British Comedy Guide

When/Why did the BCG become so dull & lifeless? Page 9

Quote: chipolata @ October 5 2013, 5:40 PM BST

Just returning to Tim's original point, comedy is pretty lifeless at the moment. Most of it is hardly worth watching, letting alone stringing together twelve words in an internet post about. Water cooler TV that drags us in our droves to the boards is in short supply in 2013.

I agree with this. But I think we're due a change soon. I feel it in my bones. The US is crazy far ahead of us at the moment in TV and we just haven't kept up the pace.

Quote: Harridan @ October 5 2013, 10:54 AM BST

Jesus. Sorry if half of the human race is not to your liking (...)

Quote: Harridan @ October 5 2013, 1:30 PM BST

I'm assuming that you are a native, white, male, cis-gendered, heterosexual, Christian/areligious person (please correct me if I am mistaken) (...)

If you are going to use terms like 'cis-gendered' then you can't talk about women as 'half the human race'.

Best to check before you get on your high PC horse that it is actually a horse and not a small donkey/jackass.

Quote: Harridan @ October 5 2013, 10:54 AM BST

I think the problem is that so many people are going around without avatars. It's creepy...

It's mostly laziness/lack of computer skills. What is creepy is hiding your online status. It's the forum equivalent of listening outside the door.

Right now lets turn that frown upside down boys and girls

Re the critique thing. I must say I gave up on this after a particularly bad experience. I had the temerity to point out that I hadn't understood the joke because of the lack of punctuation. Now I like to think that if I had been the poster, I'd have taken the comment on board and attended to the problem, but instead I was treated to a torrent of abuse from him/her/it. What I'm saying is - if posters on critique won't accept genuine criticism there's no point in any of us putting in the effort to try to help. Actually the notorious Cotter is a case in point - people, allegedly, never understand him - we're all missing the point in some way. Sorry, our reactions are probably the same as the poor professional bugger who has to read the stuff submitted before binning it .

Quote: Godot Taxis @ October 5 2013, 5:45 PM BST

If you are going to use terms like 'cis-gendered' then you can't talk about women as 'half the human race'.

Best to check before you get on your high PC horse that it is actually a horse and not a small donkey/jackass.

It's mostly laziness/lack of computer skills. What is creepy is hiding your online status. It's the forum equivalent of listening outside the door.

I don't want to get into it with you Godot, but the word 'women' covers people born into female bodies and transgendered people who identify as women. Intersex individuals who don't identify as male or female make up a very small percentage of the world's population (as much as it can be determined), under 1% by most estimations. So, yes, about half the human race are women.

Hiding my online status is just a privacy thing, it doesn't affect anybody as what people post remains on the forum after people go offline. It's not the same as looking in on a messenger conversation.

Quote: Natalie Of Wicks @ October 5 2013, 5:03 PM BST

Man, I'm glad I've got people to remind me that my interpretation of what is funny is fundamentally flawed because of my gender and political bias. I mean, thank Jebus. Just imagine if I'd got to the gig tonight and those 300 poor people had to sit through my entire act without me picking on an entire group of people. I had always thought that jokes that rely on a punchline making fun of someone were at best just lazy and unwanted in the world of comedy, but THANKFULLY I've been shown that it's just my ovary-based emotion making me joyless and boring. I had foolishly thought that I'd been booked for this gig after tearing the arse off the two previous massive gigs but I think the promoters and mixed-gender audiences must have been just playing along because they're all PC nutters and I've got ladyfeatures. Those several hundred people mustn't have been a representation of the local social makeup at all; I was just mistaken because of my gender's crusade to ruin other peoples' fun.

Thanks for the help, guys! I'll let you know how my new and improved set goes- and if they end up booking for me Live At The Apollo I'll be sure to send my first paycheck directly to the Equality for Old White Men Who Just want To Make Fun Of People Who Are Different Than They Are (or EOWMWJWTMFPWAD for short) charity group out of grateful respect.

Laughing out loud

Quote: Natalie Of Wicks @ October 5 2013, 5:45 PM BST

But I think we're due a change soon. I feel it in my bones.

I'd like you to be right, but I fear the problem is too deep rooted now.

Quote: Harridan @ October 5 2013, 10:33 PM BST

I don't want to get into it with you Godot, but the word 'women' covers people born into female bodies and transgendered people who identify as women. Intersex individuals who don't identify as male or female make up a very small percentage of the world's population (as much as it can be determined), under 1% by most estimations. So, yes, about half the human race are women.

