Extras

[Biffo]

Anyone watch the Karl Pilkington 5 minute shows on channel 4 last week? They were pretty good. I missed one and was gutted.
I've been a Karl devotee for years and I *think* I'm happy that he's finally getting recognition... ruins all my feelings of superiority though. Now everyone bloody knows who he is.

Saw one. Absolute crap.... or was it supposed to be?

 

[jonnyd1978]

The 3 minute Karl episodes are here:



http://www.karl-pilkington.com/

 

[Onket]

I enjoyed them. Not the funniest things in the world ever, granted, but very good I thought.

He's better when he's being interviewed I reckon.

 

[zoooo]

Yes, I like him best with other people. Unscripted, preferably. But it's all good stuff.

 

[stavros]

Larry David is a big fan of Ricky Gervais.

If that's the case I stand corrected. Mind you, The Office and Ab Fab are the only brit-coms I know of to export over there. i would have thought matching Larry to someone like Armando Iannucci would have been better.

 

[Maltin]

If that's the case I stand corrected. Mind you, The Office and Ab Fab are the only brit-coms I know of to export over there. i would have thought matching Larry to someone like Armando Iannucci would have been better.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "to export over there" but when I've been to stores in the US such as Barnes & Noble, Borders, Tower Records, HMV, Virgin etc, it's amazing how many DVD/videos they stock of British comedy programmes (mainly BBC, presumably through BBC America).

I don't know how well they sell or how popular BBC America is. I know that I was fairly surprised to see one store stocking Last of the Summer Wine. It didn't strike me as something that would work overseas.

I was also surprised when I met an American couple getting the bus back to the airport in Vegas who watched a lot of BBC America and loved Keeping Up Appearances. Not a comedy but one of the other things I remember them enjoying watching was Bargain Hunt.

If by export, you mean comedies remade over there successfully (such as The Office), there were several in the seventies such as:

All in the Family (Till Death Us Do Part)
Sanford & Son (Steptoe & Son)
Three's Company (Man About the House)

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Didn't think much of it this time running, was mildly funny the first time...

 

[stavros]

I meant comedies that America got from us, where they actually showed the British/Irish show. I know Ab Fab definitely hit over there, as did Python so I would guess Fawlty might have too.

 

[Maggot]

Like Benny Hill.

 

[kyser_soze]

Stavros - most UK comedies end up on DVD sell through in the US; The Office, Little Britain, League of Gentlemen (which I was really surprised about)

Talk to US comedy writers like David, Matt Groening, Jon Stewart etc and they say the same things about current UK comedy that we say about much current US drama and classic stuff like Seinfeld.

I think we've been horrendously spoiled as a country really, when it comes to comedy...

 

[stavros]

Makes you wonder why the most sucessful US imports over here are total shite like Will & Grace and especially Friends (will C4 ever stop showing about 3 repeats a day?).

 

[Maggot]

New series of Extras starts tonight. Looking forward to it.

Makes you wonder why the most sucessful US imports over here are total shite like Will & Grace and especially Friends (will C4 ever stop showing about 3 repeats a day?).

The simpsons is more successful than either of those.

 

[King Mob]

Is the universal Gervais love a bit lost on anyone else? The Office was quite good, although Tim was the key character, he was crap on the 11 O'Clock Show, his stand-up was rubbish and Extras just looked like he was showing who was in his phonebook. Maybe I'm alone here.

You're not. Gervais is someone who had one great moment (The Office) and has played on that ever since. It's not that fact that Extras just isn't as funny as critics would have you believe (the only high points of S1 was the Ross Kemp episode and Patrick Stewart, the rest was self-indulgent toss), his stand up is poor and he's not the genius (seen his Simpsons episode? Don't bother) he, and his hordes of fawning admirers think he is

Charlie Higson made an observation on previous to last night's Story Of Light Entertainment whereby he said of those people who make what might be called close to the knuckle comedy that if you scratch beneath the surface they aren't really that different in their beliefs. To wit Bernard Manning and now Ricky Gervais.

Higson makes a pretty valid point. All this 'ironic' racism is really just Manning-esque racism for the 21st century. The Sam Jackson episode was just fucking dismal and a feeble excuse for the type of racist gags i thought we'd got rid of years ago.

But it's the love-in that bothers me the most. Witness Alison Graham spout on in the Radio Times.

Andy Millman's days as a bored and thwarted man, eking out a living as an extra, are now behind him. He's at the BBC, working on his cherished sitcom. But Andy's vision is being diluted by everyone around him, specifically an unimaginative BBC head of comedy. As rehearsals progress, it's obvious that Andy (Ricky Gervais) has merely swapped one kind of hell for another. It's this undercurrent of pathos and disappointment that makes Extras a bit special. It's not a riot of laughs, though there are funny bits from Keith Chegwin, playing an appallingly inappropriate version of himself, and from Stephen Merchant as Millman's idiotic agent. Special guest Orlando Bloom is a sport, too, as a selfabsorbed, Johnny Depp-hating jerk. But of course this is Ricky Gervais's show as he masterfully paints a picture of a man torn between integrity, compromise and ambition.

So 'it's not a riot of laughs'. So it defeats the object of a comedy series by actually not being funny. The Keith Chegwin stuff is yet more 'ironic' racism.

Gervais had tried to do Larry David/Larry Sanders. It hasn't worked because he's forgot to actually make it funny, but hey, it's full of pathos and Jew gags so thats fine.

I need a cup of tea now....

