February 2015 Don't tell him, Pike

Dad's Army
"Don't tell him Pike." I dare you to watch this extract from the Deadly Attachment episode without laughing;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3SqxUomwk

Bluestone 42
Weak comedy, similar to the sensation of drinking orange squash that hasn't quite had enough squash put in it.
The opening's probably the only funny moment; when an Afghan driver's handbrake stops working and he's pulled out of a car before it runs over a bomb. The rest is trying to milk humour out of lice eating out the inside of a Scotsman with a high-pitched voice's penis. Tepid like the majority of BBC sitcoms at present.

Almost Married 
By Ben Cookson (Former Bournemouth University Scriptwriter)



Ben came into Uni to show us his comedy film and give us a few insights into the industry. He's very much into taking a shit situation in life, in this case cheating, and transforming it into a movie script. The result was a comedy, which, in its essence should have been a drama. I found the dumb, sidekick friend a bit gimmicky and reminiscent of your typical rom-com, whilst the moments of poignancy such as the main character trying to keep the secret of his contracted chlamydia from his wife. In fact, the only humorous moments lay in sparks of laddish humour, such as the opening (probably the best part) where they play paintball naked, inspecting each other's urine in the pub urinal, and drinking from a purple dildo. It seems that Ben had more a knack for creating moments of drama and empathy, which is why this shouldn't have been advertised as a Rom-Com.
I happen to like the occasional moment of grubby humour, but 97 minutes of it is unfortunately a but much. Very well directed and produced though, the shots flowed smoothly into each other and the camera angles were appealing to the eye. So I'd leave my rating here at 'Almost Funny.'

Movie 43



People say its the worst film ever made. I say it's not a film- it's basically a series of sketches by different writers, but some are side-splittingly funny.

They include;
-Bollocks on neck
-Will you poo on me?
-Having first period in front of guys

Any appeal to you?

January 2015 Less Cake More Excercise

Viz magazine, January Issue:

My favourite issue of Viz, though only my second so far. Packed full of dirty humour, a memorable article includes; 'Man calls the police after spotting a lion in the woods, but it turns out to be Beegees Singer Barry Gibb having a shit in a bush.'
'Less Cake More Excercise' also gets alot of laughs in how obvious but true it is.

This Mitchell and Webb Book By Mitchell and Webb
Packed full of humour, shockingly funny in its randomness, as in the above; 'Be Careful when Doing Something Stupid' with a picture of a man drilling in the bath.
Other articles include How to Cope with Nudists "who go on about what they're doing is natural" and an advert for Mitchell and Webb toilet roll; "Our Face, Your Arse!"

December 2014

Cardinal Burns, Double Act 06/12/14 4OD
After first seeing this sketch act perform a hilarious show at Edinburgh Fringe, I had to see their impeccable character comedy on 4OD.
Banksy is a character to remember, taking our cultural expectations and turning them on their head.


Bad Robots, By Ben Spiteri 06/12/14 4OD

Loved the prank in Bournemouth with the two 'Ride the Dinosaur' machines; The mother puts her daughter on the alternate one which works, then stops working when she places her on it. Such a simple idea, to take small technologies and mess with them, but very funny.
As writer Ben Spiteri explains;  “It’s like a hidden camera show mixed with a sketch show. A lot of our stuff isn’t horrendously mean. We are preying on natural frustration of self-automated equipment that companies want to make."
Other memorable ones included the intelligent Pub Quiz machine (where they made them think they'd won but fooled them at the last minute), my all time favourite being the Photobooth (making them stand on the seat and producing warped, cartoon versions of their faces.

Life: Ryan and James Comedy Sketch Show, Bournemouth University 05/12/14

After the unnecessary blind-folding of the audience, which Ryan insisted was integral to the show (and it wasn't - Paying for entry in the form of root vegetables rather than money was a good idea though, they're definitely going to have a good Christmas dinner), the show began, and was a pleasant surprise.
Despite too many long pauses, and many sketches having a lack of direction, there were some very funny moments they could have capitalised on more; The 'We've Had Every Conversation' sketch, where two blokes meet in a pub garden and realise they've said everything was my favourite - it builds so much on that socially awkward notion of being stuck for what to say, which was heightened by the Beckett/Pinteresque pauses this duo seem to rely on so heavily. At a deeper level it may also have been inspired by Life's bleakness in relation to the shows title theme, but I digress.
The desert island sketch, though also too long, was also memorable; When James made the suggestion to resort to Cannibalism, it gave the sketch dark humour twist and some kind of resolution, which others were perhaps lacking. Take the 'Shop' sketch series, where though the repetition of the James (The Shopkeeper's) directness "This is a Flower Shop/Barbers/Airport" was a good stylistic gag, it lost direction - there was something missing. It had set something good up, only to kill it in a minimalist way which both smacked of complacency and offered no pay-off or satisfying resolution.
The use of slidehow pics was an inventive way of showing setting, however; such as the pub garden, vinyard, or desert island beach. It's a clear that a lot of thought had gone into the production and the audience experience and that paid off in the end.

Comedic Inspirations

Karl Pilkington

Karl Pilkington is an English radio and television personality, travel show presenter, actor, author, and former radio producer. He gained prominence as the producer of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's radio programme on XFM.

Discussion:

Ricky’s Comments:

It’s just ignorance. There’s nothing malicious about him.

It’s so easy to show a new experience to him.

