Nathan Barley

[BeardFaceMan]

Good satire shouldn't and doesn't require you to be familiar with the target.

Jon Stewart, when asked about The Daily Show being most young people's source of news, always said he had no journalistic responsibility, it's a comedy show where the lead-in show is a program with crank-calling puppets, informing people about the news is not what they do. Their way of doing political satire was to give enough information about the story in the set-up to make the punchline work so you don't need to be up on your politics to enjoy the show, all the information you need to understand the jokes is there.

[Good Hank]

I don't think I ever approached NB as a satire, because it was a world built around a well-drawn sketch on a website. I simply saw it as a sandbox where you knew there was going to be a notable twat surrounded by other twats. FWIW, I find it really entertaining, but it's in the little absurd touches that it shines: BUMPH UK, "that's hilarious and co", "awesome fuckin' Welles" etc.

[Des Wigwam]

Found a YouTube channel that has the series remastered so into ep 3 now. I'll go back and read this thread but I had forgotten how anxious the series made me feel (and still does). Also how much I hated the colouring of it (if that's the right term). For years I'd assumed it was because at the time I was watching through quite a thick mist of alcohol but nope - still sets my teeth on edge.

Just seen the restaurant scene with the beer gourds and finger scanner - was almost 100% on Barley's side for that and laughed very much at it. Wonder if I can get an app that lets me project "shithead" onto people from afar.

Also it's amazing how many familiar faces are in it either as cameos or minor characters. Is that really pukka Jamie Oliver and Kylie covered in their own piss?

[lazyhour]

Also it's amazing how many familiar faces are in it either as cameos or minor characters. Is that really pukka Jamie Oliver and Kylie covered in their own piss?

Always assumed they were photoshops. In fact, I think I'd burn everything I own if they turn out not to be.

[mechanical blood goat]

Always assumed they were photoshops. In fact, I think I'd burn everything I own if they turn out not to be.

They very clearly are fakes. I'm amazed anyone would think "ah Jamie's a good sport posing with himself pissing for a photo in a minor sitcom" come on

[The Mollusk]

Another bit I remembered that I really like is after Dan fails his sort-of interview with The Weekend on Sunday (great name) by talking bollocks about regions of wine, he goes tail between legs back to SugarApe and Jonatton Yeah? comes over to console him and says "Pub etc? A nice glass of Dutch wine?"

It's never made clear whether Yeah? is as stupid as Dan and also thinks that Dutch wine exists and is regarded as good, or whether he is somehow in on this information having spoken to the bloke from TWOS office before Dan arrived back, like maybe he heard Dan was intending to leave and was hawking over the situation.

I suspect it's maybe just the former but there's something about it that feels deliberately vague and (overblown comparison) a bit Kafkaesque. To me, it adds to the weird feeling of being out of the loop and there not being any rules or control over what's "cool" and what's shit which permeates through the whole show and makes it such an uneasy experience to watch.

[lazyhour]

It's the latter. He's a smart cunt and the interviewer will have been a mate who will have texted him.

[dr beat]

Agree, I've always assumed that Jonatton Yeah? was in cahoots with the TWOS lot and was openly mocking Dan.  I've also thought that behind the superficial hipster persona, Jonatton Yeah? was a much more sharper and cynical operator.

[Ferris]

Yeah the implication is that the powerful media people are all mates and he's texted JY? to let him in on the laugh.

Shades of Geoff humming "then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like I like you" at Mark in season one of Peep Show.

[Des Wigwam]

They very clearly are fakes. I'm amazed anyone would think "ah Jamie's a good sport posing with himself pissing for a photo in a minor sitcom" come on

Kylie yes. Fat Tongue no.

Edit - I mean the other way round.

[The Crumb]

On the side of JY? is much more knowing than Dan and is mates with the other editor - there's also the bit where he has to write the article about the terrible artist for Dan but still puts Dan's name on it because he knows the artist is actually shit.

Dan is unhappily trapped in the middle of his less smart colleagues who are genuinely enjoying their idiocy, and JY? who shares his cynicism but is much more willing and able to play the game.

[The Mollusk]

Yep totally. I knew that from the start and there definitely wasn't any doubt. If I appeared doubtful or questioning in my post opening this discussion it was merely ironic. Yeah?

[Good Hank]

Of course, it could be read another way, and Dutch wine is actually cool in hipster world, but Ashcroft and TWOS are too out of the loop to know about it.

JY? is one of the best characters in it. Smart enough to know how to stay on the legal side of outrage, savvy enough to know what idiots will like. Charlie Condou is brilliant in the role.

[Capt.Midnight]

I love the Jam-esque outros on episodes like Geek Pie, really dissasociated and alien. I could watch an hour of that style.

For me, I just couldn't keep an interest in the over-arching storylines, like there wasn't enough to get invested in really, so you're left with some hilarious scenes and characters, but it never really fused together into a strong central narrative, yeah? I don't actually think the whole 'ooh it was too niche, too specific' was the reason it flopped commercially. Strong narratives can make anything interesting/entertaining.

[Capt.Midnight]

On the side of JY? is much more knowing than Dan and is mates with the other editor - there's also the bit where he has to write the article about the terrible artist for Dan but still puts Dan's name on it because he knows the artist is actually shit.

Dan is unhappily trapped in the middle of his less smart colleagues who are genuinely enjoying their idiocy, and JY? who shares his cynicism but is much more willing and able to play the game.

