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Post by dulcinea on Jun 20, 2005 20:15:18 GMT -5
i read an article in may's [american] vanity fair bewailing the dire straits american humour (or should this be humor) is in...
what do you think is happening this side of the pond? does radio give any idication of the state of the art or has it become irrelevant because of the predominance of the visual media...
do you consider radio still a good grounding/opportunity to develop the abilities of its exponents and the tickling of the funnybone of the nation?
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Post by dulcinea on Jun 20, 2005 20:30:36 GMT -5
p.s. is bbc radio 7 an indictment or simply a service aimed a - for the time being - growing section of voters? (i think i rather nicely circumscribed the venerable ones... diplomacy i don't know i possessed..)
pps. just to mention that i appreciate that guests may start threads...
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Post by Misfit Pooka on Jun 20, 2005 22:23:48 GMT -5
Pardon my butting in, but I'd have to say - "from this side of the pond" - that any radio 'hyoomer' we have over here is quite a sad attempt. I certainly wish our broadcasters would amp up the programmes a bit, satire or otherwise... or at least try to add a little substance to our radio.
P.S. I believe I'm the only one on this side of the pond (or would it be Island?) to speak for us 'less fortunate'?
P.P.S. Just to mention, I appreciate that you are 'guesting' on the board and starting threads, Dulcinea.
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Post by Captain Nudnick on Jun 21, 2005 1:43:00 GMT -5
It's BBC7, not BBC Radio 7... and while economic considerations dictate the need for a great deal of repetition, it's still way out ahead in the humour stakes... just contrast, say, BBC7's re-running of "Round the Horne" with Radio 4's "The Now Show" and you'll see what I mean.
Do Punt & Dennis have a furnished flat up the back passage of the Director General or something?
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Post by dulcie on Jun 21, 2005 1:53:23 GMT -5
captain nude nick... noone is questioning the merits of the endlessly repeated programmes, the question rather revolves about what is happening on the humour front at present... we know yesteryear was great...
what now my love?
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Tiger Lil'
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Post by Tiger Lil' on Jun 21, 2005 2:58:54 GMT -5
Yesterday I nearly crashed the car listening to Eddie Mair - so droll - so very funny.
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Post by Captain Nudnick on Jun 21, 2005 3:11:19 GMT -5
captain nude nick... noone is questioning the merits of the endlessly repeated programmes, the question rather revolves about what is happening on the humour front at present... we know yesteryear was great... what now my love? Not a lot, I suppose... the Arthur Smith Lectures are fun, but they are clip shows. ISIHAC continues on its merry way, as does the News Quiz. Neither is a new concept by any measure... I can't think of anything else I would listen to on purpose if you know what I mean. And I think you do... |
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Crusoe
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Post by Crusoe on Jun 21, 2005 5:28:57 GMT -5
The thing I find most annoying about Radio 4 is the way that it is divided into specific timeslots so if you listen to the radio at a certain time, then you’ll hear a certain type of programme. The slots for comedy are 6.30pm - 7.00pm, when I’m usually on a train and 11.00pm – 11.30pm when I’m usually in bed, so I don’t hear a lot of new Radio 4 comedy. The exception to this is weekends when there is a “topical” show (alternating between The News Quiz, The Now Show and something else and a game show alternating between I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, Just a Minute and Quote Unquote. Of these, I think that ISIHAC is on a bit of a decline but still has its moments, The News Quiz is almost always very funny and the others are fairly variable.
I think that there are some aspects of public taste that tend to change over time: I’d rather listen to The Now Show than Round the Horne or Beyond Our Ken. There are some quite witty one-liners in places in those Kenneth Horne shows but I find that most of the characters and story-lines leave me cold. I think the heavy use of double-entendre and Polari seems a bit naff, these days (although I could be wrong: I am only describing my own taste, really) and I find it a bit off-putting when comedy programmes suddenly break off for an unnecessary piece of music (although I’m prepared to forgive .the Goons, because they are so funny and because I actually quite enjoy the things Ray Ellington and Max Geldray do). Incidentally, Captain, I don’t know if you’ve heard a programme called Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-out Supplement, on Radio 2, but it makes The Now Show seem like the cutting edge of satire and a Beyond the Fringe for our time.
