The IT Crowd 4.0 Page 21

Quote: Nogget @ July 15 2010, 6:56 AM BST

To that end, insensitive criticism can easily harm the creative process

View original

If it stops him writing anymore crap like the current series of The IT Crowd, I'm all for insensitive criticism.

Generally speaking, I think the onlky criticism that really hurts is the stuff which rings true. If some embittered tit is ranting on nastily, it's very easy to dismiss them. If they're offering a reasoned critique of your work, that makes a lot of sense - that's the one that hurts. But any self-respecting artist should be able to learn from that and improve. If they can't, they ain't up to much.

Quote: Jinky @ July 15 2010, 9:01 AM BST

As we appear to be living in a period of radical political change, you wouldn't think it would be too much to pass a law requiring Linehan and Mathews to work together again....

View original

What has Matthews done since they stopped writing together? I saw that Eejits pilot, which I didn't like. And there was Hippies, but that was ten or more years ago.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 15 2010, 9:13 AM BST

What has Matthews done since they stopped writing together? I saw that Eejits pilot, which I didn't like. And there was Hippies, but that was ten or more years ago.

View original

Hasn't he done a stage play? And a film?

Quote: chipolata @ July 15 2010, 9:12 AM BST

If they can't, they ain't up to much.

View original

As Lee said, I think there's a difference between seeking crit, and having strangers, without him having asked, tell him where he's 'going wrong'. It's probably just annoying, more than anything.

Quote: chipolata @ July 15 2010, 9:14 AM BST

Hasn't he done a stage play? And a film?

View original

That's not a whole lot in the length of time. You would think he have had a few more high profile bits of work, like Linehan has.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 15 2010, 9:16 AM BST

That's not a whole lot in the length of time. You would think he have had a few more high profile bits of work, like Linehan has.

View original

Perhaps he's got nothing left in him? Perhaps he's empty? And rather than foist a second-rate product on the world, he's decided to step back gracefully?

Quote: chipolata @ July 15 2010, 9:17 AM BST

Perhaps he's got nothing left in him? Perhaps he's empty? And rather than foist a second-rate product on the world, he's decided to step back gracefully?

View original

I think I already mentioned 'Eejits', right?

Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 15 2010, 9:16 AM BST

As Lee said, I think there's a difference between seeking crit, and having strangers, without him having asked, tell him where he's 'going wrong'. It's probably just annoying, more than anything.

View original

I still think he should "man up" and grow a pair. Boo-hoo, some people are being beastly about something other people tell him is marvellous and he got paid a shitload of money for. F**k off!

Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 15 2010, 9:18 AM BST

I think I already mentioned 'Eejits', right?

View original

Yeah, but I never read your posts very closely. They all smack of apologia!

Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 15 2010, 9:21 AM BST

Happy now, bitch?

View original

About what? I wasn't paying attention!

Quote: chipolata @ July 15 2010, 9:12 AM BST

Generally speaking, I think the onlky criticism that really hurts is the stuff which rings true.

View original

While I agree that this is often the case, it's not always. If the artist is striving for something original, then they are making themselves really vulnerable, and can easily be affected by thoughtless words. Examples would be Roy Lichtenstein, who didn't even like his own work when he pioneered his distinctive comicbook style. Or David Renwick, who said he had no idea if the much-loved "Answering the question before last" sketch would work. That's when such Onlky criticism could do unnecessary harm.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 15 2010, 9:13 AM BST

What has Matthews done since they stopped writing together?

View original

Exactly.

They need each other.

I'm paraphrasing from memory, but I'm pretty sure I read an interview with Linehan that went "I was Mathew's bitch until I grew enough in confidence to start thinking I was the funnier of the two of us and that made me want to go solo".

Something like that.

Quote: Nogget @ July 15 2010, 9:23 AM BST

If the artist is striving for something original, then they are making themselves really vulnerable, and can easily be affected by thoughtless words.

View original

True....but this discussion is about a bloke who is currently rehashing bits of old Seinfeld episodes.

Do stay on topic!

Quote: Jinky @ July 15 2010, 9:31 AM BST

True....but this discussion is about a bloke who is currently rehashing bits of old Seinfeld episodes.

View original

Sure, that's how it seems to us, myself included. But again, let's look to history; a few decades ago, when 'sampling' first became popular in music, there was a lot of criticism of it, on the basis that musicians were simply re-using earlier work. Sampling continued and evolved, and now some of those early examples of sampling are now considered classics.

My point is, the greatest innovators are most likely to be misunderstood initially, because it's in the nature of originality that it feels unfamiliar. And people like what they know. I'm sure we'd all like someone like Linehan, who has a fine track record of originality, to be allowed the space to keep giving us comedy gold, so we must be cautious about ruining it, whilst hoping that he has someone he trusts close to him to tell him his stuff is lame right now.

Quote: Lee Henman @ July 15 2010, 1:50 AM BST

Jesus, Bill.

View original

I recognise me in that picture , but that is a self-employed IT Nerd, always busy in the hope of earning enough money to buy the next beer,

but Moss is a "company It Nerd" & that job has large elements of Fire-Brigade-waiting-for-it-to-happen situations, so Moss & Roy would have bags of waiting time in which to amuse themselves programming weird applications such as 20-sided dice.

In fact in one of the early series you could see that Roy had programmed something to reply to the telephone with: "have you tried switching it off and on again".

Quote: Jinky @ July 15 2010, 9:31 AM BST

I'm paraphrasing from memory, but I'm pretty sure I read an interview with Linehan that went "I was Mathew's bitch until I grew enough in confidence to start thinking I was the funnier of the two of us and that made me want to go solo".

Something like that.

View original

Really? That doesn't sound at all like something Linehan would say.

Quote: bamalamafizzvaj @ July 16 2010, 1:32 PM BST

Really? That doesn't sound at all like something Linehan would say.

View original

I remember hearing him say that they just grew apart as writers. That they were supposed to write Hippies together, but he couldn't get a handle on it, or generate interest within himself in the project. They just decided to do different things.

Quote: bamalamafizzvaj @ July 16 2010, 1:32 PM BST

Really? That doesn't sound at all like something Linehan would say.

View original

The 'bitch' stuff was my attempt to be funny.

But he definitely said something along the lines of "It worked when I thought he was funnier than me, but when I grew in confidence it was all over as I didn't like him telling me what to do"

Again, paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.

Found it!

http://www.mustardweb.org/01/page19.htm