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Brass Eye, Comedy and Celebrities

Started by european son, February 26, 2004, 06:38:49 AM

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european son

just something i was pondering....

as i said in another thread, my least favourite parts of Brass Eye (and other comedies) are those where celebrities are duped.

admittedly, often its fucking hilarious (Jass Man being my particular favourite, and of course my dislike of Dr. Neil Fox compunded with his stupidity was great), i'm not saying i hate that sort of thing, but its usually the least-funny bits of BE for me (my favourite BE stuff is the Morris one-liners, which i laugh just thinking about).

i dunno if some stupid part of me feels sympathy for these (often unloveable) famous folk who in many cases are merely being given rope and proceed to hang themselves, but a bit of me cringes sometimes when i'm watching stuff like that.

i really despise shows that do harsh stuff with members of the public (oh! you thought you were helping a man who was shot in the face. you idiot! you're an idiot on TV! bet you think twice before helping people again eh?). i don't mind gags which aren't cruel and done in good humour (the phone-ins on the music shows are fabulous), but the elaborate stuff on some programmes has a nasty Beadle's About/Noel's House Party air about it to me.

anyone seen Punk'd on MTV? its just not funny.

or am i just being a big poof really?

It Was Cancer

I do find it funny, but it depends on the targets really. Getting at people like Phil Collins and Dr Fox, who would support anything because of their own egotism,  and getting at drug dealers on the All Saint's is funny because they're the "high" and "low" sections of society who only become subject to ridicule in second rate sketch shows and dire impersonations.

Some of these people walk right into it and no-one else to blame but themselves.  It shows their stupidity and selfishness that they'd read anything off a script, or endorse anything with the premise they'll get airtime.  Or even worse, crank their opinions up to 11 just to be more interesting or right on, when they really have no belief at all.

John Mc Cririck, now there's a cunt.

However, being exploititave of a member of the public's good nature is not funny. It's grasping at straws, trying to be dark.  I don't really think any Morris stuff is particulary guilty of this though.  I love the things like where he speaks to the guy in TDT- "Everyday the day today", because he wasn't actually being nasty or manipulative.  Some of the radio shows did tightrope that line, but then again, that's what I love about Morris.

So, yep, I like the interviews and stuff, but it's certainly not the strongest part.

Quote from: "It Was Cancer"Some of the radio shows did tightrope that line, but then again, that's what I love about Morris.

If you're talking about On The Hour, I get the impression that all of the "interviews with the public" are edited and shuffled about so that he can insult someone and make it look like they don't pick up on it. Some of the things he says just wouldn't be let go by anyone.

Purple Tentacle

Hehe, I love that bit on one of the Music Shows when he says "sometimes the feedback reports go like this:"

..and he plays one of his question where his voice goes up at the end, and the bloke he's interviewing just says "Why are you talking like that?"

How do you recover from that?

Simon Price

I interviewed Kim Wilde once, and I asked her about the "clamping the homeless" thing (yes, I know that's Day Today, not Brass Eye).

She said that she had her doubts at the time. As she was leaving, and getting into her car, she looked up at the window and saw Chris Morris. She said "Are you SURE about that? Clamping the homeless?!" and he said "Yes, honestly!" and waved her off.

She holds no grudges. She was pretty cool about it. "A very clever man", she called him.

Nearly Annually

And she does turn out a lovely bed of Hollyhocks.

Vermschneid Mehearties

QuoteShe said that she had her doubts at the time. As she was leaving, and getting into her car, she looked up at the window and saw Chris Morris. She said "Are you SURE about that? Clamping the homeless?!" and he said "Yes, honestly!" and waved her off.

Showing slightly more nouse than good ol' Kate Thornton. That's a great story actually, and I can just picture CM grinning as she drove off into the distance.

My favourite chris morris story (which I think I read at sotcaa) was when he paused an interview with someone for a makeup girl to apply powder to the subject, powder that was coal black, but the gag was ruined when the subject suddenly wanted to use the toilet, according to the story they tried their best to prevent him from going to the bathroom but when he insisted they waited till he'd left the room, grabbed their equipment and legged it. I just love the idea of him looking in the mirror, seeing his black face and then walking back out to find an empty studio!

That said, I agree that the weakest bits of brasseye to me have always been the celeb duping - I don't get as much pleasure from thinking 'see how stupid they are' as some people seem to, especially as is so patently obvious that a lot of it is down to editing.

Neil

That's from the Raise article - http://chilled.cream.org/raiseinterview.html

Regards Feedback Reports, there's also a GLR show where he talks about the people interviewed:  "I only allow myself to say this once every six months, but that was an absolutely genuine interview, that man really believed he was talking about (small coin legislation or brick service or whatever) and why shouldn't he."

