is the CAB community less harsh on comedy than it was 15 years ago?

[j_u_d_a_s]

I was briefly hallmates with Sarah Ditum.

#cancelled!

[Famous Mortimer]

Australia's longest running 21st c. sitcom

And "Fisk" is a bit the same, too (I think Kitty Flanagan is normally very funny). I just watched the first episode, is why I mention it. Is it just that these comedians dreamed of an extremely gentle comedy-of-embarrassment sitcom, or is this the only thing that can get greenlit?

[St_Eddie]

I think some of the recent criticism of Inside No. 9 on here has been pretty harsh.  For various reasons mostly out of my control, I've tended to watch the last two series some way after transmission, and when I've then read the threads a few weeks afterwards, I've been appalled at some of the point-missing cloth-headed negativity aimed at some of the best television ever produced.

S5 in particular... one episode that moved me to tears was dismissed in such horrible terms (mainly because some people clearly failed to understand it) I couldn't believe it.

I presume that you're referring to 'Love's Great Adventure'?  If so, I was one of the people who was highly critical of that episode and I stand by those criticisms.  It's not that I didn't "get" it.  I just thought (and continue to think) that it was maudlin, soap opera level shite and one of the worst episodes from the entire show.  Obviously, you're mileage may vary but one ought not to assume that anyone who disliked it, simply didn't understand it.  I fully understand what they were going for with that episode (a kitchen sink drama in the same naturalistic vein as a Ken Loach or Mike Leigh film), I just personally consider it to have fallen wide of the mark in execution by some considerable margin.  More power to anyone who did enjoy the episode or was deeply touched by it though.

[willbo]

the most successful comedians from Britain are Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr, Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre and John Bishop

brutal hard right fascists each one of them.

[jfjnpxmy]

Less vitriol, a lot more unfunny nonsensical "riffing".

[Brundle-Fly]

As someone said earlier a lot of people mellow as they get older (or become bitter, I know which direction I'd prefer). I do chuckle sometimes when long-time Cabbers make remarks about some of the posts they've made in the early days. "God, I could be pompous and opinionated back then and soooo angry!" etc.  Who isn't a little embarrassed by the jottings of their younger selves?   I sometimes miss the bile of my twenties ( You gotta have hate) but really glad the internet didn't exist when I did have it.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Can't speak for 15 years ago but think on the whole we're a generally friendly bunch. There's certainly been shows I've watched and been surprised to see they've had a fairly positive reaction on here but certainly warms my spirits to see people being effusive in praise. I'd say there's sometime a lack of interest in new comedy but I blame myself for not contributing more or creating new topics when applicable and applaud people who do. I've been meaning to come on here and write a long post about how great I think Motherland is but haven't got around to it for boring reasons.

[MoreauVasz]

As someone who has returned recently,  I would say that comedy central is considerably nicer than it was back then. Conversely, the general forum is a considerably more abrasive. I would also echo the idea that whereas comedy used to bind this forum together, the common ground is now a leftist slant on uk politics. It's not quite a UK left twitter hinterland as few of the big players there get a mention here but it's a similar territory.

[chveik]

i wasn't here in the old days but there has been a few times where i just couldn't be arsed to shit on a comedy show i tried to watch (recently Ted Lasso & Mythic Quest). i guess it's because they come from a 'good place', they're full of unearned sentimentality but not to a derkeian degree, they're just too bland and generic to get worked up about it.

[Retinend]

Wow Luxury Comedy really was shit.

[MoreauVasz]

It is weird that there have been a few retrospective threads in the last few months.  I think if CaB is going to get nostalgic for an era, it should be the era of Cab radio. The CaB podcast was a fantastic undertaking.

[Beagle 2]

Some of it is age I reckon. There was a bunch of people who were young in the 80s and thought comedy was better in the 80s, and a bunch of people who were young in the 90s and though comedy was better in the 90s, and people who defended Gervais and stuff like Green Wing because that was their thing.

But now it feels like it's all been a bit of a big old cultural mulch for ten or more years. Appointment TV is largely gone and there's not much sport in watching something you don't like, flick or swipe it away for something else equally disposable. Cultural phenomena like Little Britain don't invade our lives enough to warrant the catharsis of being pulled to pieces in prose. The biggest change over that time is what's acceptable to joke about, a political rather than a stylistic shift. So that's what people end up getting bogged down in.

