Charlie Brooker

My lovely friend Adam who is quite possibly the only reader of this blog is a big Charlie Brooker fan. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t really know who he was until one day; Adam told me he’d watched a show called ‘You Have Been Watching’. You Have Been Watching is a tv panel game where the contestants and host – Charlie Brooker – pretty much just rip television shows to shreds.

Brooker started life as an internet site editor where he used his wit and humour to express how much he didn’t like things. It was such a hit, that he was asked to create his TV show, NewsWipe which was followed by ScreenWipe. He also writes for the Guardian and created the Dead Set television series.

Back in September I wrote about the Media Guardian event I went to, and we were lucky enough to have Charlie Brooker come and do a masterclass for us. He was hilariously dour and miserable. I liked him a lot.

A few weeks ago, Adam bought me ‘Dawn of the Dumb’, a book which is a compilation of Brooker’s Guardian columns. The articles are bascically an attack on anything pop culture at the time of writing and they’re greatly entertaining. I don’t know why, but I love when people complain about stuff in a dry, witty manner. I sometimes think it would be so much easier to write a ‘It annoys us when...’ blog.

So if you feel like revelling in a little bit of misery and agreeing that really, a lot of stuff is shit, go and buy Charlie Brooker's book and join in with his disdain.

Obviously he would hate this.

Posted By: Cat

Inbetweeners

Four losers who just want to get laid – sound familiar? The Inbetweeners isn’t breaking new ground with its subject, but it is the funniest thing on television. And yes, I did just use italics to stress my point.

Will’s Mum can’t afford to send him to private school anymore, so off he goes to the local comprehensive. Here he meets Simon, Neil and Jay, three sixteen year old boys who you would never date and who you would never want to be friends with...well Jay at least.

Series one followed the boys on their random adventures which included losing a car door at Thorpe Park, hitting a disabled girl in the face with a Frisbee and trying to get laid at caravan club.

Season two comes to an end this week on e4 in the UK, and I’m gutted. How is my Thursday night between 10pm - 10.30pm going to be spent now? How can I cope without hearing Jay’s imaginative and never ending words for the female anatomy? Will Simon ever get Carly to sleep with him? Will I ever find out if Neil has a brain?

If you haven’t seen inbetweeners, try it, you’ll like it. Probably best to leave your moral integrity at the door though. 

Catch up with the show at e4.com

Posted By: Cat

Hamish and Andy’s Tall Ship Adventure

This blog seems to have turned into a Oz/NZ love fest, so I’m revisiting another past post to bring more reasons why I like Hamish and Andy - Australia's finest.

Their Australian drive time radio show is now transmitted into Tasmania. To celebrate, the guys decided to sail across the Bass Straight to Hobart, Tasmania’s capital, in a 17^th century tall ship (re-christened 'The Tally Shore'). They’ve named the voyage ‘Open Your Buccaneers Tasmania!'

Departure was scheduled for Monday but a hurricane warning left them docked in Melbourne’ harbour until Tuesday when the weather forecast was downgraded to gale force winds. Neither Hamish nor Andy has sailing experience and Hamish has prepared for the voyage buy getting an anchor tattooed on his bicep...and not doing much else. 

They chose naval ranks at random and ended up as Rear Admiral and Commodore. Because Hamish’s Rear Admiral outranks Andy’s Commodore, he is forcing Andy to marry a rat while in international waters - apparently this is something that you can do at sea. Poor Andy is not allowed to see his rat bride before the big day. So far, they haven't managed to do anything other than lay on deck and vomit. The swells reached 10ft on Wednesday night:

This is why I love Hamish and Andy. They take a small idea and let it snowball until it’s so random and ridiculous, that you just have to go along with it. They took a small group of listeners 'the peoples crew' to welcome the Tasmanians to the show. The first 24 hours of the trip consisted of them, and the peoples crew, vomiting due to severe sea sickness, but their show was still entertaining. To call it professionalism would be misguided, but it’s pretty cool.

You can follow their journey here: Open Your Buccaneers Tasmania!

Posted By: Cat

John Mayer being funny

CBS announced last month that they have optioned John Mayer to create and present a musical variety style show for them. The show will premiere sometime this year.

I have mixed views about this. I think that Mayer is fun-ny. Other people think that he’s an egomaniac, a douche, an attention whore.... I think he has a touch of all these things, but they are what make him witty. I’m worried though, the guy hasn’t made an album in almost three years and I’m bored to waiting while he gets distracted with one thing (read: woman) after another.

So in the spirit of Mayer’s comedy talent, and my anticipation and hope that his show doesn’t suck, here is a video that I like.

Makin' Music with John Mayer from John Mayer

Posted By: Cat

Hamish and Andy

These two are perhaps my best discovery of the year. Ham and Ando are funny. So funny in fact, that as I’ve been listening to their podcast in my car, I’ve been laughing so much that other drivers have thrown me worried looks. It’s a good job I do a lot of my driving these days in the dark evenings of winter.

A little bit about the boys: They have a radio show which is syndicated across Australia. They are also on a show called Rove which is like Conan, but better. Mostly, Hamish and Andy just do stuff that lads do best, but they are so witty with it. Hamish is obvious a student of the Office and is therefore someone who I desperately want to be mates with. We have the same sense of humour and the fact that we are of a similar age makes me green with envy, these guys are getting paid to have fun and be themselves.

This is the kind of thing they do: 

A couple of weeks ago, they drove across Australia from Melbourne to Darwin ‘hugging the country’. Their podcasts from the fortnight were hilarious. Among other adventures, they went UFO spotting, swan in crocodile infested rivers, tried to spot 50 wild camels and drank goats milk straight from the goat. 

This week they released a CD on the same day as Britney’s Circus. The next day, Hamish got pneumonia. The boys think Britney poisoned Hamish so they declared war, I can't wait to see how it ends.

More Hamish and Andy here: www.hamishandandy.com.au

Posted By: Cat

Never Mind the Buzzcocks

This show has been running for years and I've been a casual viewer since I was allowed to stay up past 9pm (a whole two years now. Ba dum dum!). Now I'm hooked. For those not in the know, Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a music based panel quiz show with two teams who don't really care about the scores, or the questions, but instead, who can be funnier while answering them. It's shown on BBC2 in the UK.

In my humble opinion, the show has gotten better since Simon Amstell took over from Mark Lamarr. I don't care what they say, sarcastic = funny. I just watched this weeks episode and laughed so loud I could be heard throughout the house. That is not a common occurrence.

The show is funniest when an egotistical, self absorbed musician can't laugh at themselves and wears sunglasses the whole way through. Even better when they walk out and are replaced by an audience member a la Preston from the Ordinary Boys.

You can watch it online at BBC iplayer.

Posted By: Cat