Nathan Barley - It's Well Rubbish

[Jasper]

ok sunshine, i challenge you to name me!

What year were you born?

[Anonymous]

Guys, I really like what you do on this site, and the fantastic work you've done in bringing so much of Chris Morris' work together in one place. I just watched an episode of NB the other day, fearing the worst based partly on the comments here and I was really, really surprised. To me, it seems like a natural progression from what Morris has done before, albeit one that isn't immediately obvious. He's taking the same vicious insight that he uses to such fantastic effect in the parodies he's done from On the Hour onwards, but this time he's really focussing on a particular character type rather than on a particular kind of media. I actually think that NB is much more difficult and subtle than the earlier stuff. With the Day Today you either get it or you don't. With Nathan Barley it's much more literary - this guy, absurd though he is, is much less of a cartoon character. Whereas the Day Today reminded me of dozens of people I'd seen elsewhere on TV, Nathan Barley reminds me of dozens of people I've met in real life. I mean he really does - that whole godawful Hoxton, look-at-me, pubs-and-clubs-in-Old-Street, pay eight quid for the same pint you'd get for two quid just down the road,  bunch of meeja-ninja types. What really strikes me is that NB captures that character type perfectly, and I've not seen a better portrait in a very long time. For some reason it reminds me of Trainspotting.

Please don't be like Bob Dylan's fans shouting out "Judas" when he started using electric instruments. So "Blowin' in the Wind" was a great song, but if the folkies had had their way there'd never have been "Like a Rolling Stone" or anything that came after. It's the same with Chris Morris. The guy's a fucking genius - don't expect him to keep doing the same thing for very long. The "newsorama" format was fantastic, and I'm sure he'll come back to it at some point, but isn't it so much better that he branches out and tries his hand at new stuff rather than risk sterility? Look at poor Harry Hill, for God's sake!

"Newsorama" is now mainstream - everybody's doing the Morris thing from Ali G to Trigger Happy TV (yawn yawn yawn). With NB, Morris is giving us something, yet again that breaks out of the mainstream. Don't be the mainstream - swim against it! I really believe that if you look for the good in NB you'll see a lot of parallels with everything you most like about the other stuff.

[TJ]

That is one of the most cogent and coherent pro-Barley arguments that has ever been posted on here, but I have to say that I don't really think anyone *is* behaving like a purist Dylan fan and disliking NB out of a fear of change or simply for the sake of it. It's a new direction, you're absolutely right about that, but unfortunately it's a new direction that the majority just plain don't like. The lack of relevance and jokes is the main reason for that.

[slim]

As I said at the time, I didn't mind it in terms of the target, personally I liked the mocking of fucking trendy types because I think it's something (some people) worth knocking.

It was bereft of jokes though, that's why it wasn't, in my opinion, very good. I'm not afraid of a new direction, and I quite like the idea of the series, I just don't think it was very well executed.

[Another Guest]

I've got to echo what "Guest" said above. Firstly I like the site a lot, came here looking for Blue Jam info and found all of it and much, much more.

Secondly, I too know Nathan Barley. I've met people like him, and I think I feel the same way about them as CM does, based on how Barley comes across in this series. I think the comparisons with The Office are apposite but Barley works a little differently. For example, the comment at the start of this thread about the "Muff Fanny Minge" game (or whatever it was) seem to have missed the point. The game in itself was not supposed to be funny. The humour in the situation for me arises from the fact that these idiots *think* it's funny. They think they're being clever or postmodern by behaving like idiots, but in fact they're just behaving like idiots.

In the end for me, the Barley series seemed like one long scream of frustration from CM. A wake-up call,  to let us know that the people who write the magazines that influence our ideas and culture are just greedy, self-obsessed idiots and don't deserve the time of day, let alone our respect.

I've never found any of Morris' output laugh-out-loud funny. I'd have been very disappointed if there were any 'jokes' in Nathan Barley. Morris' work makes you think, it makes you search for the humour and in so doing you discover both the humour and the tragedy of the situation. Work like this should be applauded, if only because it's the antithesis of the idiot regime of Little Britain and other one-idea shows.

[Oscar]

The humour in the situation for me arises from the fact that these idiots *think* it's funny. They think they're being clever or postmodern by behaving like idiots, but in fact they're just behaving like idiots.

But they don't think it's funny, they think that idea that someone else thinks it's funny, is funny. So they are laughing at the sad shits who think it's funny. Like you.
Ulitmately, both you and the idiots are getting off on feeling superior to someone else.

[Slackboy]

The humour in the situation for me arises from the fact that these idiots *think* it's funny. They think they're being clever or postmodern by behaving like idiots, but in fact they're just behaving like idiots.

But they don't think it's funny, they think that idea that someone else thinks it's funny, is funny. So they are laughing at the sad shits who think it's funny. Like you.
Ulitmately, both you and the idiots are getting off on feeling superior to someone else.

