Iain Lee talks about the 11 O’Clock Show

[bgmnts]

Just listened to a whole host of his radio show and overall he just comes across as a very nasty, bitter, insidious, thin skinned cunt. I admire his willingness to talk to horrid little bigots but even that I think is just an excuse for him to be better than someone sadly.

If it's meant to be funny then I really don't get it, and that's possibly why his comedy output is generally considered abysmal (I think?), and I just find it uncomfortable and I do't know if he has a large enough sense of self or self awareness, or if he is projecting or what.

Weird, weird stuff.

[pancreas]

Bloody hell, what a strange journey this thread is.

[pancreas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BjnahqLdyY

This is a gorgeous piece of radio!

It's like being dumped in a country whose language you don't know.

Does anyone understand it?

[pancreas]

is he trying to do gervais?

[pancreas]

It's like hearing reverberations from reality from the middle of an acid trip. It is closer to chaos than it is to order.

[Satchmo Distel]

He's created a liberal mirror image of right-wing talk radio with the same techniques for ensuring he can't lose a debate, such as interrupting the caller every few seconds to stop them maintaining a train of thought he doesn't like; and always answering a question with a question rather than a reasoned answer. His opinion is assumed to be common sense. And of course he talks to every caller as if he's a primary school teacher from the 1970s and they're being very naughty by calling in and challenging him.

The callers are clearly screened so that only drunks and Sun readers get through, nobody who can string together an argument and do rebuttals in mid-debate.

[typeforty]

He's created a liberal mirror image of right-wing talk radio with the same techniques for ensuring he can't lose a debate, such as interrupting the caller every few seconds to stop them maintaining a train of thought he doesn't like; and always answering a question with a question rather than a reasoned answer. His opinion is assumed to be common sense. And of course he talks to every caller as if he's a primary school teacher from the 1970s and they're being very naughty by calling in and challenging him.

The callers are clearly screened so that only drunks and Sun readers get through, nobody who can string together an argument and do rebuttals in mid-debate.

There's so much wrong with that I'm not sure where to start. For one thing, the calls aren't screened. There's no asking you what you want to talk about etc, they just take your name and ring you back. They frequently do 'straight to air', where there's not even that!

But the main thing is... The arguments maybe account for at most 20% of the calls, tops. They just make for good videos. The rest of the time it's just pissing about, chatting to people and sometimes getting some really honest and open stuff from them.

[Replies From View]

Listening to the fragments of him we hear on the "pattertheft" video, he's clearly a man who swings to "this is a man with mental health issues you are bullying" when he's losing a debate, as well.

Not my favourite of the world's talentless arses.

[kitsofan34]

Who's your favourite talentless arse?

[Replies From View]

Who's your favourite talented arse?

Oh I have plenty of favourite talented arses.  It's when they're talentless that I can find little to favour them.

[kitsofan34]

Edited it.

[Hobo With A Shit Pun]

He then told the same jokes again in segments on his Channel 4 chat show that both Channel 4 and him are trying to pretend don't exist. You know the one, it had Uncle Albert's chair in it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Ricky_Gervais

... Though if you know what to ask for, Channel 4 will still show you it. Not episode one, though, for some reason...

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/meet-ricky-gervais

[Mango Chimes]

Listening to the fragments of him we hear on the "pattertheft" video, he's clearly a man who swings to "this is a man with mental health issues you are bullying" when he's losing a debate, as well.

THE PATTERTHEFT STUFF WAS A 'BIT'. Both from Limmy and from Iain and from Kath and, for the love of God you'd hope, some of the callers.

But the main thing is... The arguments maybe account for at most 20% of the calls, tops. They just make for good videos. The rest of the time it's just pissing about, chatting to people and sometimes getting some really honest and open stuff from them.

And the (serious) arguments are the worst thing he does. They can get quite unpleasant, and I often turn off those shows. But he's good at serious personal stuff, and good at interviewing people, and he's really good at nonsense. I haven't heard anyone do a better fun show than some of his old Absolute stuff. That's where he shines.

[Replies From View]

THE PATTERTHEFT STUFF WAS A 'BIT'. Both from Limmy and from Iain and from Kath and, for the love of God you'd hope, some of the callers.

It was a 'bit' from Limmy in the sense that he was feigning annoyance and pretending to feel more affronted that he truly did for the sake of an amusing video.  It came from a place of truth though, as these things always do.

Obviously it wasn't a 'bit' from Iain Lee's position, though.  He was thrown off-guard by the attention, he was obviously anxious, and he was trying to work out what kind of tone/response to offer while it was unfolding.  It's not his humour at all to go "ahaaa haaa yeah you think you're being so brilliant but you're not, this is a rubbish thing and I'm not in the wrong", even ironically.  It's also not his humour to say "this is picking on someone with mental health issues".  (I'm paraphrasing these quotes but they contain the gist.)  It's the reaction of someone not feeling in control, and I don't blame him - when anyone feels the victim of a pile-on they can start behaving like a child, and we've all been there - but it didn't come across well insofar as he's a professional broadcaster who obviously can't take what he dishes out.

