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March 28, 2024, 08:49:57 AM

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Thoughtful article about Blue Jam

Started by Foggy Buntwhistle, June 12, 2020, 03:52:19 PM

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spaghetamine

Quote from: Foggy Buntwhistle on June 12, 2020, 03:52:19 PM
To this end, the credits for Blue Jam's writers and voice actors encompass dull, reactionary twerps, someone who has sheepishly noted that his right-leaning views put him at odds with "most creative people" and so largely keeps them to himself, one of the most relentlessly loathsome individuals in contemporary British public life, and those who appear to value privacy over their platform, Morris himself being very much in this last category.

Interesting read, excuse me if I'm being thick but who exactly is he referring to here? I'm guessing Linehan is one but not sure about the others

McChesney Duntz

I was just coming here to ask the same question. "One of the most relentlessly loathsome individuals in contemporary English life" is self-evident; what of the rest?

Stoneage Dinosaurs

One of them is David Cann i think who is quite right wing apparently

Spiral King

Quote from: Angrew Lloyg Wegger on June 12, 2020, 07:03:37 PM
One of them is David Cann i think who is quite right wing apparently

At least Cann isn't on Twitter being obsessed over one singular right wing view until his wife leaves him. So he has that going for him.

rue the polywhirl

I thought it was a good article. Or rather, I thought it was rather subpar and meandering jet of flotsam that didn't get to the point very masterfully, didn't offer any unique or elucidating points of view and always in a roundabout way and could have done with a lot of truncation that would have saved the reader from the unfortunate eyesore that is the 100 metre Nelson's column of text, oversized generic choice of images and also uninspired formatting, all of which upon further brief inspection appear to be symptomatic of a wider malaise of the Quietus website at large.

paddy72

Quote from: rue the polywhirl on June 12, 2020, 10:49:07 PM
I thought it was a good article. Or rather, I thought it was rather subpar and meandering jet of flotsam that didn't get to the point very masterfully, didn't offer any unique or elucidating points of view and always in a roundabout way and could have done with a lot of truncation that would have saved the reader from the unfortunate eyesore that is the 100 metre Nelson's column of text, oversized generic choice of images and also uninspired formatting, all of which upon further brief inspection appear to be symptomatic of a wider malaise of the Quietus website at large.

Yes.

Always nice to see something new talking about Blue Jam. Didn't agree with all of it of course, particularly the suggestion that Morris's wordplay is "dated" or equivalent to people on the internet saying "shitgoblin" or whatever.

M-CORP

It's been a couple of days since I've read that article, and I couldn't remember exactly what it was trying to say other than you wouldn't get away with its content now and that the 'Little Girl Balls' sketch would be offensive to today's trans community or something or other. The latter point is a sort of conversation that bores me - if they don't like it, they should walk away from it themselves.

Re-reading it now, it's clearly written with passion for the show, but I'm left thinking maybe Blue Jam is a pointless show to analyse. After all, the wordplay in a lot of sketches - 'Ten Men Try Out', thieves who get away with a robbery because they're disguised as racists, the lesbians who find what they have to do abhorrent in the penultimate episode - doesn't make sense when you think about rationally. And that's entirely the point - it's supposed to muck with your senses, and that wordplay is funny.

The landlord in episode 4 who cuts a tiny piece of skin off a tennant every night until she disappears as a way of evicting her - that wouldn't be possible in real life of course, because the skin would grow back over time and so the human couldn't disappear this way.

I personally don't think there's any satirical point or commentary re sexual assault to be made on the Apartment Lady sketch from series 3 - it's merely just there as a surreal, twisted mindfuck, but that's only my view.

Blue Jam is a drugged show designed for a time of night when people are woozy, tired and intoxicated (although yours truly finds it just as trippy to listen to in broad daylight). It is therefore not a show to be analysed in the conventional sense. So says a person who has just written an analytical forum post as long as his legs on it, I know, but...

Barry Admin

It is still totally open to analysis though. I wrote a thing for Digital Spy a few years back where I think I mostly argued that a lot of it could be seen as commenting on depression.

Spiral King

Quote from: Barry Admin on June 14, 2020, 02:20:54 PM
It is still totally open to analysis though. I wrote a thing for Digital Spy a few years back where I think I mostly argued that a lot of it could be seen as commenting on depression.

I think it's honestly the greatest example of work by Morris that could be analysed in different ways. That's why it's my favourite.

popcorn

I have a friend who works in film festivals and tries to get comedy stuff going on - he's the guy who organised the screenings of Limmy's vines a few years ago. He's been trying to get hold of the rights to play Blue Jam but according to him Channel 4 is sitting on them because they're afraid they'd be unacceptable today.

BJBMK2

Quote from: popcorn on June 14, 2020, 04:36:22 PM
I have a friend who works in film festivals and tries to get comedy stuff going on - he's the guy who organised the screenings of Limmy's vines a few years ago. He's been trying to get hold of the rights to play Blue Jam but according to him Channel 4 is sitting on them because they're afraid they'd be unacceptable today.

Radio 1 would have the rights to the Blue Jam show's, wouldn't they?

popcorn

Quote from: BJBMK2 on June 14, 2020, 07:09:27 PM
Radio 1 would have the rights to the Blue Jam show's, wouldn't they?

I'm mixing up my Jams. Yeah I don't think the radio show would be work well on a projector screen.

BJBMK2

On that topic, what do you reckon Channel 4's main worry is, with Jam? I know there was a whole thread recently about the number of ways the show has dated, but it was all repeated on UK Gold (or Dave, one of them ones) not too long ago, so I can't think what they'd be worried about. Maybe the Little Girls Balls sketch? Or all the "Sound like he was buggered quite a lot, and then strangled" naughtiness?

shagatha crustie

The one that makes me wince most is 'It didn't mean anything... because I was raping her.'

Quote from: shagatha crustie on June 15, 2020, 06:03:07 PM
The one that makes me wince most is 'It didn't mean anything... because I was raping her.'

Isn't it supposed to make you wince though? I think Blue Jam is easy to distinguish from a lot of other dated, insensitive comedies because it wasn't making light of serious issues. One of the deliberate techniques of the show was to present serious topics or horrific scenarios in an artificially casual manner.


shagatha crustie

Sure - I was responding to the poster above though, identifying things that might concern Channel 4 about re-airing Jam (not Blue Jam). Sorry if that was unclear.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: BJBMK2 on June 14, 2020, 08:00:26 PM
On that topic, what do you reckon Channel 4's main worry is, with Jam? I know there was a whole thread recently about the number of ways the show has dated, but it was all repeated on UK Gold (or Dave, one of them ones) not too long ago, so I can't think what they'd be worried about. Maybe the Little Girls Balls sketch? Or all the "Sound like he was buggered quite a lot, and then strangled" naughtiness?

It was GOLD, several times, up to as recently as two years ago.  Maybe still is, as I don't pay attention to that channel much any more.

However, as detailed here, they're re-edited versions, with that very line about "buggered and strangled" taken out... and properly too, not just an awkward jump-cut.

Haven't got round to checking the rest of them yet (my Feb & Aug 2016 GOLD copies vs. my DVD).