Hypocrite.

[Neil]

Secondly, I too know Nathan Barley. I've met people like him, and I think I feel the same way about them as CM does, based on how Barley comes across in this series. I think the comparisons with The Office are apposite but Barley works a little differently. For example, the comment at the start of this thread about the "Muff Fanny Minge" game (or whatever it was) seem to have missed the point. The game in itself was not supposed to be funny. The humour in the situation for me arises from the fact that these idiots *think* it's funny. They think they're being clever or postmodern by behaving like idiots, but in fact they're just behaving like idiots.

Well, I get this an awful lot, people on other forums generally pointed at that statement in a smug way and then suggested I was too much of a thicket to actually understand Nathan Barley.  It's an easy way of devaluing someones points and completely over-turning their arguments so you don't have to engage with them (not accusing you of this here, incidentally!).  Sadly, even Morris seems to be doing this himself these days, going as far as calling people who disagree with him 'clearly mentally ill' or some-such in that dreadful arse-kissing post-Barley interview.  I mean, this is a guy who had one of the sharpest comedy sensibilities in Britain, and now he's down at the level of a ranting and incoherent anti-religious blogger who insists that, yuk yuk, people who believe in God are 'mentally ill, surely!'

So, I've responded to this before and I hope you don't mind me pointing you to this post.  And in particular this part:

Right, I think we're dealing with one of the key Nathan Barley problems here. With something like "Cock, muff, bumhole" you are clearly meant to laugh at the idiots for playing it. It's a childish and unfunny concept, the sort of shit you'd expect from Bo Selecta...the problem is that Morris and Brooker then try to wring laughs from it anyway! This show has a tendency to point at something and say "God, that's so stupid, look at The Idiots laughing at something so childish and stupid, aren't they stupid!" but it will then undermine its own point by trying to get laughs from that thing anyway. In this instance they undermine their point by giving out "amusing" hand signals (perhaps so that "Idiots" can play it at home), and then add on lines like "Guff up the muff" or "He just farted up my muff!"

Jutl also made some good points about this in relation to the camerawork and photoshops, which I reference in that post.  And I'm sorry, but they really did play that game for laughs!  Plus when I was searching for that post I was reminded that interlopers were coming on here and citing it as one of the best bits of Barley before the show even aired.  Finally, I'll also point you to the fact that the 'rules' for "cock, muff, bumhole" are even printed up in that awful book that accompanies the DVD.  To me, that's always seemed to be a Brooker gag, he has a tendency to go for very base and lazy jokes like that (cf. TVGoHome, Spoons etc.)  There's a whiff of laddishness to some of his material...I just don't generally like this lazy humour that is derived from bodily functions...in that respect there's not as much distance between Little Britain and Nathan Barley as you claim.  

I've never found any of Morris' output laugh-out-loud funny. I'd have been very disappointed if there were any 'jokes' in Nathan Barley.

Oh, well I did you see, Drugs made me howl and brought tears to my eyes the first time I saw it, I think I was probably rolling around on the floor at some point.  Same with Animals.  And Morris himself has said that the jokes come first, then the point...and that's where he went wrong with the BES and Barley.

[Oscar]

The humour in the situation for me arises from the fact that these idiots *think* it's funny. They think they're being clever or postmodern by behaving like idiots, but in fact they're just behaving like idiots.

But they don't think it's funny, they think that idea that someone else thinks it's funny, is funny. So they are laughing at the sad shits who think it's funny. Like you.
Ulitmately, both you and the idiots are getting off on feeling superior to someone else.

Hypocrite.

twat

[Slackboy]

twat

So we both agree that I won that one then?

[Oscar]

no,'fraid not, but we can move on to an argument that doesn't just involve one word insults if you want to try.

[Slackboy]

Sometimes one word is all you need. So why are you not a hypocrite then?

[slim]

Don't answer, gnatt, you'll get caught in the vortex!

[Oscar]

because i'm not laughing or feeling superior to the person who was writing that, although looking back now, i see i called him a sad shit inadvertantly, and I'm sorry for that because I have no reason to think such a thing.

Shit maybe I am a hipocrite, but that's ok, 'cos you're a twat. phew.

Sorry forgot the ; )

[Slackboy]

So you're the one who "inadvertently" called someone who didn't deserve it a "sad shit" and somehow I'm the twat?

Oh, I've just noticed the smiley which obviously changes everything now.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure if you understood what i meant, but i know that was not it.

[Yet another guest]

Great post.  Totally agree. Morris' work for me too has never been about laugh out loud-funniness, its about exposing and highlighting the tragedy and problems in today's society in a humourous fashion. Like the above chap said, I too would have been disappointed to find 'jokes' in Nathan Barley. Its very far from the likes of The Office and Little Britain in its intentions.

[Neil]

Depressing.

[slim]

It was promoted as a bloody sitcom. Situation COMEDY. JOKES. JOOOOOOOKES.

