Frankie Boyle - Modern Comedy

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by BigRossLittleRoss, Dec 30, 2022.

  1. BigRossLittleRoss

    BigRossLittleRoss First Team

    As a lifelong fan of comedy from stand up to sketch shows to character comedy shows I’ve long enjoyed Frankie Boyle.

    It’s actually a very difficult time to be a comedian at the moment as we live in a culture of being easily offended . However, I feel that behind this cultural shift is a positive movement of respect to people from all different backgrounds and experiences that may have previously been the target of jokes , inadvertently or deliberately.

    The downside to this is that a lot of genuine , well meaning comedians feel they have to reign in their humour for fear of someone taking offence when none is meant .

    Out of all the modern comedians it strikes me that Frankie Boyle has managed to walk a very fine tightrope between be riotously funny but not abusive to anybody .

    Just wondering what the good members of this forum felt about this and the general area of modern comedy .
     
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  2. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    It's stale. They all got hamstrung by COVID (no gigs). So it's TV show hosting or low budget sit coms. Then there's the terrible podcasts they do to fill the time, which inevitably turn into "buy our book, we promise it isn't the same regurgitation of jokes on a 4th format".
     
  3. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    I always found Frankie Boyle's act not to my taste - I thought that his tightly written gags were too interspersed with vulgarity and profanity making him sound like a Lidl's pastiche of Jerry Sadowitz. That was until (in 2013) a long winter drive to Wales when I listened to R4's Chain Reaction when he was interviewed by his protégé Kevin Bridges where they explored what his act is and what constitutes an 'offensive' joke and I 'got' him - actually the two chain links either side of this are quite good with Bridges taking Terry Christian to task and Boyle interviewing the extremely talented (graphic novel) writer Grant Morrison.

    Boyle is very good talking about 'offence' and the boundaries of 'free speech' (frequently in the broadsheet press). I went through a stage during lockdown of watching an awful lot (all?) of Boyle's stuff online. I particularly liked an interview he gave to Richard Osman (who I don't actually rate) to the Edinburgh TV festival in 2014:

     
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  4. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    As Jimmy Carr often says, the joke that will get him canned has already been told.
    Comedians are apologising for jokes they made since 2000. It's a tough gig.
     
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  5. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    His autobiography is a good read.
     
  6. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Hmmmm... I wonder if this is more actually Carr trying to make light of his reputation, on the circuit, as a 'gag' thief and that he's just a joke 'blower'?
     
  7. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    I often find Frankie Boyle very funny and incisive, but I don’t always believe he is on the right side of the line. Personal attacks on people like Rebecca Adlington often seem like punching down, though I don’t care if he hits a target I favour being hit. Such is life.

    I think there is plenty of good comedy, whether that’s polemicists like Frankie, offbeat types like David O’Doherty or gentler observational types. It’s a bit like music. Older folk will always say it was better back then, but there is always stuff to enjoy.

    This was great, in case anyone missed it.

     
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  8. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    I enjoy Boyle especially when Mock the Week was a thing. My favouite all time stand up is Jack Dee. I love his dry humor and dead pan delivery. I do get the shift and swing in "you can't say that now, it will offend somebody..." and they have to be more aware of how it is structured. Comedy is one of the positive things people have, especially in the current state of the world. Turning on the news is nothing but depressing news after depressing news. I don't even watch the news anymore... it makes a person feel so misriable. I saw Lee Evans live on his Road Runner tour (his last one before he retired), which was good - nobody can pull a face like Evans.
     
  9. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Interesting. I think comedy's like food in that we all need it for 'life' that's why I'm so anti-humourless b'stards & b1tches. But I do like my comics at the pinnacle of their careers to actually say something other than "...isn't motorway service station food overpriced & terrible?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Unfortunately in "Life" we occasionally need a shield and comedy provides that such as the endless gags from life under Soviet rule and the accounts in Primo Levi's masterpiece "Moments of Reprieve".
     
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  10. Lloyd

    Lloyd Squad Player

    I think it’s a great pity that comedians now feel afraid to say the wrong thing, for fear of being scorned or shamed by half-witted offence seekers. The fact that so many young people appear to have been brainwashed into embracing this conformism and cultural totalitarianism is particularly depressing. Happy New Year!
     
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  11. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Really? It’s ever been so, that someone will object. Right back to Mary Whitehouse’s time.

    The right wing papers are every bit as awash with outrage as progressive types and the young. They managed to get the innocuous The Mash Report pulled. Jo Brand is a regular source of outrage for the right as is Frankie Boyle.

    It’s just changing social views and a battle of ideas. But across the comedy spectrum, there is no doubt whatsoever that people can say more these days and do so. Comedians may have to face the ire of one group or another when they do, but no one is entirely banned from performing or speaking their mind.

    That’s democracy and if you don’t like it there’s always Russia.
     
  12. Heidar

    Heidar Squad Player

    The problem is that people don't understand that a joke doesn't have to to funny to be considered a joke. The context is that it is a joke. No matter how offensive, brutal or disgusting a joke seems - it is a joke, whether you laugh or not.

    Comedians losing jobs or being taken to court because of a joke (Ross, Brand, Count Dankula etc). It's absurd.
     
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  13. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Not why Ross and Brand lost theirs though. They used BBC phones, equipment, production, to phone an actor and make lewd jokes about his granddaughter.

    You and I would also face disciplinary action at work if we did the same.
     
