British Comedy Guide

Ben Elton and Lenny Henry - They're Dead To Me Page 5

Maybe Lenny was grouping Nina Myskow?

A disturbing typo if ever there was one

Quote: sootyj @ 25th November 2013, 12:56 PM GMT

Check out Notting Hill, it's like Leni Reiffenshtal made a sitcom for the BNP. No blacks, asians or muttering homeless, mentally ill types.

Woody Allen's always accused of presenting NY in just the same way. Curtis has always struck me as a wannabe Woody Allen.

Why would anyone want all films to look gritty and uber realistic? Bleh.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 25th November 2013, 1:33 PM GMT

Woody Allen's always accused of presenting NY in just the same way.

And more latterly Paris.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 25th November 2013, 1:23 PM GMT

Well please tell HMOS that and the marketing firms who place us all into groups. I'd be happy to unclassified and classless even but that'll never happen in Britain in my lifetime.

I tend to agree, it's either always snowing, permanently Christmas or if it is in summer there's a perpetual wedding going on. It's called chocolate box commercialism, a thing the twee British Victorians invented.

Sorry Alfred my mistake I thought it was you who used the term.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 25th November 2013, 1:33 PM GMT

Woody Allen's always accused of presenting NY in just the same way. Curtis has always struck me as a wannabe Woody Allen.

And then he started showing them as whores, pimps and dealers.

I suppose with Woody Allan his films are all intensely personal and about himself.

And I guess he doesn't have any friends outside of a painfully tight social clique, a white, upper class clique.

The alternative is to look at Spike Lee who has white characters in his films, in the same way George Lucas has Imperial Storm troopers in his.

I think the diference between Curtis and Allan can be measured in miles.

Quote: sootyj @ 25th November 2013, 1:47 PM GMT

And then he started showing them as whores, pimps and dealers.

Oh I haven't seen those ones, stopped watching them 20 years ago.

Quote: Marc P @ 25th November 2013, 1:45 PM GMT

Sorry Alfred my mistake I thought it was you who used the term.

I forgive you. :) No I think it's time we did get away from class distinction but so many still don't want that to happen. Saying middle class IS pretty meaningless now, it's such a broad term, it doesn't accurately depict many Brits at all now, who are either C1s or 2s etc who may be downsizing or upgrading or whatever. And what confuses it more is the many working class who became rich and are living in the same avenues as Mr and Mrs Posh who despise them.

I think 'middle class' like 'underclass' is often used as a pejorative term and as such does have a meaning and therefore a legitimate use.

Quote: sootyj @ 25th November 2013, 12:56 PM GMT

Curtis makes sporadically funny, always sentimental sketch comedy films about a fantasy world of make believe.
That has as much to do with reality as Mary Poppins.
Fun, silly, romantic but pointless absolutely.

Check out Notting Hill, it's like Leni Reiffenshtal made a sitcom for the BNP. No blacks, asians or muttering homeless, mentally ill types.

I used to work around there and he surgically removed both the reality and the charm from the place.

I think he really lost it with The Boat that Rocked, a revolting middle aged perv fest that wasn't funny. And needs a post Saville reexamination.

(laughs like a drain at BNP sitcom joke)

Quote: playfull @ 25th November 2013, 3:47 PM GMT

I think 'middle class' like 'underclass' is often used as a pejorative term and as such does have a meaning and therefore a legitimate use.

The usage is legitimate or the meaning inherent in your assumption?

Quote: Marc P @ 25th November 2013, 4:18 PM GMT

The usage is legitimate or the meaning inherent in your assumption?

Sorry Marc I have read this four or five times but still don't actually know what you are asking me...

I just meant (in reply to Mr Kipper saying that the phrase 'Middle Class' was now meaningless) that it is in fact often used as an insult.

Well, I'm proud to be middle class!

Quote: Graham Bandage @ 6th August 2008, 3:07 PM BST

I wonder if Elton went crap when his nemesis, Thatch, was defenestrated. He was a bit toothless especially after Blair was elected. "Tut, this bloody government, eh? Isn't it great?"

Defenestrated means 'thrown out of a window'. That never happened, unfortunately.

Quote: playfull @ 25th November 2013, 4:31 PM GMT

Sorry Marc I have read this four or five times but still don't actually know what you are asking me...

I just meant (in reply to Mr Kipper saying that the phrase 'Middle Class' was now meaningless) that it is in fact often used as an insult.

Sorry just asking if you thought the pejorative meaning was legitimate?

Share this page