I would just like to say I love the British Comedy Guide and British comedy it self and some comedy shows this year I've Loved, some I've hated others I've just liked a bit and some have bored me or I just have a tepid indifference of. I write this not to be in any way viewed as a Coogan/Webb style "open letter", but just to explain my view of this forum. Sometimes when I want to look into a comedy program I read the forum, but every time I forget how much rubbish is written on it and occasionally return but it's in there now - I've remembered - It's in my brain and it will not go away.
This is hardly about everyone but it's a shame that every forum post on any show ends up as a dumping ground of context-less contempt. I'm not saying that people are not entitled to their opinions, but alot comments tend to bare a resemblance to the comments section of the Daily Mail online or ukmsn.co.uk. (Although the comments on BCG never tend to accumulate to the complete denouncement of immigrants and jobseekers) The point I'm making it that most of the time the comments are not evaluative or constructed, but instead just needlessly bitter and loathsome.
I am not saying that comments should ever be deleted for this reason, but what I am saying is that it's a shame that any like-minded comedy fans comments are completely off set by the awe-inspiring ignorance by the angry ranty users. There have been shows I have hated, which everyone else seems to have undying love and affection for, but at no point did I think I'm going to go and write "This is utter shite" or "Awful, awful, awful" or "I can't believe (insert channel) would broadcast this terrible crap. It should be axed immediately", which is a comment that always annoys me - for example I am not in any way a fan of Mrs Browns Boys but it's evident that millions of people do, but suggesting it should be axed entirely on the grounds that I don't really like it is just completely absurd. Another irritating comment is when people demand there licence fee back because they didn't like one particular BBC program.
Don't you have any idea how much TV shows actually cost to make? Your licence fee is probably completely blown on 1/2 of a second of a filming of Doctor Who or even 1/10 of the cost of that guy from The Scripts hair on one advert for the voice - the one where they literally just turn around on their chair and press a button or whatever, that's it - gone - cast to the flames for some hairspray. I am not saying that people should not have access to write disagreeable comments on TV shows they found somewhat unfavourable, but it seems a shame that on the most prolific website dedicated to British comedy that it's seemingly impossible to have a reasonable discussion with anyone about British comedy as stupid and angry comments tarnish everything and immediately create a viperous and bad natured atmosphere.
People should be allowed to express their views, but it would be nice if people could actually express their distaste properly and in a well constructed critical manor (which quite a few users actually do) instead of just writing "Utter shit it should die" or something along those lines. Another common opinion is that all current British comedy is bad. The thing is it's easy to look on the other side and say the grass is greener or to put it in a way which doesn't employ the use of a futile phrase. That everything else is better than anything made in Britain today whether it's a matter of time or of course country. It's easy to look at Community, Parks and Recreations, Arrested Development, Girls, 30 Rock and say all our comedy is "crap" in comparison to America, but then watch Dads, Whitney, 2 Broke Girls, Rules of Engagement, New Girl, King of Queens, Inbetweeners USA or in fact just about any of the American adaptations of British sitcoms (Okay except the Office) and tell me that American comedy is prosperous and brilliant.
I get just depressed reading these comments on the forums; I don't know how depressed you must be to actually write them (only the angry commenters), but ultimately all I'm saying is it would be nice if the BCG forum was different to other forums such as the ones where a load of clueless American teenagers and deluded forty somethings babble over some wrestling results and accuse each other of being homosexuals. I know fully well I won't change anything, but I thought I would just say it anyway. Leave a comment and criticize if you wish, but please do so constructively. If there is anything you want me to reiterate - by all means just ask.
