Opposites Creating Explosions

Good Hello and Happy New Year.

Here's a quote from someone we will call "A-H":

"The most magnificent Creators (collaborators) don't want to get together with people who think just like they do. They're looking for people who have other thoughts, because out of the contradiction comes ideas that could not be born out of sameness. Your relationships will be ultimately more (satisfying & productive) if you're not identical twins just "yessing, yessing, yessing" to everything that the other one is about." --- A-H

Instead of hoping to attract another like-minded, potty-mouthed, clownish curmudgeon such as yours very truly, perhaps I should only want to attract collaborators whose likemindedness extends no further than the shared interest in actually kicking up a firestorm of successful activities here in 2008.

In other words, you, my soon-to-be-collaborator, might be uncomfortable performing songs about excrement and rotting wounds and sketches about cops who molest children (and so forth), but the chemistry & good luck might prove to be very fortunate for us.

Perhaps it's best I attract a brave prude, eh?

Are you a brave prude?

99% of the material posted in the Critique section is not only lame & unfunny but is remarkably safe & soft. It does not take risks. The humour is very gentle and weak (if it is there at all).

I suspect that most of you are hobbyist writers with no true intention of solely making your living from writing & performing.

Performing.
That's the word for 2008 here at Skibbington HQ.
This preposterous charade of sending materials to the slush piles and genuinely expecting fame & fortune as the result is not an effective means to the desired end. The people who first open the mail are the least able to know whether the material is worth passing on to the producers. It's the mutherf**ken producers and directors who should be opening the mail and not some 20-something know-nothing-but-hormones twat getting paid £6.80 per hour.

So we shall write material we can perform ourselves in front of microphones in bedroom studios and in front of audiences at comedy clubs. We shall release an audio album by June 30th and plan on performing in clubs starting in September.

YouTube video versions are a possibility, too.

Mind, I don't want to be a full time performer. The performing is just for notice. It's just part of the means of attracting attention from radio & tv producers who will eventually produce our radio & tv shows (of which I will NOT perform in).

There's nothing else for it, mate. We have to perform it ourselves. The sands of time are flowing too fast downhill to be dicking around any further with sending stuff unsolicited to uninterested assholes. We have to perform the stuff ourselves so they will take notice and COME TO US---because that's the way it actually works.

Sending stuff to the slush piles is worse than a lottery. With a lottery you have a machine that picks the numbers; with the slush pile you have the f**ked-up human factor which includes bad moods, headaches, nepotism, and politics.

I'll keep bumping this thread until I have attracted 2 collaborators willing to meet and work in person AND perform in studio and in concert.

Skibbington von Skubber (Aquarian Dragon)

99% of the material posted in the Critique section is not only lame & unfunny but is remarkably safe & soft. It does not take risks. The humour is very gentle and weak (if it is there at all).

I suspect that most of you are hobbyist writers with no true intention of solely making your living from writing & performing.[quote]

I think that 99% is a bit steep Skib, but if you used that figure to create a reaction then well done.
The majority on critique page dont do, e.g; Brass Eye type humour. I could do stuff about doing anal with my (now deceased) granny while my dad has a wank and watches it-but it prob wouldnt be funny. Not that any of my stuff is as I am one of the hobby writers that you write of. Good luck nonetheless.

Hey skib my stuff might be unfunny but I think I am far from safe & soft.There are a few on here who are risque. Anyhoo there is f**k all wrong with safe.
We are here for fun & like Nigel says to enjoy our hobby.
What a nice post to read in 2008! Happy new year to you too.

I do agree with Opposites Creating Explosions though.

I understand your frustration Skibbington. I agree with most of what you say but the fact that you think 99% of the stuff on here is shit doesn't mean a thing because nobody gives a flying f**k what you think. Why? Because your in no position to judge. Unfortunatly those spotted face pricks you speak of are and will be for the forseeable future.
Ok time to by-pass them. I agree. Again you are correct about getting it out there but there are people on this site whose stuff is out there already. The Slaggs for instance are doing it for themselves [great song] and pushing the boundaries as they go. I've pushed a few boundaries myself but I'm quite willing to give it a go. You can click on my profile see what you think. And yes I do think face to face meeting is a good idea. I'm not sure that I'm the brave prude you're looking for but hey, you never know. By the way I don't give oral without ok.

I agree with Skibbington that hardly anything on here is pushing boundaries. People may think that they're publishing 'outrageously near the knuckle' material, but using crude language and crude situations is not enough. There has to be some intelligence behind it other wise you are just stuck with Little Britain style crap.

