British comedy is no longer funny Page 15

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ February 2 2012, 3:47 PM GMT

If you genuinely put your hand on your heart and proudly proclaim that 2011 was a great year for comedy then you don't have to admit it. You may however have to admit yourself to a state funded secure facility.

Standards have been slipping for years. Most British television comedy does not make people laugh out loud - fact!

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I agree standards often slip, they have never been consistently high in my lifetime in any decade..but that's comic showbiz for ya folks! Tis impossible to achieve a one-size-fits-all in something as diverse as comedy taste. Mind you, I've never seen the definition of being "funny" as how often folks giggle and screech like teen schoolgirls getting felt up behind the bike sheds.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ February 2 2012, 3:47 PM GMT

Switch over to what? BBC Three? Please give me a viable television alternative to the mush we're served week after week. Look at the 'comedy' sections of both the BBC and Channel 4 website. Point out some recent 'gems'.

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Oh dry your eyes there princess and find what suits you and find it yourself. If there is nothing there that you fancy then you should clearly define to the rest of us what you were actually looking for.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ February 2 2012, 3:47 PM GMT

Please cite examples and sources, otherwise I can't grade your score.

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Oh bugger, tits and jobbies. I've no idea what it is you are actually looking for. My "score" therefore would be Allan = Nul Points. Forgive me if I don't cry myself to sleep tonight over that one.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ February 2 2012, 3:47 PM GMT

That kind of defeatist talk will get you nowhere and just tells the programme makers that you are nothing but a passive tool.

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Yeah, we can just picture the country's comedy producers (hunchbacked and one eye closed) scouring cyberworld to find folks like meself outrageously claiming that comedy has different genres and then responding with; "ooh arr that be defeatist talk, ye be nowt but a passive tool!", while exiting stage left dragging their weaker leg behind them.

Quote: Allan OB @ February 3 2012, 1:02 PM GMT

Oh dry your eyes there princess and find what suits you and find it yourself. If there is nothing there then you should clearly define to the rest of us what you were actually looking for.

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Nice.

I claimed that based on recent output by the broadcasters, that British television comedy is no longer funny.

You claimed that I was wrong.

I asked you to provide recent or current examples to back up your argument.

You came back with this.

Nul points is correct I'm afraid.

If the thread title was:

"British televison comedy appears to be in a state of decline (which may be a slight blip or the start of something terminal and let's not forget there was a lot of rubbish in the past that no-one remembers nowadays)"

Then I think I'd agree.

I mean, there's very little to be proud of in this country but we do produce an astonishing amount of decent comedy compared to a lot of other places. In my role as an international playboy I lived in a lot of countries where The Fast Show's 'Chanel 9's comedy sections are not parodies but marked improvements on the real thing.

So, by the high standards we have set ourselves, 2011 does look like a bad year. What might be the causes?

Some people claim that the internet has killed popular music stone dead, maybe it has started to eat comedy as well.

Jerry Sadowitz said in a recent interview that he thought comedy would suffer because of an increasing number of females in management roles in the media. A controversial statement...but would it be fair to say that if comedy becomes 'feminised' then men might start saying it has gone downhill (when they mean that it has changed)?

'Comedy is the blues for people who can't sing'....maybe, having lived through decades of post-war prosperity, we are just too content and happy to produce any decent comedy. (Luckily, it looks like we're in for a few decades of misery...so there should be a lot of laughs in 2042.)

Anyway, just a few ideas..

Quote: Jinky @ February 3 2012, 1:51 PM GMT

Jerry Sadowitz said in a recent interview that he thought comedy would suffer because of an increasing number of females in management roles in the media.

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Admittedly without having read the interview and knowing the context... what a dick. Yes, imagine how awful it would be if women like Tina Fey were in charge of anything. Sadowitz can be funny and he certainly has his own style, but she's worth about a hundred of him, comedy-wise.

(Like I said, haven't read it, and if I did perhaps I would change my mind. Won't hold my breath though.)

Quote: Jinky @ February 3 2012, 1:51 PM GMT

Anyway, just a few ideas..

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And some very well thought out and good ideas at that Jinky.

Perhaps it is as you say, comedy is changing and I find myself unable to accept the trend towards family friendly fare.

Then I ask myself, why should I accept this trend? How does it benefit me as a viewer? Why should I fall in line with what the masses deem acceptable?

