[TOONARMY]

One of the biggest disappointments of my childhood was finding out Jim Davidson was a grade A dick-head. I used to love Big Break (I was 8 when it started so just taking notice of early evening "grown up" tv). At the time I thought he was a genuinley nice family friendly host like Bruce Forsyth

[davidjay]

Corbett's solo work was solid shit; it's only in recent years that he's started to defy expectations, revel in his elder statesman role and seemingly have fun with his image.

I think that's the crux of the matter. The ones who didn't mind laughing at themselves did okay; it was the arrogant ones who struggled.

[Carlos The Badger]

Re: The Two Ronnies, solo.

Barker: If anyone could take a 1970s sitcom spin-off film and make it as funny as the original they are to be regarded as a comedy saint.
Mind you, Porridge did have the advantage of actually being funny in the first place, unlike On The Buses - but there were others that were quite funny on the small screen but stank to high heaven at the cinema.

Corbett: Sorry! Yes, you fucking well should be.

[culfy]

Corbett's solo work was solid shit; it's only in recent years that he's started to defy expectations, revel in his elder statesman role and seemingly have fun with his image.

I think that's the crux of the matter. The ones who didn't mind laughing at themselves did okay; it was the arrogant ones who struggled.

If you read 'Sunshine on Putty' by an author whose name escapes me, he talks about Ronnie Corbett being seen at gigs by Harry Hill and the League of Gentlemen, showing how he kept his finger on what was happening in comedy and didn't just sit a corner moaning on about all the young upstarts.

Yes, indeed the myth that 'all the old comics were destroyed by PC' is indeed rubbish. Terry and June staggered on till about 1987. Little and Large till about 1991. Saturday evenings were taken up with 3-2-1 and Ted Rogers presenting sketches by Keith Harris and Orville and Jimmy Crickett. You were more likely to tune in to a show with Bobby Davro than Rik Mayall in the eighties as I recall. Of course, comedians with any talent will survive, either by adapting their act or diversifying (look at Andrew 'Copy Cats' O'Connor - now the producer of Derren Brown and Peep Show).

[shyamz]

Before the slow but eventual takeover of the dedicated comedy club, you could mostly only see comics in your own town in working men's clubs and simmilar venues.

And you couldn't move in them for blue, offensive, sexist and openly racist material of all kinds. And the audience was often worse.

I'm not saying they were all like that, they weren't. Just that those who do complain about the supposed offensiveness of comedians these days -acts and punters alike- have no right to when they themselves came from a time when it was almost assured that if you went to a club, you would hear something indefensibly nasty.
It is so much harder for an edgy act with some contentious material to get airtime these days than it was back then. So Jim can fuck right off.

Re. Culfy: Sunshine on Putty was by Ben Thompson. It is a shame the book itself wasn't that greatly recieved, as it does mention that very importiant point.

Mind you, you could tell people like Jim and his fans that, but what would they think?

I think they'd find some way to ignore it anyhow.

[Big Rob]

Roy 'Chubby' Brown is still doing the rounds. So non PC still exists it just doesn't get airtime.

[davidjay]

Roy 'Chubby' Brown is still doing the rounds. So non PC still exists it just doesn't get airtime.

He's not as big as he once was, though.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

No longer chubby?

[Big Rob]

Roy 'Chubby' Brown is still doing the rounds. So non PC still exists it just doesn't get airtime.

He's not as big as he once was, though.

I wouldn't know seeing as though the height of his career was selling out Blackpool Pier for a season.

[davidjay]

Roy 'Chubby' Brown is still doing the rounds. So non PC still exists it just doesn't get airtime.

He's not as big as he once was, though.

I wouldn't know seeing as though the height of his career was selling out Blackpool Pier for a season.

Not that I've ever liked him in the slightest but I do seem to remember him playing theatres for a week where he now plays a night.

[crabcakes_windermere]

I suspect a lot of that though is down to lack of new material - Royston Vasey probably only has a few set jokes and then it's down to slagging off the audience/being rude, and you can only watch DVDs/shows of that so many times.

