HIGNFY featuring Russell Brand

[Guineveretoo]

It was an impression of my take on your attitude to RB. I am not sure if it's allowed - I'll check the FAQ.

Whether it's allowed or not, it's a pathetic and childish response, IMHO!

It doesn't seem to me like I am against any "grain" anyway, just from reading this thread, besides, I didn't realise that, because I didn't like Russell Brand, I was only allowed to post once.

 

[Guineveretoo]

I have been watching all those "webisodes", as in that youtube link, but it seems that the one from last week, when it was chaired by Clive Anderson, is "temporarily unavailable", even on the BBC website. Has anyone heard any rumours as to why? If not, would anyone like to make any up?

 

[CalmerChameleon]

He did make me laugh a couple of times, but he really is a smug, irritating twat. It was just cringeworthy.

Widdecombe one week, Brand the next - what have we done to deserve this?!

 

[5t3IIa]

Whether it's allowed or not, it's a pathetic and childish response, IMHO!

It doesn't seem to me like I am against any "grain" anyway, just from reading this thread, besides, I didn't realise that, because I didn't like Russell Brand, I was only allowed to post once.

It's sorta irresistable to react to such uneccessary vehemence with a piss-take, childish though it might be. Professing that one doesn't like something so very very much

 

[Guineveretoo]

It's sorta irresistable to react to such uneccessary vehemence with a piss-take, childish though it might be. Professing that one doesn't like something so very very much

You imagined the vehemence. I was merely responding to posts in the thread.

Now drop it, please? I have moved on, and am trying to get someone to speculate as to why there is a missing "webisode". Apparently, Will Self said that the only really funny, satirical joke of the recording was cut from the transmission, so I wonder if that was put in the webisode and then they bottled it? I want to know what the joke was!

Other theories?

 

[London_Calling]

I suppose it all depends on what you want from your programming, last time I saw this show I found it ho-ho comfortably smug and very middle England's idea of license fee 'light entertainmnet'. That was a few years ago though.

Only know Brand from his Sat night radio show and he seems to do well in that unscripted stream of consciousness niche. Merton seems to do okay with that as well, albeit with a script.

 

[Gmart]

I thought he was funny as usual, he is a surreal humourist, but he tends to avoid politics and people who want to make serious points all the time hate him for being like this.

As has been noted he is quite sound in 'real' life, ie beyond his entertainment persona. He did a very good interview of someone from the BNP which ripped the guy apart. But his apolitical stance doesn't work all that well on HIGNFY.

I look forward to hearing him on Just a Minute which would suit him better I think.

 

[El Jefe]

Russel Brand is, in my opinion, very clever: you may not like his style, but anyone who can free associate and build ideas up as quickly as he does is not a fool, obviously - it's an absurd claim.

I think he's pretty funny too.

 

[agricola]

Russel Brand is, in my opinion, very clever: you may not like his style, but anyone who can free associate and build ideas up as quickly as he does is not a fool, obviously - it's an absurd claim.

I think he's pretty funny too.

Did you watch the programme yesterday?

 

[madzone]

I suppose it all depends on what you want from your programming, last time I saw this show I found it ho-ho comfortably smug and very middle England's idea of license fee 'light entertainmnet'. That was a few years ago though.

Only know Brand from his Sat night radio show and he seems to do well in that unscripted stream of consciousness niche. Merton seems to do okay with that as well, albeit with a script.

I thought he out-surrealed Merton and that's what part of the problem was.
IMO he made Merton look quite old and staid

 

[madzone]

Did you watch the programme yesterday?

I watched some of it. When he said 'what an absurd paradigm, I won't play' I laughed out loud.

 

[El Jefe]

Did you watch the programme yesterday?

I saw some, I actually forgot he was on it. I thought he did pretty well in a situation that's new to him, he's not your regular panel game type is he?

Wasn't his funniest moment, no, but to claim he's not clever is to attempt to turn antipathy into something less subjective, and it's lame.

 

[sam/phallocrat]

Very funny show; brooker didn't say much but then again he didn't the last time he was on . . .

 

[purves grundy]

Looks like I'll miss tonight's repeat - anywhere online that'll stream the whole programme?

 

[Maurice Picarda]

Very funny show; brooker didn't say much but then again he didn't the last time he was on . . .

Brooker is so much more funny in print than in person that a right-thinking society would imprison him with a limited selection of media until he came up with something as funny as TVGoHome again.

 

[agricola]

Brooker is so much more funny in print than in person that a right-thinking society would imprison him with a limited selection of media until he came up with something as funny as TVGoHome again.

Screenwipe was great in places (the rolling news episode, and the aspirational television episode especially so), if uncomfortably close to the mark. Nathan Barley was good, but suffered by comparison to the genius that was TVGoHome (and of course there was no way they could put on tv some of the things Brooker was having Barley do).

That said, he was funny last night - it was just overshadowed by Brand's antics.

 

[London_Calling]

I thought he out-surrealed Merton and that's what part of the problem was.
IMO he made Merton look quite old and staid

So I imagine Brand feels he made his point and 'job done'.

 

[ymu]

I thought he was funny as usual, he is a surreal humourist, but he tends to avoid politics and people who want to make serious points all the time hate him for being like this.

As has been noted he is quite sound in 'real' life, ie beyond his entertainment persona. He did a very good interview of someone from the BNP which ripped the guy apart. But his apolitical stance doesn't work all that well on HIGNFY.

I look forward to hearing him on Just a Minute which would suit him better I think.

