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Spitting Image back on Britbox

Started by Fambo Number Mive, September 16, 2021, 01:38:43 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Fambo Number Mive

Is anyone watching it? Is it better than the first series? I have Britbox but don't really want to spend any time watching it, however I'm interested to hear what others thought of it.

From an ITV press release back in July:

Quote...Produced by Avalon (Taskmaster, Starstruck, The Russell Howard Hour, Breeders, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver), development of puppets for series two is already underway with Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Prince Andrew, Vladimir Putin, Harry & Meghan, Beyoncé, Angela Merkel, Dwayne Johnson, Ed Sheeran, Jürgen Klopp, Elon Musk, Adele, Covid-19, James Corden, Emmanuel Macron, Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, and Dominic Cummings just some of the global figures that fell under the show's legendary gaze for the debut hit series.

A next generation of satirical writers and voice artists were assembled to drive a new wave of 'public service satire'. In keeping with the 80s and 90s, scripts were written and new puppets made close to delivery to ensure each week's episode was as topical as possible.

Internationally, it was also announced earlier this year that a bespoke German version would be made for Sky Germany including the globally resonating content from the English language version (redubbed by Germany's leading voice artists), with new topical local sketches (written by German comedy writers) added - all filmed in the UK-based Spitting Image studio as close to transmission to ensure maximum topicality. 

The debut of the first series drew the second-best channel audience figure in Finland for its time slot and was hailed by the leading Finnish newspaper as being, "As vicious and risqué as before" and successfully launched in Belgium with a 22% of total TV audience share, as well as seeing millions of views in the USA via YouTube...

Interesting about the bespoke German version.

peteprodge

Last year's series was pretty much grounded round what the writing team thought would be 'evergreen' content - namely a running skit where Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are feuding with each other as they travel to space. It really didn't feel like much of it was written at the last minute. Most of the subject matter were things that were going on long-term in the news. It was very much treading safely.

There were also way too many sketches featuring Grimes, Billie Eilish and others of that ilk. Although I know who they are, I don't think they're that known to a typical Spitting Image audience.

Oh, and they couldn't really lampoon Jacinda Ardern at all, just leaving it reduced to a rather piss-poor 'tch, isn't she such a goodie two-shoes, eh?' series of jibes.

Jumblegraws

Last I saw anything about it without actively searching was reports about their new Alex Salmond/Shrek hybrid puppet. Doesn't bode well for satire when the only group of people besides Alba Party dingbats who are stupid enough to rate Salmond's political currency are the Spitting Image writers.

idunnosomename

Looking forward to the Ian Duncan Smiths dubs

Kankurette


Catalogue Trousers

Is Greta Thunberg going to be screeching 'HOT!!!' again for no apparent reason? Because for my money, you just can't get enough of that shit.

jobotic

I see Malala Yousafzai is in the trailer for this series.

About time the likes of Matt Forde took her down a peg or two.

buttgammon

Quote from: idunnosomename on September 17, 2021, 11:19:14 AM
Looking forward to the Ian Duncan Smiths dubs

I've never even seen this programme and it looks utterly dismal, but it's worth it existing purely for the IDS versions.

BritishHobo

Quote from: peteprodge on September 16, 2021, 03:31:45 PM
Last year's series was pretty much grounded round what the writing team thought would be 'evergreen' content - namely a running skit where Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are feuding with each other as they travel to space. It really didn't feel like much of it was written at the last minute. Most of the subject matter were things that were going on long-term in the news. It was very much treading safely.

There were also way too many sketches featuring Grimes, Billie Eilish and others of that ilk. Although I know who they are, I don't think they're that known to a typical Spitting Image audience.

Oh, and they couldn't really lampoon Jacinda Ardern at all, just leaving it reduced to a rather piss-poor 'tch, isn't she such a goodie two-shoes, eh?' series of jibes.

It always seems to be the way with these shows, like with Headcases and Newzoids. Just have a load of template sketches with the same catchphrase punchlines, and leave one line blank so that you can add a reference to the week's events at the last minute.

Blue Jam


Dusty Substance


Here's hoping there will there be a cloud rap version of The Chicken Song.

Fambo Number Mive

Quote from: Blue Jam on September 19, 2021, 10:38:10 AM
https://youtu.be/nNOa11o0Do0

Meh

Some good lines about how they won't tax the billionaires because they'll provide jobs for the ministers after they leave politicians and how they don't care about people who don't vote Tory, but Boris is still being mainly shown as a bumbling toff with that bubble maker bullshit rather than the cynical callous chancer with blood on his hands that he really is.