The problem with a lot of the no longer popular comedians is that they had very few routines because they were designed for geographically separate club audiences and TV appearances were fewer, so you could use the same set of gags for literally years - and by the time you got back to the first club they'd probably forgotten half of it anyway. Transfer that to TV and you might get a couple of seasons but then you're repeating yourself if you're not one of the genuinely talented acts who could create more. Plus most acts were just clones of one or two successful acts of a similar type. Take Morecambe and Wise - Eric Morecambe was a comedy genius, and Ernie Wise smart enough to know playing the straight man was the best career he'd ever have. But their act also gave us Little and Large (shit), Cannon and Ball (shit) and even on down to Hale and Pace (shit), and in the case of Cannon & Ball etc their entire repertoire was a few weak sketches and then the funny man* interrupting the other guy while he tries to do a song for the nice ladies and gentlemen (it wasn't until Vic Reeves Big Night Out that that routine became funny again, and that was basically because they took it and made it so absurd it bore no relation to the original form even though Vic actually dressed up as Eric Morecambe).

It also demonstrates another thing - Jimmy Carr probably works 10 times harder than Jim Davidson did at the peak of his career, and if he uses old material he'll be slated on cookdandbombd before he's off stage.

*allegedly

[Althea]

Jimmy Carr's joke making:

Can I make a joke about women with penises? Yes.
Shall I follow it up with my godsawful laugh? Yes.

"Did she give you a little prick? HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

[Andy McDandy]

Good points there. Also, topical humour seems to be more popular these days, even if (Mock the Week style) it just means taking a recent event and using it as a hook to hang a bunch of jokes on.

There's a great book that I'm sure I've mentioned here before called 'How to be a comedian' by the music hall star Lupino Lane. In it, he identifies several very recognisable 'characters' to build routines around, and points out that the great thing about old jokes is that they're always new to someone. And if they're not new, then it's best to go for the laugh of recognition as someone sees an old favourite performed again. Lane was writing about 100 years ago, by the way.

But you're quite right, CW, in that jokes get around a hell of a lot faster these days (although many jokes themselves are not in any way new - after a tornado dislodged a few roofing tiles in Birmingham a few years ago, or after any floods, you'll probably have noticed a spoof 'disaster relief' appeal doing the rounds on Facebook. Act now to keep the kids in Iceland value packs and blue pop, provide Lambert & Scuttler for the parents etc. These have been doing the rounds since at least the mid 1980s (down to the blue pop and cheap cigarettes references) - they used to just occupy workplace noticeboards). I mean, take the panto thing from earlier in this thread - how long ago was that bloody Krankies incident?

On another note about Jim Davidson (and I'm sorry if it seems like I'm putting the boot in unnecessarily about it - it's very necessary indeed), perhaps the problem with him was that his 'cheeky chappie' persona slipped so easily whenever riled on stage, and sat at odds with his private life, which had become public knowledge.

By the way, has anyone actually ever watched one of his 'adult pantos'? Christ, you're lucky. Lots of blondes playing dumb and delivering stilted single innuendoes while dressed in low cut tops (and then getting their tits out) while the male characters perv on from the sidelines.

[crabcakes_windermere]

Jimmy Carr's joke making:

Can I make a joke about women with penises? Yes.
Shall I follow it up with my godsawful laugh? Yes.

"Did she give you a little prick? HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Despite not being a particularly big fan of his, I've ended up seeing Jimmy Carr live twice in consecutive years. Yes, there's a bit of the "prick gag" stuff, but he does clearly work on his routines (both years were new stuff) and he was absolutely razor sharp with the audience - and both times, he told the audience he'd be in the foyer happy to sign stuff and have a chat after the show - and he was, immediately after being onstage for 2 hours. In fact, he got out there and was signing stuff before I'd even got to the bloody exit of the auditorium, so he can't even have had time for a slash.

He might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I absolutely can't fault his work rate or his commitment to his fans.

[Althea]

Well, he might be good in that department, but his comedy leaves me in a rather poor mood.

He can be interesting and he can be funny (as evidenced by his appearances on QI), but I wish he'd stop with insulting minority groups. It's not big and it's not clever.