Death to 2020 - Charlie Brooker mocumentary

[olliebean]

The guy who looks exactly like a black Charlie Brooker?

Yes. On reflection, I think that was probably an in-joke.

[SteveDave]

Christ alive this is bad.

[dead-ced-dead]

I gave up after ten minutes. Terrible.

[Jumblegraws]

Was Hugh Grant's character supposed to be modelled on David Starkey? I got the feeling that he was sketched that way but then at some point in the writing they stopped committing to it.

[bgmnts]

You lost respect for someone because they came to a decision to have children with their wife? You would have respected him more if he'd dumped her instead? Jesus mate, that's really odd.

Birthing a kid just to stay with a fit missus is a bit weird.

[KennyMonster]

One decent thing to say, the bit about splicing in random videos of juggling and hippos shitting whilst the scientist was talking.

Otherwise bland.

Not terrible but not good either.

Tired predictable script.

[Blumf]

Weak piss.

[thecuriousorange]

This was fine. Not that different from the usual yearly wipes, which normally have a few jokes that don't land, plus one or two that make you smile. Too many characters in this and too many things that have already been endlessly mocked online. Hugh Grant was good I suppose.

[Carpool Dragon]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty much on par with the usual standard of yearly Wipes. Highlights were the "Conservative voices are being silenced" bit, the montage of the soccer mom harassing black people, and the Historian mixing up films with actual events.
I thought the description of Biden as "a butler's ghost" and "the ticket inspector of a haunted train" was vintage Brooker.

[olliebean]

As far as the "usual" yearly Wipes go, I didn't realise that we haven't had one of those since 2016 (last year's was a compilation, not a new one). So they've not been a thing for a few years now.

[MojoJojo]

Birthing a kid just to stay with a fit missus is a bit weird.

Yes, if Charlie Brooker gave birth to their children to stay with Konnie Huq that is a bit weird.

Googling a bit, it doesn't seem Charlie was strongly anti-children - Konnie said he didn't want kids, which is different to being opposed to having kids. Charlie himself said he saw marriage and children as something other people did. The "ultimatum" seems to have been made up by the Daily Mail.

[Ferris]

Found it too distracting having Brooker's lines delivered by other people. It was too strange.

Spoiler alert

Example: the line about wildfires making Australia "uninhabitable, even for Australians" works when Brooker says it because he's an angry misanthrope with contempt for everyone. He's making a cheap jab at Australians before moving on. When Samuel L Jackson's journalist character who's been on screen for about 90 seconds does it, it feels like we're being introduced to an American journalist who just hates Australia for some reason. It's weird and unexplained, and makes the joke feel more pointed and off kilter than it actually is.

The adjoining line delivered by Fishburne's narrator character about fire being "air's radicalized cousin" is funny but in voiceover form it just washes over you. I liked the idea and the writing seemed sharp as ever, but the format and view stars were a distraction.

[close]

In my opinion anyway, other opinions are available.

[thenoise]

The big problem with these things now is that most of us have been online all year and have seen all of these events occur alongside hundreds of different jokes and memes. I think that's undermined this type of show. Everyone's seen and read about these things a thousand times over - Trump and the disinfectant, Rudy Guiliani's hairdye, Boris' handshaking - the whole exhausting nature of the pandemic, and COVID deniers, and Zoom-based observational comedy, and antimaskers, and antivaxxers, and BLM statue debates, and Biden and Trump and the election fraud claims and demands for recounts, and FUCKING HELL. It's all been exhaustingly omnipresent for everybody all year. It's hard to breathe life into these things when we're so immersed in them already.

Maybe he should have ignored the news this year and spent an hour picking apart obscure reality TV shows?

[Bernice]

He was always funnier picking apart TV/media than current affairs anyway.

[Brundle-Fly]

The big problem with these things now is that most of us have been online all year and have seen all of these events occur alongside hundreds of different jokes and memes. I think that's undermined this type of show. Everyone's seen and read about these things a thousand times over - Trump and the disinfectant, Rudy Guiliani's hairdye, Boris' handshaking - the whole exhausting nature of the pandemic, and COVID deniers, and Zoom-based observational comedy, and antimaskers, and antivaxxers, and BLM statue debates, and Biden and Trump and the election fraud claims and demands for recounts, and FUCKING HELL. It's all been exhaustingly omnipresent for everybody all year. It's hard to breathe life into these things when we're so immersed in them already.

