Comments on: Old Mother Riley’s Boys https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys Lollards in the high church of low culture Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:38:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: mark sinker https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108752 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:38:05 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108752 Also Mayim Bialik PHD (aka TV’s Blossom)’s IRL dissertation is about “hypothalamic activity in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome” = more science than you can shake a stick at

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By: mark sinker https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108744 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:45 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108744 If not clear from the above I love TBBT.

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By: mark sinker https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108742 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:25:18 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108742 Yes, I agree with Pete: I started watching when Lemonfan Mog (who loves it) was my lodger, by which time it had already evolved towards the awkward sex-lives of nerds (from earlier lack of same) and has I think (with well researched hindsight haha) been all the better since the cast expanded. (It now has an unusually large ensemble cast of equal billing for a sit-com.)

I’ve seen silly potshots taken that it’s down on Penny, which is literally nuts.

Sheldon kind of IS Charlie Harper in photo-negative #controversial

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By: Pete Baran https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108719 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:51:38 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108719 Raj is also saddled with the worst sitcom “sit” ever, he cannot talk to women unless drunk – which seriously reduces his usefulness in about 80% of the conversations.

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By: Pete Baran https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108718 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:50:28 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108718 The scientist = nerd problem is the biggest beef people have with TBBT I think (interestingly IT Crowd sort of did that the other way around, they were nerds who knew a little bit about computers but weren’t smart)> I think TBBT has softened hugely on the nerd aspect, and generally celebrates the science, to the extent that its partially a workplace sitcom where science is just another job.

Lorre has always been bad at writing women, but again TBBT has improved since it got more women in it, two of whom are both scientists too, and one of whom is, in the scheme of the show, pretty normal.

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By: thefatgit https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108717 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:50:21 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108717 I have yet to see an ep of “Community”, but I have seen stuff on Tumblr that backs up what you say. Rajesh Koothrapali’s cultural cringe, I believe is chiefly down to our exposure to stuff like Goodness Gracious Me or The Kumars at No. 42. We’ve crossed that threshhold already, whereas US audiences still think the Indian chap in Short Circuit is funny.

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By: Alan https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108677 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:46:41 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108677 there seems to be a US/UK split on the view of the “nerd-blackface” of TBBT. it seems to rile more in the UK where the comedy is seen to be at the expense of the characters, where in the US it is viewed as more affectionate. (am i right?)

*my* beef with TBBT is the usual indie ‘sell out’ thing that these jokes were being made years ago, just to a smaller audience. ‘gasp a LADY in a COMIC shop’. And the change in culture since those jokes were being coined is precisely why TBBT has a big audience and WHY those jokes are now out of date. (cf Mark’s ‘it has done its job’ view of jokes).

As the rest of the internet (.uk edition) has likely already said, Community’s view of nerd-fandom is properly affectionate – not jokes at the expense of the outsider, but the opposite ‘everyone should be more like these guys, they are awesome’

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By: thefatgit https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108655 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:06:24 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108655 #16 I have a minor beef with TBBT, that sometimes, Sheldon becomes more and more of a caricature, rather than a fully developed character. And Lorre doesn’t write female characters at all well IMO. Yes, “2 And a Half Men” is awful.

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By: Pete https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108636 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:15:41 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108636 Hold on, I thought Harry Enfield was his generations Dick Emery.

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By: Alan https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108589 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:36:39 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108589 i can see why. I was starting to see Harry Enfield saying “young man” too.

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By: Pete https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108473 Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:15:44 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108473 I haven’t seen any Old Mother Riley for about thirty years, and somehow had her confused with Will Hay in my head (I though Arthur Lucan was Will Hay). I shall watch Old Mother Riley vs the vampire and report back…

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By: Brendan F https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108450 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:22:42 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108450 #12 – The Big Bang Theory is my current favourite – though I take the point if you were referring to 2 and a Half Men.

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By: Alan not logged in https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108440 Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:52:33 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108440 odd shearing effect makes that a very peculiar transfer

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By: mark sinker https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108205 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:58:13 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108205 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yungps_BO6k

^^^

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By: Alan not logged in https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108200 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:24:53 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108200 http://www.britmovie.co.uk/2007/01/19/old-mother-riley-the-life-and-career-of-arthur-lucan/

Pete – have you seen any of the Mother Riley films? Specifically intrigued by the Vampire/Lugosi one

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By: thefatgit https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108162 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:00:30 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108162 Never seen MBB, but of course when I heard about this Irish knockabout comedy, I thought about Father Ted and felt no need to check out MBB when Father Ted sits on my DVD shelf. I also heard about MBB’s crassness, but then I never felt the need to visit Rab C. Nesbitt’s episodes either. In fact, I can’t think of any comedy outside the panel format, which I’m also getting very tired of, other than Friends that I’d be willing to watch on a regular basis. Celebrity Juice? No. I’m allergic to Keith Lemon. Miranda was intriguing, because the revival of Perry/Croft “You have been watching” theatricality seemed ripe for a reboot. So I watched Miranda right up until the end of the 2nd season, when I began to find that it was simply a one-joke show and grew tired of it. Even the worst US sitcoms* hold more fascination than anything homegrown at the moment. After reading the Grace Dent piece, I’m pretty sure my MBB avoidance will continue.