Better than most of their sketches but it still lacks any real anger. I don't suppose people like Matt Forde are that angry at the current government though, it's not like someone like JEREMY CROBBINS got into power and raised taxes on the rich.

buttgammon

Whenever stuff like Spitting Image gets mentioned, the first thing I think of is always that Channel 4 News interview with Chris Morris where he talks about the sort of satire that's played to appease the court. Even when the government are the targets, the knives are very blunt, put it that way.

Good satire speaks truth to power. We all know about Chris Morris here, and his brilliant work puts him in league with a lineage of people that goes back to Ancient Greeks like Aristophanes, as well as writers like Jonathan Swift. The best thing about Swift, Morris and others of their ilk is that their work is brave enough to even implicate the audience and make them consider their own actions; it can even be a transformative experience. This sort of chummy crap is designed to give the powerful a gentle ribbing which they can take with the pretense of being a good sport, while allowing the audience to stay in their own comfort zone. It's a pathetically neutralised form of satire that avoids everything the genre is actually meant to do.

Thomas

Quote from: buttgammon on September 19, 2021, 07:44:46 PM
Whenever stuff like Spitting Image gets mentioned, the first thing I think of is always that Channel 4 News interview with Chris Morris where he talks about the sort of satire that's played to appease the court. Even when the government are the targets, the knives are very blunt, put it that way.

I was reminded of that court jester analogy the other night, when I watched the similarly puppet-based Team America for the first time. For about 15 minutes, US military action is gently mocked - but the rest of the film builds up to the conclusion that although US military intervention might be messy, it is heroic and necessary. The only opposition to war depicted in the film are hypocritical slebs.

Very much that brand of placating, court jester stuff, only seeming edgy and biting on the surface.

One can't also help but think of The Thick of It and In the Loop :( Both brilliant and incisive, but the creator's acceptance of an OBE placed them on the establishment shelf of approved viewing, retrospectively transforming them into more of a near-the-knuckle in-joke than a genuinely scathing attack from underneath.

The Day Shall Come was a weaker film, but you can feel the seething in its makeup and intentions. Morris infiltrated their ranks as a filmmaker prior to its release, but I can't imagine him chumming around with representatives of the FBI in a few years' time, chuckling over their favourite scenes. 'That's so us, Mr. Morris! More caviar?'

buttgammon

Quote from: Thomas on September 20, 2021, 01:17:35 PM
I was reminded of that court jester analogy the other night, when I watched the similarly puppet-based Team America for the first time. For about 15 minutes, US military action is gently mocked - but the rest of the film builds up to the conclusion that although US military intervention might be messy, it is heroic and necessary. The only opposition to war depicted in the film are hypocritical slebs.

Very much that brand of placating, court jester stuff, only seeming edgy and biting on the surface.

One can't also help but think of The Thick of It and In the Loop :( Both brilliant and incisive, but the creator's acceptance of an OBE placed them on the establishment shelf of approved viewing, retrospectively transforming them into more of a near-the-knuckle in-joke than a genuinely scathing attack from underneath.

The Day Shall Come was a weaker film, but you can feel the seething in its makeup and intentions. Morris infiltrated their ranks as a filmmaker prior to its release, but I can't imagine him chumming around with representatives of the FBI in a few years' time, chuckling over their favourite scenes. 'That's so us, Mr. Morris! More caviar?'

Yes, and the fact that Iannucci was nominated for an honour in the first place suggests it mightn't have been as cutting as we might have once thought. It is a strange case though, in that the politicians who adopted the programme by plundering it for catchphrases like 'omnishambles' don't seem to have entirely understood it. One thing that still holds up for me is how completely useless ministries and ministers are, not just through comedic ineptitude but in how lacking they are in genuine ideas; that sounds like a massive criticism of the enervated consensus politics that British politics suffered for years (and which Labour have relapsed into), so how odd to think the programme's creator now seems like someone who is a part of that cosy consensus.

ajsmith2

I'm no ABBA mega fan so I honestly don't have a skin in this game, but seriously: in what universe is this a caricatured likeness of Anni-Frid? I mean the others aren't great, but her puppet doesn't bear the remotest passing resemblance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiW36hfrEXY

idunnosomename

i saw that but was too lazy to link to it. obvious joke done badly. like look at our The Rolling Stones old person song titles, they're all better than any of that shit.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Catalogue Trousers on September 18, 2021, 11:47:10 PM
Is Greta Thunberg going to be screeching 'HOT!!!' again for no apparent reason? Because for my money, you just can't get enough of that shit.

