time feature a rilly kewl track by someone at Warp records as its sig.

2. A few insiders/Morris groupies will become furious by its lacklustre reception on this board and post this: 'chill out, honestly you lot dont like anything do you? it made me spit my beer a few times and thats all that matters imho, why don't you all go and watch your my family videos'.

3. Broadsheet hacks will make the 'Nathan Barley's biggest fans seem to be people who don't realise that they're the target of the joke' point, alongside photographs of Alf Garnett, Loadsamoney and Ali G.

4. In 2014, reviewers will claim the music/faschion jokes don't stand the test of time.

From what I can tell, the Barley show is not so much taking the piss out of 'cool', but out of 'anti-cool cool'. So surely the whole premise will eat itself ridiculously? Especially with Morris in real life being consideredby many to be *genuinely* cool. How will it work? How will people review it?

Anyway, bit of a scoop for you - my friend at Talkback managed to get hold of the lyrics to the theme tune:

Who's that walking down the street?
He's got risible shoes on his media feet
He's wearing twelve iPods so he doesn't look a spack
But to be really retro he's painted the headphones black
His pin-up is someone ironic, eg Francis Wheen
Apparently that's a satire of the London scene
Oh Nathan, Nathan Barley
Oh, you're our kinda guy
Oh Nathan, Nathan Barley
Oh bum rape monkey spunk Christ trousers piss


Darrell

Quote from: "Jaffa The Cake"What, really?

Oh, yes. Yes.

Yes.

The Mumbler

Oh dear.

They're a bit late in outrageously desecrating The Face, aren't they?  Might as well lampoon The Daily Sketch and The Sunday Correspondent for all the good it would do.  

I liked the name "Jonathan Yeah?", I suppose, but then I liked it when Radio Active's Mike Flex contrived a listener's name as "Tony Yeah" nearly 20 years ago, and then it moved on.

John Plunkett's article mentions the press release as "sparse" but what we get there absolutely speaks volumes.  The descriptions lie somewhere between the overwritten and the carelessly undercooked - a problem that obstructs so much current comedy.  

The targets are just so easy.  The soundtrack will probably feature lots of Warp artists juxtaposed with selections from Casey Kasem's America's Top 10.  If Nighty Night suggested that Julia Davis experienced adolescent snogging to the accompaniment of Marillion and The Scorpions (because Lord only knows why they're there otherwise), then this'll feature...oh I dunno...Sfincta and Stan Ridgway's Camouflage.  Oh-ho.

Lalla, I read the first two lines of your theme lyrics without noticing the poster.  I believed it, and I think I still do.

The Mumbler

By the way, who is "Julian Casablancas"?  I don't think I'm ready for the 21st century.


A Passing Turk Slipper

Those lyrics should be used. If the show is shit but is quite popular I'm not looking forward to the invasion of idiots who will join the boards and refuse to take part in any actual discussion, preferring to make comments like 'if you hate him so much why do you come to this site?'. That's not to say that all the people who like it are going to be idiots, or that I won't like it.

cesspit_soul

wots with all the nathan barley bashin? chill out, honestly you lot dont like anything do you? it made me spit my beer a few times and thats all that matters imho, why don't you all go and watch your my family videos? i meen, this forums are about chris morris  -  if you hate him so much why do you come to this site?

Observe my hilarious post-post-post-ironic satire LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!11111111oneoneoneoneonetwobucklemyshowthreefourknockatthedoor11111

Lewis

A tv critic will describe it as "Spaced on acid"

Emergency Lalla Ward Ten

Quote from: "weekender"He's the lead singer of The Strokes.

I didn't know that.

I've no idea who Chloe Sevigny is either.

This puts me in mind of Ernest Moss's observational routine about drills or whatever it was. 'And, heh...you can see it coming can't you?'

weekender

Quote from: "Emergency Lalla Ward Ten"I've no idea who Chloe Sevigny is either.

She was a fairly well-known Hollywood actress who is now widely well-known for performing actual fellatio as part of a role in a film called 'The Brown Bunny'.

alan strang

Quote from: "Emergency Lalla Ward Ten"Oh Nathan, Nathan Barley
Oh, you're our kinda guy
Oh Nathan, Nathan Barley
Oh bum rape monkey spunk Christ trousers piss

I've known Lalla Ward Ten for over a decade now. And he can still make me cough up cigarette phlegm with delight.

alan strang

I predict that by the time Nathan Barley gets broadcast it won't have aged well. When you look at it.

dan dirty ape

-There will be a club scene

-It may be described in a review as being 'like 'American Psycho' but without the killings'

-Nathan Barley will be too much of an 'absolute fucking tool' and too little of an actual bastard to hold interest as a central character. Most of the characters will be unfleshed out cyphers. There will be a standout minor character who gets the best lines.

