1 - Alan Carr - I just don't get it. He's loud and camp and that's about it. But people love him.
2 - Ant and Dec - L insists I shouldn't include them because they've been on TV forever, but to an extent that's part of the inexplicableness.
So they started in the mid 90s as child actors on a TV show called Byker Grove (itself quite interesting, imagine a teenage soap set in youth centre in a notoriously run down council estate). Their characters were PJ and Duncan, and in their most famous storyline, Duncan temporarily blinds PJ by shooting him in the face with a paintball gun, for the love of a girl. What follows is every single cliché to do with that set up that you are imagining. Every one.
Okay, fine, and they age out of Byker Grove, and do what every male TV star of the time did - release a single. Oddly, under their character names, but hey.
And it's a success.
(Yes, I can still do most of the dance if asked)
A few more hits followed before the entirely expected reduction in sales.
And again, you think that's it.
They do some kiddie TV shows as presenters under their real names but they age out of that, and again, you think, that's it.
They suddenly explode onto "adult TV" and become the front men of choice for every variety and family-Saturday-evening show going. This is an entirely ridiculous list of the awards they've won - https://www.antanddec.com/about/awards
Part of the fun thing is that about 1 in 3 of their shows fail, but it's very much try often and fail quickly.
But the bit where I say beloved is not that.
Now unfortunately Ant developed a drinking problem, and following being caught drunk driving went to rehab. They are so much Ant and Dec that they always stand in that order, and there's a running joke that if they wanted to be Clark Kent they'd just have to stand the other way round. Now, during this period Dec mostly just didn't do TV but when he did, no comedian, not even the mean ones made any jokes. One did and just got hammered, by everyone. Because they are Ant and Dec and we aren't mean about them.
It is inexplicable.
3 - Mr Blobby - Was the mascot of another TV show, Noel's House Party. At it's height, Noel's House Party was the number 1 Saturday evening show. Mr. Blobby was Gritty without the political edge, a chaos prankster in a pink suit with yellow blobs.
Noel's House Party folded, and Noel Edmonds vanished until Deal or No Deal and then vanished again. But Mr. Blobby's occasional appearances are still greeted with glee.
(While I was finishing this off there was a clip for a docudrama Noel Edmonds is on, which is him setting up a vineyard, winery and restaurant in New Zealand, and there is a Mr. Blobby that appears and he goes "even on the other side of the planet, he follows me." There's who thesises to be written about the Edmonds/Blobby relationship, it's all very Frankenstein and his monster.)
4 - Stacey Solomon
Okay, this one is only sort of inexplicable. This one I totally get. I adore her.
So, a bit of background, she was 2nd or 3rd on her year of X Factor. Now I have no idea who won her year (was she Joe McElderry's year?) but she stayed famous. And famous for herself, not for her talent.
And it is because she is so unspeakably lovely.
<3 her so much.
Sorry, I will control myself. So on X Factor, we know it's about 60% personality not talent, right. And she was so central casting Essex/South Lahndahn, nasally twang, slightly ridiculous laugh, fake tan and extensions and all. And she was (and is) dippy. Properly totally but harmlessly dippy.
But because it became so very clear that none of that was a put on people loved her.
And when singing didn't work out, she did some TV stuff, and the heart of gold really shone through so now she has a second career in "being nice on TV".
(Joe Swash, her husband, is similarly inexplicable, but insert Eastenders instead of X Factor, and while he is, undoubtedly, lovely, people in general are less rabid about him.)
5 - A wide variety of sports commentators
Chris Kamara is being taken as the example here.
Kammy, as he is known universally, was probably lucky because he was in the first wave of football pros who retired once the Premier League was a thing and was therefore able to transition into a pundit job.
The reason the timing mattered is that he coincided with the introduction of NFL style multiple pundits, each watching a separate game and interrupting the main host when anything interesting happened in their game (occasionally leading to the fun of "we've not heard from you recently, Phil", "that's because nothing's happening").
Kammy had a glorious problem of being excitable and incoherent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OdryjdERI0&t=43s). Because it turns out doing that sort of coverage is harder than it looks. Infamously frequently misidentified who scores goals, who was sent off and so on.
But very lovable.
Now unfortunately, Kammy has developed aphasia. There was a documentary about it, and in it, he said, "Strange in terms of I feel a fraud now in terms of broadcasting – I don’t bring to the table what I used to. So that’s hard. I feel I’m doing these programmes and they’re not getting the best of me, but they’re tolerating me. That’s how it feels." (https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/chris-kamara-interview-apraxia-speech-disorder-b2444387.html)
And football, and football twitter which is a cesspit, on a good day, rallies round. Everyone points out the reason they loved Kammy had nothing to do with his voice and everything to do with his personality (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yx28kyv65o). Again, he is legit beloved.
(My other option here is Murray Walker, supported by a bit from the British Touring Car Championships at the weekend. They were throwing back to some footage from 1989, and, 4 years after his death, 20 years after his retirement as a full time commentator, Steve Ryder on the modern day commentary, goes, "in words I've not been able to say for far too long, it's over to Murray Walker." Twenty years gone, and he's still the voice of the sport.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2024-08-28 10:23 pm (UTC)Only almost a year late
Date: 2025-06-13 09:15 pm (UTC)2 - Ant and Dec - L insists I shouldn't include them because they've been on TV forever, but to an extent that's part of the inexplicableness.
