|
nah it is funny
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 12:51 |
|
|
OwlFancier posted:But it's not funny though, you're just watching some prat be a prat and everyone else just knows they're a prat and the camera points at them for too long and at some point this elicits laughter in some people. There is no emotion, you are watching a thing that is not funny, or interesting, it is just there. There is no catharsis or tension like in a horror movie, you might as well watch footage of people walking down the street. Good punchline this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:27
|
|
|
stev posted:The long episodes are really bloated and generally a lot less funny. Miami Twice is particularly bad. Man, I don't think I've taken my wankhat off all day between Pratchettchat and Sitcomchat. Basically - although I absolutely *loved* Buster Merryfield's performance as Uncle Arthur - Sullivan should have ended it when Lennard Pearce died. Not that Granddad was a good character or anything (although the Spanish Civil War story was brilliant) but just by that point Sullivan was painted into a corner. He had to show some kind of growth and change, because Del was pushing 40 and it was getting increasingly difficult to believe Rodney was the kind of ill-defined early 20s he'd been for a decade, but the only real way they could do that was breaking up the dynamic between them. All good sitcoms are basically about people trapped together - in a family, in a job, even literally in a prison - and them getting married splits up that dynamic (which is why most of the stories contrive some way of getting Rodney back in the flat, or otherwise sending them all off on a jolly somewhere). Mind you I think Sullivan was pretty much out of ideas by that point anyway. He had a production budget matched only by the big period dramas and he used it to contrive trips to Miami and building a massively-detailed wine bar set for 5 minutes of dialogue and an admittedly nigh-perfect bit of physical comedy (which could have been done in the Nag's Head just as easily). The utter dross that were his other attempts at sitcoms after OFAH suggests that he was just out of ideas generally. and the good bits of Rock and Chips were actually, like the good bits of OFAH, were well-observed character stuff rather than outright comedy - I always thought he could do one of those Euston Films/ITV comedy-drama shows and do it well, but I suppose he was getting mad bank being tied to sitcoms and the Beeb so why would he risk it? As much as it hurts, I have to give Ricky Gervais some minor props for deciding when they offered him a 3-series deal after the first series of The Office to turn it down in favour of one series. It's odd to realise that at one point he actually had that level of self-awareness (and the nuts and bolts of writing and comedy) that he knew exactly where the limits were. Massive amounts of cash and adulation seem to have done a very effective joke at wiping that from his memory, though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:28
|
|
|
Communist Thoughts posted:its like being too scared to watch horror movies, you just gotta get over the hump and then you can enjoy some great stuff. Nah, I've watched basically all of Peep Show at my partner's request for example and the cringe bits never get any better. It's just.. It feels like punching down at people with bad social skills most of the time, and the rest of the time I just don't find it funny.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:28
|
|
|
OwlFancier posted:But it's not funny though, you're just watching some prat be a prat and everyone else just knows they're a prat and the camera points at them for too long and at some point this elicits laughter in some people. There is no emotion, you are watching a thing that is not funny, or interesting, it is just there. Turn off BBC Parliament
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:29
|
|
|
It's like someone who enjoys loving a turd say "actually this is very erotic and I highly recommend it" and I'm here like "I do not see why loving a turd is erotic"
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:30
|
|
|
Miftan posted:Maybe my issue with british comedy is that I don't enjoy 'cringe comedy' where the main character keeps loving up and making stupid cringey mistakes for laughs. I don't enjoy Alan Partridge or a lot of Peep Show for this reason. Like I said about Only Fools, when you have a character like Del who gets into those situations through greed, or not doing research/prep, or refusing to listen to warnings, there can be something satisfying about seeing things fall apart. But things like the Inbetweeners, the Office, Friday Night Dinner; Most of them I just can't watch because half the time the person who's the butt of the joke has done nothing wrong. Even Alan Partridge, half the time it's him taking out his inadequacies on guests, staff, other researchers.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:30
|
|
|
i dont particularly like peep show so i dont blame you there
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:31
|
|
|
Miftan posted:Nah, I've watched basically all of Peep Show at my partner's request for example and the cringe bits never get any better. It's just.. It feels like punching down at people with bad social skills most of the time, and the rest of the time I just don't find it funny. fully recommend you watch nathan for you
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:31
|
|
|
Bobby Deluxe posted:I find it particularly bad when the character getting into those situations is being earnest or not doing anything 'wrong' aside from being a bit awkward, maybe just because it hits a little too close to home with my own life experiences. It doesn't help that Friday Night Dinner doesn't have a single joke written into the script, tbf. Jose posted:fully recommend you watch nathan for you I looked that up and it sounds genuinely painful to watch.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:32
|
|
|
Bobby Deluxe posted:. But... those people aren't the butt of the jokes, it's always AP himself being an awful and oblivious oval office.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:32
|
|
|
Failed Imagineer posted:But... those people aren't the butt of the jokes, it's always AP himself being an awful and oblivious oval office. yeah. its only "cringe" if you cant embrace the fact that alan is a wanker tory and the subject of fun always sunny, particularly the early seasons is essentially "cringe" comedy if you dont embrace that the gang are awful and you shouldnt sympathise with them
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:35
|
|
|
Failed Imagineer posted:But... those people aren't the butt of the jokes, it's always AP himself being an awful and oblivious oval office. It's almost an inverse of Sacha Baron Cohen's stuff where he is interviewing generally awful people, and highlighting it to make them look bad. Whereas with Partidge, the guest characters on KMKY were supposed to be just normal people, and he was a twat to them. I don't know, I'm probably just trying to find justification for not finding Partridge funny, because I don't mind the Thick of It at all. In fact one of my favourite scenes is Malcolm telling Oliver "Don't you dare call me a bully, I am so much worse than that."
