Frankie Boyle slams Stewart Lee and HIGNFY
In an interview in today's Guardian newspaper, Frankie Boyle criticises both Have I Got News For You and fellow stand-up comic Stewart Lee.
When asked about his thoughts on the long-running BBC topical panel show Have I Got News For You and the form of satire it delivers to TV viewers, Boyle said: "That is everything that's wrong. It brings people on and humanises them. They say, 'This is intelligent satire' but it's people laughing at 'John Prescott is fat' jokes long after he's retired."
Stewart Lee, who was widely praised this year for his BBC Two stand-up series, and created a successful live show that is now in residency at the Leicester Square Theatre right through until February, is also criticised by Boyle in the interview.
When asked by interviewer Iain Aitch "Do you like anything, comedy-wise at the moment? Stewart Lee, perhaps?", Boyle made it quite clear he didn't hold Lee in the same regard as some of his other peers: "It seems to me he's irrelevant and flabby. OK, you don't like Russell Howard; that's fine. But don't put on your posters 'a new kind of political comedy'. Yeah, without any politics. Crisps? What the fuck is that about? People internalise marketing. You sell yourself and people sell stuff to you. He ends up going, 'Michael McIntyre, Russell Howard, not like me.' What the fuck is that? Sick of that old washing powder?"
Meanwhile, coincidently, in an interview with The Financial Times this week, Stewart Lee mentions Frankie Boyle in passing, as both he and Boyle had been branded part of a 'cabal of leftwing comedians' by Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir. Lee said: "He comes from that branch of the left who hate the disabled - a radical splinter group."
This time last year, Frankie Boyle came under heavy criticism for his Channel 4 sketch show, Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights. The programme caused much controversy - particularly in relation to a joke about Katie Price's disabled son. The show was investigated by the media watchdog Ofcom and resulted in many negative press stories for both Boyle and the broadcaster. However, Boyle still seems unapologetic, telling the Guardian he is still 'really happy' with the show, and adding: "It was supposed to be complete nihilism. If you can accept that, you will like it; if you don't, you'll really hate it. I was always doing a cult thing and I happened to get a mainstream audience."
Talking about the use of racial language within the show, the Glaswegian explained later in the interview: "The thing that really got me was me doing anti-war jokes and it being dismissed as racist." He also added: "Black people and Asian people come up to me and say they love that joke, they want to talk about it. I am a comic, that is my job. I am not serving you gammon in a supermarket. My job is to take those words and use them in a way that makes them a bit more worthwhile. It's a joke that says we have always been intensely racist and our Department Of Defence underlines that."
Boyle is now working on a new programme for Channel 4 called Frankie Boyle's Rehabilitation Programme. The format is described as an "argument-fuelled studio comedy show in which Frankie is confronted by celebrities and members of the public who will be attempting to change Frankie's uncompromising world view in a series of funny, informed debates.
"Each week Frankie will give his take on a range of topics - The Stone Roses' reunion, the 2012 Olympics and fly fishing to name but a few - which will then be challenged by two celebrity guests and audience members to see if they can change his mind and make him a better man."
A trial episode is set to be recorded at the Riverside Studios in London on Thursday, after which Channel 4 will decide whether to order a series or not.
Boyle is also set to tour again in 2012, despite having previously said his last tour was his final one. He told The Guardian: "I have started back. I'm going to record it for a DVD before I tour, before I have to go and make it work in Hull on a Wednesday or something like that. By the time I finish the DVD and write the next book I'll be 41 and I'll have worked for the last 11 years flat-out without holidays. I'll do the odd thing when I have a good idea. I'm not Russell Brand or Ricky Gervais, but I have enough money that I don't have to work. Most people who've done what I do don't have that. I want to be a part of a vibrant culture and have a more open culture. But I'm not whinging, I have a platform and I like what I do."
Click here to read the full Guardian interview
Boyle's latest book, Work! Comsume! Die!, and the DVD of Tramadol Nights are both now in shops.