Karl’s Comments:

The fact that they call it a wonder already annoys me. I’ll decided if it’s a wonder. (Individualism, anti-conventionality, disagreeing).

People say God made everything but I don’t think so. I saw (in Peru) this fat worm and thought why would you make that?

Examples:

Karlology:
-Karlology- What I've learnt so far...

"Joe explained how it worked. I pretended I understood. If Joe had taken a picture of what my brain was doing at that moment he'd have seen it overheating."
-Cat getting tapeworm pulled out of its arse.

An Idiot Abroad:

-Why would I want to go inside the palace, I wouldn’t be able to see it. It’s the like the tale of the Ugly person and the Beautiful person. It’s better to be the ugly one looking at the beautiful person than the other way round.

-The Great Wall of China: It goes on for miles but so does the M6.

-Peru: (Falls in muddy river, holding stick) Fuckinghell… (Throws stick in river) I want to go home!

-Bullshit on Russian Train

-Amazon tantrum in River

-Egypt: Being hassled by locals: “If I want a drink see you and if I want food see you.”

Ends with summary of opinion: “It takes you forever to get anything done here.”

“You don’t see that in the brochure do you? Shitty old nappy flying through the air. They leave that out.”

-Prostate Exam: “It’s like your touching a lung.”

An Idiot Abroad (Book):

For me one of the most extraordinary voices in literature (and hilarious.) After watching the TV series that the book comes with, Pilkington captures the reality like no other writer or journalist, and that may be because he doesn’t act like a writer or journalist- he’s just himself. Particularly as a piece of modern travel writing Pilkington’s highly comic, frank and grounded voice goes quite some way in pointing out to any budding traveller that the rest of the world really is a “shithole,” and that Louis Armstrong must’ve been high when he wrote; ‘What a wonderful world.’ (A quote not in the book, but in the TV series) More evidently in the actual book however, you get a real sense of his wisdom, above all when he visits Petra, and notices how it’s better to look at it than own it and be inside it, where you just have the view of the caves, as he points out; “It’s better to look ugly and be staring at something beautiful all day, than be beautiful and look at something ugly all day.” Another example is in the TV series, where he figures; “Happiness is like Cake. Eat too much of it and you get sick.”

The Ricky Gervais Show (Podcast)
The World of Karl Pilkington (Book)
The Moaning of Life (Book)

Peep Show

Premise: Peep Show follows the lives of two men from their twenties to thirties. Mark Corrigan (Mitchell), who has steady employment for most of the series, and Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne (Webb), an unemployed would-be musician, must share the same London Flat.

The idea for the show is one of the most original for a sitcom; show the camera's POV from the characters' and have the character's spontaneous thought-process run throughout the scenes. These are the subtle lines that we hear ourselves saying in our minds but wouldn't dare sat out loud sheerly as they're too honest, sexual and bizzare yet totally beelievable; (Jeremy using a pound note for self-arousal) "Is this wrong?" 

What makes series five is how Mark and Jeremy's Inner and Outer motivations are conflicted and explored. At a basic level, Mark wants Jeremy out of the house so he can get a proper job and stop eating all his food out of the fridge, as well as let a self-centred Australian girl move in who uses him and doesn't love him really. Towards the second half the series, it's Jeremy's turn to try and "get out of this shit hole," as he puts it, when he makes a very weak contact in the music industry and sees that as his path to fame. When this goes to pot and he ends up playing at a Christian Rock Festival with only one audience member, Jeremy spends time in a cult before accepting the reality of the world and settling for his flatmate existence with Mark. This is because, deep down, their inner desire is simply to be content with what they've got. This separates the show as something unique, unlike other mostly farcical and generic sitcoms- it takes the ordinary things in everyday British life and tries to make sense of them through wry observant humour. And a British audience love it, because we know that the biggest problems in life come in the most odinary of forms- I would hate my fridge to be raided by a squatter who doesn't pay the rent.

Reception/Interviews:

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/apr/07/comedy

Production:

Objective Productions

Themes:
Psychology

Fear: Social anxiety and having to deal with other people (Sartre: Hell is other people)

Romantic vs Career Aspirations

Mundanity

Friendship

Characters:

Mark Corrigan
Jez Usborne
Superhands

Big Suz

Johnson

Sophie

Dobby

Examples:

-Wedding

Jez tells Mark about the Affair so he can call of wedding:

“Look Jez, everyone’s getting ready for a wedding.”

“Well, you did basically arrange a wedding.”

“You… lovely bastard, this is dynamite, why the hell didn’t you tell me about this earlier!”

Mixed emotions where the character’s logic and reasoning is so twisted due to the twisted circumstances.

-Holiday

Mark and Jeremy try to burn dog corpse:

Dark Comedy

Jez: Where’s the spade? You didn’t bring a spade?

Mark: Do you think I’m some kind of freelance, dog murdering, mafia man?

Jez: We’re just going to have to use our hands…

Mark: Jeremy, there are many things I’d do for you, but digging a hole in the wintery earth with my bare hands so you can bury the corpse of a dog you’ve just killed, is not one of them.

-Dance Class

Mark: I’ve just walked into my own personal nightmare… (Psychological, plays on the character’s thought process and FEAR)

Mark: But if there’s no room here for people who don’t stand for everything you believe in, then, what sort of a hippy free for all is this?

-Sophie’s Parents

Mum: Make’s you look very handsome Mark, like a policeman.