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:41
|
|
|
its just different things make people cringe, i only find comedy cringe if its reality stuff like SBC interviewing people or early chris morris stuff thats not a very fun answer though so ill fight bowelfancier to the death
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:45
|
|
|
Miftan posted:Nah, I've watched basically all of Peep Show at my partner's request for example and the cringe bits never get any better. It's just.. It feels like punching down at people with bad social skills most of the time, and the rest of the time I just don't find it funny. I don't think it's punching down - it's punching inwards. As someone with bad social skills, David Mitchell and Jesse Armstrong clearly have intimate knowledge of what that's like.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:45
|
|
|
Communist Thoughts posted:yeah. Right, but I think the problem over time with something like AP is that it's just become all a bit too real and hence depressing rather than funny. I personally also enjoy representation in comedy and while I can relate in meeting these sorts of people and despising them there isn't anyone I can relate to in the show. If I want to laugh at small minded people in 2021 I'll just doomscroll Twitter. I loved AP back in the day but poo poo got too real for me of late... I think this timeline and getting into my mid 30s has made me moody.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:46
|
|
|
How would kids forget how to use a knife and fork just from being at home for a while unless they're from a culture that doesn't typically use knives and foh it's just more soft racism.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:50
|
|
|
not sure where this idea that we're not supposed to sympathise with these protagonists/there are good and bad people who need to be rewarded and punished comes from. David Brent et al are clowns - we're supposed to recognise (and forgive) our own frailties in them
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:50
|
|
|
Guavanaut posted:How would kids forget how to use a knife and fork just from being at home for a while unless they're from a culture that doesn't typically use knives and foh it's just more soft racism. I am a culture that does not typically use knives and forks if I can avoid it. Eating with your fingers is cool and good, if god had not meant for the british to eat with their fingers then he would not have invented the chip butty.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:52
|
|
|
Guavanaut posted:How would kids forget how to use a knife and fork just from being at home for a while unless they're from a culture that doesn't typically use knives and foh it's just more soft racism. Because I can't be arsed to enforce their use, I'll let better parents do it with their kids who will them shame the ones I was supposed to teach into doing things properly.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:53
|
|
|
Bobby Deluxe posted:
Inbetweeners is an interesting show. Watching it when it aired, it was funny because so much of the humour and behaviour came from things I remembered witnessing or doing. Looking back the main cast are mostly good but flawed people. Simon is a good guy, whose flaw is his poor decision making. Jay is on the surface an oversexed pest/fantasist who is a danger to be around, but this is to hide the fact he is a sweet teenager who is looking for love but can’t be honest due to the toxic masculinity he is surrounded with at home. And Neil, while dim, is an honest and supportive kid. Their mistake is that they are friends with Will. Someone they assume is smarter and wiser than they are, but is just posher. The idea of a bunch of people being constantly punished for choosing a posho to lead them is something that I think resonates for a lot of the UK now.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:55
|
|
|
OwlFancier posted:I am a culture that does not typically use knives and forks if I can avoid it. Eating with your fingers is cool and good, if god had not meant for the british to eat with their fingers then he would not have invented the chip butty.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 19:56
|
|
|
Also just as a skill who loving cares? Are kids gonna loving starve if they can't do table etiquette? Is this the thing we need to send the children to the plague camps for to learn loving victorian table manners? I'm sure you can figure out how to stab things with a fork and shovel them into your craw if and when it is necessary.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:00
|
|
|
Guavanaut posted:Yes, it's also anti-english racism (the worst racism according to the EHRC) because it discriminates against sandwiches, what about the kids who bring sandwiches to lunch instead of having school meals, how is their knife/fork use being monitored/improved by school attendance? Yeah exactly. It's not like it's a place like South Korea where lunchtime at primary you sit at a table with your form teacher and all eat together and the teacher helps you use chopsticks in the lower years. I had packed lunches every day of primary and can use a knife and fork just fine!
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:02
|
|
|
I can't imagine how I'd have learned to use a knife and fork if not for the knife and fork drills they taught us at military academy. 6 am every morning doing a complete teardown and rebuild of a table setting, pouring rain or not. Kids these days.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:07
|
|
|
I don't think I ever ate a meal at school that involved a knife and fork. Maybe around Christmas time when everyone had to eat the bad roast?
