Brass Eye Revisited

[lipsink]

He's very good in IAP as well. I like how his character in that is clearly a bit of a snob but also rightly pissed off at Partridge's bullshit.

Yeah, the way he says "you can get yourself out of some very silly bother" just sounds so posh and patronising which just plays into Alan's class insecurity as well.

[Brundle-Fly]

I recently rewatched it all and forget how good an actor Morris was.

I belatedly came to this conclusion watching an 'Oxide Ghosts' screening. He really is superbly versatile and a gifted comic actor.

[Pink Gregory]

Favourite part of the whole series is the prison.

"WHY didn't you polish it? Bury the beds."
"They will have to dig these up and sleep in them tonight - all earthy."

and

"The inmates' sleep is frequently interrupted."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

"LICK yourself off my shoe!"

pause

"LICKYSELFOFFISSHAAAAAOE!"

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

"LICK yourself off my shoe!"

pause

"LICKYSELFOFFISSHAAAAAOE!"

I always heard it as 'LICKTHESHITOFISSHAAAAAAOE!'

[Captain Z]

His physical and vocal performance choices are both so idiosyncratic and he has an uncanny ability to create a fully realised character within seconds. How long is Bernard Lerring actually on screen, yet he feels substantial from the tiny snippets we're shown.

Such a shame he's almost entirely shifted focus to the other end of the camera.

I'm sure during Oxide Ghosts it was noted that they could have got almost an entire episode of Bernard Lerring material, such was the amount they filmed on the day. He was very absorbed in the character.

[Cold Meat Platter]

I'm sure during Oxide Ghosts it was noted that they could have got almost an entire episode of Bernard Lerring material, such was the amount they filmed on the day. He was very absorbed in the character.

The stifled belch is sublime.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I think the music parodies are also pretty much pitch perfect.

I found this place via a YouTube video of his Pet Shop Boys parody. Absolutely bang on sound-a-like. Same goes for JLB-8.

[Clownbaby]

"... quadraspazzed on a life glug." Terrible.

Thank you, i always see that quoted and I never thought it was that great

[neveragain]

It reads a bit like he's forgotten how to create his magical gobbledygook.

[Ambient Sheep]

I found this place via a YouTube video of his Pet Shop Boys parody. Absolutely bang on sound-a-like. Same goes for JLB-8.

My favourite is his Pixies parody. Absolutely perfect. It's on YouTube.

[lipsink]

I think 'Blouse' may be Morris' (and Whitehead's?) greatest musical parody ever. It's just incredible.

[Cold Meat Platter]

I think 'Blouse' may be Morris' (and Whitehead's?) greatest musical parody ever. It's just incredible.

The R.E.M. Whale meat ad for me.

[Clownbaby]

I want more Bernard Lerring, the vibe of the character is convincing and dare I say strangely...  attractive, and I'm here for it. But, the thing I love about of a lot of the Chris Morris characters is that there's seemingly a hell of a lot more to them, but you'll never actually see it. It's a wee bit of a shame to me that none of the one-off characters would get a sort of Alan Partridge thing where they develop into a story of their own, but then again, that wasn't the point of Brass Eye itself and to be fair, they probably wouldn't have lived up to the perceived mystery in the long term

Still want to see Oxide Ghosts, it's a shame that was a brief thing

[non capisco]

The R.E.M. Whale meat ad for me.

Such a bang accurate early 90s era REM pastiche. Plus the way it escalates from an advert song about the nutritional value of whale meat to Michael Stipe just ranting about why he hates whales. "Hate their stoopid noiiiise and their ugly little eye, die!!" sung with perfect Stipeian nanny goat quaver.

[Cold Meat Platter]

The pixies pastiche Motherbanger as mentioned by Sheepy

EDIT: aforementioned REM one

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

One of the reasons I like his musical parodies is cause they're comedy songs where the actual instrumentation is funny, not just the lyrics. Specifically the ridiculous lead guitar interruptions in that Pixies one and the stupid party synth bits in the Pet Shop Boys one.

[The Mollusk]

This hasn't aged nearly as well as The Day Today. As others have said, some of the celeb bits are quite dated and just not very funny - clearly written to be spoken through the celebrity mouthpiece with more focus on exploitation than good comedy - and some of it is just a big naff. The Science episode I found particularly dull when watching it last night.

[The Mollusk]

Now that I think of it, it's probably a sign of the times we live in now that I (or we, if others agree) am much more drawn back to the wanton absurdity of The Day Today over the point-specific satire of Brass Eye. Others have mentioned that the celeb spiking is obsolete now but also on a more broad scale it's a bitter pill to watch something which was sharply satirical in the late 90s when life in 2021 is pretty much beyond satire.

A lot of the larger subject matter in Brass Eye I can quite easily shrug off, it's only when they cut through to the ridiculous use of language and bizarre little ideas that I really start to laugh. Queen Victoria giving birth to a child that resembled a mandrill "by mistake", or "With the hell of cake still ringing in his ears, Amess went back to his lair." Absolute gold.

Also of-its-time is the noticeably darker tone of some of the sketches, deliberately ramping up the sensationalism, which in retrospect is more uncomfortable than brilliant. The 2001 special obviously has its moments, but also sketches like the one about the fourth man on Apollo 11, the guy with learning difficulties who the other crew used to rape to release their tension, that's just fuckin horrible.