Mark: Thank you… You, also look… very attractive…

Mark VO: Attractive? What are you going to say next, Mark? She’s got big tits?

Mitchell and Webb

A comedy sketch duo who made their debut performing regularly at Edinburgh Fringe. They started writing for the sketch shows Big Train, Armstrong and Miller, before being allowed to perform their own show; That Mitchell and Webb Situation, Sound and finally, Look.

Inspiration: Morecambe and Wise, Monty Python, The Two Ronnies, Fry and Laurie, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Rowan Atkinson

Themes:

Bathos/Realism

Character

Social inability/awkwardness

Examples:

-Bit of Ham:

It works for Radio because listeners can imagine huge timescale of Ham remaining on a lip for forty years. A knack for making, subtle, minor situations hilarious.

Theme: Lack of Male Grooming and communication on the subject amongst males. (Relatable for British office workers)

Premise: Ken (Rob) finally decides to tell his colleague Rod (David) about a bit of ham he’s had on his lip for the past 40 years.

Set-Up:

Ken: Before everything goes off later… (Liveness)

False appraisal to soften the blow: “You’re an asset to the company.”

“I feel a bit bad really for not mentioning it before… You’ve got a bit of ham… just… just below your lip..”

Development:

Rod: A bit of Ham?

Ken: Yeah

Rod: I don’t think so…

Ken: Yes you have.

Rod: But I didn’t have ham for lunch.

Ken: Rod… It’s been there the whole time I’ve known you.

(List of three)

Ken: You must have wondered why you never married…

Rod: Was that why I missed all the key meetings?

Ken: Well… the Ham was a factor (Indirectness)

Ken: The moment had gone (to tell Rod, politeness principle)

Rod: Let me see a mirror… My God, it was Ham!

Punchline:

Rod: You know, now I think of it, I did have the feeling, for as long as I can remember, that things did, generally, smell of Ham…

-Touching Cloth:

Premise: A Dry Cleaning Business agree on the name ‘Touching Cloth’ for their company.

Theme: Co-orperate setting (reflects life of ordinary British citizens). Gullability, gullable yet believable and relatable characters in extraordinary situation. David: Oh great, yeah, Touching Cloth, that’s certainly a phrase I’ve heard!

Using Double Entendre and play on words.

Set-Up:

David: Great News! The Bank have agreed on a loan so now we can set up our own dry cleaning business. Now we can give it a name… (Obvious exposition shows stupid, gullable characters)

Development:

Rob: It’s Touching Cloth…

David: Oh great, yeah, Touching Cloth, that’s certainly a phrase I’ve heard!

Rob: It has a ring to it doesn’t it? (Play on Words)

Olivia: Part of what it means is what we’ll be doing. As dry cleaners well be spending most of our day Touching Cloth.

David: And the customers who bring their clothes in, they’ll all be Touching Cloth as well.

Rob: What’s really funny is that Touching Cloth has a double-meaning. Just not quite sure what it is…

Olivia: Does anyone know what the other meaning of Touching Cloth is?

James: I know… (Cheeky voice, first introduction, as though hes been sat there the whole time, like the audience- beauty if radio in the surprise of him being there)

David: Good… Is it funny?

James: (Pause) Yes, it is, it is very funny. What you’re doing is you so need a poo, that a bit of the poo is actually touching the cloth of the inside of your pants.

Olivia: That is funny, it’s funny because it involves poo. (Gullable characters)

Punchline:

James: (The only intelligent character, manipulating them possibly into calling the company this name) The way I see it, there’s an upside because I think the message we’ll be giving is that even if you have got poo on your clothes… We can handle it! In fact we could almost call it Touching Cloth question mark. Touching Cloth? Then step this way!

-Incidental Music:

Premise: Toby (David) the office worker has to explain to his office workers why he has a band heightening the drama of his everyday life.

Radio: Works well on radio in that you can imagine the band without having the inconvenience of actors playing it. Perfect for satire on generic music and sound effects known by the British Public.

Theme: Another office sketch, perhaps aiming to brighten the realities of everyday drudgery in working British life. Generic Music in the British Conscience.

Set-Up:

Toby: Morning Geoff… [phones ring SFX]

Geoff: Morning, Tobs…

Toby: Actually, Geoff, I’ve got a bit of bad news… [Band plays generic, ‘Bad News’ music]

Development:

Geoff: … Actually, Sorry, who are those blokes?

Toby: Them? They’re my backing music. They heighten the drama of my everyday life.

Oh, here’s Paul [Generic ‘Fear’ Music]

No guys that’s not that Paul, this is Paul who sent the funny memo of dos and don’ts of marketing strategy. Take it easy, Paul. [Generic Entertainer music]

Toby: Ok, need to get some photocopying paper (announcing expo)

[opens the door, suspense music]

Jennifer: Toby!

Toby: Ah! What’s going on? Why have you got a knife?

J: It’s a letter opener, Toby, from head office [generic movie ‘revelation’ sound]

Toby: What is it?

J: About switching the office to broadband I thought we could discuss it over lunch? [Generic Romantic dinner date music]

J: And you know what, why don’t you just sweep me off to… [band play generic ‘Paris’ music which cues her in for…] PARIS!

Toby: I’m not made of money… [band play generic sad, swooning music]

Resolution:

Toby: In fact, I don’t know to be honest how I’m going to pay the band… [Band stop playing]

-Heavens Above:

Premise: Ken gets denied access to heaven as he is not Amish.