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:09
|
|
|
OwlFancier posted:But it's not funny though, you're just watching some prat be a prat and everyone else just knows they're a prat and the camera points at them for too long and at some point this elicits laughter in some people. There is no emotion, you are watching a thing that is not funny, or interesting, it is just there. There is no catharsis or tension like in a horror movie, you might as well watch footage of people walking down the street. It’s not just watching someone be a prat though - characters like Brent and Partridge are caricatures of the those types of men and I’d bet most people can see reflections of others in them. And to say there’s no emotion to The Office is absolutely one of the most incorrect takes I’ve ever heard about media. You might not like them but there’s clearly a reason they’re some of the best considered TV of the last few decades. E: also Brent is absolutely a protagonist you’re meant to feel a ton of empathy for. The Office’s big problem is how it treats blue collar workers. Jakabite fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jan 3, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:10
|
|
|
Failed Imagineer posted:But... those people aren't the butt of the jokes, it's always AP himself being an awful and oblivious oval office. I have to deal with enough awful and oblivious cunts in life as it is, why would I want to spend my free time watching the adventures of fictional ones?
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:12
|
|
|
Thinking back to primary school, sitting round the table it'd be >80% sandwiches and crisps, sometimes the Asian kids would have things like samosas which are still food inside starch eaten by hand, sometimes one of us would get something with chips and then the chips would become communal. Hunger is hunger; but the hunger that is satisfied by a cooked meal eaten with a knife and fork differs from hunger that devours communal chips with the help of hands, nails and teeth. I'm not sure how any of that helps knife and fork use, so I think they're just making poo poo up. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:13
|
|
|
All UK media is bizzaro like this atm. Go watch Sky News right now, wait for the bit about schools. and watch them interview 7 year old kids on a beach about the schools returning. Absolute madness.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:14
|
|
|
The Question IRL posted:Inbetweeners is an interesting show. Even Donovan (the bully character) gets a moment where his macho bullshit mask drops and he earnestly asks Will to treat Charlotte right. It's a well-observed show about how existing as a mainstream teenager in the 00s requires cloaking any feeling or individuality in twenty layers of bullshit and bravado, but nobody, even the "cool" kids, actually knows what the gently caress they're doing. Also Greg Davies is perfect. Shame about the films and, to a lesser extent, Season 3.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:16
|
|
|
Guavanaut posted:Thinking back to primary school, sitting round the table it'd be >80% sandwiches and crisps, sometimes the Asian kids would have things like samosas which are still food inside starch eaten by hand, sometimes one of us would get something with chips and then the chips would become communal. If you are getting free school meals for your child because you're poor, then it's cooked food eaten with a knife and fork.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:19
|
|
|
Jakabite posted:It’s not just watching someone be a prat though - characters like Brent and Partridge are caricatures of the those types of men and I’d bet most people can see reflections of others in them. Just after The Office got big, the BBC did a real documentary about a real life Brent called The Armstrongs. Here is the full series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pss6RPtENPI There are parts that are surreal. People accused them all being actors.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:19
|
|
|
sebzilla posted:Even Donovan (the bully character) gets a moment where his macho bullshit mask drops and he earnestly asks Will to treat Charlotte right. Hell I don't think the first film is that bad. It has a lot of the same themes, it just leans a bit too much on the OTT gross stuff. The second one is dire though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:21
|
|
|
NotJustANumber99 posted:If you are getting free school meals for your child because you're poor, then it's cooked food eaten with a knife and fork. While a variety of food was provided everyone used to just get a plate of chips and a bun We upgraded in the later years by escaping the school at lunchtime and going to a chip shop
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:23
|
|
|
the fork is a dastardly tool invented by the swarthy Italian royalty, i prefer to stick to our jorvik roots and eat with only a knife and my bare hands
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:23
|
|
|
stev posted:Hell I don't think the first film is that bad. It has a lot of the same themes, it just leans a bit too much on the OTT gross stuff. The second one is dire though. It's not awful but there's no real need for it to exist in a world that already contained Kevin and Perry Go Large.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:23
|
|
|
NotJustANumber99 posted:If you are getting free school meals for your child because you're poor, then it's cooked food eaten with a knife and fork. At our secondary FSM kids get 2.50? 2.10? per day of credit on their account and use it for what they want. Some of that is pasta in a pot eaten with a wooden fork, but frequently sandwiches.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:25
|
|
|
Jel Shaker posted:the fork is a dastardly tool invented by the swarthy Italian royalty, i prefer to stick to our jorvik roots and eat with only a knife and my bare hands Then how did they eat curry in 884 ad??? This doesn't seem right
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 12:51 |
|
|
stev posted:I don't think I ever ate a meal at school that involved a knife and fork. Maybe around Christmas time when everyone had to eat the bad roast? It would be difficult to eat the mince and gravy without using a spoon, but yeah I can't remember anything that would require a knife or fork, it was all just slop. Oh and a small lump of pastry that was allegedly a "cobbler" which also did not require utensils because you could probably kill someone with it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2021 20:26
|
|