TBF, she's saying HOT! , because she's doing the weather forecast, and, y'know, global warming, which Greta Thunberg is famously not a fan of. Satire, there.
Also TBF, Jacinda Ardern has got absolutely massive teeth, and is crying out for a good physical caricaturing in this respect. It's just a shame that the writers couldnae think of anything decent in terms of that famous Spitting Image scathing satire once they'd actually made the puppet.
That's as fair as I'm going to be with Spitting Image, It's a right load of old shit.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: ajsmith2 on September 21, 2021, 04:13:14 PM
I'm no ABBA mega fan so I honestly don't have a skin in this game, but seriously: in what universe is this a caricatured likeness of Anni-Frid? I mean the others aren't great, but her puppet doesn't bear the remotest passing resemblance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiW36hfrEXY

Ha Ha, yeah  that's terrible.  Didn't the last series also do a puppet of Gwyneth Paltrow which looked absolutely nothing like her?

Fambo Number Mive

"Tom Cruise Helps Out with the UK's Lorry Drive Shortage"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxdvSViAb3w

Lots of ha ha Boris is silly at the beginning. Do they really believe he acts like he does in public in Cabinet?

Fambo Number Mive


dissolute ocelot

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on September 23, 2021, 09:20:01 AM
One of the worst ways to spend  £34.95: https://spittingimagestore.com/products/hot-hoodie
Fuck, I pity all the youths who will be receiving one of those from their climate-denialist uncles.

I'm sure there's some kind of satirical point to be made about elderly politicians/journalists/broadcasters exploiting Greta, and centrist twats who idolise Greta but drive volvos and fly to Vietnam and Cuba all the time, as well as right-wingers who get very very angry with her. But Spitting Image is not the medium for anything more complex than mocking people for having a silly voice.

idunnosomename

Yeah would love a hoodie with an 18 year old on it and the word HOT above them

Not even sure what it's supposed to mean

Fambo Number Mive

You can also buy a "HOT" mug featuring a puppet of Greta.

Also a poster mug featuring Johnson, Patel, Gove, Trump...and Greta again. With the slogan "Because there's something funny about these people".

The whole Spitting Image "satire" of Greta as someone who just shouts "hot" sounds like something even Clarkson or GB News would reject. Given Spitting Image is mainly centrist, this kind of gammonism is very weird. Unless it's part of the centrist dislike of any challenge to the status quo.

idunnosomename

I looked through all the products and the slogans are extremely lazy. No thought put into any of them. The only with a modicum of inspiration or fun is the No Sleep Till Durham one. Although that already seems a very out of date thing to wear a shirt about

Jumblegraws

My Dad went through a phase of getting me framed prints of Peter Brookes's rubbish Times cartoons for Xmas/birthdays. I had enough of a heart to hang this one in my bathroom next to the shelf I keep cold medicines and the like on, the rest have been quietly placed in storage space. I am terrified he discovers that Spitting Image merch store.

jobotic

I want a Matt Forde hoodie. And a Mitch Benn hat. Then I'm getting some bottles of San Miguel and hitting the "festies"

Fambo Number Mive

Quote from: Jumblegraws on September 23, 2021, 11:11:43 AM
My Dad went through a phase of getting me framed prints of Peter Brookes's rubbish Times cartoons for Xmas/birthdays. I had enough of a heart to hang this one in my bathroom next to the shelf I keep cold medicines and the like on, the rest have been quietly placed in storage space. I am terrified he discovers that Spitting Image merch store.

Looked at a few of his cartoons, and like Spitting Image, they mainly seemed to be aimed at people comfortable with the current state of the world. At least the Guardian and Independent ones (unlike the rest of the paper) have some passion about the current state of the world.

I would like a puppet of Matt Forde sitting on Tony Blair's lap.

idunnosomename

Peter Brookes! Fearless shill for Murdoch.

https://mobile.twitter.com/jpublik/status/413741059496476672

That's probably the lowest, otherwise he's just terribly boring, although his art and colouring is consistently good

Pink Gregory

Quote from: jobotic on September 23, 2021, 11:13:24 AM
I want a Matt Forde hoodie. And a Mitch Benn hat. Then I'm getting some bottles of San Miguel and hitting the "festies"

With a Pizza Express and a bottle of red for afters!