Why do I find him so irritating? He's a fairly dull, MOR, radio-voice, spouting nothing but dull, MOR 5 Live opinions. Sure, he has a nagging, braying voice and he interrupts interesting people with his self-promoting drivel. And his avowed fascination with all things "media" is icky.
But there's something else there, something I can't quite put my finger on. something that elevates him into a whole new sphere of repugnance.
Any ideas?
I see he has a new comedy show coming up.
We already have a thread about Richard Bacon if that helps.
Richard Bacon is about as palatable as any of the other 'jocks' on 5 live. With their bloody daft, over-opinionated phone in audience who can't quite get the hang of just minding their own business.
I think what annoys me about him is that his voice sounds patronising, while what he says is never clever enough to get away with it. I come away with a sense of injustice. It's a feeling of "how dare *he* patronise us?" Other stand-ups can be patronising, disgusting, or all manner of bad things, but they can make it work for them.
Are you Jewish?
I agree. He does have a certain smugness.
I think it's because I could easily imagine him encouraging urban foxes into peoples gardens with catfood. That or hiding Moat for an exclusive story and encouraging him to kill again.
I'm not a fan, but he has admitted that his big problem is what ever he says sounds sarcastic, even if he isn't, which one would think is a big problem on radio. I used to quite often listen to bit of his radio show on 5 very late at night. It was pretty awful but the gem was the "last half hour" which he took as the least lively bit and made into the most interesting, with silly games (text us with banal objects to your left etc) and the last show was transmitted from his house with members of the "last half hour" club who seemed to be pretty inept strangers who bumped into the furniture and broke things...maybe he would be better as a producer than a presenter.
He's 34 but still looks about 12. A bit like Russell Howard. It's incredibly annoying.
Thank you all very much for your replies. You've been very kind and very helpful. I should just stop listening, but... There is something insidiously creepy and compellingly maniacal about him that won't let me go. I hope its not
I think we should have a separate Radio 5 thread . . .
Ooops, called it Radio Five Live there for a moment ! Sorry Tristram.
Absolutely.
fivelive smells of stale croissants.
Robert, I've no doubt that you'll be thrilled to hear about this new series: https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/beer_and_pizza_club/
I'd rather listen to Ricardo Pizza's "Beer and Bacon club".