So they started in the mid 90s as child actors on a TV show called Byker Grove (itself quite interesting, imagine a teenage soap set in youth centre in a notoriously run down council estate). Their characters were PJ and Duncan, and in their most famous storyline, Duncan temporarily blinds PJ by shooting him in the face with a paintball gun, for the love of a girl. What follows is every single cliché to do with that set up that you are imagining. Every one.
Okay, fine, and they age out of Byker Grove, and do what every male TV star of the time did - release a single. Oddly, under their character names, but hey.
And it's a success.
(Yes, I can still do most of the dance if asked)
A few more hits followed before the entirely expected reduction in sales.
And again, you think that's it.
They do some kiddie TV shows as presenters under their real names but they age out of that, and again, you think, that's it.
They suddenly explode onto "adult TV" and become the front men of choice for every variety and family-Saturday-evening show going. This is an entirely ridiculous list of the awards they've won - https://www.antanddec.com/about/awards
Part of the fun thing is that about 1 in 3 of their shows fail, but it's very much try often and fail quickly.
But the bit where I say beloved is not that.
Now unfortunately Ant developed a drinking problem, and following being caught drunk driving went to rehab. They are so much Ant and Dec that they always stand in that order, and there's a running joke that if they wanted to be Clark Kent they'd just have to stand the other way round. Now, during this period Dec mostly just didn't do TV but when he did, no comedian, not even the mean ones made any jokes. One did and just got hammered, by everyone. Because they are Ant and Dec and we aren't mean about them.
It is inexplicable.
3 - Mr Blobby - Was the mascot of another TV show, Noel's House Party. At it's height, Noel's House Party was the number 1 Saturday evening show. Mr. Blobby was Gritty without the political edge, a chaos prankster in a pink suit with yellow blobs.
Who got a number one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h37KQu64RY4 (yes, I can still sing bits of it).
Noel's House Party folded, and Noel Edmonds vanished until Deal or No Deal and then vanished again. But Mr. Blobby's occasional appearances are still greeted with glee.
(While I was finishing this off there was a clip for a docudrama Noel Edmonds is on, which is him setting up a vineyard, winery and restaurant in New Zealand, and there is a Mr. Blobby that appears and he goes "even on the other side of the planet, he follows me." There's who thesises to be written about the Edmonds/Blobby relationship, it's all very Frankenstein and his monster.)
4 - Stacey Solomon
Okay, this one is only sort of inexplicable. This one I totally get. I adore her.
So, a bit of background, she was 2nd or 3rd on her year of X Factor. Now I have no idea who won her year (was she Joe McElderry's year?) but she stayed famous. And famous for herself, not for her talent.
And it is because she is so unspeakably lovely.
<3 her so much.
Sorry, I will control myself. So on X Factor, we know it's about 60% personality not talent, right. And she was so central casting Essex/South Lahndahn, nasally twang, slightly ridiculous laugh, fake tan and extensions and all. And she was (and is) dippy. Properly totally but harmlessly dippy.
But because it became so very clear that none of that was a put on people loved her.
And when singing didn't work out, she did some TV stuff, and the heart of gold really shone through so now she has a second career in "being nice on TV".
(Joe Swash, her husband, is similarly inexplicable, but insert Eastenders instead of X Factor, and while he is, undoubtedly, lovely, people in general are less rabid about him.)
5 - A wide variety of sports commentators
Chris Kamara is being taken as the example here.
Kammy, as he is known universally, was probably lucky because he was in the first wave of football pros who retired once the Premier League was a thing and was therefore able to transition into a pundit job.
The reason the timing mattered is that he coincided with the introduction of NFL style multiple pundits, each watching a separate game and interrupting the main host when anything interesting happened in their game (occasionally leading to the fun of "we've not heard from you recently, Phil", "that's because nothing's happening").
Kammy had a glorious problem of being excitable and incoherent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OdryjdERI0&t=43s). Because it turns out doing that sort of coverage is harder than it looks. Infamously frequently misidentified who scores goals, who was sent off and so on.
But very lovable.
Now unfortunately, Kammy has developed aphasia. There was a documentary about it, and in it, he said, "Strange in terms of I feel a fraud now in terms of broadcasting – I don’t bring to the table what I used to. So that’s hard. I feel I’m doing these programmes and they’re not getting the best of me, but they’re tolerating me. That’s how it feels." (https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/chris-kamara-interview-apraxia-speech-disorder-b2444387.html)
And football, and football twitter which is a cesspit, on a good day, rallies round. Everyone points out the reason they loved Kammy had nothing to do with his voice and everything to do with his personality (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yx28kyv65o). Again, he is legit beloved.
(My other option here is Murray Walker, supported by a bit from the British Touring Car Championships at the weekend. They were throwing back to some footage from 1989, and, 4 years after his death, 20 years after his retirement as a full time commentator, Steve Ryder on the modern day commentary, goes, "in words I've not been able to say for far too long, it's over to Murray Walker." Twenty years gone, and he's still the voice of the sport.
There are some lovely descriptions here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Walker#Commentary_style))
Re: Only almost a year late
Date: 2025-06-22 06:51 pm (UTC)