*Chuck Lorre, need I say more?

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By: Another Pete https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108150 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:20:40 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108150 In regards to Celebrity Juice for having two female captains you do have to bear in mind it is on ITV2 and the other shows it is more famous for.

If the current world of UK comedy can count Jack Whitehall as a star then I’m not surprised at the success of MBB. Jack Whitehall for me just feels like he’s doing this ‘comedy malarkey’ on his media studies gap year.

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By: mark sinker https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108118 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:15:47 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108118 on which general theme: watch with mother sukrat-style

inc yrs truly saying “i don’t even understand why some of these lines are meant to funny”

^^^the villain revealed

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By: mark sinker https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108115 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:10:22 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108115 maybe they ran a focus group where people watched it with their parents*

*this is a reference to grace dent’s article — i haven’t watch MBB and make no cultural assumptions abt what your parents find funny (my dad would watch every comedy ever EXCEPT BILKO)

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By: Steve Mannion https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108114 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:07:25 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108114 The organic ascent of MBB actually quite interesting but then I knew nothing of its origins: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20512744

I suppose you could maybe give some credit to Sleb Juice for having two women as team captains (tho I don’t know if he teases them the way R&M did with Ulrikka) but more than any of his contemporaries Leigh Francis’ entire career just seems built exclusively around a sociopathic lads mag lechery and his attempts at surrealism that I’ve seen have always been painfully shallow and one-dimensional compared to R&M. But then I don’t know how much stand-up/club stuff Francis did before he first turned up on TV.

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By: Pete Baran https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108113 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:57:49 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108113 Not a big watcher of Celebrity Juice but I get the sense that it does the deflating celebrity thing of Shooting Stars without the archness. There are often some very funny bits of silliness in it, though I find the character less endearing.

Grace Dent makes a good point, I just still find it hard to work out how the BBC caught the lightning in a bottle (or more importantly how it escaped being focus grouped to death).

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By: tm https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108110 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:40:05 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108110 Oh, that kind of makes more sense now!

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By: Mog https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108109 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:37:51 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108109 He’s meant to be a sort of extreme caricature of, like, shitty club entertainers on cruise liners or something, isn’t he? He slightly reminds me of Vic & Bob, if that doesn’t send people apoplectic with rage.

I find him quite funny. Celebrity Juice is pretty puerile a lot of the time but definitely no worse than eg: Mock The Week circa Frankie Boyle. Mind you I have never seen his film- still, at least he doesn’t pretend to be making ~deep political statements~ a la Baron Cohen.

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By: tm https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108097 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:01:52 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108097 On the subject of comedy we don’t find funny: Can someone explain Keith Lemon? I don’t get it, I just don’t get it. I don’t even understand why it’s meant to be funny. Is he meant to be brain-damged or mentally ill or something? That’s not very nice. I’m genuinely baffled whenever I see him.

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By: Steve Mannion https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108085 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:24:08 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108085 Dame Grace Dent made a fair point re MBB the other day. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/grace-dent-on-tv-mrs-browns-boys-bbc1-8432020.html

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By: mark sinker https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108080 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:07:28 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108080 One of the reasons I got so tangled up in my “if you’re still laughing after 30 years straight it wasn’t actually funny” theory of TRUE comedy NEVER lasting* the test of time is that we laugh at/with things/people we’re fondly familiar with and recognise as totems we share. And we do so even when they’re not being funny yet — or in the case of the comedy catchphrases that get repeated at school and in pubs and bars, aren’t in themselves funny, or only because of context or situational delivery exactly stripped from them at school and in pubs and bars. (I don’t mean you can’t drop someone else’s catchphrase into a context that makes it funny, I mean that pleasurable repetition** certainly isn’t automatically that context.)

*where “lasting” implies continuity
**Obviously repetition makes jokes funnier — right up until the the point it doesn’t

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By: Andrew Farrell https://freakytrigger.co.uk/see/2013/01/old-mother-rileys-boys/comment-page-1#comment-1108079 Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:49:19 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=23855#comment-1108079 See also the current poll on hateful comedians on ILX which provides some interesting talking about class (sparked from whether Micky Flanagan is working class)… and then the ‘winner’ of the poll is John Bishop, who most agree is not hateful, just unfunny.

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