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November 17th, 2008, 3:00 PM
#1
Comedy
What comedy do you enjoy? Tell me some shows, stand-ups or whatever you have been enjoying recently. Link to articles or whatever. I fancied creating some debate about comedy to perk people up a bit.
Here is a decent article about Radio 4 smugness in comedy:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/17/radio-bbc
BBC must end its smug comedy consensus
* Martin Kelner
The comedy writer and performer Jon Holmes's recent Guardian blog about the Sachsgate row attracted the usual mix of reasoned argument, vitriol and personal abuse - with the latter very much favoured.
Among the predictable bile, however, I noticed the word "smug" surfacing once or twice, particularly in relation to one of Holmes's radio programmes, The Now Show. A tad harsh, I thought - but I can understand what prompted the barb.
I am generally a fan of the BBC's topical comedy/panel shows, but there is no denying a tendency towards smugness at times, and it is by no means confined to The Now Show. Jeremy Hardy on Radio 4's The News Quiz, for instance, is a funny man but there is something about his tone - maybe it is the approbation of the audience - that occasionally seems so self-satisfied that, even while you are laughing, you want to give him a smack round the neck with a sock filled with horse manure.
The host, Sandi Toksvig, and at least two of the other guests often follow a similar line to Hardy, giving the impression that ideas and attitudes are seeping through the air conditioning at Broadcasting House, creating a kind of comedy consensus. It was particularly apparent when Sarah Palin - admittedly not a difficult figure to ridicule - was herded into the News Quiz lineup of acceptable targets.
Without lining up alongside those who accuse the BBC of being a hotbed of dangerous pinko deviants, I surely cannot be alone in noting the rarely changing cast in the corral. Aside from obvious political targets such as Bush and Blair, I have noticed a preponderance of jokes over the past year or so - more especially on The Now Show - aimed at James Blunt, Chris Martin and figures such as Jade Goody, Wayne Rooney and Kerry Katona.
It would be easy to form the impression that at 6.30pm on a Friday evening on Radio 4, comedy opprobrium is reserved for a combination of Conservatives and chavs, with a side order of British pop stars who have been successful in America - conveying the inescapable message that the working classes will be supported as long as they have the good grace not to become rich and famous.
I have been listening particularly closely of late to the participants on these shows, and those on Clive Anderson's Chat Room on Radio 2, and on Five Live shows such as Richard Bacon and Gabby Logan, as I am involved in the production of three broadcast pilots of a talkshow for Five Live - which I am resisting the temptation to gratuitously plug - and we are currently booking panellists.
We are quite keen to avoid the cosy broadly leftwing anti-James Blunt consensus I have spotted elsewhere, but it is proving difficult.
America has a plethora of witty intellectuals such as PJ O'Rourke coming broadly from the right. In fact, the rightwing talkshows on American radio are invariably more entertaining than the liberal ones. In the UK, it is more or less a choice between Richard Littlejohn and Jeremy Clarkson.
The guests I enjoy most on The News Quiz are the ones who are not overtly political such as Fred MacAulay - and, of course, Alan Coren, of blessed memory - and there is a new generation of comedians such as the brilliant Mark Watson, who are political only in the widest sense, and already illuminating several programmes on BBC radio.
But ours is a show about points of view, and if the only points of view available come from one side the descent into smugness will be inescapable. We hope to surmount this by skewing our questions away from the topical towards the philosophical - and also by the cunning ruse of booking my mates, who have strict instructions not to be smug. And to lay off James Blunt.
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November 17th, 2008, 3:03 PM
#2
I don't understand why you analyze comedy so much Simon.
Not having a pop, I just genuinely don't get how it doesn't ruin it for you.
I watch comedy purely for a laugh, it cheers me up and allows me some time where I don't have to think too much if you know what I mean.
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November 17th, 2008, 4:27 PM
#3