I've defended Wipe before against this assertion and I will for this. It is very true what you say but also you have to take into account that not everybody pores over social media looking at memes, jokes, SNL sketches or clever videos about every news event. Or nose to the ground comedy enthusiasts like a lot of posters on CaB.  I had to explain what the 'Four Seasons debacle' was to my other half last night and by no means does she live under a rock. She's just not on Twitter and mainly watches the French news who don't give a shit about half the U.S. bollocks that we do.

Although I enjoyed this, had quite a few belly laughs and thought everybody played their parts really well, I felt it fell a little bit between two stools, perhaps trying to please UK and U.S. viewers?

[jsgibble]

Although I enjoyed this, had quite a few belly laughs and thought everybody played their parts really well, I felt it fell a little bit between two stools, perhaps trying to please UK and U.S. viewers?

I watched a bit of this and thought that, you could say the same (to varying degrees) about a lot of recent satire, possibly because of how Brexit and Trump are often compared.

[sevendaughters]

lasted ten minutes, absolute tripe, total obv-u-tainment for Twitter bluetick democrats.

[bomb_dog]

Did get through the whole thing, not as bad as some of you lot have painted it, but equally I probably won't ever watch it again. Best bit was Cunk's little monologue about going out and meeting someone, near the end.

A mad year like this meant some of the daft stuff like Biden's car park rally and the Four Seasons thing could have been 'shopped and if you'd been asleep all year you'd think it was a good parody.

When Wipe focused on Britain it made sense, as this was where it was made and it's target audience. Having something global that only focused on US and UK (with a tiny bit of Australia at the beginning) made no sense whatsoever.

Soz Chaz, you've broken what used to work.

[ajsmith2]

Did get through the whole thing, not as bad as some of you lot have painted it, but equally I probably won't ever watch it again. Best bit was Cunk's little monologue about going out and meeting someone, near the end.

Although interestingly she wasn't billed as Cunk, but a different name I've forgotten. Also maybe I'm barking but the wrong tree, but I thought the slightly different appearance (curlier frizzier hair and a slightly more weathered demeanour) seemed to suggest it was intended to be an alternate persona from Cunk, not just an In The Loop style 'same character but name changed for international version' situation.

[JaDanketies]

I thought it was okay but nothing to write home about. I liked the slightly different take on the traditional talking head format. It seemed like the best jokes were at the very start.

[Brundle-Fly]

Although interestingly she wasn't billed as Cunk, but a different name I've forgotten. Also maybe I'm barking but the wrong tree, but I thought the slightly different appearance (curlier frizzier hair and a slightly more weathered demeanour) seemed to suggest it was intended to be an alternate persona from Cunk, not just an In The Loop style 'same character but name changed for international version' situation.

Diane Morgan's character was called Gemma Nerrick and you're right, she was slightly more world-weary and less quirky compared to Cunk. Might just be a slight character tweak to fit this particular outing but enough to decide to change the name. Or a BBC copyright issue?

[Captain Z]

Was expecting to be able to pick this up on r/UKTVLAND or r/Notapanelshow - are they in the process of being removed from Reddit? There's only a single page of posts when I visit them now, the latest dating back 11 days.

[olliebean]

Was expecting to be able to pick this up on r/UKTVLAND or r/Notapanelshow - are they in the process of being removed from Reddit? There's only a single page of posts when I visit them now, the latest dating back 11 days.

There's been some discussion of this over at https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,41756.msg4415251.html#msg4415251. Basically Cherzo, who uploaded most of the content on those subreddits and I think also moderated them, is having legal issues and has deleted his account.

This is on the torrents, though, if you're still looking for it.

[pigamus]

Diane Morgan's character was called Gemma Nerrick and you're right, she was slightly more world-weary and less quirky compared to Cunk. Might just be a slight character tweak to fit this particular outing but enough to decide to change the name. Or a BBC copyright issue?

Wait a minute... G Nerrick?

[Jumblegraws]

Fair play, that completely went over my head

[Brundle-Fly]

Should have been 'Jen Eric', perhaps?  Bit too on the nose.

[pigamus]

Fair play, that completely went over my head

I feel like Inspector Morse when he solves a murder on a crossword clue, GET IN

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

Gemma Nerrick Awesome Show, Great Job!

[Twonty Gostelow]

If it was made for transatlantic consumption it's possible that Brooker was told "Cunk" wouldn't go down well in the US and he'd have to change the name. Hence the "generic" throwaway and making her character different enough for UK viewers.

[phantom_power]

It wasn't Cunk or a Cunk-alike. It was just a "random UK person" played by Diane Morgan. She was a bit thick, which was the only resemblance to Cunk.