redfiona99 | Entries tagged with comedy

Crossposts: https://redfiona99.livejournal.com/1174856.html

To pinch a twitter update - Fine #Hollyoaks, you win. I will try and watch Friday's Hollyoaks Later.

Brendan Brady happened to me. Again. (Ref: any previous post mentioning Hollyoaks) And they've now given me something I wanted to happen to his character, but in the worst way possible (well played, Hollyoaks).

( Spoilers )

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Also, help, Russell Howard caused laughter-related snorting, mostly when he was corpsing.

Or why I have no such fear.

(A minor TMI warning - for those who wish to avoid the TMI, skip the first paragraph)

Then again my Friday the thirteenth started quite badly on Thursday when my bowels decided to try to escape without warning. Not good times. Worryingly, this is the second time in two months this has happened the day before my period starts. Dear body, we are 26, new symptoms are not required or expected.

Anyway, so I have maybe 3 hours of sleep the night before my final corrections, which I'm expecting to be horrible. I catch the train, a different one than the expected on because the trainline lies.

During this I get a Red Bull shot drink freebie. Now I still say that Red Bull tastes worse than anything you should ever consume, unless you're taking a medicine, and we know that they all taste terrible, however, at five to eight in the morning, when you've been ill all night and you cannot cope with the idea of food, but you need sugar and caffeine, it's a life saver.

So I get to Leicester, and internal examiner is not in yet so I have to sweet talk my way into the building. Not a problem.

I get the corrections, they're done in a couple of hours, and I'm printed out by three, and fully submitted by four.

Silly hat day is go.

(Or, for those who haven't seen the headwear that PhD graduands have to wear, graduation is go.)

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CSI:NY -

Can't really get to liking Hawkes's new girlfriend in CSI:NY because she reminds me so much of ex-housemate's girlfriend. You know, my-fun-is-more-important-than-your-work girl. Argh!! Then again Sheldon being all 'can't say no dude' is not helping either.

I see the idiot writers are back. Half the characters are acting like themselves, and half of them are totally wrong. And Not-Stella is still a judgemental know-it-all.

Dude, Mac is now a chilled person. It's freaking wierd. Good but weird.

Bonus:

No CSI: Miami, atomic force microscopy does not work like that.

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Mostly for Twig, but the TV adverts for Blitz are starting showing (it's out the 20th of May). I am mostly unimpressed. I have no idea how you do that given that I <3 one of the actors in it, and am v. fond of another one, but fail, TV advert maker, fail!

Still not sure whether or not to go and see it, part of me says yes, because how am I supposed to resist, part of me says no, not least of all because I have no idea where the local cinema is.

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In terms of TV that's caught my eye, my Sunday night sleep-plan is presently being wrecked by 'The Shadow Line' which is brewing up nice and slowly into something complex.

It features Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Ecclestone, and five hundred different you know, that guys.

The opening scene with David Schofield (or creepy guy from Pirates 2 as you might know him) basically monologuing was a work of genius.

I spent the whole of the first episode hoping something horrible would happen to Jay Wratten, played by Rafe Spall. Partly it's that Rafe Spall has the most unfortunately punchable face. Partly it's that his character is a little Caligula thinks he's so tough when he's really not, and he keeps getting into confrontations with people who are far more dangerous and they're not smacking him, for their own reasons and I think not smacking him is only going to rebound badly on them later.

( Spoilers )
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Comedians - Dave Fulton is looking old. I remember when he had long black hair.

As a general point, since I no longer have the time to watch late night tv the way I used to, I have to rely on Mock the Week and the other stand up shows to find out about the new, upandcomers, and mostly I'm not impressed, with the exception of Andi Osha.

The problem is, the way I see it, half of them have only one schtick and that's 'look, I'm posh and yet I swear', which is not funny to me. The other half are funnier but not much, including a fair few who are poor re-treads of other people's stuff.

(Honourable exception is Tommy Flanagan, who is funny, but just has a really unfortunate voice. My issues with him are not his fault.)

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Motorbikes - oh BBC commentators, how I love you. Calling Simoncelli Side-Show Bob is naughty but funny.

The trouble is that much like Ruben Xaus, there's a lot of Simoncelli so occasionally he takes stupid lines. (And he now has a reputation.)

It looks like there's going to be a punch up between a team manager and the stewards. I have seen that walk before.

Dani Pedrosa has pulled an Uncle Ste - my Uncle broke one collarbone, had it fixed, then broke the other one. I hope Pedrosa doesn't finish the cycle, because my Uncle then broke the first collarbone again but it only fractured and healed really quickly because it was in exactly the same place.

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It's not that I don't like comedy, it's just that I'm a bit picky and so I end up waiting for things to be recommended and getting them checked out so that they don't have things like the comedy of embarrassment or Ricky Gervais. Also, Ben Stiller is normally a warning sign.

Despite this, I love Zoolander, and Arrested Development and Fawlty Towers, so yeah, it's pretty much hit and miss, but I have learnt to be careful. Thankfully, my friends don't object to me asking what random line references when I haven't seen it :)

day 01 | a song
day 02 | a picture
day 03 | a book/ebook/fanfic
day 04 | a site
day 05 | a youtube clip
day 06 | a quote
day 07 | whatever tickles your fancy

Unspeakably late, sorry.

A Miscellany:

As promised Dave Allen sketches, still not the one I wanted but still very funny:

On his first day at school - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxo81Ok9Urk

The funeral sketch - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kLTbvjqF6Y Possibly my favourite of his sketches.