 

[Maggot]

Higson makes a pretty valid point. All this 'ironic' racism is really just Manning-esque racism for the 21st century. The Sam Jackson episode was just fucking dismal and a feeble excuse for the type of racist gags i thought we'd got rid of years ago.

There wasn't any racism in the Samuel Jackson episode. It was all about Maggie being worried that she looked racist.

 

[sparkling]

You're not. Gervais is someone who had one great moment (The Office) and has played on that ever since. It's not that fact that Extras just isn't as funny as critics would have you believe (the only high points of S1 was the Ross Kemp episode and Patrick Stewart, the rest was self-indulgent toss), his stand up is poor and he's not the genius (seen his Simpsons episode? Don't bother) he, and his hordes of fawning admirers think he is




Higson makes a pretty valid point. All this 'ironic' racism is really just Manning-esque racism for the 21st century. The Sam Jackson episode was just fucking dismal and a feeble excuse for the type of racist gags i thought we'd got rid of years ago.

But it's the love-in that bothers me the most. Witness Alison Graham spout on in the Radio Times.



So 'it's not a riot of laughs'. So it defeats the object of a comedy series by actually not being funny. The Keith Chegwin stuff is yet more 'ironic' racism.

Gervais had tried to do Larry David/Larry Sanders. It hasn't worked because he's forgot to actually make it funny, but hey, it's full of pathos and Jew gags so thats fine.

I need a cup of tea now....

Agree with lots of this.... I loved The Office but cannot stand Gervaise's standup which is cringingly awlful in my opinion.

 

[King Mob]

There wasn't any racism in the Samuel Jackson episode. It was all about Maggie being worried that she looked racist.

Which led to lots of hilarious gags about Sam Jackson looking like Larry Fishbourne because they're both black! Oh my aching sides!

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Which led to lots of hilarious gags about Sam Jackson looking like Larry Fishbourne because they're both black! Oh my aching sides!

But the joke wasn't that they looked the same, it was about other people not being able to see past the fact that they're both black. Did you think the way Brent treated the woman in the wheelchair in the Office was offensive to disabled people?

 

[Stigmata]

I was also surprised when I met an American couple getting the bus back to the airport in Vegas who watched a lot of BBC America and loved Keeping Up Appearances. Not a comedy but one of the other things I remember them enjoying watching was Bargain Hunt.

That's very strange, because I also met a couple in Vegas who enjoyed Keeping Up Appearances. They must get around a lot.

 

[mk12]

All this 'ironic' racism is really just Manning-esque racism for the 21st century

For christ's sake. I suggest you re-watch the episodes and concentrate a bit.

 

[Maltin]

That's very strange, because I also met a couple in Vegas who enjoyed Keeping Up Appearances. They must get around a lot.

When was this. I was there in September. I think they had relations in Coventry.

 

[Onket]

I enjoyed tonight's episode. So there.

 

[D'wards]

I enjoyed tonight's episode. So there.

Me too. I loved the bit where Chegwin challenged him to name a black british funny man, and he was really thinking, and looked up at the picture of Lenny Henry, then resumed his intense thinking face.

I think the Maggie character is great as well - i'd like to make that woman my wife, there - i've said it

 

[Loki]

My bro is an extra in Extras He's in the one with Jonathan Woss, dunno when it's being aired.

I forgot about the episode tonight but someone's already put up a torrent on uknova.

 

[goldenecitrone]

I laughed so much it hurt. The bitter and twisted Keith Chegwin, fantastic.

 

[goldenecitrone]

The Keith Chegwin stuff is yet more 'ironic' racism.

Just read this. The joke is that Keith Chegwin is playing a washed-up star who is bitter and twisted and blames everyone but himself. Are you really that thick?

 

[Chairman Meow]

I loved it. I was totally howling when Cheggers asked if the bbc was still full of jews and queers. I can't believe some people on here not realising how they taking the piss out of racism, not actually being racist themselves.

 

[Structaural]

I think it's excellent and gets better with second viewing. My dad said that when Faulty Towers first aired most people would watch it open-mouthed and cringing...
I think all this Gervais is a Bernard Manning type character under the surface is bollocks, listen to his podcasts and you can see it's all just a character. Higson would love to do something even slightly as funny as the office, he's just a catchphrase merchant anyway. The Fast Show only worked because it allowed people to go into the office the next day a la Brent and repeat all the 'funny' catchphrases.

 

[Balbi]

Higson would love to do something even slightly as funny as the office, he's just a catchphrase merchant anyway. The Fast Show only worked because it allowed people to go into the office the next day a la Brent and repeat all the 'funny' catchphrases.

I must protest!!!!!!

Ted & Ralph were stunningly well done.

 

[Louloubelle]

I think it's comedy genius

It's all about conflict and humiliation, the thing with the glasses was something I could relate to, having been involed in projects with control freaks who insist on having things go their way, even when they're wrong. Stuff like that happens all the time.

Also the bit where maggie was humiliated by the actress was horribly painful. I found it more excrutiating than funny, but loved it nonetheless.

 

[Flashman]

I loved it. I was totally howling when Cheggers asked if the bbc was still full of jews and queers. I can't believe some people on here not realising how they taking the piss out of racism, not actually being racist themselves.

I think it might be a case of people feeling upset because they think they should, or perhaps they either just don't get it, or are being deliberately obtuse to look cool. Whatever, they're missing some great comedy, cutting off their noses.

Can't wait for Bowie next week. Wow. Bowie.

As for funny black man here, I can't think of many. Richard Blackwood isn't funny he's a twat. Lenny isn't that funny but is not a twat. I'm not that up on the underground scene maybe there are some decent chaps/lasses knocking about that aren't mainstream.