They did THAT one! Gordon Bennett.
Newsjack salon de refuse: voxpops Page 2
Yeah. Didn't they tell you???
(FWIW I didn't think any of your others were particularly strong this week. Sorry!)
I think this is a Vox Pop/Corrections thread, so they're all in one place. I don't think people mind either in here.
Dan
FWIW is a new acronym to me.
Don't need to say sorry, Dan. Didn't think any of them were amazing but the one of mine they recorded (to my ears anyway) seemed to be the runt of the litter.
I think that NewsJack is worth a listen, but I'm not convinced that new writers and submissions from the general public are being used. Maybe it's just me. It also seems sort of the same every week. Is it just me as well, or does anyone else find this comedy, considering it's supposed to be satirical, to be really safe. Maybe that's because of the whole Brand and Ross thing still? We all knew that comedy as a whole, was going to have a backlash.
Quote: Yacob Wingnut @ July 3 2009, 10:44 AM BSTFWIW is a new acronym to me.
Don't need to say sorry, Dan. Didn't think any of them were amazing but the one of mine they recorded (to my ears anyway) seemed to be the runt of the litter.
The sarcasm one and another (don't take my lack of recollection as a slur on it's memorability) stood out for me. None of them made me pull a mocking face at my computer though. I thought all of them were decent, but a couple shat all over decency in a triumphant fashion. Post them back up.
Quote: Adam Blaize @ July 3 2009, 10:48 AM BSTIs it just me as well, or does anyone else find this comedy, considering it's supposed to be satirical, to be really safe.
It's not my cup of tea to be honest, if it insists of pulling it's punches I'd rather it was a bit more silly and whimsical. Of course the ideal would be a savage, impassioned prancing bastard of a show. At the moment, for the main part, it's in the middle, dealing with topical news in a semi-satirical/ semi-silly way with a modicum of anger and absurdity but not enough of either to make an impression. But it's worth a few laughs (Most of which seem to be attributable to this forum. I didn't think much of the pilot at all).
Still I'm very self-conciously tailoring my sketches to them, so I'm in no position to complain.
Sorry, Yacob -- geek alert! FWIW = For what it's worth.
Quote: Adam Blaize @ July 3 2009, 10:48 AM BSTI think that NewsJack is worth a listen, but I'm not convinced that new writers and submissions from the general public are being used. Maybe it's just me. It also seems sort of the same every week. Is it just me as well, or does anyone else find this comedy, considering it's supposed to be satirical, to be really safe. Maybe that's because of the whole Brand and Ross thing still? We all knew that comedy as a whole, was going to have a backlash.
Adam, the main Newsjack discussion thread is here: https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/11719
Yesterday's episode had contributions from (at least) seven of us on the site broadcast. Eight (minimum) if you included Yacob's non-broadcast recording. Two of them were quite long sketches: the Richard Dawkins' Summer Camp and the Jedi School. So they are being used, I assure you. There were three of us sat together at the recording who were as surprised as each other as they used one from each of us!
Dan
Week 5 Vox Pop rejects from me.
Dan
VOX POP:
So, five cups of coffee a day can help stave off Alzheimer's, can it? If I have that much caffeine, I'm shaking so much I'm more worried about Parkinson's!
VOX POP:
I can't believe the government has delayed its promise to reduce music piracy by 70% over the next three years. Why don't they just sort out piracy at its root? Somalia.
VOX POP:
It turns out Jacqui Smith did quit because of the porn row after all. She thinks the best one is 'Raw Meat 3' but Gordon Brown is adamant it's 'Beaten Tories'.
VOX POP:
I heard about that actor from the new Daniel Radcliffe film that got arrested for cannabis possession. He even missed the premiere of his new film: Harry Potto and the Half-Cooked Prince.
I must say I really like your first vox pop Dan. One of the best things I've read on all of the threads. Below = Week 5 rejects.
A PAIR STARE AT A DERRIERE (G8 SUMMIT BOTTOM WATCHING)
SHOPPING MALL: BACKGROUND NOISE
(MIDDLE CLASS MAN) I was absolutely disgusted! Two of the world's leaders looking at a woman's bottom. You don't expect that sort of thing from Obama but I suppose Sarkozy is used to having an eyeful/Eiffel.
(ANDI OSHO'S PIKEY GIRL) Nah, he weren't looking at her batty, he was just being security conscious innit, checking what the junk in her trunk was.
(COCKNEY GEEZER) Cor, yeah, naughty Obama ay? looking at that woman's bum; I don't blame him though, but I bet Michelle threw him out of the White house and into the dog house that night.
Three reject Vox Pops from last week...
MAN: Russell Brand says he wants to settle down with a long-term girlfriend. God, I hope it's not mine.
WOMAN: I went to see 'Bruno' at the cinema and I was really disappointed. I thought it was going to be about that boxer with the funny laugh.
MAN: If history has taught us nothing, it's because our parents couldn't afford to send us to private school.
A bit late in the date to be making a general observation about voxpops, but the thought strikes me after reading a lot of these (not all by any means) is that although the idea is funny the execution lacks a distinctive voice - it could be a line delivered by a generic stand-up, rather than an oddball in the street.
