Gregor Shamsa
Saturday 11th December 2010 1:55pm
Liverpool
184 posts
Quote: seistan roberts @ December 11 2010, 1:02 AM GMT
Massive respect for Frankie Boyle and CH4 for getting this cutting edge material onto TV. His sketch The Magic Wee Hing (Ep2) is perhaps the funniest thing I have seen in my whole life. Everything is perfect; the wee 'hing's voice, it's tedious clichés, the festive overtones. I was crying at the rabbit bit and nearly threw up laughing at the end. This is genius, it's brilliant and right up there with Doug Stanhope in the 'not for pussies' category.
This is comedy for people who hate the mainstream. Jade Goody and Jordan represent the most crass aspects of that. If they (or others) are offended by these jokes, then it's easy enough to avoid this material. Unfortunately it is not so easy to avoid these vulgar banalities, whose existence (to paraphrase Hicks) in the same space time continuum as my own, takes a far higher psychic toll.
Horns up Frankie!
What do think is "cutting edge" about this show? If anything, it's pretty dated (Knight Rider, The Green Mile, Jade Goody and Michael Jackson references), and if it's the shock value you find refreshing well... I mentioned Wondershowzen a few posts back and Boyle is a confirmed fan of Monkey Dust. That show was broadcast in 2003 to a mixed reception - it was hardly viewed as ahead of its time, yet Frankie's sketches (which I think are barely an iota removed from the material on that show) are somehow "cutting edge"?
As for this being comedy for people who hate the mainstream: Frankie Boyle IS mainstream. He sells out arenas, his DVDs fly off the shelves in their thousands upon thousands. Mock the Week was watched by millions and he was the big draw for a lot of people. Look, Sadowitz he ain't.
"Unfortunately it is not so easy to avoid these vulgar banalities"
Agreed. In fact it's nigh-on impossible to avoid them when he wheels them out on Mock the Week, on tour (and accompanying live DVD), on Tramadol Nights, on You Have Been Watching, on Argumental...