BBC7 does have an advantage in being able to choose from the entirety of the BBC archive, which does give the opportunity for sorting a lot of the wheat from the chaff. In fact the thing that surprises me most about BBC7 is how many of the programmes they choose are really quite dull, particularly in their “drama” slots. They have, however, repeated quite a lot of recent radio comedy at sensible times and I’ve really rather enjoyed the likes of Little Britain, The Sunday Format, Robin and Wendy’s Wet Weekends and The Mighty Boosh.
All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I do think that radio continues to be a proving ground for new comedy and that it still produces some quite funny programmes.
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Post by Michael Scott on Jun 21, 2005 5:49:57 GMT -5
All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I do think that radio continues to be a proving ground for new comedy and that it still produces some quite funny programmes. That's my view and it would explain why there are so many more desperately unfunny sketches and scripts too. Chuck it out on radio first, it's a cheaper risk. I heard armando iannucci's latest offering last week - there seemed to be a running gag about Jonathan King's paedophilia. Hardly side splitting the first time, so why repeat it armando? too lazy matey... American humor has had a good run up until recently - it deserves time off for good behavior. These things go in cycles. |
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Post by Captain Nudnick on Jun 21, 2005 8:40:43 GMT -5
[quote author=webb board=Radio thread=1119316518 post=1119349737... I find it a bit off-putting when comedy programmes suddenly break off for an unnecessary piece of music (although I’m prepared to forgive .the Goons, because they are so funny and because I actually quite enjoy the things Ray Ellington and Max Geldray do). Incidentally, Captain, I don’t know if you’ve heard a programme called Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-out Supplement, on Radio 2, but it makes The Now Show seem like the cutting edge of satire and a Beyond the Fringe for our time. [/quote] The two-musical-break format, was arrived at in the US to begin with. It was found that if you have an audience laughing for more than about eight minutes, diminishing returns set in... the three minute instrumental and later three-minute song give what Ken Dodd called the 'chuckle muscle' time to regain its elasticity... Band Wagon didn't have that format - the comedy filledthe breaks in what was really a music programme. But Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, ITMA, Waterlogged Spa ('with George 'Herr' Crow and the Mariners!'), Ray's A Laugh, TIFH, The Goon Show, Beyond our Ken and Round the Horne all put it to good use. It worked! May I put a word in for Linda Smith's 'History of Timewasting' series - that had me laughing out loud, which is rare these days...  But where are the equivalents of Radio Active, On The Hour, Chambers, The Harpoon, The Sunday Format - all of not so long ago. Parsons and Naylor do drag on a bit... bring back Happidrome!! |
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Crusoe
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Post by Crusoe on Jun 24, 2005 4:31:29 GMT -5
it would explain why there are so many more desperately unfunny sketches and scripts too. Chuck it out on radio first, it's a cheaper risk. I heard armando iannucci's latest offering last week - there seemed to be a running gag about Jonathan King's paedophilia. Hardly side splitting the first time, so why repeat it armando? too lazy matey... Yes, that’s true, Michael: there are undoubtedly some things that definitely take a while to settle down and others that never really do get to be particularly funny. I also think that the amount of new output each week is relatively high (albeit that a lot of it may be new series of old programmes) means that there is always a risk of a lack of quality control. I’ve been quite disappointed with the patchiness of stuff that Armando Iannucci has done since “On the Hour” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge”. Radio as clearly been a proving ground for comedy, with many radio programmes And there’s no doubt that personal taste makes a considerable difference: I love “The Shuttleworths” but know people who don’t see the point. I suppose that sense of humour is a personal thing. May I put a word in for Linda Smith's 'History of Timewasting' series - that had me laughing out loud, which is rare these days... But where are the