A Bear's fucking Tail

[mayer]

No no no!

I'm saying I'm enjoying the thread! I'm sure much more than the poor buggers actually watching the thing.

They need to be watching it for us to enjoy the thread, which tempers my enjoyment with guilt.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Oh it was on in the corner of my room. May the media backlash commence.

[Cambrian Times]

I delibrately didn't watch it. I was panicking over the fact that I now have to write a novella.

I am staying well clear of this arguement.

[mayer]

Can anyone who watched it give us an example of the best joke/situation from this then?

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

Can anyone who watched it give us an example of the best joke/situation from this then?

There really just wasn't. It was complete fucking shite from start to end, there was not one single line or joke or situation that could be in any way described as being  even mildly amusing. It was even worse than Dare To Believe. Much worse.

[mayer]

So what was meant to be funny? Were there spoofs? Puns? Dirty words?

[Paul Dee]

Whenever I read about it, it was as if The Bear character was actually looking for a sitcom to be part of. So I presumed it was some awful postmodern abortion wth The Bear trying to forge a sitcom out of his immediate surroundings.


Please say I was right.

[The Mumbler]

Thing is, the only "gag" with the original Bear character was that he'd get an inappropriate hard-on in front of celebrities who were reading him a bedtime story.  What could happen here? 24 minutes of an erection gag?

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

So what was meant to be funny? Were there spoofs? Puns? Dirty words?

He said 'willy' a lot. At one point there was a pun about some 'noisy cows' who were, wait for it, actually cows. There were loads of celebrities, at one point Davina McColl touched Patsy Kensits breasts which was hilarious. There were some swearwords that were pretty funny, that hilarious Craig David character was featured. At the end we were treated to a side splitting montage of outtakes, including Patsy Kensit dropping the bear!

[mcbpete]

Can I be the first to say: I liked it.....


I do apologize (apparently)

[mayer]

See, I genuinely burst into laughter reading that post. But if I'd had actually watched that I'd no doubt be in tears of sickened frustration.

[jutl]

Can anyone who watched it give us an example of the best joke/situation from this then?

I watched it. One example of the kind of gag they tried was the bear thing trying to get Dexter Fletcher to do the American accent he did in Press Gang. Fletcher pointed out that half the audience were too young to have ever seen Press Gang. Bear insisted. Fletcher then did a ridiculous blaxploitation-style accent. The bear told him that that wasn't the right voice. Fletcher said that he knew that, but that that was how he'd always wanted to do it. I smiled at that. Otherwise it was a lot of sub-Gary Shandling 'I'm aware I'm in a sitcom' gags and will-this-do vagina-mentions.

[chand]

Sample gag:

The Bear to Patsy Kensit: "They're not supposed to applaud your entrance! [to camera] Though I'd like to applaud her entrance. I bet she has a nice entrance."

Something like that anyway, it went on for quite some time. A lot of innuendo that doesn't really work but the audience know you mean something rude, and hence they larf.

[bithez]

Can I be the first to say: I liked it.....


I do apologize (apparently)

i for one am sincerely interested in hearing an explanation of what you liked about it and why.  extra points for a list of favourite jokes and ratings out of 10 for originality, ambition, quality of writing, quality of performance, and consistency of material.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I laughed at the cows sitting at the table drinking pints in the 'Emmerdale' piss-take, but other than that, it was fucking awful.

It's just 'Round the World with Bo'Selecta' really isn't it?

[jutl]

Oh, here's a partial answer to my own question - a history of laugh tracks:

http://www.tvparty.com/laugh.html

Ron Rosenbaum article on canned laughter.

[SurferGhost]

The Bear to Patsy Kensit: "They're not supposed to applaud your entrance! [to camera] Though I'd like to applaud her entrance. I bet she has a nice entrance."

And that's a variation on a joke Julian Clary gave up telling ten years ago.

yes, I know it's rich coming from me, but at least I don't take money for doing it

[butnut]

Oh thanks Jutl. Interesting reading as always!

[Labian Quest]

I watched it all and it was crap. Apparently just swearing by itself now constitutes a joke. It also looks as if it cost quite a lot to make.

[slim]

Apparently just swearing by itself now constitutes a joke.

Pleb arse! Fuck whoopsie!


Can I have some money now?

[Labian Quest]

Arse flaps! Minge nuggets!

No, you can't!

[Leslie]

Carr seems to bring his girlfriend up quite a lot.  It's television, that sort of thing is really not done.

[mothman]

The Stevie-Wonder-testifying-for-Michael-Jackson gag made me laugh. Which is rather embarrassing since it's the most obvious joke ever.

[Purple Tentacle]

Carr seems to bring his girlfriend up quite a lot.  It's television, that sort of thing is really not done.

Nah, his "girlfriend" is an all-encompasing entity that bears no relation to his current or future girlfriends, I'm sure.

Much like Les Dawson's mother-in-law.

[Paul Dee]

I can't believe I watched this on E4 on Saturday.

And I can't believe it got made.

It amused me to see that he still had to  bring in the obvious Bo Selecta characters for cameos which served no purpose whatsoever.


Utter, utter excrement.

[Utter Shit]

I only saw about ten minute's of this, but it seemed to be exactly the same as Bo Selecta, only with The Bear linking all the sketches together instead of Avid Merrion...am I right?

[Paul Dee]

Haha, it looks like the last line in my post was me calling you to this thread.


It was more sitcom-based than that to be honest but every so often the camera would zoom into a tv and we'd be treated to what was effectively a Bo Selecta sketch. It was about 3/4 narrative, 1/4 Bo Selecta sketch though I'd say.

[Utter Shit]

Haha, it looks like the last line in my post was me calling you to this thread.

Clearly this thread is my calling in life.

[Detective John Kimble]

Ugh.  Horrible show.  It was especially bad after 45 terrible minutes of watching "The Football Factory" and 30 minutes of Maxwell from Big Brother (surely he's an extra somewhere in said disasterpiece flick)

I pleaded with my mate, but he just wouldn't back down.  This had to be watched.  And it was quite dreadful.  Not as painful as some, but still painful.  

The gags really haven't changed much, if at all - really, the only difference is that the sitcom characters didn't have massive heads.  They still had cock-nose and that hand puppet that the Bear always insulted.  The only thing that didn't happen is Bear's cock coming out, and he didn't come over Paul McKenna either - I'm pretty sure both will be in the next episode, or somewhere in the series.

[Paul Dee]

The only thing that didn't happen is Bear's cock coming out, and he didn't come over Paul McKenna either - I'm pretty sure both will be in the next episode, or somewhere in the series.

You were clearly laughing too hard to miss the bit where the Bear's cock came out and he made Patsy Kensit kissed it.