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Currently watching the old-school classic Porridge these days. My favourite thing about this show is the daily interaction between Fletcher and Mr. Mackay...Fletcher being the cheeky, charming Cockney spiv who has all of the softy prison guards / governor wrapped around his little finger - with Mr. Mackay being the only prison staff member who can see through his bullshit. 😅



 
My Dad loved that show, we'd sit together on the sofa cracking up at Fletcher's antics. The guy who played Godbar died very young and the series was cancelled. Fletcher was of course one half of the Two Ronnies, another classic British comedy. Those days also featured some genius British comedy from The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, Rising Damp ( a ground-breaking show that saw a British/African actor overshadow Leonard Rossiter's character, Rigsby: the dodgy landlord of a block of hovel-like flats, one of which was shared by the dark-skinned actor and the guy who played Godbar in Porridge.

Daytime kids comedy included Metal Mickey, which I loved.

Dr Who had the Daleks, but Metal Mickey had personality.

Swap Shop with Cheggars and Noel Edmonds - Saturday morning madness for three hours. We were up and out of bed and breakfast finished by 0830 every Saturday morning. Earlier and faster than any school day. Of course, looking back at it all now reminds me that we'll never take those kind of chances again. The ad for Smash mashed potatoes cracked me up:

 
I've always seen Fletcher as a sort of protégé to Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses...almost as if they were brothers. The series only had around 20 episodes unfortunately, though every episode is a must-see classic. The Fletcher and Mr. Makay protagonist/ antagonist relationship is one of the funniest dichotomies ever written into a TV show.

I can't understand why RTE can't produce such classic comedies with all of the money thrown at them from advertising and the taxpayer. Instead all they throw out is unfunny, cringey and predictable rubbish that even a 5-year old wouldn't find funny. These are the same people who turned down Father Ted - now a cultural icon of Irish humour.
 
I've always seen Fletcher as a sort of protégé to Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses...almost as if they were brothers. The series only had around 20 episodes unfortunately, though every episode is a must-see classic. The Fletcher and Mr. Makay protagonist/ antagonist relationship is one of the funniest dichotomies ever written into a TV show.

British comedy had an impetus driving it from the days of Monty Python, Spike Milligan (honorary Irishman - of British stock, born in India, holidayed with family in Ireland, and eventually took an Irish passport of which he was extremely proud) and in those days the watershed at 2100 had a meaning. Shows like Play For Today on BBC2 were risque and featured some rather raw sexual material that wouldn't be passed for TV today).

British comedy writers like Milligan had a carte blanche, they could smash through social mores with abandon and get away with it. I read all of Milligan's books ('Hitler: My Part In His Downfall' and 'Hitler: His Part In My Downfall') cracked me up. They featured the often misunderstood 'Ying-Tong Song' which, contrary to many who thought otherwise, was a war-time joke to pass the time when he was stationed in Salerno during the Second World war. The song refers to his buddy Edgington, a fellow private in his battalion. So you can see where the lyric came from, one of those silly moments trying to pass the time I guess, kind of like another stupid joke that just floored me:

Milligan turns to Edgington and asks: 'did you know that the anagram of Salerno is 'Narsole?'

So dumb it's brilliant.

I can't understand why RTE can't produce such classic comedies with all of the money thrown at them from advertising and the taxpayer.

The only thing RTE is good for is as a yardstick to how much better things could be if they just shut it down tomorrow.

Instead all they throw out is unfunny, cringey and predictable rubbish that even a 5-year old wouldn't find funny.

In retrospect, I'm glad it didn't work out that the invitation sent to me by Katie Hannon's show producer came through. He made it out to be a new and 'thrusting' political and social debate program with diverse guests on every show. It turned out to be another miserable flop, likely because they weren't allowed to invite mouths like me on to say my bit about the country and why I left it.

Instead it's as boring as anything else they've spent stupid amounts of your money on.

Though I was considering sending him a link to Val's channel to see if they wanted him on the show - I reckon he'd be a hit from the go.

What do you think?
These are the same people who turned down Father Ted - now a cultural icon of Irish humour.
 
The Val Martin Show is probably the funniest thing Ireland has produced since Father Ted.

It was cancelled by YouTube a few days ago though...where is it airing now?
 
The Val Martin Show is probably the funniest thing Ireland has produced since Father Ted.

Unintended, but yes - he hit the mark without even knowing what he was doing.

It was cancelled by YouTube a few days ago though...where is it airing now?

It isn't, he has a Rumble channel, but there are only twenty-three followers, whereas his youtube had over 3,000.

The BBBB today reached 9,400 members - that's a wee heads-up for Jambo.
 
Of course, it would be remiss of me to not consider the fact that Jack (the RTE producer) probably DOES know all about Val. His show is on the ground in Ireland, it's not an ex-pat looking back over his shoulder with some choice things to say. I'd imagine they already know about Val, but maybe they think he's too much of a head case to take a chance on.

Whereas with me, they know I've been out to Montrose loads of times with various bands, interviews about my school St John's College, Ballyer in general, and Ballyfermot TV, on which I featured several more times through Tommy Morrison, local political activist better known as Tommy O'Brien, the Politics.ie hack and the man who robbed all the copies of some local newspaper and dumped them because there was an article about the Fine Gael politician (name escapes me) he was PA to. He produced everything on Ballyer TV, which ran for a year or two before the local Senior Cycle multi-media college opened and gave birth to some of Ireland's best animation work over the last four decades.

But anyway, one of Val's problems was that he let standards slide, like all culchies do when it comes to order and hygiene. His act of pinning A4 sheets covered in scrawl over his backdrop (which for the last nine months has a sheet of plastic hanging over one side of it and is never framed correctly) instead of learning to add text onto the video was a big mistake. Not dressing or shaving is another. His missing teeth. His filthy appearance and the big gash across his face from the last haircut done by a sheep-shearer wasn't too wise either. Wearing the same manky jumpers for months at a time, along with those suit jackets covered in muck and shite. The filthy fingers and hands, and his nails. The unbearable twitching and facial ticks. The shouting and roaring. The melodrama and the fake Dubliner voices. But most of all: constantly referring to himself as 'an extremely intelligent' eh, 'farmer with cows' and his windmill campaigns nobody cares about.

He's near, but not close enough - and the real problem there is that he liked it as it was - he had no intentions of improving the standards and quality.

So no - they wouldn't invite him anywhere given his current stance - and mental state, not to mention his disheveled appearance and gruff manner.

Plus: he can't be trusted - he's a culchie.

So what's with all the Arsefielders boasting that Val has two million views a day?

They'll tell each other any lie they can to feel better about themselves.

Nobody else believes it because we can see for ourselves it isn't true.

At the moment he has zero viewers, he was banned four days ago:



I'd say the withdrawals are killing the cunt.

He must be in rag order by now.
 
I've always found Ulster sorts to be a bit on the dour side, so whenever Val tries to be funny it just doesn't suit him.

You laugh at Val, not with him.
 
Sadly, it's not just the religiotards who are at this nonsense -

 
Sadly, it's not just the religiotards who are at this nonsense -

And of course the reason I say that it reminds me of the - "Dawkins converts to 'agnosticism'" story is because it's the same. Dawkins hasn't changed his views one iota.
 
Sadly, it's not just the religiotards who are at this nonsense -

And of course the reason I say that it reminds me of the - "Dawkins converts to 'agnosticism'" story is because it's the same. Dawkins hasn't changed his views one iota.

Y'know - talking to yourself on a chat board is the only thing more sad and insane than addressing another chat boards contents from the one you're writing on.

Kill yourself.
 
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