Topic: Spitting Image

[Tony Yeboah]

All publicity is good publicity https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8594007/Prince-Andrew-used-Spitting-Image-puppet-grope-Virginia-Roberts-woman.html

[Alberon]

I think the most important thing is the writing, it can cover for a dodgy impression to a degree, but avoid impression can’t carry poor writing.

It’s always difficult to judge the puppets from photographs. Seeing them in action and now they’re used is better, obviously. Cummings is giving off Paul Daniels vibes, Johnson looks like they will be portraying him as the bumbling clown, and the Duke of Pizza Express looks like a half-melted Parker from Thunderbirds 

[idunnosomename]

This is it, Johnson.



You won't survive this mockery. You're finished.

[Dusty Substance]

It's all very well and good until they mock the "wrong" person and the show gets accused of being "problematic".

[gilbertharding]

All publicity is good publicity https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8594007/Prince-Andrew-used-Spitting-Image-puppet-grope-Virginia-Roberts-woman.html

I notice that the original Daily Mail article (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8593595/Spitting-Image-returns-Creators-set-sights-Boris-Johnson-Dominic-Cummings-Prince-Andrew.html) promoting Spitting Image contains a version of this picture, but with the 1/2lb of chipolatas airbrushed out.



"My favourite book is the bottom of page 69 of Lolita, by some Russian guy."

The Spitting Image Book was published in 1985.

[Alberon]

EDIT never mind

[jsgibble]

suppose people wouldn't be as interested if you just said it was a new series of Newzoids

[Dusty Substance]

suppose people wouldn't be as interested if you just said it was a new series of Newzoids

Ha! I was just trying to recall the name of that show. It made 2DTV seem cutting edge.

[Fambo Number Mive]

The original Spitting Image's satire of Thatcher was how she wanted to be seen - as a tough, authoritarian leader surrounded by idiots. The person's image it did most to damage was massive arsehole David Steel.

I reckon this new series will present Johnson the same way he wants people to see him - as a bumbling, scruffy, loveable rogue rather than a vile fuckwit who has made Britain even worse to live in. Satire is at its best when it is angry and I think far too many satirists are comfortable with the way of the world.

I wonder if there will be a Corbyn puppet and how they will portray him. Lazy MSM attack lines?

[pancreas]

I wonder if there will be a Corbyn puppet and how they will portray him. Lazy MSM attack lines?

It'll be all about Keir trying to clear up the 'mess' he's left. Probably some Jew gags.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

As someone has already noted, that Boris Johnson puppet is all wrong. Too slim, and too much hair, it looks like him from about 10 years ago. It's actually annoying me how wrong it is, as the others have a fair degree of accuracy about 'em.

[olliebean]

The Johnson puppet frankly looks like an affectionate rather than a vicious caricature.

[gilbertharding]

The Johnson puppet frankly looks like an affectionate rather than a vicious caricature.

An actual sack of shit tied round the middle would be more appropriate, with a head like a dropped pudding.

[Consignia]

The voices are crucial. That was the key to the success of the original run. I see there's still no mention of voice cast. Impressionism isn't really a thing in stand up anymore. Hopes are low.

It'll be John Culshaw, Jan Ravens and Lewis MacLeod. Like it always is.

[H-O-W-L]

This is going to be maudlin shit that goes for simplistic and easily agreeable chuckles and has no venom whatsoever, I fucking guarantee it. I will be glad to be proven wrong but I know I probably won't be.

Boris will be a Ben Swain style bumbler, Cummings will be a Sneaky Oh-You-Dastardly-Card sort, and it'll work more to grease the filthy arses of the government than it will to make them look like what they are.

[ollyboro]

How would a puppet depicting a black person be received now, if said puppet accentuated certain physical characteristics associated with black people in general - especially if the black person being lampooned actually had those physical characteristics? Fuck, what a hard question to skate around. You know what I mean.

[Alberon]

It is something they do need to be aware of. Here's Frank Bruno from the old show.



And on a boxing theme, here's Mike Tyson.



And in the pop world here's Prince



I don't think any of them are racially problematic so it shouldn't be a problem. I do hope it's something they've thought of. And I do hope they've also thought about who exactly will be voicing non-white characters as well.

[ollyboro]

Something I seem to remember about the original series, was as a series went on, the scripts got worse. It was blamed on the writers having months to write the first episode of a particular series, but spending the rest of the series writing jokes about stuff the viewer had just found out about days before. Now that viewers will have got their references from everywhere.....how does Spitting Image feed everyone? When it started, I reckon every 11+ year old kid knew who Thatcher was...And Kinnock. Today, every 11+ year old kid probably knows who Johnson (alright, Boris The Cunt) is; I bet an awful lot don't know who Starmer is. A child now, would be more tuned in to the politics of gender id. I doubt Spitting Image would go near that. It'll end up joking about celebs, whereas the stars of the original series were true heavyweights. eg Thatcher, Healey, Mercury, etc...........................And I bet Gervais gets involved.