-There will be an in-joke newspaper headline saying 'Mick Hucknall's Pink Pancakes'

-Morris won't appear, even in a tiny cameo

-There will be at least one belly laugh somewhere along the way, but as a whole the series will be inconsistent.

-Ratings will be poor due to overly Londoncentric nature of writing and uninvolving situations and characters. There will be only one series.

Cheer up, Dan!

Morrisfan82

Quote from: "Emergency Lalla Ward Ten"Who's that walking down the street?
He's got risible shoes on his media feet
He's wearing twelve iPods so he doesn't look a spack
But to be really retro he's painted the headphones black
His pin-up is someone ironic, eg Francis Wheen
Apparently that's a satire of the London scene
Oh Nathan, Nathan Barley
Oh, you're our kinda guy
Oh Nathan, Nathan Barley
Oh bum rape monkey spunk Christ trousers piss
I now have an mp3 of this theme tune, if anyone wants to host it?

Electroclash!

The Mumbler

The unattractive characters premise seems to echo Sky One's long-forgotten  Time Gentlemen Please in terms of second-guessing the reaction ("Ah, well, you see, the jokes aren't funny because they're being made by people with a shit sense of humour etc").  

Like every Morris project for bloody years, this will hit 1.5 million in week one, and be shown on Thursdays at 22.30.  Probably after a repeat of Phoenix Nights and before a repeat of Faking It (whose audience it clearly desires, even though it'll get XFM listeners, a seemingly pretty reluctant us, and some Sunday broadsheet TV critics.  The reference to Tom Paulin won't be lost on Newsnight Review who will review the first episode, unless Tom can't make it that week.)

Rats

Quote-There will be an in-joke newspaper headline saying 'Mick Hucknall's Pink Pancakes'
Urgh, that makes my skin crawl. It still hasn't sunk in that he's working with old fuck pen, I'm just trying to blot it out and hope he's turned into someone else.

Neville Chamberlain

I feel a bit sorry for the show now. Having been overhyped to death by the 'received' opinions of the Guardian and its ilk and mauled to death by the 'received' opinions in this smug little thread, either way Nathan Barley hasn't got a ruddy chance.

Prediction: probably should have been confined to TVGoHome, though.

phantom_power

most of the jokes that have been revealed will be minor scene-setters or background jokes that won't be that important to the show

it won't be as good as the day today but it won't be terrible

the boosh people will have smaller roles than predicted, one of the may only be in a few scenes

the acting will generally be very good, though at least one main performer will stand out as being quite shit

it will be a fairly 'traditional' sitcom about a group of friends and workmates, with nathan barley as the central character who is a bit of a tit. all the media satire stuff will be 'added value' that won't greatly diminish the appeal of the show for those who don't get the jokes

the critics will say it is better than it actually is, causing much outrage amongst people who should have more important things to worry about.

Mediocre Rich

Drop the Dead Donkey meets Ted Bundy on a Cat Walk on acid in the dark

phalmachine

- There will be lots of 'blasphemy'.

- There will be a scene where Nathan makes a woman weep and the shot of the weeping will go on for ages.  Nathan himself will weep, possibly at the end of every show.

- It will include/there will be discussion of a 'crazy' reality TV show.

- IPods, the Atkins Diet and Wayne Hemmingway will all be referenced.

- The cuts/wipes between scenes will be very fancy.

- It will be full of awkward moments where Nathan tries to wriggle out of saying something uncool.

- The Mighty Boosh guy will say 'Hey Nathan, look at my new gadget'

- This site or others like it will be lampooned.

- It will feel like a poor man's Peep Show.


Sorry, there was nothing too revelatory there, but then I don't think the show will be very revelatory either.

It's pretty clear that the show will have  a beginning, middle and end. But not necessarily in that order.



The kinds of niche genres that Morris has both invented and parodied over the years, have run into a bit of a dead end. It's a bit like a lot of the 'worthy'  'modern' 'literary' fiction that I remember reading for my English degree, written by Martin Amis or AS Byatt etc etc, where the princpal character was a writer, there was no decernible plot, just a load of random opinions, funny-ha-ha jokes . In short: very inward looking.

Telly is like books in this respect, you can play around with the format, cut things up, use random insertions, fanny about wtih vision/sound using the latest editing methods etc, but taken to its logical conclusion, you end up removing all of the traits that attracted people in the first place. It will end up appealing to the niche of the nice, which ironically in the Nathan Barley instance, is the Hoxton media lot. Who else outside of Hoxton gives a fuck about the place? Who outside of the London media seriously gives a fuck about the London media, including Morris?