equivalents of Radio Active, On The Hour, Chambers, The Harpoon, The Sunday Format - all of not so long ago. You may, indeed, put in a word for Linda Smith’s “A Brief History of Timewasting”, Captain: a wonderful programme (as you’d expect from Linda Smith). As for a new “Chambers” or “The Sunday Format”, I’m not sure these programmes are definitely dead and gone, are they? So we may have new series. You are probably right that we are missing a spoof broadcast along the lines of “Radio Active” or “On the Hour” (or those great documentary series “Delve Special” and “People Like Us”) but the programmes you’ve listed probably spanned a period of over ten years, so we may have to wait a while. Actually, it’s interesting how some comedies do date a bit quickly. Listening to repeats of “Radio Active”, it doesn’t seem to be quite as funny as I remember it being and yet old episodes of “Hancock’s Half Hour” still seem brilliant, despite being older than me. |
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Post by Captain Nudnick on Jun 25, 2005 6:27:26 GMT -5
I confess it has taken me a while to warm to The Shuttleworths, but I got there in the end. And that spoof drama about the Lakeland Poets left me completely cold... still you can't like everything...
Have you noticed that you can roughly place a radio comedy show in its period on the basis of the size of the orchestra? Bandwagon - the Jack Hylton band and singers, ITMA - full concert orchestra, The Goon Show -- full band, ISIRTA - Leon Cohen had about a seven-piece band I think, Hello Cheeky -- the Dennis King Trio...
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Upsetter
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Post by Upsetter on Jun 29, 2005 11:30:48 GMT -5
Sorry I'm just too nervous to reply to a thread started by Dulcie. I really can't comment much on radio humour although I quite like it when I do listen. Its a case of perception really, prior to the invention of the TV set peoples ears were more focused on listening. However years of living in the working class shirt-hole of Salford has left me bereft of this hearing sense and I am still learning to reaquire it.
'Shuttleworths'?? is he the guy who used to be Jilted John. He's funny in a whimsical way but listen he is no Harry Hill, let alone a new Tony Hancock. Radio humour is crap. Lytlleton comes up with some reasonable Jazz humour but that is picked up from the Jazz clubs. I mean Ronnie Scott was full of dry quips but he told them night after night..they're good anecdotes that have been embellished. These guys aren't comedians though - they aren't spontaneous. A true comedian can just ramble off into a tangent like Peter Cooke and people have the intellignece to realise this. Hancock was a different kettle of fish he was a 'comic actor' - in my view the best - but not acomedian. They are few and far between..comedians are almost a forgotten dinosaur. I'd agree with Dirk that nowadays there aren't people like Tommy Cooper, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers...listen, I don't care what anyone says even Bernard was funny.
He could wipe the floor with todays comedians even though he's half dead with diabetes, arthritis and overweight. In his prime guys like him and Ken Dodd are peerless. Its sad but we won't see they're like again and if you say good riddance then please tell me who can merely walk onto a stage and have the audience in tears of laughter. The answer is no-one. The only person who comes close is Harry Hill and even he is a shadow of those that have gone before.
When you lot find the new Laurel and Hardy then send me an email marked important. Pity that it will NEVER arrive.
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Upsetter
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Post by Upsetter on Jun 29, 2005 11:32:13 GMT -5
I like shirt-holes...anyone got a button?  |
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Upsetter
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Post by Upsetter on Jun 29, 2005 11:40:30 GMT -5
Linda Smith the funniest comedian. I don't think so, but maybe in a scripted programme she is funny. I saw her on HIGNFY and she was pretty good for a guest but nothing special. Paul Merton and Ian Hislop just about manage to breathe some life into it. Even so, it depends on the guests and the compere to feed them - if they don't, its tedious. Occasionally its okay but the formula is getting tired. I give it two more series at the most. Bring the sexmad cocaine sniffer back on - he was good!  |
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