Quote: Timbo @ July 20 2009, 5:05 PM BSTA bit late in the date to be making a general observation about voxpops, but the thought strikes me after reading a lot of these (not all by any means) is that although the idea is funny the execution lacks a distinctive voice - it could be a line delivered by a generic stand-up, rather than an oddball in the street.
The thing is though a) these are written down and I'm sure delivered as intended a distinctive voice would be added and b) the ones that actually get recorded are, 90% of the time, awful (especially this week, the Ashes one particularly sticks in my mind as just stating fact rather than having an underlying twist, joke, anything resembling humour).
Quote: Timbo @ July 20 2009, 5:05 PM BSTA bit late in the date to be making a general observation about voxpops, but the thought strikes me after reading a lot of these (not all by any means) is that although the idea is funny the execution lacks a distinctive voice - it could be a line delivered by a generic stand-up, rather than an oddball in the street.
Well, yes, you've just pinpointed why for the most part the 'Vox Pops' don't work. If you want to do funny one liners about the news, just have Miles/the cast read out funny one liners about the news. Here, you have to crowbar in topical jokes through the filter of 'mad things people say in the street', when the two things don't always compliment each other. In other words, a good topical gag often has be constructed in a particular way, there's a rhythm there which isn't always present in the way someone talks in a Vox Pop. It's also being delivered by someone who knows it's a joke. If you're trying to ape a normal person, you can't really have them spouting one liners because, well, they're supposed to be ordinary members of the public.
So you have this idea that's neither one thing or the other and why a lot of the time you just get 'I see that so and so has done such and such. Shame they couldn't have done so and so' observations instead of killer one liners. And why Miles can deliver all the best stuff because he's meant to be the comic.
Fry and Laurie absolutely nailed the whole Vox Pops thing, precisely because for the most part they weren't particularly topical (just things that were in the zeitgeist).
If they included stand alone one-liners it would avoid the problem of pigeon-holing a gag in to a vox pop but they don't seem to be using one liners, other than Miles Jupp's'. Additionally, is it entirely necessary to have vox pops aping the public? can't it just be a member of the public sounding like they are saying something amusing? Maybe it is, I'd be interested to know what anyone else thinks.
Guys, can we deconstruct in the Newsjack thread itself. This was more for the Vox Pop material and it's going off on a bit of a tangent.
Ta
Dan
Might as well add some of my rejections en mass...
WEEK ONE (I themed them as it was National Bike Week, not that that registered)
STUFFY MAN:
They say a forty year old man who cycles every day has the fitness levels of a thirty year old. That's all very well, but which thirty year old? Sounds too much like leaving it to chance to me. Now, if you'll just get out of the way – the beamer doesn't drive itself.
MAN:
I've got one of those folding bikes. I didn't buy it like that but when you hit a double decker at speed something's got to give. I don't mind really – it's hard to ride when you're in traction.
INDIGNANT WORKER:
Your so-called cycle experts who came in to advise me on cycling to work – how come they haven't worked out a downhill route for me to get home in the evening? They did it fine for the route to work. Management rip-off if you ask me.
WEEK TWO (Cricket theme)
AVERAGE MAN:
I remember the Ashes last time - we taught those Aussies a lesson didn't we? What? We lost them again since? They kept that quiet. I only like sports we win. When's the darts on again? Enger-land Enger-land Enger-land!
MCC TYPE:
Ah, leather on willow! I love it, and frankly so does she. Willow's not her real name but for two hundred pounds a night I get to call her what I ruddy well like.
F/X - CRACK OF WHIP
MCC TYPE #2:
I know the girl cricketers, er ladies, I mean women have won everything there is to win – the Ashes, the cricket World Cup, the World Twenty Twenty, and at Lords of all places – but at the end of the day it doesn't really sit too well does it? It's just not cricket. It's not the fact they're girls, er, ladies, I mean, women. It's all this winning. Don't they know we're British?
WEEK THREE
VOX POP:
I don't think it's fair that people who bought their Michael Jackson tickets on the black market won't get a refund. Didn't he teach us that it doesn't matter if it's black or white?
WEEK FOUR
LONDONER:
I don't understand all this fuss about winning a place on the people's plinth – if you want to stand around for an hour in Trafalgar Square just wait for a night bus.
VOX POP:
I see Torchwood's been on BBC1 all week – surely an easier way of getting John Barrowman to save the world would be to stop him doing any more song and dance numbers?
WEEK FIVE
VOX POP:
If the G8 want to reduce greenhouse gases, why don't they just ban greenhouses?
WEEK SIX
VOX POP:
It confused me when they said Freddie was quitting the game - I've not been following it much but I thought he was called Halfwit now?
YOUNG WOMAN:
So some old man nearly won the Open golf? Well you don't get anything for nearly. My gran nearly got to the top of an NHS waiting list for her heart, and she's nearly 70. Well, she was.
VOX POP:
I think MPs should bring games into Parliament for the last day before summer, just like at school. If we forced them all to play Risk or Monopoly the lazy bastards wouldn't get away for another six weeks at least.
YOUNG MALE:
Twenty quid for a session with my GP sounds alright to me – she's well fit!