We've also all experienced people behaving a little bit 'off' when drunk or out of their comfort zone and later justifying it as part of an artistic character project they've been doing since they were born.  Richard "aaah I was being ironic' Herring and Ricky 'aaah I was being ironic' Gervais are obvious examples, and so it is here with Iain 'aaah I was being ironic' Lee.  Or 'doing a bit' as it is now to be called, I guess.

[ProvanFan]

Defo a bit

[Replies From View]

"He's basically pushing a man with mental health issues towards a very very dark place."

- great bantz from a man who is definitely just 'doing a bit' rather than panicking and being a knob.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Replies, that's quite an interpretation you've worked up there.

[Replies From View]

Replies, that's quite an interpretation you've worked up there.

It's fairly obvious to be honest.


Limmy and his fans were on a wind-up, and they wound up Iain Lee who responded badly.  That's all it is.  To say Lee was actually also "doing a bit" just because his behaviour was disappointing - that's the "worked-up interpretation".  You are crediting him for a level of comedy and character work that's well beyond his abilities.

[Ham Bap]

Dear God.

[Operty1]

It's fairly obvious to be honest.


Limmy and his fans were on a wind-up, and they wound up Iain Lee who responded badly.  That's all it is.  To say Lee was actually also "doing a bit" just because his behaviour was disappointing - that's the "worked-up interpretation".  You are crediting him for a level of comedy and character work that's well beyond his abilities.

It isn't and you do have this wrong, it was orchestrated between them both. Also, he is allowed to, and has previously, made jokes around his own mental health. I get you think he's a talentless cunt, reiterating it every other post seems oddly obsessive, probably this thread isn't for you?

[badaids]

The more I watch of these streams, there more and more indicators there seem to be that this is a man who is unravelling his way to a(nother?) nervous breakdown.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

It's fairly obvious to be honest.


Limmy and his fans were on a wind-up, and they wound up Iain Lee who responded badly.  That's all it is.  To say Lee was actually also "doing a bit" just because his behaviour was disappointing - that's the "worked-up interpretation".  You are crediting him for a level of comedy and character work that's well beyond his abilities.

You've admitted that you don't know anything about Iain Lee beyond this stream and clips which you've blatantly misunderstood. You've persistently tried to come across as some sort of insightful expert on a broadcaster whose work you're barely aware of.

Christ, I don't think Iain Lee is some kind of misunderstood genius, but your comments are ludicrously ill-informed. Criticise him for what he is, not for whatever you've imagined him to be in your stubborn, didactic mind.

[Operty1]

Great post, and much more articulate than I can manage in my current state. Considering Iain Lee does agonise over the success of his previous colleagues I would argue his radio output is easily much more intelligent and relevant then Gervais and Baron Cohen's have been in years.

[Replies From View]

Okay, points taken.  My apologies.

[thelittlemango]

It's odd, Cookdandbombd often seems to have a bunch of people who aren't very good at reading tone and intent in others, always seems to happen when Limmy and his jokes come up ("he looked genuinely angry/upset this time, I mean, he definitely wasn't joking") and that seems to have become contagious and spread to Iain Lee.

[the]

In the world there are varieties of people who, to varying extents, struggle to accurately parse the emotions of others.

[bgmnts]

It's odd, Cookdandbombd often seems to have a bunch of people who aren't very good at reading tone and intent in others, always seems to happen when Limmy and his jokes come up ("he looked genuinely angry/upset this time, I mean, he definitely wasn't joking") and that seems to have become contagious and spread to Iain Lee.

I'll be happy to admit Limmy definitely used to walk the "is he joking?" line for me all the time. Still does but not as much.

[Satchmo Distel]

I felt that Lee was in quite bad shape psychologically in the Twitch that followed the latest episode, saying that he was anxious about returning to the radio show:

See especially from 11:40: "suddenly I'm back in the box"

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/556827295

We all can have those crises on Sunday nights of course (back to work dread) but streaming them is not healthy.

He's also ambivalent about starting the Series 2 episodes of the 11 O'Clock Show, where it get darker for him (he's hosting, Gervais). I thought last night's trawl through Series 1 episode 5 was rather pointless because that series is already an exhausted topic.

[Replies From View]

In the world there are varieties of people who, to varying extents, struggle to accurately parse the emotions of others.

Yes the "other" people in this instance may have something called an autistic spectrum condition.  I'd be wary of neurotypical people assuming that their own reading is always correct, though.


The reason I am accepting I am wrong this time is that Lee and Limmy apparently planned the whole "pattertheft" interaction in advance, and I am trusting the person above who said this.  I assumed we were all equally in the dark, and I'll admit I was communicating my reading in a dickish manner but I am privately going through some grieving at present, which I'll accept is no excuse but it's manifesting in some weird ways and I am ashamed of it.

On the basis of the "pattertheft" content alone, and my experience of Lee's work more broadly, I wouldn't agree that it's obvious at all that Lee is just 'doing a bit'.  If we didn't know it had been planned in advance, it would only be a matter of a consensus opinion being formed.  And I think that sometimes when you're the lone voice against a consensus opinion you can find yourself shouting louder for some reason, or at least I can.


Oh and the other reason I'm stopping is that it looks like I am obsessed with this due to the volume of my posts on the matter.  I agree that it looks like that and thusly I need to stop it.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I'm sorry to hear about your personal situation, Replies.