  14. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    No. It failed because it was shyte. Everyone in UK media land wants to do our own "The Daily Show with John Stewart". It's impossible to do because it would be too expensive (you need a big team of talented writers) and our broadcast rules (compliance) would render it toothless because it would be constrained by balance/impartiality.

    Incidently your average Russian I found to be quite like the 'Brits' in that they had a very 'British' sense of humour (very dark with a good sense of the absurd). I would love to see their gags about what's going on in Ukraine.
     
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  15. Lloyd

    Lloyd Squad Player

    I don't see this is a left v right issue at all. The right are as likely to shout offside at a 'joke' they find offensive (see Jo Brand) as the left. In the current climate comedians self-censor to avoid causing offence while those that are found to be holding non-conformist views are punished (see Graham Linehan or Terry Gilliam's treatment by the Old Vic for his trans rights comments)
     
  16. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Also Nish Kumar is just terrible. You only have to see the advert for the no doubt terrible ‘Sky Original’ version of a Christmas Carol and his ‘acting’ to have that reinforced.

    Ellie Taylor though, just wonderful. In so many ways.
     
  17. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    You believe it was shyte. But many disagreed and it wasn’t pulled over quality as you well know.

    It was better than dozens of other offerings and if you disagree go watch a box set of Mrs Brown’s Boys.
     
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  18. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Terry Gilliam’s comments weren’t just on trans, but also on Me Too and diversity in general. The Old Vic is an institution committed to the public arts, the Equality Act and therefore diversity.

    Gilliam doesn’t have a right to work there any more than Frankie Boyle has a right to compere Glynbourne or the Henley Regatta. Performers need to fit the ethos of an organisation or it will lose its punters.

    They are free to work elsewhere.

    Linehan is on a journey to a private hell. His wife has left him over his obsession with trans. He even described an episode of mild brainbox show Only Connect as ‘grooming’ because one of the eggheads was transgender. That’s simply bigotry and as much as I love Father Ted, down with this sort of thing.
     
  19. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    It was shyte because it couldn't be a UK "The Daily Show with John Stewart" (or more correctly "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" nor reproduce what "The Daily Mash" website did and could ever do (due to impartiality and compliance OFCOM rules) so it couldn't get its target audience figures. Thus it failed (even accounting for the dozen or so clips from it that went viral) because once you paid the performers, writers and rights fees the small audience numbers did not justify its production costs.

    Mrs Brown's Boys is probably shyte (dunno never seen it nor do I intend to) but it does 'get' its target audience to justify its production costs.

    TBF to Kumar he is a good host and ably handled his stint on "The News Quiz" on which is what all these other shows on UK TV are also trying to ape - something Hislop has always said about HIGNFY.
     
  20. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    If you say so, can’t stand her myself.
     
  21. BigRossLittleRoss

    BigRossLittleRoss First Team

    I think there is a culture of looking to be offended, which is tailgating on the back of a healthy movement towards increased respect and consideration to all peoples personal position.

    I think this fringe of the social movement is what annoys people most.

    There also seems to be less of a culture of being able to laugh at oneself, which is a very very healthy trait.
     
  22. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Her stand up isn’t great. I’ll give you that. Not quite Katherine Ryan bad, but not far off.
     
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  23. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    This is a gross and offensive over-simplification of what Linehan's 'done' and how that has affected his private life.
     
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  24. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Still holding that Strictly torch for Helen, I see.
     
  25. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Tee hee.

    I’ll confess, there’s not really ever been a female standup I have liked. Not sure why.
     
  26. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Really? His career is down the plughole, personal life a mess, he is definitely obsessed with the issue by any objective mark and he does veer to simple bigotry and hatred at times.

    That’s not to say he doesn’t get it back from some nutcases on the other side or that he can’t express an opinion. But if any performer constantly looks for conflict over such issues, they are going to find their options as limited as a comedian who presses class warfare every day.
     
  27. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    That is a bit odd old boy. Do you like or dislike other stuff by gender?
     
  28. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    This is a thread on Frankie Boyle and modern comedy. I'm not going to turn it into a lengthy 'exploration' of what Linehan did and didn't do nor how him refusing to back down have affected his life. Take it elsewhere.
     
  29. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    No. Just haven’t found a female standup who hits the mark for me.
     
  30. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    One, those US shows are often tedious and bland. Two, on production costs, meh. It got pulled for political reasons and you know it.
     
  31. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Well I haven’t. If you look back, I was reacting to this desperate, received orthodoxy that suggests terrible overreactions of the woke are getting people banned. It’s a completely false view of free speech. As I say, Boyle is not going to get to do corporate or posh events. That’s not banning.

    And I didn’t raise Linehan, Lloyd did, so please don’t suggest it was thread derailing to reply, or to reply to your reply, that’s disingenuous.
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2022
  32. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

  33. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    It’s a good point. Neither have I. From experience, I’ve found (and this probably is a gross oversimplification) that female stand up tends to either be focused specifically on women’s ‘issues’ or mocking men. Can’t actually think of one, British or American, that doesn’t go down that route. There is a market for that, sure, but it does limit the audience.

    I’m sure there are people that don’t. But I’ve not seen them.
     
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  34. cyaninternetdog

    cyaninternetdog Forum Hippie

    Just like all forms of art and everything else nobody has anything original to say anymore, it has all been said and what we get now are the same thing tweaked to look different. The system cant help but repeat itself ad nauseum. Happy New Year.
     
  35. Lloyd

    Lloyd Squad Player

    I can't think of any funny black comedians. But I'm seeing Reginald D Hunter next month and he's quite good apparently
     

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