March 23, 2001
3:42 AM Subscribe
Great news! Channel 4 to re-screen Brass Eye - with restored footage.
This is the best thing ever. Some of the stuff - it's difficult to believe that they could have gotten away with it. Particularly I remember the Noel Edmunds seige. Viva Brass Eye
posted by barbelith at 10:57 AM on March 23, 2001
posted by barbelith at 10:57 AM on March 23, 2001
Hah. That Brass Eye thing sounds like a hoot. The closest thing I've ever seen here in the States was when The Man Show set up a table and tried to get passers-by to sign a petition to "end women's suffrage" and were, sadly, frighteningly successful.
posted by kindall at 1:01 PM on March 23, 2001
posted by kindall at 1:01 PM on March 23, 2001
Approximately half of Chris Morriss' work is startlingly brilliant. The other half is ham fisted suckiness. Witness the glory that is Blue Jam and the pointless tv interpretation that was Jam. Witness the mild, beautiful scathe of The Day Today and the pointlessness of announcing on live radio that Micheal Heseltine was dead. The only media setup of his that I've heard of that worked was the infamous stunt of filling a radio studio with helium. Before a news broadcast. So that the presenters voice was all high.
Brass Eye is perhaps the definitive demonstration of this trend, being half groovey satire (if anyone hasn't seen it, but is about to, then let me say only the single word "cake"; you'll know it when you see it) and half pointless assault.
posted by davidgentle at 2:43 PM on March 23, 2001
Brass Eye is perhaps the definitive demonstration of this trend, being half groovey satire (if anyone hasn't seen it, but is about to, then let me say only the single word "cake"; you'll know it when you see it) and half pointless assault.
posted by davidgentle at 2:43 PM on March 23, 2001
Approximately half of Chris Morris's work is startlingly brilliant. The other half is ham fisted suckiness.
True, but that's a higher success rate than, say, Monty Python.
That said, I've got all the Brass Eyes on RealVideo, and they've actually aged quite badly, simply because that one series has dictated the direction of experimental TV comedy in Britain ever since. (Trigger Happy TV, The Eleven O'Clock Show, Ali G etc. Even I'm Alan Partridge owed something to the whole "comedy of embarrassment" thing.)
As for Jam, well: it would have made a better one-off programme than a series. Things like "The Gush" were definitely more effective on screen. But I'm not sure I'm glad to have seen them. Oo vudge welcome.
One thought: would something like Celebrity Big Brother have been possible before Brass Eye? I'm not saying that we've finally escaped the world of celebrity pseudo-authority -- Carol fucking Vorderman talking about the danger of chat rooms proved that -- but there was something faintly "Chris Morris" about watching Vanessa go potty.
posted by holgate at 3:37 PM on March 23, 2001
True, but that's a higher success rate than, say, Monty Python.
That said, I've got all the Brass Eyes on RealVideo, and they've actually aged quite badly, simply because that one series has dictated the direction of experimental TV comedy in Britain ever since. (Trigger Happy TV, The Eleven O'Clock Show, Ali G etc. Even I'm Alan Partridge owed something to the whole "comedy of embarrassment" thing.)
As for Jam, well: it would have made a better one-off programme than a series. Things like "The Gush" were definitely more effective on screen. But I'm not sure I'm glad to have seen them. Oo vudge welcome.
One thought: would something like Celebrity Big Brother have been possible before Brass Eye? I'm not saying that we've finally escaped the world of celebrity pseudo-authority -- Carol fucking Vorderman talking about the danger of chat rooms proved that -- but there was something faintly "Chris Morris" about watching Vanessa go potty.
posted by holgate at 3:37 PM on March 23, 2001
Just in case you were all wondering how it went. They pulled the programme. "It will be now shown later in the month" No explanation, just showed a repeat in its place.
Hmmmmmm
posted by fullerine at 3:46 PM on July 5, 2001
Hmmmmmm
posted by fullerine at 3:46 PM on July 5, 2001
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posted by viama at 5:48 AM on March 23, 2001