Gah.

[Yet Another guest]

Oh well, horses for courses and all that.

Why was the quotation removed from my previous post by the way ?

[Neil]

Eh, what quotation?  If you mean the InfiniteFury one then you just cocked up the tags or something, it wasn't removed, why would it be?

I do wonder if you guys have seen the original Brass Eye, or The Day Today.  Or heard the GLR shows or pretty much any of CM's Radio 1 stuff.  Or On The Hour, or the Select Flexi etc.

Surely you can't have.  If you have, then do you just sit there stroking your chin?  Are you honestly telling me you can sit through Drugs or Animals without 'laughing out loud?'  How does that work?  Honestly, I just don't get it.

Sorry if this seems a bit brusque or rude, but I do find that attitude really annoying, and I'm attacking it rather than you chaps specifically.  See, when Barley first went out these forums were over-run with people who had lowered their expectations with each subsequent Chris Morris project and we got to the point where people were honestly trying to argue that Nathan Barley was so relentleslly unfunny because it was...waitforit...a drama.  I'm not making this up.

That people now feel it acceptable to sneer at "jokes" with a 'god you squares, get with the times daddio' attitude is just astonishing.  Surely you're just equating the word "joke" with eg 'how did the chicken cross the road' and very little else?

[Daaaaaaan]

There's no such thing as pure chin strokery comedy. I know it sounds really harsh to tell you what you do and what you don't like but if you didn't come out of watching his previous work and not laugh, then I suspect you don't actually like him. The same goes for any comedy, really. It's fine to appreciate the chin stroking aspects and if it compliments the comedy accordingly, then fine but if you're not seeing it for what it's really about ie. the comedy, then either give up or watch it more.

[Yet another guest]

Eh, what quotation? If you mean the InfiniteFury one then you just cocked up the tags or something, it wasn't removed, why would it be?

No, the InfiniteFury post has nothing to do with me. I quoted 'Another Guest' in my reply. The quote was there in my reply when I went back to the thread. However I went back again a short while later and it had gone from my reply. Weird. Anyway, for the record  here is the quote I was referring to. Lets hope it doesn't go anywhere this time.

Another Guest Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:28 pm    

In the end for me, the Barley series seemed like one long scream of frustration from CM. A wake-up call, to let us know that the people who write the magazines that influence our ideas and culture are just greedy, self-obsessed idiots and don't deserve the time of day, let alone our respect.

I've never found any of Morris' output laugh-out-loud funny. I'd have been very disappointed if there were any 'jokes' in Nathan Barley. Morris' work makes you think, it makes you search for the humour and in so doing you discover both the humour and the tragedy of the situation. Work like this should be applauded, if only because it's the antithesis of the idiot regime of Little Britain and other one-idea shows.

[Neil]

Yeah I think I remember seeing that there earlier when I was replying to you!  The forum's been a bit flaky lately, must be down to that, there's certainly no reason why myself or TJ would have removed it.   Anyway, any response to the rest of my post?

[Steve Thompson Dance Mix]

I'd like to disagree with most of the guests and say that Morris does do funny, laugh out loud comedy. Recently he has produced comedy that, well, isn't very funny, and NB is evidence of this. And it generally was meant to be funny, not all hypnotic, tragic and gloomy like Jam (which, to some extent I found funny. I don't know, Kevin Eldon delivering the line, 'fucking knees right up to my ears')

I loved the Tumbleweed awards. If that could have been made into a TV special, that alone would have been the funniest thing in years, and I also loathe Nighty Night, Balls of Steel, Mark Dolan, and quite a few of the things I'm glad someone's highlighting, for many of the reasons that has been stated before. Oh yes, and I think that Alison Graham needs to be locked away from a television set forever and left in a crumbling hotel room to think about her articles. Personally, I would just feed her dirt.

btw, this is perhaps unrelated but I would like to join. I did used to be a member of the board about four years ago, and shortly after the revamp I couldn't get in. Maybe it was something I said. I was known as One Inch Hospital.

[Anonymous]

btw, this is perhaps unrelated but I would like to join. I did used to be a member of the board about four years ago, and shortly after the revamp I couldn't get in. Maybe it was something I said. I was known as One Inch Hospital.

The reasons for registrations being turned off is explained in this thread

[Neil]

They'll be open again soon, I've just got some work to do first, sorry.

[Lee]

OK, so I finally succumbed and bought the DVD. (it was £7 in MVC's closing down sale). And by god, the pilot isn't actually that bad! I even laughed a few times! There's character building and everything! Stunning stuff by comparison.

[Jenny Morgan]

Can anyone help me find a contact for Chris Morris. Posssibly his agent? I am doing a dissertation on Brasseye, and i am struggeling to find this contact. Thanks. Jenny

[TJ]

Try http://www.pbjmgt.co.uk/clients/chris_morris/

Jo, his agent, is usually quite helpful with this sort of request.