Be A Snob

Some people think that snobbery is a negative thing, but sticking your nose up at things you deem beneath you has never been more apt than in this consumer age of mass audience appeal and general dumbing down.

No media source is without its broad, sweeping net moreso than TV comedy, drudgingly scything down any small pocket of wit, satire and humour for a generally more idiot-friendly, toned down, catchphrase based shitefest. The general public should be little fascists when it comes to TV, turning off the shoddily made comedies coming out of BBC, ITV and Channel 4 the majority of the time.

Take Little Britain for example; the comedy act of Walliams and Lucas brought their outrageous characters to the small screen from an initial stint on BBC Radio. They had immediate success as playgrounds and offices from north to south were full of their hilarious catchphrases as the two men eagerly dressed up as latex-clad gays and victorian-age women in a style unfitting of even Eddie Izzard. As the two are reasonably humourous in their personal lives and in detriment to Lucas’ performances on Shooting Stars I watched the first series and found it…mind numbingly dull. But that should have been the end of it. However as the BBC big wigs do continuously, it has been stretched out like William Wallace on the rack. The ‘writers’ on this series, and I put that in inverted commas because an episode of Little Britain after series one is a simple procedure of taking a heavily scripted character and inserts their various catchphrases into a different backdrop each week, have a remarkable easy job. It would be more advisable for them to film the sequence in front of a green screen and import different backgrounds in as the value of the catchphrase doesn’t get funnier each week, its gets more tiresome. So why, oh, why the show has been going for 4 series with another brilliantly planned ‘Little Britain USA 2’ is coming soon is beyond me. Do the viewers not understand they are buying into the same shite as they were back in 2005? Is Vicky Pollard still funny in 2009? Little Britain is the benchmark for lazy comedy… it’s the mindset of an 8-year old designed in an age where somehow this is an award winning.

I don’t want to know where the jokes are coming I want them to be subtle, thought provoking and edgy. Little Britain is really like a snotty toddler coming up to you with porridge all over his hands, putting his hands on your new designer jeans and saying why did the chicken cross the road…and then explaining the punch line by drawing the scene out using the oats and milk that are slowly seeping their way down your thigh. And did I say you’re allergic to oats. And milk intolerant. And toddler intolerant. The problem with it is that it assumes you’ve never seen the show before, because it follows the same tired formula every episode sparing adding new characters each series they can show on a trailer to try and tempt in the same dim-witted viewers from the last series.

Little Britain is a shameful epitome of juvenile repetition, in which every episode contains the gay Welsh ‘only gay in the village’, chav shell suit wearing pikey Vicky Pollard with her ‘yeah, but, no, but, yeah’ and fake disabled Andy and carer Lou saying ‘I want that one’. It really is insufferable.

Catchphrases do work, but only in the context of a show not by being water boarded into you like you stumbled onto a plane with a ticking shoe. The brilliant 90’s sketch show ‘The Fast Show’ written by and starring the darling of the 90’s comedy team, Paul Whitehouse, Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash, Charlie Higson, Bob Mortimer and number of others had numerous catchphrases and long running gags but the writing was nothing short of genius so the lasting appeal of it was warranted...yet even they knew it was time to stop.

Extras, written by Gervais and Merchant, went deeply into the issue picking up on the lack of real comedy and ripped into the likes of Catherine Tate and Little Britain’s catchphrase culture. Snowballing into the Extras special it acted as a platform for Gervais demonstrate his contempt for these shows for their simple minded tactics. The use of the studio audiences, canned laughter, stupid costumes and catchphrases for the laughs in "When The Whistle Blows" was a epic shot at those who sit BBC offices directing the utter shite of catchphrase shows.

I am a TV snob and proud to say so, so when it comes to these lowest common denominator shows they should all be cancelled immediately and the air time given to real talented British comedians Simon Pegg, Ricky Gervais, Bill Bailey, Steve Coogan, James Corden, Dylan Moran and Matthew Holness.

I can only hope for the sake British public that these shows have run their course, until of course that old gem Comic Relief comes around and we are forces to sit through specials within Girls Aloud popping up in the script...fuck me thats bad enough but don’t get me started of Lenny Henry’s Jamaican accent which actually borders on the racist.

Ricky loves the British public...