Theme: The Clash of Religion and Popular British Culture.

Set-Up:

Angel: Welcome to the gates of Heaven, Ken. [Religious chorus sing in high pitch, transports British audience to Heaven]

Angel: Tell me, do you have a washing machine, more traditional or more tub and mangle affair? (bathos)

Ken: It’s new….

Angel: Oh… And do you own a car with an internal combustion engine?

Ken: Yes.

Development:

Angel: (Finshing list of three) Ok, here comes the Clincher… Are you Amish at all, Ken?

Ken: To get into heaven you have to go around like everything’s before the 1900s?

Angel: He’s really not that keen on anything after the 1830s, actually.

Ken: Surely, in his infinite wisdom, he hasn’t said I have to be, Amish…

Angel: (Pause) I think that’s very much the route he’s taken actually.

Ken: How was I supposed to know?

Angel: Well, if you’ve read Amish literature they do state they are the one true way….

Ken: Yes but all religions say that.

Angel: Yes but they’re all wrong. Apart from the Amish. Plus there was Witness with Harrison Ford and Kerry McGuiness (Popular film reference). We thought that was a very strong hint.

Ken: Ah well I’ll go to hell at least my whole family will be down there.

Angel: Actually, your Mum was into David Owen wasn’t she?

Ken: Yes.

Resolution:

Angel: The Amish was a very recent enthusiasm. Before that God was mad on the SDP.

-Downloading the Internet:

Premise: David must give the internet back to AOL after accidentally downloading it.

Theme: Ordinary Human mistakes on a grand, chaotic scale. Human struggle with technology. Rob the ‘Tech Wiz’ and David the ‘Newbie.’

Uses twisted logic that can only be explained through human imagination and therefore radio.

Set-Up:

David: Hi Rob, thanks for coming round, I know what a Wiz you are with computers, and I’m having a bit of a problem with the internet.

Development:

David: There was this button, and I double clicked it, and, before I knew it I’d… downloaded the internet.

Rob: Are you sure?

David: Look at my desktop; you see that file called ‘the internet.’ That’s the internet.

Rob answers call [squeaky irritated phone voice]

Rob: Oh dear, David, that was AOL. They want to know what you’ve done with the internet.

David: Shall email it? … CC Bill Gates he’ll probably want a copy (All the people associated with technology)

Rob: David, its AOL again. They say they’ve got the internet but they can’t open the file.

Punchline:

David: You’re not very good with video recorders are you?

Rob: Why?

David: It’s just that last night I set the video to record Jonathan Creek (Ordinary Popular British reference) and when I came home I realised I’d accidently recorded all of television.

-A Bigger Spoon

Set Up: David likes Robert’s spoon but asks for a bigger one.

Development: Rob doesn’t come in with a bigger one and David tries to explain it to him with no success.

Punchline: David tries to draw a bigger spoon to explain but can’t draw one himself, Rob’s punchline being; “It’s difficult, isn’t it?”

Theme: Takes such a universal idea of struggling to understand and explain something and applying it to such an ordinary, obscure subject and ‘spoon design.’

-How to Impress a Woman

Takes renaissance French writer trope of them being all romantic and flips it on it’s head, the writer encouraging him to grab her attention by acting chavvy (which actually works).

Other Sketches...

-American Idol Interview

-Nazis

-Bawdy 70s Hospital

-Heaven for the Amish

-Heroin

-Now we know

-Evil Vicar

-Biscuit Insurance

This Mitchell and Webb Book
Backstory - David Mitchell

Rowan Atkinson Live

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

Frank Skinner Live at the London Palladium

Kevin Bridges - The Full Story

Michael McIntyre - Live and Laughing

Jack Whitehall Gets Around

Shaun of the Dead

Creature Comforts

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter. S. Thompson

The Impressions Show - Culshaw & Stephenson

Fresh Meat - Bain and Armstrong

Alan Partridge - Coogan and Iannucci
Knowing Me Knowing You
I'm Alan Partridge
Alpha Papa

Porridge - Webber, Clement and La Frenais

Blackadder - Curtis, Elton, Atkinson and Lloyd

The Royle Family - Cash and Aherne

Father Ted - Linehan and Mathews

Outnumbered - Andy Hamilton

Annie Hall - Woody Allen

Manhattan - Woody Allen

Interiors - Woody Allen

Stardust Memories - Woody Allen

Hannah and Her Sisters - Woody Allen

Dad's Army 
By Jimmy Perry and David Croft

Series Six, Episode One: The Deadly Attachment

What makes this episode so gripping is that the platoon are lumped with such a great responsibility which you know could have high stakes if it got out of hand; they have to look after German prisoners of war for the night, comically offering to buy them fish and chips. The tensions there as you're waiting for the plan to fall to pieces, which is does when the German Captain holds a gun to Hodge's head and Jones is forced to put a bomb down his trousers.

-As they discuss the fantastical possibility of Nun's falling in parachutes;
WILSON It's really perfectly simple, you see as they float down, the turbulence of the air will cause the habits to rise and we shall be able to see their legs, that way we can tell if they're real nuns or not.
MAINWARING A very good point, Wilson, that's it, look at their legs.
GODFREY I don't think I should care to look at Nun's legs sir. It would be very impolite.
MAINWARING You'd just have to force yourself, Godfrey, this is a war.

