Dog And Fish Posted Fri Jul 14 07:07:06 BST 2000 by Jon

Have just read the new article in 'Comment' about Ben Elton's last novel.

So, who do you reckon 'Dog & Fish' are? It's pretty obvious The Corpses think it's The Boosh. But the name suggests Lee&Herring (Fish... Herring... you see?)

We know L&H aren't fond of BE. So does he hate them as well? One for the 'Contempt...' strand...

Subject: Re: Dog And Fish [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Gee on Fri Jul 14 13:01:35 BST 2000:

So, who do you reckon 'Dog & Fish' are? It's pretty obvious The Corpses think it's The Boosh. But the name suggests Lee&Herring (Fish... Herring... you see?)

Where does the 'Dog' part come in?

Subject: Re: Dog And Fish [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Jon on Fri Jul 14 13:37:09 BST 2000:

Yeah, well obviously it sounds nothing like 'Lee' to throw reviewers off the scent... but I think SOTCA readers can tell...

Subject: Re: Dog And Fish [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Richard Herring on Sat Jul 15 07:37:26 BST 2000:

I read the book - thought he did a bit of a rush job on it and it was a bit crap.
I met BE in Montreal and we had a good long chat. I apologised for a comment that was attributed to us in Time Out. He was a very nice man and allowed me to indulge my comedy fan wank.

To be honest I think that the duo in the book are more in the Barratt and Fielding genre. He keeps banging on about them not doing jokes (can't work out if this is what BE thinks or if he's trying to make his character look a bit out of date - think he's not quite subtle enough for it to be the latter)
The agent character is blatantly a mixture of Jon Thoday and Addison Cresswell - the name is a mixture and so I think it's highly possible that he's done the same with the comedians. But whether it's us or B&F or someone else or all of the above (maybe even N&B as I remember there was something about laddishness in there which doesn't square with us or the Boosh - I think he's more likely to have seen N&B though might have caught the Boosh and us in Montreal)I think it largely just shows him (or his character- honestly a commissioning editor we're meant to think is a good bloke and capable of writing a film that gets made in weeks) is a bit reactionary when it comes to comedy.

I don't think it's an attempt at revenge or anything.

Subject: Re: Dog And Fish [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Mememe on Sun Jul 23 21:06:23 BST 2000:


>To be honest I think that the duo in the book are more in the Barratt and Fielding genre.

You would say that though, wouldn't you?

(he said, conveniently not quoting from the rest of the last message to make himself look big and a reasonably popular comedian and probably very nice man look very small)

Subject: Re: Dog And Fish [ Previous Message ]
Posted By kinder surprise on Tue Jul 25 06:20:11 BST 2000:

The beauty of a book is you can interpret it as you wish. I choose to think he's talking about Parsons and Naylor.

Subject: Re: Dog And Fish [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Alan on Tue Jul 25 13:00:42 BST 2000:

Does *anyone* bother to talk about Parsons & Naylor?

Subject: Re: Dog And Fish [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Pink Moon on Tue Jul 25 23:49:56 BST 2000:

>Does *anyone* bother to talk about Parsons & Naylor?

Well, it depends. Who are they?

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