Bernard Manning in Las Vegas (1978)

[gib]

Bisto joke is a belter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAVRFy3iS5A

[Brundle-Fly]

I saw Manning live on Blackpool pier in the eighties. Have to say, I honestly don't remember much racist stuff at all or maybe I've blanked it out? It was just blue humour, mother-in-law, the missus, 'a man was up in court the other day' jokes. I'm under no illusion that Manning was a particularly nice man, but he was very funny that night.

[sevendaughters]

if you're a pariah to 50% of the country you are defacto a national pariah.

that Mrs Merton interview is classic defensive love-me Manning, pitching his softball jokes to the olds to get them on side and cowering under attack. couldn't just give anything other than a stock answer. i don't think that Guardian quote showing some sense of assimilation-realism is any evidence of anything other than him being a petty racist off stage.

[thenoise]

I thought he did very well to remember all those jokes without having to look at a bit of paper. 7/10

[shiftwork2]

Yes. Manning's delivery was terrible, he was practically incoherent at times. Where did this notion that he was a technically gifted comedian come from? It's bollocks.

This is very surprising from you.  Funny rasp, with a pure instinctive timing.  There aren't many who'd deny he was a natural funny presence.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Well that's very kind of you, but... oh, I see.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I'm quite a fan of that Mrs. Merton interview with Manning. She all but comes out of character to tell him he's an unfunny cunt at the end ( Yer man Manning made a very lame joke about going up to Heaven to perform to JC ( Jesus Christ, not that pretty lass who plays that Russian assassin), and Ms. Hook ( as she was then) retorts with " and do you think he'll laugh, 'cos we didn't" in more or less her own voice, with palpable disgust. It's quite clear she doesn't like are Bernard at all).

[BlodwynPig]

[dissolute ocelot]

Yes "its a character what I was doing" the truest sign that a performer is working on a level above you and I. The Olympian heights inhabited only by the likes of Bernard Manning, Alex Jones and The Angry Videogame Nerd

Don't forget Lorraine Kelly.

[clarkgwent]

John Cooper Clarke in his autobiography comes out with the "it was all an act" position ..."secretly a very kind man" or something like that. He put JCC on at his club several times, slagged him off like crazy but still put him on.

[Autopsy Turvey]

Ms. Hook ( as she was then) retorts with " and do you think he'll laugh, 'cos we didn't" in more or less her own voice, with palpable disgust. It's quite clear she doesn't like are Bernard at all).

I loved it also when she came out of character with palpable disgust to accuse Debbie McGee of being a gold digging whore.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I loved it also when she came out of character with palpable disgust to accuse Debbie McGee of being a gold digging whore.

You palpably disgust me.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

One of the awful things C4 did was Bernard Manning In India.

Straight out of the Balls of Steel tier workshop of imagination free cunts given too much money and power.

Even the trailer had the super smug, knowing "Bernard Manning, India" which may as well have had Armando Iannucci's "We're so good at telly" playing in the mix it was that smug. Guys, we've only gone and done it! Bernard Manning in Indias. LOL. WHAT IS NEXT

The show itself ended up being a similarly confused mess that rather ironically showed very little interest in the Indian audience, what they found funny and what they thought about the guy generally. In the end it was almost like watching I'm Alan Partridge, a past it yesterday's man with an attitude and chip on his shoulder bumbling pathetically through his autumn years, suspecting he is the butt of the joke but his ego not quite allowing him to accept it.

[Autopsy Turvey]

In the end it was almost like watching I'm Alan Partridge, a past it yesterday's man with an attitude and chip on his shoulder bumbling pathetically through his autumn years, suspecting he is the butt of the joke but his ego not quite allowing him to accept it.

Bernard was 73 at the time, that's a generous autumn. Checking the contemporary reviews reveals this pearl of wisdom, to explain away his failure to slay an audience of elderly well-to-do Bombayites: "They don't know any of our slang words like fuck you or you barmy cunt or you silly twat. None o' that."

[petril]

you'd have thought his Pakistani material would've gone down well, at least

[PlanktonSideburns]

You palpably disgust me.

The sheer palp of the man

[Custard]

I won't put myself through Manning, but there's some bloody brilliant stuff from the uploader, er, Bum Gravy in his or her account there. Have a dig. Cheers.

Blimey, you're not wrong. It's like a treasure trove