-The German Captain threatens Pike for making a joke about Hitler;
CAPTAIN Your name will also go on the list. What is it?
Mainwaring crosses over, followed by Wilson.
WAINWARING Don't tell him, Pike.
CAPTAIN Pike, thankyou.



Fawlty Towers

-John Cleese and Connie Booth
Theme: Class
Conflict: Reality
Active Question: What will go wrong with Basil's class ambitions this time?
Story: Basil's class ambitions
Hotel owner Basil Fawlty, his wife Sybil, chambermaid Polly and Spanish Waiter Manuel attempt to run a Torquay hotel whilst presented with stressful, tense farcical situations.
The most important element of Fawlty Towers is Basil having to come to terms with ordinary life running the hotel and accepting the failure of his dream that it will one day be a haven for upper-class visitors. We might not relate to his regularly snobbish character but we don't have to- because what we can completely understand is his stress and disappointment that the visions and dreams we have in life of success probably won't come true, and we will have to live in the ultimately more important situation of the reality we live in now.

Themes: Class Aspiration, Snobbery, Order vs Chaos

Characters: Basil Fawlty, Sybil Fawlty, Polly Sherman, Manuel

Examples:

Gourmet Night:

Preparing the banquet scene:

Visual: All character dressed smartly, everything ordered and pristine.

Plot: Manuel confused at beginning and ends sequence with an unsolved, ignored problem- audience anticipating, waiting for the punchline of that problem. “Mr Fawlty, I’m very upset!”

Character: Centres around Basil. Two-faced, horrible to his staff and ‘ordinary residents’ in order to please the visiting aristocracy.

Perfectionist: Manuel says spoon is clean so he smears it in his face, hits him with it and replies “It isn’t now.”

Re-enters with spoon: “Give it to me… thank you!” Forces it onto table so Manuel spins back in slapstick manner.

Snob: When you’re presenting pristine cuisine you don’t want the working class sticking its nose in it.”

To ordinary old women: “You two your supposed to be up in your rooms tonight.” “What are we supposed to have for dinner?” “I’ll send you up some bread and cheese…” Like prisoners/vermin!

Themes: Class snobbery and double-sidedness

The Royle Family

Themes: Family, Ordinary Conversation/Dialogue, Lethargy, Home

Characters: Jim Royle, Barbara Royle, Denise Best, Dave Best, Antony Royle, Nana RoyleThe Royle
Family- Series 2 ep 2/3/4
-Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash
Conflict: Arguments, character traits and habits
Active Question: What's Jim's hilarious response going to be to each situation?
Story: The family's relationships
A northern family must confront each other's wide-ranging personalities as they sit around the sofa watching TV.
As opposed to Fawlty Towers, the characters in The Royle Family are content with they have, but what makes this series to funny is that it holds up a mirror to the people presumably sat around the sofa watching the programme: The Family. Nana, can point at the TV and go; "that's me," as can Dad and Mum and the children, because they are represented there in all their unique yet lovable variety, the dynamic of a working class family household.

Fry and Laurie

Themes: Wit, Language/Wordplay, Education

Examples:

Holiday photos sketch:

Set-up: Hugh showing boring holiday photos of holiday car. “Handles beautifully, we were very pleased with the colour.” “Here’s another one of the lunch tray.” “Here’s the indicators and so forth.”

Development: Stephen’s sarcastic, scathing remarks on them in pretended interest. (Relatable, having to maintain face). “were you, by criky…” chucks photo away. “Oh, I think that’s going to give me an erection”

Punchline: Hugh is actually in control, forcing him to look at the photos as a punishment: “Well, you touch my daughter again and it’ll be a slideshow do you understand?”

The Two Ronnies

Themes: Wordplay, misinterpretation, irony, social taboo/convention

Characters: Shopkeeper, Librarian

Frank Skinner

Examples:

Come backs to audience: “West Bromwich shite what a lovely greeting mate. Haven’t even walked onto the fucking stage yet.”

Interacts with audience: “Who’s been on this stage? Who? Buck’s fizz have been on here?”

Mentions regional places in UK: “You know, Norwich? It’s the shite place with tractors and horses” Takes piss out of woman from Fife by doing jig.

Audience anticipation: “If I mention football tonight, you’re my person who doesn’t know about football, sort of a Jimmy Hill figure” (Pop culture, celebrity reference that everyone understands and laughs at.)

Took the piss out of me when I was from Oxfordshire by saying “I can tell.”

Dirty- implies Duke of Edinburgh had affair with Diana. (Takes iconic British figures and satirises them)

Toy Story (It's in the characters)

The Toy Story films are such an excellent idea. The guys who made it must have had so much fun.

They take characters who we know so well, simply due to the fact they are Toys we probably played with as kids. Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the Aliens are iconic inventions of the film itself, which are probably popular as real toys now. But the other characters who are the protagonists of the challenges they face in each film are based on real toys:
Everyone already knew Slinky Dog how his long abdomen may constantly cause problems.
Rex's character is one of the funniest as we all recognize the shape of his cheekbones and his excitable, tiny eyes. The funniest moment is when he defeats the villain at the climax of Toy Story 2 by accidentally turning around and knocking him off an elevator with his tail.
Hamm the piggy bank who appears to be the most knowledgeable. His response to Woody's line after sliding down a shoot, "don't go all at once" -"I think he said all at once..." is one of Toy Story 3's most hilarious moments.
Mr and Mrs Potato Head are of course toys we know and love, often characterised by the fact their various parts go missing.
Not forgetting Bullseye, who we can closely associate with the board game 'Buckaroo.'

