Humour
Nathan Barley - In 2005 light years ahead
Nathan Barley is a British Channel 4 television sitcom written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, starring Nicholas Burns, Julian Barratt, Claire Keelan, Richard Ayoade, Ben Whishaw, Rhys Thomas and Charlie Condou. The series of six weekly episodes began broadcasting on 11 February 2005 on Channel 4.
"I'm a self-facilitating media node"
Nathan Barley
According to Digital Spy, Nathan Barley was “a flop when it originally aired, but a cult hit on DVD”. It pulled in 700,000 viewers and a 3% share.[4]
The series features a (nowadays) famous cast such as:
- Nicholas Burns – Nathan Barley
- Julian Barratt – Dan Ashcroft
- Claire Keelan – Claire Ashcroft
- Richard Ayoade – Ned Smanks
- Ben Whishaw – Pingu
- Rhys Thomas – Toby
- Noel Fielding – Jones
- Spencer Brown – Rufus Onslatt
- Charlie Condou – Jonatton Yeah?
- David Hoyle – Doug Rocket
- Nina Sosanya – Sasha
- Kevin Eldon – Nikolai the Barber
- Julia Davis – Honda Poppet
- Benedict Cumberbatch – Robin
Nathan Barley, played by Nicholas Burns, is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a “self-facilitating media node”. Whilst desperate to convince himself and others that he is the epitome of urban cool, Nathan is secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape magazine, his bible of cool.
The website (trashbat.co.ck) consists of stupid pranks caught on camera, photos of him with attractive women and famous figures (some of them digitally edited to insert himself), and photos of him standing on street corners in major cities around the world.
The humour derives from the rapid rise of both the Internet and digital media, and the assumption by publishers and broadcasters that almost any such work is worthy of attention. Barley and his peers are often hired ahead of actual journalists and talented writers trying to make intelligent points, such as the earnest documentary film maker Claire Ashcroft, and her brother Dan Ashcroft, a jaded, opinionated and apathetic hack who, having written an article for Sugar Ape entitled “The Rise of the Idiots”, is appalled to find that “the idiots” in question – Nathan and his contemporaries – have adopted him as their spiritual leader, failing to see that they are the very people he was criticising.
Fur TV - Very rude adult puppets meet DJ YoYo
FUR TV ‘ENTER THE DJ’
Fur TV is a comedy puppet show produced by MTV Networks Europe and airs on MTV channels throughout Europe. The show uses Muppets style puppetry, but in a more adult setting. The characters are shown to undertake human activities such as drinking and having sex.
‘Wow, all the music from your set…?’
– Lapeño Enriquez –
‘No, all the music in the world.’
-DJ YoYo-
Watch this clip from Vimeo
‘This contains all the music in the world’
Happyish - Starring Steve Coogan
About Happyish (from IMDB)
It is “different” and does not belong to mainstream and regular type of shows that one may watch. It is not a kind of show that is talked about around water coolers and it is not to everybody’s taste. It is not a kind of show that one watches for sheer purpose of entertainment. Not a kind of show that soothes you, either. It is more like a mirror that reflects how we could get lost in banality of life. It is thought provoking, witty, and intelligent. It is truthful, wry, honest, and cerebral. One of the best shows (sadly underrated and overlooked) in the so called “golden age of television”, that tries to touch the vexed question of “happiness” in modern world and address the “tragic sense of life” in a roundabout way and blended with humor.
Best quote:
‘It’s only tragedy when you don’t see the comedy.’
Hear writer Shalom Auslander talk about an episode in this clip.
The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money
The film is hosted by Hollywood star Dennis Hopper and is directed by Hermann Vaske. Shot in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Hopper delivers a powerful performance. Arty as you’ve never seen him before, he puts advertising into perspective of popular culture at the end of the 20th century. Spitting colour, laughing his head off, destroying books, Dennis Hopper sends Hermann Vaske on a mission to talk to the greatest ad men, directors and artists to find out about the crossover between various creative disciplines. In a visually dazzling, wickedly funny slam of creativity and media obsession, Hermann conducts unconventional kinds of interviews
Epilogue
Interesting to see that part 4, which is about using shock as a paradigm and which you should surely skip if you detest shocking imagery, hasn’t survived the test of time. Pulp Fiction by Quintin Tarantino, quoted in this part of the film when it was just released, has.