TDT takes a back seat with that stuff, and I'd say it's about 1/3 taking the piss out of the overblown self importance of the news and 2/3 ludicrous and brilliant miniature ideas bouncing off the walls. That's still totally thrilling for me to watch, it's bursting with energy. Brass Eye, by comparison, is rather languid and a bit mean-spirited.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

'He'll survive-but with his neck as an internal organ,' made me laugh.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

That Pet Shop Boys parody veers far too closely to Victor Fucking Lewis- Smith territory for comfort.

[badaids]

That Pet Shop Boys parody veers far too closely to Victor Fucking Lewis- Smith territory for comfort.

The bit about them filling their songs with this irritating noise is briliiant though.

[Chedney Honks]

Now that I think of it, it's probably a sign of the times we live in now that I (or we, if others agree) am much more drawn back to the wanton absurdity of The Day Today over the point-specific satire of Brass Eye.

I agree with literally every word. There's a lot of individual moments of brilliance in the writing and performances but the tone makes it something I don't want to revisit. I will probably never watch it again.

TDT meanwhile is something I very much want to watch again and very soon.

[The Mollusk]

TDT gives me that sort of giddy thrill you get from all my other favourite pieces of art, no matter how many times you go back you get the same buzz every time. For me it's like listening to "Wonderful Rainbow" by Lightning Bolt, with every listen I still end up grinning from ear to ear and just marvelling at the sheer amount of magic crammed into every inch of it. TDT got that balance just right, but Brass Eye has the overarching tone of "You thought we were pushing it before? Well wait till you see this!" and that puts me off.

[sevendaughters]

persuasive but there are some moments in Brass Eye that might come across as 'pushing it' but they're done with such creativity and wit; it's not just the lines or the moments but the way that they're juxtaposed with other comedic aspects that elevates Brass Eye because it wasn't just pushing the satire, it was pushing the use of the televisual medium (TDT, which is ace, feels like it could have been done on radio).

I just dropped the needle on a random episode on Youtube and it was Lemuel Webb doing the DRUGS speech holding the nose of a cocaine user in a jar; what most people don't remember is Austen Tasseltine's v/o is 'first the kids get an information rush. Kids see what happens when a cokehead blows its nose.' Webb slams the jar down and says "HOW FUNNY IS THAT?" and then Tasseltine finishes "often from a napkin from a nob's restaurant." Visual and two different planes of sound (diegetic and non-diegetic) in comedic communion with each other. It really is brilliant at its best.

Some of it did seem a bit harsh on a rewatch but the intent was never cheap.

[The Mollusk]

It really is brilliant at its best.

Some of it did seem a bit harsh on a rewatch but the intent was never cheap.

I can't argue with that. I wasn't inferring it was cheap, by the way! It certainly utilises its medium to great effect - especially ramping up the fucking stupid CGI graphs/charts and generally lampooning the way those sorts of statistics are jammed down the neck of the viewer - and a lot of it is gleefully absurd, I just think that tone of darkness looming in the background throughout is a bit too heavy sometimes. Again though, this is only something which comes to me in retrospect, as a reflection of where my head's at with the state of the world as it is now.

[Autopsy Turvey]

(TDT, which is ace, feels like it could have been done on radio).

It could, soon after getting the videos I dubbed them to audio tape, listened to them loads in cars and Walkmans, and the only jokes that don't work without visuals are tiny little things like "Hi I'm Ian Curtis" and the old man's face droop (plus you have to focus on Holst without seeing all the Wabznasm business). I get the thing about Brass Eye's edgy/dark tone, that must be the reason I'm in no hurry to see them again. I used to re-watch Brass Eye episodes as soon as they finished, sometimes more than once, wore out my off-airs, and even though I could still recite reams of script I don't think I've seen any episode since about 2003. I couldn't go that long without seeing (or hearing!) TDT.

[cliggg]

I love the running of the wasp joke. It makes me smile every time I think of it, there is a lot of lovely silliness in Brass Eye too along with the satire.

[sevendaughters]

I love the running of the wasp joke. It makes me smile every time I think of it, there is a lot of lovely silliness in Brass Eye too along with the satire.

a silly one from the same episode is "This is a busload of flies being sent on holiday to Africa. They'll enjoy Somalia. But should they?"

[Video Game Fan 2000]

TDT gives me that sort of giddy thrill you get from all my other favourite pieces of art, no matter how many times you go back you get the same buzz every time. For me it's like listening to "Wonderful Rainbow" by Lightning Bolt, with every listen I still end up grinning from ear to ear and just marvelling at the sheer amount of magic crammed into every inch of it. TDT got that balance just right, but Brass Eye has the overarching tone of "You thought we were pushing it before? Well wait till you see this!" and that puts me off.

Yeah. OTH and TDT are perfect. All the other things I hold in the same esteem are inconsistent often horribly so (Milligan, Munnary, Python, etc) but OTH and TDT are just gem after gem. He does have a great sense of when something can be grim or disturbing, when to be silly, when to let the characters breathe a bit, etc. its just wonderful, nothing like it.

Brass Eye is very very good of course and contains Morris' best work but on the whole its obvious artifact of the 90s xtreme era where the only thing to do in response to criticism or pushback was to take everything as far as possible. Sometimes that works, but it often doesn't. In hindsight the best part of it is how gifted he'd became with characters (as mentioned) and that gets swamped with the xtreme tone and celebrity pranks.

[lipsink]

The 'new police shirts' is a brilliantly silly stupid idea that I love.