Then the variety of minor, but no less recognisable characters introduces across the series. Barbie and Ken's relationship in Toy Story 3 is priceless, as Barbie tries to trick Ken by pretending to be interested in his clothes collection, only to torture him by threatening to rip all of them to pieces.
Then the Cymbal Monkey who watches Surveillance and screams and bashes his cymbals when Toys try to escape. The scene where Woody and Slinky try to take him down, screaming, made me cry with laughter.
And finally The Boxing Robots, who, despite being in Toy Story 2 for the best part of ten seconds, gave me stomach pains from the amount I laughed. They help the Toys out at first, then start shouting at each other and punching.


Toy Story has made its success out of characters we already know and love from childhood. That's why the ending of Toy Story 3 when Andy gives his toys to a new owner is so emotional. I really hope they make a new one.

Themes: Companionship, Childhood, Abandonment

Characters: Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Rex, Slinky Dog, Hamm, Mr Potato Head, Mrs Potato Head, Bullseye, Squeeze Toy Aliens

Reception: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/10514520/Toy-Story-review.html

“Toy Story's triumph is owed to such old-fashioned virtues as pace, dramatic tension, a gripping plot and well-drawn characters…”

The Simpsons

Premise: A satirical depiction of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.

Themes: Family, Stereotyping/Cliché, Television, Culture, Society, Human Condition

Characters: Homer Simpson, Bart Simpson, Marge Simpson, Lisa Simpson, Edna Krabappel

Mr Burns, Nelson Muntz, Ned Flanders, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Krusty the Clown, Milhouse, Moe, Ralph, Grampa, Barney, Smithers, Patty and Selma, Groundskeeper Willie, Principal Skinner, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Dr Hibbert, Kent Brockman, Mayor Quimby, Maggie

Reception: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/reviews

Wisdom and Chapman
-A Stitch in Time Sketch: Raising Old Man in chair so high his head gets stuck in lamp. Fumbling around in beard to try and find his mouth. Pulls woman's middle tooth out so she's left with a massive gap and the manager orders him to "get out and never come back!"


A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
23rd February 2012, Lyric, London
Filter

A ‘Dream’ Performance:
When entering the Lyric, rumours spread of another highly pretentious, heightened portrayal of the traditional Shakespearian play; ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ They couldn’t have been more wrong…


From the moment the curtain went up in the bourgeois, fancifully decorated proscenium arch theatre to reveal the grimy taps and tiles of what appeared to represent a boy’s changing room, I thought we’d turned up to the wrong production. And how unforgettably wrong I was; food fights, loud rock music, alcohol, sex, sick, mayhem and the characters acting as you would after a hangover; Filter spurned out copious amounts humour and bathos in their original interpretation of a play, heavily concerned with the chaos and entanglement of love.
For me, the production seemed to evoke social change, the hippy costumes, youthful characters and popular musical elements reflecting juvenile rebellion in the swinging sixties. The bathos surrounding Oberon for example, a character normally associated with great strength and dominance, was humorously interpreted as an Austin Powers-like, superhero wannabe nerd who relied on his inhaler after delivering his revenge speech against Titania, later falling heroically through middle of the stage to the audience’s amusement, combined with his close proxemics to them as he fell. Men kissing; the Royal court not watching the Mechanicals performance; these additions and omissions created a deliberately vibrant and modern production. In the scene, for example, where Puck controls Demetrius and Lysander to make them fight one another, instead of the cheeky, irritating Puck seen in most productions, he was reborn here into a cynical stagehand. Here he controlled the lovers as though they were in a video game, with various elements used to heighten this retro, robotic effect. The flashing blue lighting, the electronic laser sounds, and the comic timing in the lover’s rigid shooting movements combined to successfully drag this old comedy into the twenty-first century as Filter had intended.
After months of touring round the country since first staging the production at Latitude Music Festival, it is clear how Filter, with a reputation for their innovative use of sound, managed to recreate this popular, festival atmosphere in the proscenium arch theatre, and did so to great success. With the audience’s hands in air as the lovers danced to live rock music from the cleverly named band; ‘Peter Quince and the Mechanicals,’ and Puck sitting watching the lover’s entanglement whilst sat in a deck chair scoffing sausage rolls and drinking fosters beer, the performance truly brought out the festival element. As ensemble member Chris Branch mentioned in the post-performance question and answer session; “The absurdness of making magic through sound helped to create another world,” and this play certainly demonstrated how live and recorded sound can have such a powerful effect on the imagination. Sound, in its invisibility, was, therefore, used to great effect in portraying the world of magic and entrancement, particularly during the moment Puck burst through the flimsy set wall and surprised the audience further by curiously scraping a pine cone with a stick against the microphone. The following use of recorded sound whizzing round the entire theatre enveloped the audience and had them on the edge of their seats. More comic moments from Filter’s play on sound came when Bottom cheekily placed the microphone to the lover’s tent as they were making love and came on as the transformed ass, thankfully without the generic visual head prop. Instead, the suggestion of an ass through recorded ass sounds and Bottom’s confused reactions subtly informed the audience of his transformation.
Another part of the show’s success was down to their regular audience interaction and breaking of the fourth wall. In the play’s opening before the curtain went up, Peter Quince entered to deliver a meta-theatrical comedic introduction, which created from the beginning an informal relationship between the actors and audience- He even knelt down on the edge of the stage, picked up and commented on the flowery pattern of a drama student’s notebook. An idea influenced by The Play What I Wrote, his excited mention of the star guest “Gary Oldman” playing Bottom built up to the comic anti-climax that he got stuck in the lift- A sense of shock ensued as the audience lights came up to convince the audience that play had come to a complete stop, heightened by the sheer bathos when, sat in our row, actor Mark Benton was asked to get up on the stage and play Bottom. The prolonging humour came from his genuine, believable performance of an audience member; he trudged onto the stage in his coat and held a Sainsbury’s shopping bag, continuing this bathos as he proclaimed; “I wasn’t expecting this!” This is met the company’s intentions for the mechanicals, that their neutral, bland costumes and grounded, honest, natural and interactive performance should be accessible to any audience and, in their subdued body language and vocal delivery, contrast with the over-excited lovers.
My impression of the blank, grimy set with whitewash lighting was of a palette upon which the contrastingly chaotic lover’s entanglement could be played. This was corroborated with actor Jonathan Broadbent’s explanation: “The minimalist set, influenced by Brook’s production, allowed us to portray the live element which shows how Shakespeare can be ordinary and everyday.” It was this ‘live element,’ as he further mentioned, which bridged the gap between Shakespeare’s original aim and their own; even in his time, some of the play would have been improvised, and as for the language critics, there were still many moments in Filter’s production such as Puck’s epilogue which communicated character depth upheld by Shakespeare’s entrancing poetry. It is clear, therefore, that they targeted a mixed audience to keep Shakespeare alive in the modern day with a highly individual, comic and original interpretation, not to reject it. Indeed, the performance attempted to reject the seemingly over-played, pretentious façade of the play’s previous interpretations, and did so to great success on night.  