Yeah, JY? could be seen as the ultimate villian of the show. He's fully aware and playing the game.

[markburgle]

I don't actually think the whole 'ooh it was too niche, too specific' was the reason it flopped commercially. Strong narratives can make anything interesting/entertaining.

Yeah I think this is bang on. I always enjoyed the show - maybe in a slightly unquestioning "It's Morris yeah? Bound to be good" kind of way - but I don't get the "too niche" criticism, as all the info you need to understand what it's mocking is contained within the show.

But it did fall short of greatness, and the lack of story is probably the reason for that

[Mr Trumpet]

He's well ill, because he swallowed a spike

[purlieu]

Jonattan Yeah? is easily the most interesting character in the show. Like I said earlier, he seems to be the only genuinely intelligent person in it, he completely understands the situation and how to navigate it, and how to profit from it. He's an awful cunt, but the best written cunt there, and I wish there was more of him.

Yeah I think this is bang on. I always enjoyed the show - maybe in a slightly unquestioning "It's Morris yeah? Bound to be good" kind of way - but I don't get the "too niche" criticism, as all the info you need to understand what it's mocking is contained within the show.

I think it's more a case of it's probably a lot more satisfying / funny if you're already familiar with those kinds of people. If you have no experience of the scenario then the anger and the observations are never going to hit as hard because it could easily be an entirely fiction construct. I certainly found the show funnier on rewatches, because I'd become aware that actually, these kinds of people really do exist.

[neveragain]

"It's bad / To have a bad uncle."

[Phoenix Lazarus]

"It's bad / To have a bad uncle."

That was genuinely quite a haunting song.

[neveragain]

I agree. It's stuck with me.

[There Be Rumblings]

Jonattan Yeah? is easily the most interesting character in the show. Like I said earlier, he seems to be the only genuinely intelligent person in it, he completely understands the situation and how to navigate it, and how to profit from it. He's an awful cunt, but the best written cunt there, and I wish there was more of him.I think it's more a case of it's probably a lot more satisfying / funny if you're already familiar with those kinds of people. If you have no experience of the scenario then the anger and the observations are never going to hit as hard because it could easily be an entirely fiction construct. I certainly found the show funnier on rewatches, because I'd become aware that actually, these kinds of people really do exist.

My first job was at a 'new media' agency in Clerkenwell in the late '90s. For me Nathan Barley was basically a documentary.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

Yep totally. I knew that from the start and there definitely wasn't any doubt. If I appeared doubtful or questioning in my post opening this discussion it was merely ironic. Yeah?

From what I remember of the show, if there was a bit in Nathan Barley where you weren't clear what point was being made and what you were meant to take away from it, then it wouldn't have been your fault.

[Led Souptin]

Inspired by this thread i started a rewatch - i've always thought of it as good but on this veiwing i'm really really enjoying it. maybe it's because i've been living in bristol with a career in creative arts / entertainment, but its hitting a lot harder.

Massive laugh from jonnaton yeah? at barley's party "DAN, have you thomas? he's my drug dealer" (points to crow on shoulder). That whole party scene is really well directed and am i wrong in saying that the music actually slaps? i'm assuming its morris and johnathan whitehead who crafted all of that stuff. Just a barely coherent mash of about 15 different tunes all happening at the same time but somehow gel perfectly. A fairly decent obsveration of where club music was heading around that time with the short lived boom of mainstream mashups and the rise of acts like 2manydjs etc.

Also, the whole thing looks beautiful. Like, beautful in a really really grotty way.

So, i'm about halfway through the rewatch - can anyone tell me how nathan is a sympathetic character? Like.. he's so horrible, and disgusting, liberally used the n word, yet somehow i'm rooting for him? can someone explain please?

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Sorry to be a negative nelly but I think life is too short for me to ever watch this again, a rare misfire from Morris imo.

[Jumblegraws]

Good satire shouldn't and doesn't require you to be familiar with the target.

Well then it's good satire because I was a teen living in North East Fife when I first watched Nathan Barley and I loved it

[dungbeetle kpi]

a lot of Nathan Barley was impenetrable to people who weren't in London or wherever.

This criticism always comes up about NB and I don't agree with at all. I was living in rural Lincolnshire but still recognised the idea of twatty London hipsters / pretentious art show tossers.
It might not have been that funny or even good, but it wasn't difficult to figure out it was taking the piss out of the whole Face / Young British Artist thing.

[willbo]

I was at uni when it was on and there were 5 or so big comedy fans in my class who were watching it and talking about it. IIRC some of them were loving it and some of them were ho-hum about it. I kept meaning to watch an episode but I was always studying or something on the evening it was on, and I never saw a dvd or repeat or anything to catch up.

[Pauline Walnuts]

It's been 4ked!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZGZ0108aU4&list=PLMD9ghErEvtyYW0e8h89myjKJueWN3AHI&index=2

[Led Souptin]

Just got to episode 5 and it really takes a turn into abject darkness.

Even the beginning with the stuff about the shoot being consensual non consent is really uncomfortable viewing. It's the kind of thing that was probably rejected from brass eye for not really having a point.

The stuff with mandy is really difficult to watch and doesn't illicit any laughs from me at all. "You are such a chalkhead" is just fucking miserable. And that's before the whole bj scene. Just bleak stuff.

The first four eps are massively enjoyable for me but this one really is quite nasty