Late to the party

[donnaimmaculata]

I'm warming to David Mitchell, some of you might be happy to learn. I've always liked him on QI and HIGNFY, but I can't stomach Would I Lie To You or Mock The Week, and I've always suspected that I wouldn't actually like David Mitchell were I to meet him in person. He too much gives off the vibe (or cultivates the persona) of that really annoying guy* who spouts smart, witty, acerbic and highly entertaining things in a very loud voice with no regard for anyone else and exhibits no people skills whatsoever in his interactions with others. Entertaining enough in small doses, but unbearable in large ones.

But then, quite by accident, I watched four seasons of That Mitchell and Webb Look and decided that I might like David Mitchell after all. Still not keen on Robert Webb, though.

And last night, I watched The Bubble, and found him quite charming, really. So perhaps there's still hope.

I still dislike the staged rants (Soap Box). I feel his strength is thinking on his feet and coming up with witty rebukes and - as Stephen Fry put it - "slightly worried logic" on the spot. When the whole point of a programme is to write the rants in advance - even if he does the writing himself - it kills off all of that charming spontaneity.

*In other words: a born critic

Comments

[shocolate.livejournal.com]

To quite by accident watch four whole series is quite some achievement!

Watch the episide when Robert Webb was in The Bubble - it's ms button's favourite...

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Okay, I didn't watch the first series, because the dl links were broken!

Is it really good? I stopped after episode 5, because a) it was late and I had to get some sleep and b) I was slightly worried that ep 6 might spoil my happy mood, as I don't like Miranda Hart and am not too crazy about Robert Webb. Ms button's words are a ray of hope!

[lyras.livejournal.com]

David Mitchell and Jo Brand are the only things that make QI palatable to me any more. Er, I tried to expand on this but it turned into a rant, so I'll leave it there. :)

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would have loved to read your QI rant! QI and HIGNFY are the two constants in my watching habits; even though the quality varies from episode to episode, I still enjoy the shows as such. I don't have a critical distance to them.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

I used to love QI and HIGNFY (although I haven't watched the latter for quite a while *sadface*). Then I became aware of Stephen Fry's faily comments about women - not just what he said about a year ago about how women don't like sex, but how there is a pattern in which he has said similar things over the years - and it...sort of changed my viewpoint.

I think he and Alan Puppydog Eyes Whatsisname and Bill Bailey and whoever else they have on the show (but only one woman, right, because women just aren't that funny) are well-meaning and kind and obviously staggeringly intelligent, but their comedy environment is one that involves scoring points, and often I am disappointed at how thoughtless they can be.

Jo Brand and David Mitchell are just that little bit more self-aware, and good at calling the others on their bullshit, basically.

Of course, they're all talking on the fly, and I'm sure sometimes they regret what's been said (as in the recent incident where they joked about a Japanese guy who survived two nuclear bombs). And British humour has a long tradition of being mordant, which is something I love about it. I guess just sometimes it hits too close to the bone, for me. :-/

Er. Not a rant, but still probably TL:DR, so feel free to ignore if you wish!

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

This is a really interesting point... I feel like I should have an opinion on this matter, but I haven't really formed one. I think I've never held Stephen Fry in such a high regard as to see him fall from the pedestal. I like him, of course, and admit he is witty and smart and all that - but I guess I always knew he's not infallible?

I steered clear from the discussions ensuing after Stephen Fry's comments on how women don't enjoy sex, because I wasn't as appalled by them as many others were. Bear with me, because I'm trying to put in words what I'm only vaguely aware of ;-) There is that concept floating around in society that men and women are fundamentally different - the Mars versus Venus thing (which I don't necessarily believe, btw). And often, men will say something like "oh, you women always do this" or "always do that" (and women do the same!) - which I do not consider to be sexist, but merely natural human behaviour pattern: as humans, we think in categories of "us" and "them" and if an individual does something that we find bemusing, we tend to attribute it to the entire category of people to which he or she belongs.

And, ultimately, jokes about the differences - how men are different (and inferior) to women or women are different (and inferior) to men are one of the lowest common denominators. They're easy to fall back upon, and they will always get a laugh, because people like that sort of thing. Sandi Toksvig (whom I like a lot) forever makes penis jokes. ("I've always suspected there is a relation between a sense of humour and the male sex organ." Alan Davies: "Well, people are certainly always laughing at mine!" - On the question why there aren't as many female comedians as male.) A man - as Stephen Fry rightly pointed out - would never get away with such remarks without being chastised by at least part of the audience. Had a man said something along these lines about breasts, it would most certainly have met with a couple of boos from the audience.

Also, Jo Brand (whom I like) always makes jokes about her husband's inadequacies. The men on the shows, when they mention their wives/girlfriends, tend to do that in a rather more neutral/positive context (apart from Jimmy Carr, perhaps).

Anyway. I don't feel insulted by the jokes on QI (HIGNFY can be painful, but it is a different format from QI, and they tend to be horrible to people (of both genders) of whom they think they deserve such treatment), even if they are below the belt. If the show were female-dominated, they would say the same (and even worse) things about men. There is the problem of the industry being dominated by men, but that hardly QI's fault...

How about this for a TL:DR? ;-)