The band wagon is a-rolling

Up before the taste and decency watchdogs this week is Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles for the following comments about his appearance on the BBC genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? :

“I went off to Ireland and other places to film and unlike a lot of the Who Do You Think You Are? shows I didn’t go to Auschwitz. Pretty much everyone goes there whether or not they’re Jewish. They just seem to pass through there on their way to Florida.”

Although I don’t listen to his show I do think Moyles is a talented broadcaster and I do find him funny.

The issue with this new “outcry” is that it represents the worst kind of knee-jerk reaction. The joke in no way makes light of the suffering at Auschwitz, it is a joke about our cultural preoccupation with it. This is a crucial distinction when it comes to near-the-knuckle comedy like this.

Had Moyles made fun of the Holocaust then he would deserve all the censure he is getting but he didn’t. It is not a joke at the expense of Holocaust victims or their families, it is a joke at the expense of tv executives who too often use the Holocaust as an easy way to generate sentimental television.

It is in the same spirit as the Extras episode in which Kate Winslet admits that she is doing a Holocaust film in order to win an Oscar.

Those who will now round on Moyles as the latest evidence of the BBC’s moral collapse should stop and think about the comments which have been made, rather than use the very mention of the Holocaust in a comedic context as a lazy excuse to saddle up their high horses.

Plus One

Really enjoyed Plus One on Channel 4 tonight. The set up is a guy has been dumped by his grilfriend who then hooks up with Blue singer Duncan James.

He is then invited to the wedding and must try and find a date to compete. As he himself put it: “Of all the people in the room who will have seen Lindsey’s fanny, I am the least impressive.”

It not only nailed the insecurity and paranoia that follow being dumped, it was also a savage critique of our celebrity-saturated culture. The constant references to “Duncan from Blue”, this over-coiffured, fake-tanned presence that hangs over the whole show, encapsulates the modern deification of celebrities and credit to James himself who plays the role perfectly, happy enough to lampoon his own image.

As with The Office, it never sacrifices being funny to make its point, and the result is that what it has to say is disarmingly subtle and deliciously subversive.

The Inbetweeners

Great to see the Inbetweeners win best new TV comedy and the brilliant Simon Bird win best Comedy Male newcomer at the recent British comedy awards.

It’s a show I have only seen over the last couple of months having missed it when it first aired on E4 but I am an enthusiatic convert.

Pacey, recognisable and above all funny it proves two things, i)that young talented comedy writers are not as rare as many would have us believe and ii)that the influence of Ricky Gervais on modern British comedy is astonishing.

Btw here is a clip of Simon Bird doing stand up at the final of this year’s Chortle Student Comedy Award final.

Again the debt to Gervais is clear, in fact the stylee is a little too similar at times, but Bird’s confidence, comedycraft and persona are little short of mindblowing.

A Reviewer Scorned…

 Very odd piece here by Independent comedy critic Julian Hall ranting about not getting to go the British Comedy Awards on Saturday.

Musing on his snub he writes

This is despite the fact that I am a comedy critic (and thus have a role to play in highlighting emerging comedy talent)

I wonder if he could explain how going along to this glitzy knees up stuffed full of the most recognisable faces in British comedy will help him “highlight emerging comedy talent.”

A major problem with a lot of the national comedy reviewers is that their definition of “emerging” is completely out of kilter with the comedy industry’s definition. There is a major difference between emerging onto the public stage (ie Michael McIntyre) and being an emerging comedy talent, slogging your guts out on the open mic circuit and getting recognised for your potential (ie Ed Gamble – see video below, Paul F Taylor, Tom Craine etc)

Perhaps when poor Mr Hall, whose biog proudly boasts seats on various judging panels, writes some articles picking out proper emerging talent rather than telling us all that the ubiquitous Michael McIntyre is going to have a big 2009, his invitaton to the British Comedy Awards will have been well earned.

Gareth and Tim

I’ve been re-watching The Office and though it’s a massive cliche I do notice new things each time.

The scene that particularly struck me on this occasion was the one where Neil offers Tim Brent’s job but Tim turns it down and suggests he gives it to Gareth.

Why does he do this? Is it a genuinely altruistic gesture? Does Tim secretly harbour some kind of professional respect for Gareth?

I can’t work it out. Yet again messrs Gervais and Merchant, I doff my cap to you.

From Breton to the Boosh

My friend Ollie showed me this video of Reeves and Mortimer spoofing Masterchef:

It is absolutely baffling and no doubt people will find it amazingly funny or it will leave them cold. It is the best example of the polarising power of surrealist comedy I have come across.

Personally I am not a massive fan of Ross Noble, the Boosh etc and this video rather sums up my own view.

I can see why other comedians (unsurreal? real?) might be put out that being random generates laughs in the same way their carefully constructed material does, but I suppose the flip side of this is it will miss its mark more often than a traditional joke.

And it’s better for “the comedy scene” that people are prepared to try more daring things. But it is possible to push the wacky too far at the expense of the funny.

Excellent Harry Hill interview

right here.

Interesting that Mark Lawson, who I know is one of the leading cultural commentators in the country is able to inteview a comedian so well, an undertaking that seems to bring out the worst in a lot of other journalists. The passages on the difficulty of a double personality are especially well done.

Hill is a genius and TV Burp an undoubted highlight of the week. Furthermore its success suggests an answer to the oft-bungled issue of how to bring out the best in stand ups on TV  :- give them freedom.

Here is a favourite Hill clip:

Inspired By The Best Joke Book Ever…

Hello you.

Welcome to my new comedy blog, by which I mean a blog about comedy rather than a crazy romp through the world and the way I see it. That would be toe curling.

I’ll be covering anything that piques my interest from live stand up, tv, radio and online stuff.

So in the words of the cruelly under-appreciated DJ Pied Piper, “If you like it, let me see your hands in the air, If you don’t, Y’all get the hell out of here.”

Well said sir. You inspire me in ways I could never describe.

Russell Kane

Great to see Russell Kane on Live at the Apollo last night. I have been a fan of Russell’s for a few years now and all the buzz at Edinburgh this years was that he was better than ever.

The set last night was excellent and despite the speed of his speech he isn’t afraid to take a while to develop an idea before a massive pay off punchline, the sure sign of a confident performer.

Also more personal than I have seen him before with the stuff about his Dad.

Its brilliant to see a performer take an obvious step up in class and Russell might just be the one to watch next year is he continues to improve at the same pace.

Guess Who’s Back, Back Again…

It is amazing that Eddie Izzard’s new show apparently shows signs of him getting back to his scintillating best.

Good reviews here and here.

Izzard at his best is without question one of my favourite comics, original, thought-provoking and wonderfully funny.

Several people I know have seen him over the last couple of years and left bitterly disappointed, with a sense of being let down akin to watching the overweight, desperate Paul Gascoigne in his later career who was such a shadow of his imperious former self.

Now though by all accounts Izzard has cut the overly self-indulgent ramblings, remembered his responisibility to his audience and Stripped is all the better for it. How many open spots could do with that simple advice?

Meanwhile this very banal interview on the BBC does contain one interesting line

It’s an odd thing stand up because you have to be quite happy in your skin.

 This is at odds with a lot of comics who say that you have to have low self esteem to want to get up in front of a room full of strangers and try and win their approval. Shame he doesn’t expand on this really as I am in the other camp but would love to hear his reasoning.