The Day Today at 25

[DrGreggles]

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/17/the-day-today-chris-morris-alan-partridge-changed-satire-forever

[Alberon]

Never heard of it.

[shh]

'fake news'....such lazy media cant, irony lost on the graun I'm sure.

[easytarget]

Can't be right, the tenth anniversary DVD only came out a couple of years ago.

[rasta-spouse]

Can we name any worthy successors that have come forth since the iconic TDT?

I'll start with Wonder Showzen. Haven't seen it for a decade tho.

[neveragain]

In what sense is Wonder Showzen a successor of The Day Today? Different style, different topics. They've both got a manic creative energy but... I can't see much else. No disrespect intended to you or WS.

[rasta-spouse]

WS definitely isn't a satire on the news. But it is a dark subversion of media, and you mention "manic creative energy" - it's got that Morris-like madcap spirit.

Take something like Broken News - now that is the same style, same topics - but I think it's a lot less like TDT than Wonder Showzen (in spirit).

[neveragain]

I'll buy that.

[BlodwynPig]

One Foot in the Grave

[Alberon]

The Onion did a TV show news parody. Little shown over here (I think I found it on Sky Arts) it was fronted by an ex-News anchor. So it had the same beats as a news report even when covering topics like time travellers arriving from a dystopian future trying to kill Tom Cruise's kid because she will destroy the world.

[Artemis]

The Onion did a TV show news parody.

Ah yes, the Onion News Network. That was actually quite good. Sometimes a bit too self-aware in that American way that shows over there can be, but plenty of solid moments and definitely worthy of a TDT comparison (in terms of style, at the very least).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnOSo2QbnlU

[ajsmith2]

It's older now than Monty Python S1 was in 1994. :/

[bobloblaw]

More reflections here: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2019/01/after-25-years-day-today-still-predicting-future-tv-news

[Blumf]

Is it still being used as a training aid in the broadcast news section of the BBC?

[gilbertharding]

A friend of mine was a producer at Sky News, and he told me he used to show The Day Today to his new underlings as a warning, he said, but he gave up when it became apparent the 'lessons' were being swallowed whole.

[shh]

I was looking around if anyone had made a connection between Morris and Kraus (about whom I know little) before. Couldn't find anything, but this quote seemed relevant to the above,

contrary to its own intentions, satire cannot avoid a certain degree of collusion, complicity, or continuity with the object it ridicules and from which it claims to be wholly distinct. There is, for Bogel, no such a thing as a non-contaminated satire. Referring to a different form of complicity, Bogel also argues that "the satirist's alleged distinctness from those he satirizes models our own safe distance from them, and we seek to preserve that distance". By virtue of the fact that the satirist claims to be wholly distinct from the object of his satire, "we", the readers or the audience, can, too, take comfort in our identification with the satirist and rarely have to fear being maligned along with the satirized. This type of complicity renders visible satire's potentially most conservative element: a satirist and an audience who perceive themselves to be of the same mind vis-à-vis the object of ridicule together produce and receive a satire whose effectiveness relies on the recognition of this "safe distance." ....In his act of linguistic incorporation, the satirist delves into the thicket of "fallen" language, nearly fusing and becoming indistinguishable from his object of ridicule...Mockery is at its most forceful when it assumes the form of imitation, or when it makes an "agreement" with the language of its enemy.

He furthermore analyzes Kraus's notorious practice of quotation, which "creeps" inside the corrupt and indeed corrupting language of the press — Kraus's lifelong bête noire — in order to undermine it from within. He thereby points to the radical potential of the satirist while further substantiating the notion of "annihilation" that Broch invokes. Building on as wellas  critiquing scholarship on this essay, I take up Benjamin's argument that satirical quotation is more than a mere "method" of immanent critique; it is its very apotheosis.

I think TDT, OTH and Brass Eye's harrying of members of the public is fairly unique to this type of satire? I wonder is it an attempt to deal with the point in bold.

[DrGreggles]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4yO6UlzBLE

[alan nagsworth]

It's older now than Monty Python S1 was in 1994. :/

oh

[DrGreggles]

[Clownbaby]

Chris is me in every group photo

[Bazooka]

That's lovely to see.

[Blumf]

That is nice. Any idea which eating establishment it was?

[The Lurker]

Chris is me in every group photo

He said he didn't like being in the photo but he had to go along with it.

[BlodwynPig]

Floods of nostalgia

[kaprisky]

I'm kind of hoping that Doon made a scene after knocking back the wine, you know, like in Two Doors Down. And Marber looks like he's doing a Baptiste impersonation.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Marber looks like he's doing a Baptiste impersonation.

That made me laugh, you're absolutely right.

[olliebean]

Weird thing is, he's right there in the middle but I didn't even notice Marber.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I wasn't sure it was him, but did a google image search.

It looks like he's coming out of his 'older Dennis from IASIP' phase.

[imitationleather]

If I was in that restaurant I'd down ten pints and then go over and shout "THIS IS THE NEWS!" and it'd be great and they'd let me join the table.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

If I was in that restaurant I'd down ten pints and then go over and shout "THIS IS THE NEWS!" and it'd be great and they'd let me join the table.

How could they have all dined together without attracting the attention of basically everyone?