After all, they have the rest of the television schedule to veg in front of. Why can't I have some subversive, outrageous, controversial and enjoyable humour?

As for Jerry Sadowitz's comments about female commissioners, I admitted defeat a long time ago. Most British prime time television is now aimed at women almost exclusively.

Most of the people in management don't even seem to know anything/care about comedy. That's the problem, not whether they are male or female.

Quote: zooo @ February 3 2012, 2:04 PM GMT

Most of the people in management don't even seem to know anything/care about comedy. That's the problem, not whether they are male or female.

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True. I've met some people from the BBC and most of them don't even watch television.

Their excuse - 'I bloody work on television all day long, why would I want to watch it when I get home?'

Let's hope none of them have kids and get a job in a nursery.

Quote: Mark @ January 26 2012, 4:28 PM GMT

Announced by Sky today for example: a dark gothic seven-part sitcom from Julia Davis... what's not to love?

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I started a thread on here a while back which didn't get much attention about the current trend for well-connected and famous people to spread themselves more and more thinly across all media until they inevitably f**k off to Los Angeles for the greenbacks and the weather.

Recently we had a sitcom written by notorious line-forgetter Ralf Little called 'The Café' about a... Café. Now we hear that Julia is also working on a sitcom pilot with Olivia Colman and Sharon Horgan, called 'Bad Sugar.'

It's great for these stars that they can cheat redundancy by using their status and success to bulge sideways into other disciplines - often without any noticeable period of apprenticeship or precedent skills - but not much use for people already in those fields unable to get a hearing or trying to break through.

Both Sam Taylor Wood and Steve McQueen have climbed the ladder of the art world and become what they wanted to be ultimately - Hollywood film directors. In the process they have taken places that might have gone to genuine fine artists.

I'm not against actors becoming writers per se, but in most cases I think it is a failure of courage on the part of commissioners rather than an inspired move.

It's not all bad news, however, I mean I haven't got Sky. *spits*

Hi

Got to say I do agree, everyone is so concerned about causing offence it is becoming ridiculous. I got sent these recently-they at least made me laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZcVwnJITyg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFOA0TgRDC0

Cheers

Dave

Quote: Jinky @ February 3 2012, 1:51 PM GMT

Jerry Sadowitz said in a recent interview that he thought comedy would suffer because of an increasing number of females in management roles in the media. A controversial statement...but would it be fair to say that if comedy becomes 'feminized' then men might start saying it has gone downhill (when they mean that it has changed)?

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That depends on whether more women in management is a consequence of women rising through the ranks through individual ability or just token fanny to please the PC masses.

Did Tony Blair improve the Labour Party by targetting women only (regardless of experience) in Parliamentary Selection Committees?

Were the British tabloids improved or diminished by saturating their pages with the kind of celeb gossip designed for (and often written by) women?

Personally I think Sadowitz has a valid point: the reason why we have so many quality women in mainstream comedy today is because they are mainstream funny ie; they came up through the ranks the hard way the same as anyone else.

Any sexist tokenism may not only dilute the value of women in comedy but could also diminish the quality of comedy itself.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ February 3 2012, 2:30 PM GMT

Now we hear that Julia is also working on a sitcom pilot with Olivia Colman and Sharon Horgan, called 'Bad Sugar.'

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Not exactly fair: they created the show, but it's being written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong.

Quote: Aaron @ February 3 2012, 3:37 PM GMT

Not exactly fair: they created the show, but it's being written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong.

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Davis and Horgan aren't just actors being given a go at writing a show either; they have both created and written several shows between them.

Quote: Aaron @ February 3 2012, 3:37 PM GMT

Not exactly fair: they created the show, but it's being written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong.

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Okay I didn't know that, remove them from the discussion. I got my information from this site.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ February 3 2012, 3:44 PM GMT

Davis and Horgan aren't just actors being given a go at writing a show either; they have both created and written several shows between them.

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Yeah I know, that's what I was complaining about. Why stop at commissioning actors to write scripts - why not commission the camera operators or the studio audience or the catering crew?

Quote: Godot Taxis @ February 3 2012, 3:55 PM GMT

Why stop at commissioning actors to write scripts - why not commission the camera operators or the studio audience or the catering crew?

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John Sullivan was a scene shifter.

There's no need for that kind of language. Oh... sorry.