JD Salinger- The Catcher in the Rye

I think this book speaks for a whole generation of rejected adolescents, and it is no wonder the author decided never to let the book be turned into a film as it is deeply personal, and heavily centred around voice as opposed to plot. More specifically, Salinger crafts with impeccable detail the first person adolescent voice of Holden Caulfield, which is almost comic in its sense of teenage angst, rather spurning from the idea that his story itself recounts a meaningless failure; he’s in love with a girl, hires a prostitute and yet nothing happens, reflecting on the largely depressed way the narrator views his life.  

The narrator’s repetitive use of the adjective ‘phony’ and direct address in; ‘the phoniest thing you ever heard in your life’ indicates a deliberately crafted hyperbole which distinguishes this writer’s ability to observe the teenage voice in it’s most minute detail. Phrases which are also idiomatic to only this specific generation of teenagers fed up with moralizing adults include; ‘I was all out,’ comic alliteration in the phrase; ‘they got a big bang out of it,’ and exaggerative imagery in; ‘She was sore as hell.’

There are also comic aspects of this voice; Not only does Holden regularly add the phrase; ‘that killed me,’ whenever implying something is hilarious or incredibly phony or dire to endure, but, as though to imitate a weaker teenage temperament, he exaggerates the most unimportant of matters- For example, when he witnesses people in New York ‘laughing like hyenas at something you bet wasn’t funny,’ he characteristically generalizes the seemingly insignificant incident into a wider issue which makes me sympathise heavily with Caulfield view of ‘fake’ people and ‘fake’ jokes; ‘New York’s terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed.’ 

‘Game my ass. Some game’- minor sentences comically reflective of a taboo, youthful style of voice.

Themes: Innocence, mortality, youth, isolation, sexuality and sexual identity, sadness, wisdom and knowledge, lies and deceit, madness, and religion.

Alan Partridge

Reception/Reviews:

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/aug/11/alan-partridge-alpha-papa-review

Themes: Status, Public Profile, Material Possessions, Embarrassing Social Faux-Pas, Incompetence

Characters: Alan Partridge, Lynn Benfield, Michael, Dave Clifton, Sonja, Pat Farrell, SFO Steve Stubbs, Martin Fitch, Jason Cresswell

Outnumbered
-Andy Hamilton
Theme: Family Stability
Conflict: Childhood Power
Active Question: What must the parents deal with this time?
Story: A middle-aged couple must bring up their three children
An excellent ending in the last series, really lifting it up out of that downfall it had in previous series.
My favorite episode was when the family were scattered all over the place; work, the house, a newsagents and they had to phone Ben. It had the intensity of an episode of the American Thriller Series 24, and for this episode to hold that much tension and anticipation as I watched maintained my faith in the modern UK sitcom.


Brazzaville Teenager
Short Film by Michael Cera from Friedman's original story:
Silly, Humorous
As he attempts to save his father from deterioration, Michael convinces his curmudgeonly boss to perform a song which he believes will revive him. A slightly odd premise which doesn't really make sense, but we can see the obstacles to his desire- that the boss considers it stupid, and, when dragged into it by his wife finds out he is awful at singing. If it weren't for this films slight comic value it wouldn't have kept me engaged to watch the whole thing.


This is Spinal Tap
"They can't prove whose vomit it was that killed him."


When the cameraman interviews the rock band at the beginning about their many drummers who have died, including one who'd died on vomit and their response is; "They can't prove whose vomit it was that killed him..." You know you're in the hands of an expertly written film. They later explain what happened to the drummer after that one whilst playing on stage; "Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not widely reported."

