tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post129449651813013862..comments2024-03-22T09:19:10.481+00:00Comments on THE FANTASTIC HOPE: RICKY'S FETISHAlex Nivenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05525684766446729078noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-9574057338041517612011-11-29T04:32:36.116+00:002011-11-29T04:32:36.116+00:00Yeah I totally agree with you there. I think I'...Yeah I totally agree with you there. I think I've finally burnt out on Gervais now, even his best stuff. I watched some of The Office again the other day and it was all very deflating somehow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-63659642168343469542011-11-28T09:09:53.411+00:002011-11-28T09:09:53.411+00:00Sounds great!
I hadn't thought of Taxi Drive...Sounds great! <br /><br />I hadn't thought of Taxi Driver etc. The Gervais thing seems to go further than just outsiderdom though: there's a sort of postmodern pretention that he's somehow cleverly challenging stereotypes and "raising awareness", Bono-style, but actually he's still basically profiting and deriving authority from the plight of the weak.Alex Nivenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05525684766446729078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-40771020517333579272011-11-25T07:01:59.267+00:002011-11-25T07:01:59.267+00:00I loved it, and think it has some similarities wit...I loved it, and think it has some similarities with 'Taxi Driver'. De Niro plays this guy who's utterly desperate to become someone else, exceptional and famous. <br /><br />Admittedly the connection between this and your post is extremely flimsy on my part, sorry! I was just curious to see De Niro's Rupert Pupkin get compared to Derek Noakes, highlighting a few differences in portraying fame-aspiring 'outsiders'. And, lazily I admit, curious also to see the movie's socialist elements teased out. But no harm and no matter! If you like De Niro and Scorcese, it's one to watch some time and, hopefully, enjoy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-41873749246606294712011-11-24T16:06:28.387+00:002011-11-24T16:06:28.387+00:00I haven't seen it actually, what do you think?...I haven't seen it actually, what do you think?Alex Nivenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05525684766446729078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-73787832223979842242011-11-18T10:04:10.271+00:002011-11-18T10:04:10.271+00:00What do you think of The King of Comedy, by the wa...What do you think of The King of Comedy, by the way?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-30804269571812338842011-11-18T09:59:54.595+00:002011-11-18T09:59:54.595+00:00Come to think of it, maybe alienating his own audi...Come to think of it, maybe alienating his own audience is what he's up to with Derek Noakes. I'm sure Gervais sees Derek not as a handicapped person but as the sort of trainspotting social moron likely to just ask for an autograph. That said, I don't think Gervais was famous when he first came up with Derek. A preemptive fame-anticipating strike at the weak then.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-11759311778745956262011-11-18T09:51:53.074+00:002011-11-18T09:51:53.074+00:00Yeah good point about The Inbetweeners. Satirising...Yeah good point about The Inbetweeners. Satirising those more contemporary mainstream comedies really *would've* been brave, but possibly also alienating for his own massive audience. He likes a soft target. The fucking bully!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-28950697988352729492011-11-18T08:55:04.327+00:002011-11-18T08:55:04.327+00:00I see what you're saying about When the Whistl...I see what you're saying about When the Whistle Blows. Clearly, part of the shame about Gervais is that there's an element of something good in what he does -- a residue of alternative culture. Extras sort of has the right target in mind doesn't it, at times? It just seems to me that When the Whistle Blows spectacularly misjudges the cultural terrain of Britain in a way that's quite revealing about its author's prejudices. Wouldn't you have expected him to target something like My Family or The Inbetweeners or even Little Britain? These are the tawdry mainstream comedies of the day: upper-middle-class lifstyle tackiness rather than Victoria Wood-style kitchen sink. <br /><br />I agree that a sort of institutionalised code of "decency" would be pernicious, but at the same time I would affirm that comedy always has to have some kind of ethical awareness waiting in the wings. And even on the level of humour itself, satire should always bear in mind the basic power relation of a given context: if you're mocking someone clearly less empowered than yourself, then quite aside from ethics, it'll probably just seem a bit sinister or sadistic rather than funny.<br /><br />Gervais has moved from attacking corporate culture/the culture industry to making capital out of the disabled, and When the Whistle Blows seems quite obviously to me to be a key transition in that trajectory.Alex Nivenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05525684766446729078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-77429327187046583722011-11-18T07:27:23.589+00:002011-11-18T07:27:23.589+00:00Btw, of course there's always a line to be dra...Btw, of course there's always a line to be drawn! But irony really complicates deciding where.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-57632385906907900562011-11-18T07:24:00.966+00:002011-11-18T07:24:00.966+00:00This is really interesting. Unlike just about ever...This is really interesting. Unlike just about everything else though, I'm not altogether convinced that comedy should be expected to meet basic standards of decency; and does comedy really have to be politically inflected and always work at dismantling hierarchies, or is it just more satisfying when it dovetails with our politics?<br />Stereotypes are as crucial (formally) as they are crass. But couldn't you also look at the shitty stereotypes in 'When The Whistle Blows', being part of a show within a show, as an attack on that very sort of programming? But yeah, that Derek Noakes character is fucking indefensible!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-43453597971909572632011-11-14T12:57:11.140+00:002011-11-14T12:57:11.140+00:00Yeah couldn't agree more. As I say, it's h...Yeah couldn't agree more. As I say, it's heartening though that Gervais/Brand/Walliams+Lucas and co seem so out of date, and conversely, Stewart Lee seems to be at the forefront of a return to a radicalism of sorts.Alex Nivenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05525684766446729078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4120059320714810761.post-72639136753851198932011-11-14T06:09:35.098+00:002011-11-14T06:09:35.098+00:00So many 90s/00s stars seem ever more hollow and wa...So many 90s/00s stars seem ever more hollow and washed-up now. The only thing shielding them from utter irrelevance is their obscene wealth really. That's it. Gervais' latest venture is as tired and desperate as Jay-Z's recent attempts to market his OWS fashion line. The audiences both take for granted really have ceased to give a shit. We simply don't care about Ricky's boring bigot mate or what rappers are eating caviar with Donald Trump.<br /><br />That schtick wouldn't have flown 15 years ago, but it would have about 8-5 years ago. It was a very stillborn comedy trend, based on smug, repetitive borrowings from Larry David, Chris Morris and League of Gentlemen (and even Gervais' own Office, up to a point). How many TV comedians of the time shat on audience goodwill with back-slapping celeb love-ins, or endless sketches consisting of nothing but schoolyard catchphrases? The emptied bowels of the Blair era in a nutshell.David K Waynehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10756535951359716522noreply@blogger.com