Sex - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDnDyjWSH4Y

Masturbation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA-chhs5uOA&feature=related

Formula 1:

Jenson Button is champion, which I don't begrudge him, but oh how I wish Rubens could have won. Mostly because he's been such a good sport about it. And I'm in love with Ross Brawn's brain, as per, because he's totally won it for Brawn GP. Blog on why this is all quite amazing here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2009/10/the_remarkable_story_of_brawn.html

Boxing:

Normally I'm all for cheering on the smaller guy, but I really hope Nickolay Valuev knocks seven bells out of David Haye - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8317039.stm - mostly because Haye is not only nasty in a most uncalled for manner, but because he always backs down when called on it. Because whichever Klitchko brother was going to fight him and mysteriously, a back injury happens.

Music:

I have finally found a video of Symposium, one of the lost Brit-pop, and how I still miss them - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1yo2SSvtxw (although I do prefer the live version).

Other lost brit-pop bands -

Gene - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT1JSa_quLk - Speak to Me Someone aka the one where it's obvious that he wants to be Morrissey.

3 Colours Red - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5mCkIrbPvU - basically one of those unlucky bands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Colours_Red) and this is my favourite of their tracks. Copper Girl, how you haunt my dreams to this day.

Hurricane #1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jPZgLszqRY Step Into My World, which I love for the guitar line. One of their members was a member of Oasis before they split up.

Elastica - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPeJixp-zp4 Waking Up - I had such the greatest crush of Justine Frischmann, the lead singer. She's still quite close to my ultimate woman.

Dark Star - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCRhcTJGfwA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6mZDWNo6RU&feature=related

Very personal choice, I saw the Jools Holland both of these are from and bought the album the next day which I just don't do. They are every bit as awesome as they look.

Other Brit-pop bands that just weren't as successful as they ought to have been -

( The Bluetones )

( Seahorses )

( Cast )

( Kula Shaker )

( Feeder )

( Mansun )

( Space )

( Ocean Colour Scene )

( Idlewild )

( Supergrass )

( Skunk Anansie )

( Ash )
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Other than that, another link that won't ever not be awesome - Rage Against the Machine at the RNC - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwzW2QFnwo

Current Mood: blah

Tickets to go see Ed Byrne in November and Henry Rollins (!!!!) in January. All for the princely sum of £32.

Eee!

I was trying to come up with a punchline about this election - I'm mostly going for '2008 - Making 1908 look progressive' which I don't want to use because hello, there's a black person and a woman standing for election to powerful positions and insofar as I am aware, neither of those groups could even vote in 1908 but apparently that was the last time religion wasn't a huge issue in an election (thanks to nhw for that info).

The line above, which I might use instead, comes from Frankie Boyle on 'Mock the Week'. A lot of his schtick is very similar to Bill Hicks, but he gives it his own spin so they're different enough that it's not a blatant copy. This brings me round to why I don't watch the Daily Show, even on those infrequent occasions when I'm back home in time to watch it. Every time I turn it on John Oliver is on, and he's not funny. Worse than that, he's not funny while stealing someone else's schtick. Now the person he's stolen from is Jeremy Hardy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Hardy) who would happen to be one of my favourite comedians. So he's stealing a schtick and doing it so badly that he's not even a poor man's version, he's a beggar's version of someone I like a lot, and being praised for it. I trust the italics convey my annoyance suitably.

BTW, I recommend clicking on that link about Jeremy Hardy, because it details his awesomeness.

On a secondary point, other than Ed Byrne slowly turning into a joyously bitter person in his later 30s, if even he can't carry off slightly too short suit and Converses, no wonder the Doctor can't.

Saw rest of Amnesty DVD - was funny. And the 4 Yorkshiremen sketch was a) horribly scarily accurate in parts, b) funny as all get out.
Alan Rickman does one of the greatest yorkshire accents a londoner has ever managed. Eddie Izzard trying and failing to keep a straight face is also great fun.

Really excited about Van Helsing. There was a making off thing on late last night which made me even more excited. Stephen Sommers is such a film geek, he's like a family friendly Tarantino.
Finally heard what David Wenham sounds like when he's not Faramir.
And Richard Roxburgh. (giggles) He sounds like he's one step away from saying "stick another shrimp on the barbie, Sheila."

Oh and the most fantastic paragraph of film reviewery - "If you ask an American teenager what a Trojan is, chances are they'll tell you it's a rubber - 'Trojan' being the brand name of the States' most popular prophylactic. Call me puerile, but the unsafe connotations of the word 'Trojan' in relation to the sale of condoms has always seemed to me a source of some hilarity. For, as any fule kno, while the seductive Helen of Troy may have possessed the face that launched a thousand ships, the Trojans themselves were notable for foolishly allowing an apparently innocuous package through their impenetrable gates which promptly burst open, spilling Greek seamen everywhere, with disastrous consequences."

Mark Kermode on Troy (here - http://www.channel4.com/film/newsfeatures/kermode.html), there are many reasons I love him.

His review also informs me that Achillies gets no credit for the horse. I am astonishingly happy about this.

I am about this far from buying a magazine just for a Sean Bean article. And a picture of Odysseus that is so absolutely right I have expect his son to come running down and hugging him.

Since I have sorted my finances I think I might stretch to that.

Sports awards thingy that I went to was a bust, fencing didn't win a thing. Friends and I are presently plotting how to take over the world (or at least the sports exec).

One bright light was seeing that guy in suit. Always fun. Black suit, black shirt, black tie.
Plus there were plenty of cute girls too.

Ended up drinking with physicists as per usual.
And have temporarily got a copy of the 'Secret Policeman's Ball/Amnesty's 40th birthday' DVD, through the biologists I was drinking with. Important things to note are Eddie Izzard is fantastic, Dom Joly is lousy, Phil Jupitus is okay, I still love Jeremy Hardy and Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse are growing on me.