Try and keep on topic for Jay guys. 
*stops channeling Aaron*
Consequences of Sachsgate for Writers Page 2
I'd like to see a young Kate O'Mara's triangle.
Quote: Griff @ January 22 2009, 12:57 PM GMTSorry Jay,
As far as I know, Sachsgate has not affected my childhood enjoyment of Dallas or the Onedin Line, although I believe repeats of Triangle are being carefully edited.
Thanks Nil.
I might scupper my own thread here by saying something like Lab Rats was interesting for the wrong reasons. You look at the talent involved and can't believe it turned out like it did.
I interview a lot of stand-up comics who are highly suspicious of broadcasting and the way what they do live is compromised at so many turns.
I spoke to the Peep Show writers recently and we were discussing how that show has been nurtured by Channel 4, whereas 15 Storeys and Garth Marenghi, which came out about the same time, were left to fall by the wayside. So much seems to come down to luck.
Ok I laughed at that Griff. I'm afraid most of us are such small fry we either write for stage shows no one watches or radio shows so uncontroversial that you can't make fun of Henry viiith.
So probably not that badly affected.
Why won't Jonathon Ross do circumcisions? He's worried about getting the sack.
Quote: Jay Richardson @ January 22 2009, 1:06 PM GMTThanks Nil.
I might scupper my own thread here by saying something like Lab Rats was interesting for the wrong reasons. You look at the talent involved and can't believe it turned out like it did.
Quote: Jay Richardson @ January 22 2009, 1:06 PM GMTI spoke to the Peep Show writers recently and we were discussing how that show has been nurtured by Channel 4, whereas 15 Storeys and Garth Marenghi, which came out about the same time, were left to fall by the wayside. So much seems to come down to luck.
I loved 15 Storeys High, such a shame it didn't continue.
For what it's worth, I'm not convinced there are any great consequences of Sachsgate for writers. For performers there might be lots, especially Ross and Brand of course, because Sachsgate was at least as much about bashing people that a section of the public thought were overpaid/vulgar/crass/etc on taxpayers' wages as it was about the crass comedy itself (more's the pity).
Even if it has made any writers try to be a bit cleverer and less coarse then that isn't a bad thing. 'Porridge' would have been a shadow of the show it was if Fletch said "F**k Off" all the time instead of "Naff Off", for example.
I know jack shit, however.
There's always room for tame comedy. But I think things have moved on since the seventies and there's a large percentage of the viewing audience who want their comedy characters to speak the same language they do in real life. Most people swear in real life, so why is it suddenly a huge issue having it on the TV? As long as it's past the watershed I really don't see the problem.
I do have a problem with radio swearing though. I've heard afternoon plays on Radio 4 with "bastards" and "shits"-a-plenty, yet nobody seems to care about that, even though kids could easily be listening at that time, which my 7 year old son was in the car. Yet nobody complains. What's that all about?
Short term: Self-censorship from writers through to producers.
Edginess will filter back as Sachsgate pales.
It's complex there's lots of things that make comedy controversial; libelousness, sensitive subject matters, racism and yes swearing is one of them.
Swearing is a part of naturalistic language.
Father Ted did definitely dip it's toe in some very sensitive areas without swearing. Like Ted not really being into celibacy, some stuff about paedophile priests and lots of stuff on corruption, oh and that fab racism episode.
But there's alot of stuff coming out of the NSPCC and other child chairities about kids being "corrupted" by sexualised images that make for uncomfortable reading. YouTube makes a nonsense of the watershed.
At least it's not Steve Wright.
This holocaust thing has got me sympathising with Chris Moyles, which feels as wrong as wanking over a photo of Thatcher. But frankly he was right and the trouble he is in is just depressing.
Quote: Griff @ January 23 2009, 10:00 AM GMTBut there's very little swearing in (say) Father Ted and that's as funny as can be. If that's "tame" comedy it's alright by me.
They were able to swear but not swear by saying things like feck, arse, bollox, roide me soideways, etc; which was funnier than swearing anyway.
Or kicking the Bishop up the arse!!!!
Quote: Griff @ January 23 2009, 10:00 AM GMTIs "comedy without swearing" = "tame" comedy?
Don't get me wrong, I love swearing, the barrages of swearing in The Thick Of It have me crying with laughter at times.
But there's very little swearing in (say) Father Ted and that's as funny as can be. If that's "tame" comedy it's alright by me.
People always claim Ted to be good clean family fun but actually I always thought Ted was quite rude. It said just about everything it's possible to say without saying "f**k". There were "arses", "bastards", and "bollocks" a-plenty, plus the made-up swearing which was VERY close to the real words, like of course "feck" and "Fup" in the picnic episode. Ted gets accosted by a man saying "Get the fup off my fupping spot, you fupping fupper, go on, fup off y' backstard!" To me, that's still swearing. Technically it's not but you wouldn't let your kids watch it would you? And then the episode where the novelist is coming to stay and Mrs Doyle is going on about the filth in the novelist's books.
MRS DOYLE:
"Oh, it's fierce stuff Father, bastard this and bastard that, you can't move for the bastards in her novels, it's wall-to-wall bastards. Eff you, eff you're effin' wife, I'll stick this effin' pitchfork up your hole, oh yes, that was another one Father. Y' bastard, y'fecker, y'bollocks, get your feckin' bollocks out of my face..." etc etc.
All hilariously-funny, but Ted was no angel.
Quote: Griff @ January 23 2009, 11:43 AM GMTFair enough Lee, I'd forgotten those bits.
I guess my point was that the funny stuff about Ted (for me) was Dougal being an eejit, which was usually non-sweary. Dismissing comedy without swearing as being "tame" (and therefore no good by implication) struck me as a bit unfair.
Yeah, I love Ted for the same reasons as you. I certainly didn't mean tame comedy is any worse than edgy - far from it - but what I object to is having the choice taken away from me. If I fancy a bit of spicy sauce on my comedy meatballs I should be able to have it, without the BBC watering it down to appease people with more sensitive comedic taste buds. To use a bizarre meatball / comedy analogy. 