It Was Cancer

Speaking of editting, why is there those weird noises in the Peter Tatchell interview?

european son

Quote from: "It Was Cancer"Speaking of editting, why is there those weird noises in the Peter Tatchell interview?

some of them (people's names) is for legal reasons, and then i think a bunch of stuff gets garbled cos it sounds quite funny.

the unedited clip is on the CaB site for your viewing pleasure  here

Darrell

Quote from: "It Was Cancer"Speaking of editting, why are there those weird noises in the Peter Tatchell interview?

They're samples hastily taken from the Cake music to cover "Portillo". The version that was supposed to go out in 1997 didn't have these, so the censorship of this will have been one of the things imposed by Grade.

It Was Cancer

Cheers, you two, that had been baffling me for ages.  I'd suspected it was a Grade attack...

Sorry

Just want to say, there's been some absolutely fantastic stuff in Comedy Chat today, it's taken me ages just to get off here because there are five or six worthy threads.

It Was Cancer

Quote from: "Sorry"Just want to say, there's been some absolutely fantastic stuff in Comedy Chat today, it's taken me ages just to get off here because there are five or six worthy threads.

Oh no, it's that Little House on the Prairie tune floating back to me! :-D

(agrees though)

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: "Simon Price"She said that she had her doubts at the time. As she was leaving, and getting into her car, she looked up at the window and saw Chris Morris. She said "Are you SURE about that? Clamping the homeless?!" and he said "Yes, honestly!" and waved her off.
Awwwwwwww, that was MEAN!!

But still funny, in a rather guilty way.

Mark Packham

I like the stuff that I read he did with Micheal Moore, I found Moore was trying far too hard to make people in Bowling for Columbine look stupid even though not all of them were fools & nutters. I think he deserved it.

I wish Chris would have a go at Mark Thomas and put him in line. I admire Thomas & think he'd make a good serious documentry maker but needs to learn his jokes are dreadful & he only makes himself look laughable.

Lt Plonker

Quote from: "Mark Packham"I like the stuff that I read he did with Micheal Moore, I found Moore was trying far too hard to make people in Bowling for Columbine look stupid even though not all of them were fools & nutters. I think he deserved it.

I keep hearing about this time and time again. Where can I find this? I'd love to hear it.

butnut

Quote from: "Lt Plonker"I keep hearing about this time and time again. Where can I find this? I'd love to hear it.

It's in one of the Breezeblock sessions, which are on this site.

Darrell

I keep meaning to isolate the Breezeblock interviews (and delete the originals). Neither are particularly good though.

Bilko

Quote from: "Darrell"I keep meaning to isolate the Breezeblock interviews (and delete the originals). Neither are particularly good though.

Yeah the Michael Moore one is terrible apart from the name Wug Baspin, and the Aimee Mann music background music giving it an underlying feeling of serious. It's almost if CM respects MM and can't bring himself to sting him. The bit right at the start of the interview when he says 'Are you still doing the same hi there routine', is pretty good as well. CM does really get mad in the interview when he says 'Damn it these people need to go now' and bangs his fist on the desk.

I've edited both breezeblock's to only included the Michael Moore and that American Psycho writer bits. Can anyone suggest a free web hosting site where I upload these to so people can download them. Angelfire disabled my account a couple of weeks ago because I didn't build a webpage. Now I use photobucket to share pics but haven't got a site to share audio files on. Baring that I'll share them on Soulseek

ApexJazz

It probably isn't any great revelation that dimwit tv presenter types or actors will read whatever is put in front of them as long as there's a camera present. More intriguing and more relevant are Morris' snaring politicians (who respond to cameras as opportunistically as any 'performer'). and if you're the type who needs to glean some message out of Morris' BE it should be how the media uses images, people, and slogans to sell ideas, products, concepts, performers, politicians etc; and how it creates and then self promotes itself through the cult of celebrity.

But the part that I love about Morris' goofs is how he is able to take the duped into his flights of fancy.  The extended interviews and feedback reports of the radio1 shows I'm thinking about here. Morris is speedy and completely in control, seizing upon any comic possibility that emerges on these long windy roads.  In the best of them, he and his quarry take the journey together with a mutual sense of discovery ("I would be willing to take a size reduction myself!").  There's real interaction going on, which I frustratingly don't see in subsequent british shows that ape Morris' work. the only stuff I find comparable are James Coyle and Mal Sharpe's radio stuff from the early 60's. of course, one can't discount the tape editing involved in the process of making these bits work (someone suggested that Sgt. Murphy is completely a creation of the editing table...damn impressive, if true)  you don't get the full experience of all this with the slam bang soundbite pacing of Brass Eye; as priceless as the nail through the crab is.