[MisterMuncher]

There's also no end of decent comic material to be mined from the seam of "I used to be hip, but now I'm not" without just going for the obvious reactionary fuck you/snowflake/kids these days path. Quite apart from anything else, the reheated gay panic jokes aren't innovative, they're hacky old nonsense we've all seen too many times. It's like the manufactured controversy that young people found the relentless gay jokes in "Friends" a bit shit. An awful lot of "you can't say anything these days" heat, precious little "actually, these jokes are incredibly lazy, dull and haven't had any cultural currency for a couple of decades, maybe fucking learn to write".

I think I got more laughs out of people going to bat for that fucking darning needle of a show and its right to be "controversial" than it ever generated in it's own right

[Malcolm Armsteen]

that fucking darning needle of a show

Genius.

[Crabcakes]

Shame, really. Why couldn't he have been a genuinely nice guy like Michael Palin (possibly the silver medallist to David Atteborough in the "nicest man in Britain" stakes), or the late, lovely Terry Jones ?

From his interview with James O’Brien a while back, I think Cleese is a trickier one. He’s clearly got some misplaced bee in his bonnet about wokeness and being unable to say what he wants. But frequently criticises the govt/Tory policy.

I’m predicting a rapid departure after they try and force increasingly awful guests upon him.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I suppose there may be a few people who are the same as him- ie not awful Kippers, just with the same bee in their bonnet?

[Tubby Isaacs]

And the house building and the green energy and public ownership.

Feels like this is one of the lines being put around to depress turnout. That doesn't exactly suggest overconfidence on the part of the Right.

[davidjay]

,
He gets everything right here. Except for the flag, the nationalities, their behaviour and the reason for the protest.

[Youngian]

The Americans drove the Nazis out of North Africa, most of the British army’s war was with the Italians.

[Bones McCoy]

It seems to me that for a lot of comedians such as Cleese, Rowan Atkinson etc, the problem they have is that they have always seen themselves as allies of progressive causes, but are now being told "thanks but no thanks".

A while ago I saw some clips of the Goodies in their 70s heyday. Great stuff for the most part, laying into the NF, apartheid, but....while that's all well and good, falling back on dollybird has big tits jokes, and stuff that wouldn't be out of place in Love Thy Neighbour.

It got me thinking. Take for instance Blackadder - there's one basic joke running all the way through it, and it's "Please nobody mistake me for a bummer". Whether fending off the Spanish Infanta or putting on a drag act in 1917, every iteration is driven by this public school fear of/fascination with things going up arses. Not, of course, that there's anything wrong with that. If you're that way inclined. Which I'm definitely not, you big bummer.

OK, a lot of mainstream British comedy can fall into that category, but there appears to be an attitude - particularly in alternative comedy from Python onwards - of "We're not giving you a kicking, therefore we're on your side. Now shut up and be grateful".

And it appears to me that these people who thought they were all progressive and hip and shit are finding out now that what was fair for its day no longer cuts it, and is often quite problematic in its own right.

Well observed.
I had always regarded Blackadder as Sgt Bilko relocated to English historical settings.
Wiseguy on the make, surrounded by buffoons, but his plans rarely play out as intended.

It could be argued that the "I'm a manly man" stuff is poking fun at older attitudes.
(See also Alf Garnett, and Love thy Neighbour).
Experience shows how difficult it is to pull that off without feeing inauthentic, or having a chunk of your audience miss the point.

[Boiler]

I had always regarded Blackadder as Sgt Bilko relocated to English historical settings.
Wiseguy on the make, surrounded by buffoons, but his plans rarely play out as intended.

Somehow I don't think people will be singing "Countdown To Blackadder*" in the future, though.

*A paraphrasing of a song title by a beat combo known as Serious Drinking, m'lud.

[satnav]

Various GB presenters are bragging on Twitter about the fact that the channel has now had 1 billion views on you-tube. Apparently this is a sign that GB News is starting to cut through.

Given that the channel now employs half a dozen Tory MPs, you would have thought that if the channel was cutting through the Tory Party would be doing better in the opinion polls and better at by-elections.

[soulboy]

I sure as hell won't be clicking on the links but you can buy a million views from a botfarm for not much money. With the sort of money that some suspect is being pumped into GBeebies...

[Youngian]

Given that the channel now employs half a dozen Tory MPs, you would have thought that if the channel was cutting through the Tory Party would be doing better in the opinion polls and better at by-elections.

Or the more the public sees Rees Mogg and Anderson on the box, the more they despise them.

[Boiler]

<fx: yawns loudly>

Here we go again... GB News: Ofcom rules breached over Richard Tice interview

"We no longer know who walks among us. Of course, they're not all bad apples. Some may genuinely be fleeing war zones, but they could have claimed asylum in France."

He went on: "Today we say, it's time to declare a state of emergency. it's time to close our borders to illegals. It's time to make Britain safe again," before inviting the audience to get in touch with their views.

Mr Tice was then introduced to the show by Daubney as "an old sparring partner of mine in Brussels".

[Abernathy]

They might as well have done with it and just rename the whole fucking enterprise "The Tory Cunt Channel "

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -presenter

Boris Johnson to join GB News as presenter

[Youngian]

There’s no market value to whatever huge fee the Randist owners of GBN will be paying Johnson. Just a big thank-you cheque so he doesn’t have to do panto.

[kreuzberger]

Having peaked, they have all shat in their hands, and they are now at the clapping stage.

[Spoonman]

There’s no market value to whatever huge fee the Randist owners of GBN will be paying Johnson. Just a big thank-you cheque so he doesn’t have to do panto.

Yep, my initial reaction was not so much "massive coup for GBeebies" but rather "disgraced former prime minister jumps on another wingnut welfare train just over a year after leaving office to keep his grifting going".

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I wonder if Johnson will go down the conspiracy rabbit hole?

[Watchman]

Of course he will, he go with what ever the money tells him, and to fit in with the rest of the twats

[Andy McDandy]

It occurs to me that the Tory love in with Gbeebies is the media equivalent of written answers to ministers questions. Release information via the channel, you've undoubtedly been on the telly, doesn't matter if nobody's watching. So what if there's no scrutiny?