| Author | Message | ||
     Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Is the Richard curtis who wrote Squirm the same Richard Curtis who writes all those wonderful films? (yes that was sarcasm but let's not forget he also created Blackadder so we can't malign him completely) | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
It would seem not. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
>>>yes that was sarcasm but let's not forget he also created Blackadder so we can't malign him completely Well, he created series one of Blackadder, which was shit. Then Ben Elton made series 2 and 4 funny. Series 3 was hit and miss. And frankly, Blackadder, for all its intermittent brilliance, is cheap comedy. If you want to see how shit Curtis really is, watch The Vicar of Dibley. Everything that's cheap about Blackadder and none of its quality. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.115.127 |
Hear hear. Dibley is bloody awful. I love a lot of series three of Blackadder - Ink & Incapability is probably my favourite of that series. "I'm inuspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctious to have caused you such pericumbobulations." "Sausage? SAUSAGE?" | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.103.45 |
Blackadder II was probably my favourite, the series became popular after that and got toned down a lot. Curtis and Elton don't seem to have done anything decent since. I'm not even sure how much of Blackadder's success was down to them -- a documentary on the series said that the actors (several of whom were also comedy writers) often suggested jokes during rehearsals that made it into the final episodes. Of course Elton and Curtis deserve credit for writing the original scripts but without the actors' input it's possible that Blackadder could have been another Dibley or The Thin Blue Line. That said I do have fond memories of The Tall Guy. Although I haven't seen it for ages so it might not stand up as well as I remember. Also, Curtis had Mel Smith directing so there may have been a bit of extra comedy input on that one too. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
There seems to be an incredible snobbery against the mainstream from a lot of people on this board sometimes... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.77.197 |
Blackadder's cheap comedy: making fun of one-dimensional idiots like Baldrick and Hugh Laurie's and Tim McInnery's characters. Cheap laughs. That's all. It doesn't have the multi-layered quality of The Office or Fawlty Towers. That isn't snobbery. It's just an assessment. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Not just on this thread... I thought the Office was OK. I really can't see how it's the masterpiece it's made out to be. It could be that it's so close to the boring environment I've worked in for so long that it bores me more than anything else. Extras was genius though. and Flowery twats is by far and away the greatest comedy show ever on telly. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
The Office is genius, Extras damned good, IMHO. Extras was a tad gimmicky to be truly great. Just my opinion.  | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
Also, Andy Millman is no way as great a comic creation as David Brent. And Extras was burdened by cheap jokes at the expense of Millman's kooky friend (a la Baldrick in Blackadder and just about everyone in Dibley). Fawlty Towers does this better by making the butt of all jokes someone who can't speak English very well. My comedy formula: if you're shoe-horning in a unrealistically stupid character just to get laughs, it's all getting cheap. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
"unrealistically stupid character" is there such a thing? The Dibley characters are geniuses... genii... really intelligent compared with a hell of a lot of peeps I know | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no . . . yes. It's Dickens' fault, him and his catchphrasing minor characters. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
While I'm not going to say that I think Dibley is comic genius, it is warm and cozy and pink and fluffy and a friendly antidote to (my) cynicism. I have no objection to it at all. It normally makes me laugh out loud at least a couple of times an episode. A cheap laugh is still a laugh. Even you just compared it to Dickens. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
Fair enough. I like Harry Hill for the same reason. |