I think his comedy is quite political, it's just subtle and not confrontational - more Louis Theroux than Rory Bremner. He definitely got across more of his thoughts on politics, as opposed to lazily convenient satire, than I've seen the vast majority of others do on HIGNFY.

Not his finest hour, but it's not his format. I thought he looked terrified most of the time and it showed in the awkwardness of his delivery and expression in a few shots. There was a lot of hostility from all four of the others from the start which he seemed to be acutely aware of. Yes, quite probably because he was dicking around and being hyper-annoying before the intros were filmed but also because they just don't like him. I thought their treatment of him verged on bullying at times - very reminiscent of the last days of Deayton.

I'm not totally convinced that the toilet thing was a stunt - it looked to me like he was desperate for time out (and quite probably genuinely in need of a nervous piss). It's not broadcast live and they wouldn't necessarily have continued to film while he was gone - that was Merton's suggestion.

Uncomfortable to watch at times, but I don't think any of them emerged looking any better than he did - they just came across as smug sneering grey old men, which is pretty much what they've become. Sadly, as I used to love HIGNFY, now I rarely bother with it.

 

[agricola]

So I imagine Brand feels he made his point and 'job done'.

Really, I cant understand how he could think that. Merton is funny, and he was funny on that episode - Brand wasnt.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

I wonder if it's a coincidence that the creature Brand was partnered with Hislop in the same week that the Eye did such a pitying, jaundiced review of his "bookywook".

 

[agricola]

I wonder if it's a coincidence that the creature Brand was partnered with Hislop in the same week that the Eye did such a pitying, jaundiced review of his "bookywook".

The review wasnt that bad - they admitted Brand had a very sharp intelligence - and its points were, while quite savage (though not by the standards of Literary Review), well-founded.

The introductory paragraph itself is so on the mark one wonders whether it should get a spot on the dust-jacket:

"This is the age of the huge, damaged ego. Normal people with normal aspirations are being elbowed out of public life by these monsters of narcissism, with their unspeakable childhoods, unquenchable need for applause and lucrative book deals with Hodder and Stoughton."

 

[purves grundy]

ALthough I love to read em and the lit review section is the first page I'll turn to, the Eye are a tad too fond of ripping celeb books. It's a bit like barrels shooting in a fish, tbh.

But I agree, they do it very well.

 

[D'wards]

I think his comedy is quite political, it's just subtle and not confrontational - more Louis Theroux than Rory Bremner. He definitely got across more of his thoughts on politics, as opposed to lazily convenient satire, than I've seen the vast majority of others do on HIGNFY.

Not his finest hour, but it's not his format. I thought he looked terrified most of the time and it showed in the awkwardness of his delivery and expression in a few shots. There was a lot of hostility from all four of the others from the start which he seemed to be acutely aware of. Yes, quite probably because he was dicking around and being hyper-annoying before the intros were filmed but also because they just don't like him. I thought their treatment of him verged on bullying at times - very reminiscent of the last days of Deayton.

I'm not totally convinced that the toilet thing was a stunt - it looked to me like he was desperate for time out (and quite probably genuinely in need of a nervous piss). It's not broadcast live and they wouldn't necessarily have continued to film while he was gone - that was Merton's suggestion.

Uncomfortable to watch at times, but I don't think any of them emerged looking any better than he did - they just came across as smug sneering grey old men, which is pretty much what they've become. Sadly, as I used to love HIGNFY, now I rarely bother with it.

Good post - i thought he was very funny, and the audience seemed to think so too - he got a few "rounds" in my recollection.

Think the hate of him on this thread is a symptom of the U75 anti-success tenet, of which there are a couple of other posts.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I quite like RB, what I've seen of his stand up is excellent, way better than anything I've seen of his on telly

 

[zoooo]

Brand came across really well. Funny and clever and self deprecating as usual. Even my dad liked him.
What are you lot on about?....

 

[agricola]

Good post - i thought he was very funny, and the audience seemed to think so too - he got a few "rounds" in my recollection.

Think the hate of him on this thread is a symptom of the U75 anti-success tenet, of which there are a couple of other posts.

Hardly.

Its just some people (of which I am one) do not think his unconventional hair / speech / dress / stance / support of West Ham / take on modern life is necessarily funny - indeed, it is painful enough when he on one of the (several) vehicles that TV execs have seen fit to give him (along with an entirely conventional oodles of cash), never mind on a medium where his look-at-me antics just end up (as they did last night) making him look an idiot.

 

[chico enrico]

errrr...you do know it's all scripted?

I used to work with one of the script-writers.

used to work with an ex of Brand's a few years ago too so ended up going for drinks with them a few times. Didn't think he was very funny then and don't now. Always found it a bit lame when you'd make a wise-crack he'd always try to 'better it', then when you'd say "think you're milking the punchline a bit now mate" he'd go 'look! who's the comedian?' . bit of an arse really.

 

[zoooo]

They don't write everything for the guests too though.

 

[Guineveretoo]

I don't believe it is all scripted. I know that they see the questions and pictures in advance, although I don't know how much in advance, and I know that the chairperson has a script, but I don't believe the quiz participants actually have a script.

 

[Stigmata]

As ever, I found Brand to be the poor man's Noel Fielding crossed with the poor man's Simon Amstell. He was amusing at times, but the other four were actually funny.

I thought he out-surrealed Merton and that's what part of the problem was.
IMO he made Merton look quite old and staid

Merton still delivers it better IMO. It comes completely out of the blue, whereas with Brand there's always a moment were you can see him thinking "i've just thought of something ever so clever...". Or maybe that's just me.