So I guess what I'm saying is that comedy was better when I was young in the 90s.

Social media has also made (reasonable) people a bit more aware that somebody who put their heart and soul into creating something could easily read your savage takes. That community that was here of file swapping obscure stuff and turning each other on to amazing lost comedy has drifted as that stuff has become more freely available, and I think that did create a feeling of a niche community of enthusiasts. Now it feels much more public.

[pigamus]

Some of the criticism of TTWAP was greeted with incredulity. It would have been par for the course at one time.

[15Tawain]

Long time lurker, I think it's always been on the harsh side of critical here which is probably understandable considering the nature of the forum, but recently I think it's also fallen victim to the folly of social media in finding offence when none was intended.

An overused word on here is "problematic" Honesty I was so mystified at some of the criticism of Inside Number 9 I was compelled enough to sign up after years of passive reading.

There's also a recent trend of searching old comedies for things that are dated and offensive today, seems like shooting fish in a barrel to me.

[idunnosomename]

faaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt

[Joe Oakes]

Haven't been around long enough to gauge if this place has changed, but in my experience I find the criticism to be excessive for things that I like, yet not critical enough for things that I hate. Coincidence, or something more sinister?

[13 schoolyards]

And "Fisk" is a bit the same, too (I think Kitty Flanagan is normally very funny). I just watched the first episode, is why I mention it. Is it just that these comedians dreamed of an extremely gentle comedy-of-embarrassment sitcom, or is this the only thing that can get greenlit?

I don't know about UK comedy at the moment, but in Australia literally every scripted show with any kind of a budget is aimed at a global audience - and as the accepted wisdom is that comedy doesn't travel, that means the norm is bland, insipid "comedy" that's really just watered-down drama. Not to mention comedy globally doesn't seem cool at the moment, so all the cultural focus is elsewhere.

It's really hard to work up any kind of strong feelings about an entire genre when every single example is designed to be "watched" by people looking at their phones in another room that's possibly in a different country entirely.

*(I actually didn't mind Fisk - it improved as it went along, though if you didn't like the first episode it's possibly not for you. It was a little odd than Flanagan gave herself a very subdued role, but again, she fired up a bit in later episodes)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Less vitriol, a lot more unfunny nonsensical "riffing".

Comedy Chat contains riffing?

[Autopsy Turvey]

brutal hard right fascists each one of them.

Is that what I was saying, do you think?

Comedy Chat contains riffing?

I presume he's referring to the eye-wiping hilarity of the current OF&H thread.

[racecar bed indy 500]

Haven't been around long enough to gauge if this place has changed, but in my experience I find the criticism to be excessive for things that I like, yet not critical enough for things that I hate. Coincidence, or something more sinister?

There are no coincidences, only things put in by the lizards running the matrix simulation!

[undeliberated]

Used to be the absolute best quality comedy discussion and information on the internet.
Now mainly consists of pious tweet-by-tweet tutting at a thread's designated stalkee.
Has basically become kiwifarms for tragic Corbo-nostalgists.

[jobotic]

Oh, well that doesn't sound good.

[pigamus]

We CABlads are being seriously rocked and no mistake

[phantom_power]

Does anyone have Andrew Lawrence's agent's number so I can apologise and maybe book him to play my garden

[Barry Admin]

His agent dumped him and he deleted his twitter. Try another way of contacting him, like the Daily Mail comment section. I think they still platform him.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

If CAB was harsher on Lawrence fifteen years ago, I'd dread to read the comments then (well, that's just a figure of speech - as I actually love stuff like that).

[evilcommiedictator]

Remember the quote from The Matrix, where 1999 is the peak of human civilization?

What commentary would you suggest be made on the new Spitting Image? The newest BBC Radio series of The Now Show?
Half can't stand The Bugle, another half can't stand Cum Town.
What middling commentary could be made on Borat 2: Borat up the Khyber?

[thecuriousorange]

I remember when Nathan Barley got an absolute pasting and there was a separate, lengthy thread for each individual episode, ripping it to shreds.

[willbo]

Has basically become kiwifarms for tragic Corbo-nostalgists.

that sounds amazing though. Can I be the Chris Chan?