When you first laid into Kipper you posited a simple man/woman paradigm and later when it suited you, you used the language of the trans community to try to show him up as being reactionary and insignificant. You can't have it both ways, you either wear the PC Community support officer armband or you don't.

Incidentally, when we last 'crossed swords', you argued with me that Frankie Boyle was no more a radical comedian than Jimmy Carr.

Since then Jimmy Carr's been exposed for tax avoidance and Frankie Boyle's gone on hunger strike to draw attention to the plight of Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo Bay.

Any thoughts?

Has the Man Vs Woman stuff finished now?
Am I the only one who's finding it a bit tiresome?

Anyway
I agree with Putters, but don't know how many pages I have to go back to quote it?

Quote: chipolata @ October 5 2013, 10:50 PM BST

I'd like you to be right, but I fear the problem is too deep rooted now.

I think that Sky, Dave and other non terrestrial channels focusing more heavily on comedy is going to make a big difference in the next few years and it will force the Beeb to seriously up their game once they're not the main go-to comedy broadcaster. Either that or UK stations will just buy all of the big American sitcoms and not produce any at all. I hope it's the first one, as I can always watch US shows online.

In fact, I think we often underestimate online and on demand comedy's potential. I reckon that in the near future a lot more stuff is going to be produced by the likes of Netflix and Amazon will be producing some of the best shows. Hopefully they'll include british productions too once the service is more established over here. Arrested Development, to me, was a really great example of how well it works.

Not that I imagine any of the above are particularly redical or original theories.

Quote: Steve Sunshine @ October 6 2013, 1:28 AM BST

Has the Man Vs Woman stuff finished now?
Am I the only one who's finding it a bit tiresome?

Imagine having to be this bloody tiresome every day of your life. It's a walking nightmare being a self righteous feminist.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ October 5 2013, 5:45 PM BST

What is creepy is hiding your online status. It's the forum equivalent of listening outside the door.

I've got 18 browser tabs open right now. At any given moment, there's a very good chance that BCG is open somewhere in my browser and very little chance I'm actually "online" on the BCG. Makes much more sense to hide the status rather than let people think I've read what they've said and am ignoring them.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ October 6 2013, 1:24 AM BST

Incidentally, when we last 'crossed swords', you argued with me that Frankie Boyle was no more a radical comedian than Jimmy Carr.

Since then Jimmy Carr's been exposed for tax avoidance and Frankie Boyle's gone on hunger strike to draw attention to the plight of Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo Bay.

I hope this is true. If it is, it's a pretty marvelous gotcha.

Booya!

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ October 6 2013, 4:25 AM BST

Makes much more sense to hide the status rather than let people think I've read what they've said and am ignoring them.

Yes, but how do we know when it is safe to insult you behind your back?

BOOO

Quote: Pingl @ October 6 2013, 8:35 AM BST

BOOO

I thought she'd left?

I don't mind decent posters like Harridan, Chip, George Kaplan or Pingl hiding their online status. What irritates me a little bit is when the weirder members hide their status as well...I mean is their "general creepiness" not horror enough. Maybe you know who I'm talking about.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ October 6 2013, 1:24 AM BST

When you first laid into Kipper you posited a simple man/woman paradigm and later when it suited you, you used the language of the trans community to try to show him up as being reactionary and insignificant. You can't have it both ways, you either wear the PC Community support officer armband or you don't.

Incidentally, when we last 'crossed swords', you argued with me that Frankie Boyle was no more a radical comedian than Jimmy Carr.

Since then Jimmy Carr's been exposed for tax avoidance and Frankie Boyle's gone on hunger strike to draw attention to the plight of Shaker Aamer in Guantanamo Bay.

Any thoughts?

That's not true at all and you're just picking a fight for the hell of it. Alfred J Kipper initially said that this place was going down the pan because women are drivelly and gossipy etc. and that this place was clearly for men not women. Later when I used the term 'cis-gendered' the 'conversation' had moved on and I was not calling him reactionary and insignificant, I was trying to demonstrate that he was in the privileged cultural group as he was not in any way a minority or a woman. 'Cis-gendered' is the most concise way to say 'does not have a gender identity that diverges from the cultural norm and feels they were born in the right body'.

Not really - I still don't like either comedian very much and I still think that much of Frankie Boyle's stand up is designed to shock people rather than being particularly clever. I've seen Frankie Boyle do other things where he's been very interesting and clever and insightful, but criticising people's appearance and making jokes about disabled children doesn't really demonstrate his intellect, and I'm sure you agree.

Are you going to trawl through year-old posts to find something else to start a fight about, now?

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