[idunnosomename]

this will be like drinking someone else's piss

[Rizla]

I remember that cassette boy tory conference rap thing coming out- ""We've got the bravery to bring back slavery" etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YBumQHPAeU

Remember just thinking they'll fucking love this. They'll be singing it next conference, learning all the words.  You can't shame the shameless, they just take it as a compliment.

[shh]

It is something they do need to be aware of.

Think of the voices too. IMDB tells me Hugh Dennis did Frank...Suspect the 'Apu rule' will apply now. Makes things complicated for Lady Di mk2.

The Windsors is the best 'cartoonish' royal spoof of recent times, they will do well to top that. BBC/ITV probably couldn't afford that level of irreverence towards the firm.

[H-O-W-L]

That Frank Bruno is a bit questionable, but the Prince and Tyson ones are alright IMO. I think the Tyson one works especially well because he's caricatured and they've made fun of specific features about him rather than "ah, he's black, give him huge red lips."

[Annie Labuntur]

That Frank Bruno is a bit questionable, but the Prince and Tyson ones are alright IMO. I think the Tyson one works especially well because he's caricatured and they've made fun of specific features about him rather than "ah, he's black, give him huge red lips."

It's the weirdly small cranium that I don't like in the Bruno one. He sounds thick, small brain? I don't think making the lips of a black person look slightly larger is necessarily wrong (though it's obviously a sensitive area) but the Prince puppet's mouth isn't recognizable even as a caricature.

[H-O-W-L]

I don't think making the lips of a black person look slightly larger is necessarily wrong (though it's obviously a sensitive area) but the Prince puppet's mouth isn't recognizable even as a caricature.

I don't think there's an innate problem with it (see the Tyson one, it works there.) but I think there is a problem making them huge and red. The Prince one, on re-evaluating, is fucky too.

[dissolute ocelot]

Now that viewers will have got their references from everywhere.....how does Spitting Image feed everyone? When it started, I reckon every 11+ year old kid knew who Thatcher was...And Kinnock. Today, every 11+ year old kid probably knows who Johnson (alright, Boris The Cunt) is; I bet an awful lot don't know who Starmer is. A child now, would be more tuned in to the politics of gender id. I doubt Spitting Image would go near that. It'll end up joking about celebs, whereas the stars of the original series were true heavyweights. eg Thatcher, Healey, Mercury, etc...........................And I bet Gervais gets involved.

Surely it'll be just like the original in having a massive focus on the royal family. Not sure how far they'll go with Meghan or Andrew, and who the fuck knows what Prince Edward is doing, but stuff like Prince Philip not being able to drive would fit in well with the old series.

[thenoise]

The Johnson puppet frankly looks like an affectionate rather than a vicious caricature.

Yes. It looks like the kind of thing hed have framed in (one of) his downstairs loo for his guests to have a giggle at.

If his sketches show him as putting on a harmless Bertie Wooster impression for the cameras but being a lazy careerist nasty incompetent behind closed doors I might forgive them.

[ajsmith2]

Scene with Trump, Johnson and Putin ‘fighting with their willies’ censored:

https://www.nme.com/news/tv/spitting-image-graphic-sketch-boris-johnson-donald-trump-2737082?amp

[olliebean]

More puppets from the new series:







Must admit I'd not have recognised that third one were it not for the filename. In fact come to think of it I still don't, even knowing who it's meant to be.

[idunnosomename]

This'll be shit i reckon

https://twitter.com/mattforde/status/1304369734901784576?s=19

[Small Man Big Horse]

This'll be shit i reckon

https://twitter.com/mattforde/status/1304369734901784576?s=19

While it's clearly shit news, and I hate Matt Forde more than most, he's one of many, I received this from Avalon's pr people today:

"Writers on the show include: Al Murray, Bert Tyler-Moore & George Jeffrie (The Windsors), Bill Odenkirk (The Simpsons), Brona C. Titley (The Tracey Ullman Show), David X. Cohen (The Simpsons), Gemma Arrowsmith (The Tracey Ullman Show), Jason Hazeley & Nico Tatarowicz (Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe/Murder in Successville), Karl Minns (Russell Howard’s Good News), Keisha Zollar, Laura Major (Famalam), Matt Forde, Patric Verrone (The Simpsons), Phil Wang, Richard Herring, Sophie Duker (Frankie Boyle’s New World Order) and Travis Jay (Dave Chapelle and Friends) with many more joining the growing team. "

Also on the performing front; "Voice artists include: Billy West (Futurama), Debra Stephenson (The Impressions Show), Debra Wilson (Family Guy), Guz Khan (Man Like Mobeen), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Jess Robinson (The Imitation Game) John DiMaggio (Futurama), Lewis MacLeod (Dead Ringers), Lobo Chan (Killing Eve), Matt Forde (Unspun) and Phil LaMarr (Pulp Fiction), with many more joining as the puppet cast grows."