Nothing that I post at the moment is even slightly 'pushing the boundaries'. When I first came here I was posting some 'sick' material, but I decided to first try and learn the mechanics behind sketches. Hence, I haven't posted anything shocking for months. A few bits sneak in every now and then like 'Lords having sex with racehorses', but it's in the minority.

The problem with doing a "Sick" (If you want to call it that)sketch on here is that it ultimatley pisses someone off. Someone will come out of the woodwork and go all PC on it. The only boundaries I have crossed are religious ones. I have got into trouble with some of them. Not here but on another site. I have no problem offending someone & Winterlight you are right about it not having to be crude to be offensive. Well if peeps want to start doing it then just do it then. Come on Skib or Winterlight start a thread with twisted sketches & some of us will stick ours up, or even have a go.

After 50yrs a bricklayer am now retired and become a hobby writer and amatuer psychiatrist.In my opinion you have Munchenhausen Desease without Proxy. As a child I was like you, but after leaving school at 15, manual work cured me. You have so obviously never done a days tap in your entire miserable life. I can help you. Come down from your your own arshole and answer this one question. What do you really want to be, a Drug Dealer or a Prostitute.

ha ha ha

I guess the other 1% must be Skibs own stuff. I think a lot of 'critique' is fairly amateurish, in keeping with what the contributors are - amateurs. I have liked the stuff you have posted in critique Skib but I have also liked a fair bit of the other 99% too!

I was not a fan of Cheech & Chong but was around when they were doing their stuff. If you're heading in their general direction Skib, then fine and good luck. I think you are right to have a go at performing your own stuff to get attention.

Pushing the boundaries is OK when it's funny, but so much of it seems to be about 'pushing the boundaries' and it often seems to forget about being funny. Good luck anyway Skib and I look forward to seeing more of your stuff at some point. Hope you find partners that make it gel!

I am of the opinion that if you're a believer, go and get it!

There's no point of "sick for sicks sake", obvious shock comedy just gets on my nerves but when there is a point behind it, some satirical message, it can be brilliant.

If there's a message behind it, then that's all well and good. But I don't think it's the only thing that can elevate crude humour to an acceptable position.

If something is cleverly written, then it has some worth. Take this Fry and Laurie sketch for example:

http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/bits2/fal0077.htm

In the wrong hands, this could be nothing more than cringeworthy. The clever and careful structuring of it just makes me laugh.

Why are people getting upset that Skib is critisising stuff in the “Critique” forum? Is this not allowed? The clues in the name, surely. If you post your stuff in there, it’s going to be critiqued and criticised.

I haven’t read all the stuff in that forum, but most of the stuff I’ve seen on there isn’t great. It’s tame, it’s predictable, it’s just recycled punchlines that have been around for years. It’s on a par with this kinda stuff:

Quote: Eat_My_Shirts @ January 1, 2008, 6:40 PM

Why are people getting upset that Skib is critisising stuff in the “Critique” forum? Is this not allowed? The clues in the name, surely. If you post your stuff in there, it’s going to be critiqued and criticised.

I haven’t read all the stuff in that forum, but most of the stuff I’ve seen on there isn’t great. It’s tame, it’s predictable, it’s just recycled jokes that have been around for years.

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You've spelt shorts wrong!

I don't think anybody is getting upset as such geezer, some of us are just putting another view forward. A lot of stuff in critique is just work in progress and (for example) there is nothing that I've posted in critique that I think is worthy of submission to a professional sketch show or production company in its current form. If I thought it were, it wouldn't be in critique!

Exactly, it's a sandbox not shop window to sell sketches. Plus from the stuff I have put on, I've had good feedback, especially from Skibb himself and has spurred me on to produce better material.

Quote: Jerf Roberwitz @ January 1, 2008, 5:09 PM

In my opinion you have Munchenhausen Desease without Proxy.

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Actually the above quote is what I would judge as potential comedy gold AND it takes in all the elements that are being argued about. 'Munchenhausen Disease without Proxy' is a wonderful script which is begging to be written by Jerf and or Skibberton, and put on YouTube.

Stop talking about it and just write it.

Quote: Winterlight @ January 1, 2008, 6:31 PM

If there's a message behind it, then that's all well and good. But I don't think it's the only thing that can elevate crude humour to an acceptable position.

If something is cleverly written, then it has some worth. Take this Fry and Laurie sketch for example:

http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/bits2/fal0077.htm

In the wrong hands, this could be nothing more than cringeworthy. The clever and careful structuring of it just makes me laugh.

View original

I stand corrected. Also Derek and Clive were filthy but bloody hilarious but you're right when handling that sort of material the performers have to nail it perfectly and structure it in such a way that works.