The fact that it's a fictional rockumentary does not reduce how incredibly accurate and true to life their portrayal of rockstars and their life touring is like, made all the more crushing as they've hit a lowpoint in their careers. For example, as the manager explains to the group; "They're not going to release the album as they've decided the cover is sexist." Their response is; "What's wrong with being sexy?" Of course, their characters could be dismissed as 'stupid' from responses like this, but that would be to ignore their talent (their songs are actually quite good), endearingly observant behavior and the fact that they seem high almost 24/7, their lead guitarist's most pivotal line being; "There's such a fine line between stupid and clever..." Spinal Tap walks this line.

I couldn't contain my laughter when, as they began one show walking out of plastic pods, the basist got stuck in his pod and tried to get as the opening song continued. It is the precious moments like these which strike the comic appeal of Spinal Tap, and the fact it is focused on a very small, contained group of characters who go on a journey- To rescue the reputation of their once epic band, and repair the relationships that slowly become more heated, but we will be fixed in the end through the power of Rock and Roll.


Don't Start
Radio Comedy Series written and performed by Frank Skinner
Directed by Polly Thomas
S.2 Ep.2 The Toenail.
Well observed, clever and funny, Don't Start is a scripted comedy with a deceptively simple premise - an argument. Each week our couple fall out over another apparently trivial flashpoint - the Krankies, toenail trimming and semantics.
Loved how The Toenail was based around something so small and simple- this is where the funniest comedy comes from- the little things that annoy us and cause arguments like turning the heating up too much or using all the hot water in the shower.
In Pillow Talk I like the tension of the burglar in combination with the argument Neil and Kim have about the other women in his life.
Frank says:
"Having established, in the first series, that Neil and Kim are a childless academic couple who, during their numerous arguments, luxuriate in their own, and each other's, learning and wit, I've tried, in the second series, to dig a little deeper into their relationship. Love and affection, occasionally splutter into view, like a Higgs boson in a big tunnel-thing, but can such emotions ever prevail in a relationship where the couple prefers to wear their brains, rather than their hearts, on their sleeves? Is that too much offal imagery?"


The Naked Ape- The Controversial Classic of Man's Origins
Novel By Desmond Morris
Chapters include;
Origins ('An Ape's and Ape, a varlet's a varlet, though they be clad in silk or scarlet.') Even a space Ape must urinate.
Sex
Rearing
Exploring
Fighting
Feeding
Comfort
Animals

Would I Lie to You?

"Brian Cox spilt yogurt on the Hadron Collider"

(Credit it to the gameshow for its interactivity- the audience are participating mentally in trying to find out whether their increasingly comic stories are true or false.)

Man bites Dog

The way the protagonist, (if we should call him that,) treats his murders of innocent people in such a casual way is humorous, as is the way cameramen get caught up in the action, e.g. by going to bars with him and getting drunk, whilst being reluctant to do so at first. A brilliant lesson in nihilistic humour. 

The Unbelievable Truth
The rules of this radio gameshow are as follows: each of the four panelists present a short lecture that should be entirely false, save for five pieces of true information which they should attempt to smuggle past their opponents, cunningly concealed amongst the lies. Points are scored by truths that go unnoticed, while other panellists can win points if they spot a truth, or lose points if they mistake a lie for a truth.
-S. 12 ep.6:
Graeme Garden: "The shiny coating you see on some sweets is actually a substance secreted from the anus of the femal lack beatle."
BUZZ David Mitchell: Jeremy.
Jeremy: I'm going to go with the beatle's arse juice sweeties. They're an Indie band that I saw recently.

Sorry I Haven't Got a Clue

The format of the radio gameshow is very simple: four players are given silly things to do by the Chairman, with Colin Sell setting some of them to music.

-Uxbridge English Dictionary jokes

Stir-Fry: To arouse Stephen

Wallaby: Someone aspiring to be a kangaroo

Countryside: To kill Pierce Morgan

Homophobe: Somebody who doesn't like the Simpsons

-Jack Dee asks Tim Brooke-Taylor, Miles Jupp, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden to finish some lines from various romantic novels:

He stared at the lacy bra; "You know you're beautfiul... By James Blunt, she said."

Pulling him ever closer, he breathed into his ear... And his head began to inflate.

She stood in front of him, bathed in light and... In Tescos (good sense bathos here)

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? Thou art... Reminiscent of bbq smelling meat.

It was only when she entered the room that it finally dawned on me... I've got my hair caught in your corset. 

He clenched the two balls in his hand. My inner goddess is... Away fishing with friends for the weekend.

Taking a deep breath I walk in, and it feels like I've time travelled back to... the previous chapter.

It was not your lips you kissed but... My arse.

-I noticed a picture of Anthony Warrel Thompson of a packet of sausages. It said; Prick with a Fork.

Other Inspirations...

Blackadder

Porridge

Only Fools and Horses

Rhod Gilbert

Tommy Cooper

Little Britain

Don’t Start

Newsjack

Night at the Museum

Meet the Fockers

Annie Hall

The Blues Brothers

South Park Movie

Little Shop of Horrors

The Hangover 2

The History Boys

Lars and the Real Girl

(Bianca is his way of psychologically working everything out)

Kickass

Airplane

Team America: World Police

Borat

Charles Bukowski

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet

Kevin Bridges

Michael McIntyre

Armstrong and Miller

Harry and Paul

Cardinal Burns

Mr Bean