Why is Radio 4 Comedy So Unrelentingly Shit?

[Sin Agog]

I'm with garnish, although I think he's commenting more on the sheer shitness of the shit rather than saying there aren't a few nuggets of sweetcorn within the shitheap (also used to find I've Never Seen Star Wars really fun).  When people talk about the BBC being run by atavistic nepotistic elitist fuckheads whose total inability to adapt to the modern world is why they will be responsible for their own demise, you have only to listen to the dreary drolleries made for the kind of people who thought Bob Monkhouse was a disrespectful young whippersnapper to know why.  They make me want to buy a back-up generator for my back-up generator so I never have to resort to my wind-up radio when the power goes out and listen to that mess again.

[nedthemumbler]

4 extra for the dregs of half a century of sputum collected in a shot glass, handed to you by Arthur Smith.

And then an hour of sci fi, usually the one about vampires/he is a vampire.

[mippy]

I just want to take this opportunity to remind everyone about the existence of The Castle.

[mippy]

I absolutely love Ed Reardon, though.

[Phil_A]

Maybe give some examples, then?

I know what he means, though. There is definitely a "Radio 4 voice" that a lot of these shows adopt, which has the effect of making them sound somewhat interchangeable. Often it's not just the performer but the style of presentation as well. They're all called things like Jimmy Bollock's Catamaran of Clunge.

(Okay, if you want a real example, I scanned through the listings for this week and pulled out "Phil Ellis Is Trying". Yep, that's the kind of thing).

[BeardFaceMan]

Obviously there are exceptions, but the vibe I've always got from Radio 4 comedy is smug, pretentious, way too eager to prove how highbrow they are, that sort of thing.  Like, I like The Unbelievable Truth but it makes me cringe when they refer to what theyre doing as a 'lecture'.

And then you've got people like Nish Kumar, who had an accident as a child when he was dropped on his head and now the switch in his brain is forever stuck on 'Radio 4 voice'. Theres a definite 'that voice' I hear from a lot of current Radio 4 comedians, Kumar is just an extreme version who tends to talk like that when hes not on the radio too.

[BeardFaceMan]

Something else that bothers me, its a staple of long running shows and I hear it on R4 a lot, and thats an audience 'cheering for Ray'. I fucking hate it. You know, when an audience doesnt cheer or laugh or appluad, but where they seem to be shouting "raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay" instead, as a way of letting everyone know they are in on the joke, whenever they spot a running joke or regular segment RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! It really is an entirely different response to laughter or appreciation,  its just recognition, a pavlov-style response to something an audience has recognised , I think to show to others that youre getting the joke. Its horrible, I hear it on R4 shows a lot. Listening to Mornington Crescent just fills me with rage, I feel like my radio is suffocating me with smugness, from audience and performers alike.

[shiftwork2]

Radio 4 tries to produce 2.5h of funny new comedy every week so of course it fails.

[Danger Man]

I know what he means, though. There is definitely a "Radio 4 voice" that a lot of these shows adopt, which has the effect of making them sound somewhat interchangeable. Often it's not just the performer but the style of presentation as well. They're all called things like Jimmy Bollock's Catamaran of Clunge.

(Okay, if you want a real example, I scanned through the listings for this week and pulled out "Phil Ellis Is Trying". Yep, that's the kind of thing).

Nothing will ever beat Susan Calman's Keep Calman Carry On

https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/keep_calman_carry_on/


FUCKING CHRIST

[olliebean]

I know what he means, though. There is definitely a "Radio 4 voice" that a lot of these shows adopt, which has the effect of making them sound somewhat interchangeable. Often it's not just the performer but the style of presentation as well. They're all called things like Jimmy Bollock's Catamaran of Clunge.

(Okay, if you want a real example, I scanned through the listings for this week and pulled out "Phil Ellis Is Trying". Yep, that's the kind of thing).

They seem to use that 11pm slot quite a lot for giving new, youngish comedians their first radio series, and I suspect there's quite a heavy degree of script editing and directing in the "house style" going on under the guise of mentoring fresh talent. I've got no facts to back this up, but I feel like I've heard the same names over and over again in the writing and producing credits of many different shows.

[thenoise]

Everything live from the Edinburgh fringe festival gets an instant off button from me.  Although I quite enjoyed my one visit there, I was pissed day and night which I tend not to be at 6.30pm on a Tuesday.

[Suky]

I absolutely love Ed Reardon, though.

and Dave Podmore.  Beauty of Britain also good. 


Particularly didn't like this new lobbying/ Parliament thing. Lobby Land. Characters seem stridently winsome, well, just annoying basically.