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October 14, 2024, 11:14:23 PM

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Twenty-Five

avatar_Barry Admin
Posted in Site Updates
August 08, 2024, 08:57:24 PM
Written by Barry Admin
Views: 26435

On the 8th of August 1999 - 25 years ago to this day - I was bored. It was a Sunday, Sundays are always boring, it's the law.

I'd been dabbling with little websites for a few years by this point, and I think almost on a whim I decided to start one dedicated to Chris Morris and Peter Cook. Within a couple of hours, I'd knocked up a truly gaudy and eye-watering concoction - a bright blue background with big red boxes the text sat on. Javascript was used to make a trail of stars follow along behind your mouse pointer as it moved across the screen. The whole thing was an absolute eyesore. I loved it.

To be honest, I didn't take the whole thing seriously at all, I stuck it on Geocities because I was already using up tons of bandwidth on my ISP account.

The reason I first started making these websites was that I get incredibly enthusiastic about art that I love, and I desperately want to share it so that others can hopefully experience the same joy. Towards the end of the 90's, I realised that websites were going to become the new mixtapes. Instead of pissing about with two cassette decks for ages - usually just for the benefit of one person - you could just fire clips online for people all over the world to check out, amazing!

Around this time, video compression was starting to get a lot better, and I was able to download or stream 35mb episodes of South Park almost as soon as they were released. It's hard to describe how revolutionary this actually was in the late 90's, given how accustomed we are to streaming and downloading these days, but it was an absolute gamechanger. Comedy was already getting archived and posted about by collectors (often through good old snail mail), but video codecs like RealVideo and DivX meant that filesizes massively decreased with almost no real loss in quality.

At the time, it was commonly accepted (wrongly, as it goes) that Brass Eye would never be able to get a commercial release, and so I resolved to use this new technology to get it encoded and spread online for people. The early days of this site involved a constant rooting out of Chris Morris material, I had so much energy back then, it's insane to think back and remember just how much actually got done. I'm sorry I wasn't able to keep the pace up - I still have tapes I need to encode and/or return to people! - but I'm immensely glad that we all managed to surface and rescue so much of this rare and precious material at the time, and I'm thrilled that it's kept circulating

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26 Comments

One Pair of Eyes 1969 Documentary presented by Marty Feldman

avatar_Pranet
Posted in Comedy Chat
July 07, 2024, 02:49:46 PM
Written by Pranet
Views: 21822
Probably not worth a thread on its own, but I can't figure out where to put this.

This is on iplayer for next month

One Pair of Eyes: Marty Feldman: No, But Seriously...

- blurb says:

"Marty Feldman, for many years a successful comedy writer before turning to performing, explores humour through the people who create it, comparing their traditions, motivations and anxieties with his own.

Among the people Marty talks to are Peter Sellers, Eric Morecambe, Peter Brough and Archie Andrews, Dudley Moore and Barry Took"

It is on youtube but in crappy quality.

(now someone is going to point out to me where this is already being discussed.....)

11 Comments

The New Norm Show (𝕏 Sitcom)

avatar_Leo2112
Posted in Comedy Chat
June 27, 2024, 01:22:09 AM
Written by Leo2112
Views: 49899
Anyone else looking forward to this? It's the first ever animated sitcom on 𝕏!

https://x.com/XNewNorm/status/1805608022875484270


QuoteSupport this show and help fight the "woke mind virus" with laughter!

99 Comments

Jim Henson's early work in advertising

avatar_Lipglossed
Posted in Comedy Chat
June 23, 2024, 05:19:36 PM
Written by Lipglossed
Views: 33396
Muppets maestro Jim Henson cut his teeth in advertising. In 1957, a company called Wilkins Coffee (who sold, um, coffee) hired him to produce commercials.

What follows are just brilliant - anarchic comic violence from two puppets called Wilkins and Wontkins, who went on to be used for other coffee firms too. Treat yourself, here's a few of my favourites:



Some of them are in colour too!




24 Comments

40th Anniversary of Miners Strike comedy benefit gigs

avatar_lauraxsynthesis
Posted in Comedy Chat
June 22, 2024, 11:31:05 PM
Written by lauraxsynthesis
Views: 21094
Thanks to former CaBber Oliver Double, I found out about this exhibition at the library at the University of Kent.

There were coal mines in Kent and Kent miners took part in the strike, but in addition to info of local interest, Scargill, Thatcher etc, there was also a fair amount of stuff in the exhibition from the university's British Stand-Up Comedy Archive and British Cartoon Archive.



There were posters and flyers from benefit gigs, with frequently recurring names including Linda Smith and Jeremy Hardy. One poster is a lovely snapshot of the alternative comedy scene: Rik Mayall, Jim Barclay, Andy de la Tour, Jenny Lecoat, Ben Elton, Pauline Melville, Robert Llewellyn's old group The Joeys...









It did make me sad reflecting on how depoliticised culture is now and how many comedians were engaged in issues then compared to now. The other week on the Here Comes the Guillotine podcast, Frankie Boyle listed the TV comics have taken a stand on the genocide in Gaza and it was like 4 people including himself. Last I heard, Saint Stewart Lee continues to studiously avoid expressing compassion for Palestinians - correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, the Alternative Comedy era was awesome and let's never forget it.

6 Comments

Absolutely Fabulous: Inside Out

avatar_Angst in my Pants
Posted in Comedy Chat
June 19, 2024, 01:08:26 PM
Written by Angst in my Pants
Views: 24039
The cast of Ab Fab are reuniting for a TV special ("Absolutely Fabulous: Inside Out") to be aired on GOLD later this year.

Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Jane Horrocks and Julia Sawalha will all be taking part in the 2-hour retrospective, which will be the first time they have reunited on screen since 2016.

Fabulous!

8 Comments

Patti Harrison

avatar_Barry Admin
Posted in Comedy Chat
May 28, 2024, 03:14:26 PM
Written by Barry Admin
Views: 58628
This thread originally made me aware of Patti Harrison, and I really, really want to see more of her standup. She's in the Soho Theatre currently, and performing at Edinburgh festival again this year I believe.

She's got some other great bits and pieces on YouTube also, including "Convers(at)ion Therapy", where trans and non-binary people just chat about things. She comes across as being really likeable and down-to-earth, with an infectiously silly attitude and worldview.


38 Comments

Tom Lehrer article in the Guardian

avatar_Barry Admin
Posted in Comedy Chat
May 25, 2024, 02:15:01 PM
Written by Barry Admin
Views: 57117
Just flagging this up as I missed it myself, and am looking forward to reading it: link

Today's letters page is full of rather nice anecdotes about Lehrer, from people who grew up listening to him and met him at shows etc, I really enjoyed reading this: link

49 Comments
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