Flash Gordon

ANNOUNCER:
There now follows a Prime Minister in waiting broadcast by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown MP

FADE UP ON GORDON BROWN

BROWN:
At last! Yippeee! Wahoo! Yeeeehaw!

Ahem! Oh I’m most awfully sorry please do excuse me.

HE REGAINS SOME COMPOSURE

BROWN:
You can be sure that I will do a top job for the country as that’s the sort of guy I am. Any bandwagon that happens to go by then just watch me jump on it.

Oh sod this for a game of soldiers!

Yess! Yess! Yess! Who’s the daddy? Oh yess! Yess! Yess! Yess!

STARTS SINGING

The sun has got his hat on - hip hip hip hooray!

JUMPS UP FROM BEHIND THE DESK AND STARTS DANCING AND CAVORTING AROUND THE STUDIO MAKING TROMBONE GESTURES AS HE GOES FOR IT BIG TIME

FADE

END

Right, being brutally honest, where is the joke? That he is really excited about being PM, finally? It has been done and i would really expect more than just "Oh yess".

Quote: Walker @ May 24, 2007, 7:16 PM

It has been done and i would really expect more than just "Oh yess".

View original

Has it? Where and by whom?

Certainly the concept behind the joke is not original as it's a well-worn theme but I haven't seen it presented this way. I may of course be entirely incorrect in this statement.

Yess! Is used to illustrate his sense of believing that he has finally come into his inheritance. But I'd be happy to take a note on what you would expect in the circumstances. I think that it's a matter of semantics.

If your theory of it having been done before is correct, and therefore this is unworthy of having been written, then I believe that there would not be much room for political satire at all, as it's all based loosely on the one theme is it not? Government gets in becomes unpopular etc etc.

I wanted this to portray Brown as a big kid and in my mind it's really down to how it is acted out.

Being brutally honest that's the joke. So you don't like it whereas I do. I can see no constructive criticism in your post whatsoever.

I'd be happy to answer any worthwhile criticism you would care to advance other than a terse ill-tempered "go"

Nice to see you take criticism well. What you've written is something that anyone could have written. It has half a joke in it, that being that Gordon finally becomes PM, which has been done as a concept on virtually every political satire programme for a number of years and yours has no twist to it for it to be funny on any level.

I have no problem taking criticism at all.

I have had more rejections from people than you could shake a stick at. It's just that normally they are delivered in a less obnoxious manner.

Perhaps this lacks originality but what doesn't?

I don't see anyone else having done this anywhere else in this format. You say it has been done and again I ask you:

When and by whom?

In the eighties political satire made the point that Maggie was an uncaring unfeeling person week after week, year in year out. Right from Ben Elton to Spitting Image and all points in between.

If I have written something that could have been written by anyone, where then are the carbon copies of this sketch?

The rather unimaginative criticism that "anybody could have done that" is a well-worn one, usually trotted out by people who wish they had have thought of it first

I await your own efforts to be laid before us and perhaps you may then treat us to a masterclass of the art of comedic writing.

It was more a visual gag and maybe better suited to animation, something like 2DTV maybe?

Reading it, didn't raise a smile, but like I said, if I saw the animation, maybe it would?

Hi Leevil

It was meant as a visual gag, whether animation or acted didn't really matter. I never considered animation at all mind you.

The whole joke is that Brown is acting like a big kid and not a sober and serious politican. The form of words isn't saying anything clever, amazing or indeed for that matter profound.

Why anyone would think that it was trying to is beyond me. It wasn't intended as incisive political satire, more whimsical political satire.

I'd like to have seen his glass eye fall out...

You don't have to defend it so vigourously Blenkinsopp.

It's a gag and some people see it - some don't. Don't worry.

In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. (I've done that one before somewhere)

David

You're right.

Probably a bit unprofessional of me I know but...

That fellow was dashed rude and I didn't like either his tone or the cut of his jib, and rarely for me, I rose to the bait.

Blenkinsop mate I think this is a step to something truely hilerious I was thinking of little Gordon Brown Esque sketches based on your version of him, playing with little soilders "Help us Gordon we're stuck in Iraq an don't know what to do" "I'LL SAVE YOU rarrr"

I think it opens door to this carictature as for this piece....

Here we go... first read through I thought you are taking the rise? next time it was I still don't get it prehaps I'm not reading deeply enough, Finally on my last read through I saw it and I did laugh thinking of him tramboning it is a good visual gag, it's not big it's not clever but it makes me smile and thats the idea at the end of the day right?

Gav

That's all it is; just a bit of throw-away fun really. I thought that to take this old chestnut and make it a very visual gag was a slightly different way to say what we all know already.

It's not going to win a Pulitzer prize, but then again I never expected that it would.

But my approach in this game has always been one man's meat...etc etc and if you can get 50% to go with you then you're onto a winner.

I should know better than to not let things needle me and I apologise for my unprofessional reaction here.

Calm down Blenks!

Like the joke (I do get it btw), the 'bandwagon' and tromboning were great. I think you could get a one-liner in about him waiting so long but obviously I'm going to hastily allow you to think of your own joke. Think of me as a *facilitator*, in that respect. I'm an ideas man, not an executioner :-)

Dan

Quote: Blenkinsop @ May 24, 2007, 7:51 PM

I have no problem taking criticism at all.

I have had more rejections from people than you could shake a stick at. It's just that normally they are delivered in a less obnoxious manner.

View original

Please tell me in what way i was obnoxious. I said it as well as i could of. And rude? Excuse me? Have you got your penis trapped in something? And you didn't like my tone? What type of tone does words on a screen give may i ask?

Perhaps this lacks originality but what doesn't?

I don't see anyone else having done this anywhere else in this format. You say it has been done and again I ask you:

When and by whom?

You clearly haven't watched TV in the last year. Everything from Bremner to HIGNFY has worked with the same idea, you just used to foundation of the idea without any originality at all.

In the eighties political satire made the point that Maggie was an uncaring unfeeling person week after week, year in year out. Right from Ben Elton to Spitting Image and all points in between.

... you aren't the sharpest tool in the shed are you?

The rather unimaginative criticism that "anybody could have done that" is a well-worn one, usually trotted out by people who wish they had have thought of it first

How would you have rather had me put it? Erm ... it is absolutely shit ... try again. I didn't say that though. I said that you used an overused concept without making it original, which is exactly what you have done. That and a catchphrase used by a nodding car insurance dog.

I await your own efforts to be laid before us and perhaps you may then treat us to a masterclass of the art of comedic writing.

"masterclass"? Right, so as well as being a child with a attitude that stinks, you are also an arrogant twat as well. Very good.

Quite frankly, anyone who finds that sketch in any way funny is a fool. People complain about sitcoms getting on TV that is worse than their own efforts, if this was on TV Rory Bremner would kill himself just for the sole purpose of rolling in his grave. It seems because you have been here longer than me gives you the right to be high and mighty while anyone who opposes you gets spat on. You clearly don't like being told the truth, so maybe i should leave you alone to suck on your thumb and cry in the corner.

Quote: Darren Goldsmith @ May 24, 2007, 8:46 PM

I'd like to have seen his glass eye fall out...

View original

Or... comes out on a Dalek stalk and Brown's voice becomes electronic...