>He rips off Chris Morris's persona - true. But didn't Chris Morris rip off Victor Lewis-smith's personna. There's one to ponder.
>
Maybe one to ponder, but I don't think it holds water at all. I suspect Kenny Everett and Peter Cook to be far more influential on Morris than VLS. As great as VLS was to begin with, he basically had two themes (media and the class system) and he ran them over and over again. The decline from "Loose Ends" to "TV Offal" is extremely apparent. And if he writes the "Monopolies & Mergers Commission" joke just once more in his Evening Standard column... Also, Lewis-Smith appears to find what he does more shocking and outrageous than anyone else (although when he's good, he can be astonishing). Morris had the good sense (until Brass Eye. at any rate) to shroud his most controversial material in a relatively innocuous context.

The only real similarities in Morris/VLS shows were prank phone calls, anyway. It is very difficult to say who was doing them first, given that I never heard Morris on Radio Cambridgeshire or RAdio Bristol. But prank phone calls were radio currency by then anyway - Noel Edmonds anyone?

Now, back to Iain Lee. The problem with Lee is not that he wears his influence on his sleeve so prominently, but because a) he devalues the influence anyway, and b) offers nothing of his own to enhance it, save for charmlessness and jokes about masturbation. Some of this may be the fault of the no-brain 11ocs writers, but Lee, as a supposedly experienced performer, has to take some of the flak for the criticism. Morris, meanwhile, spent years developing a style and content which was, if not entirely original, was certainly highly individual. It reminds me of the only problem with punk rock - you might get some genunine brilliance to begin with, but then come the opportunists. Iain Lee - The Peter & The Test Tube Babies of comedy. Is he going to be doing a late-night show in two years called "It's Very Dark"? I'd put money on it, were it not for the fact that producers will still be trying to put out Day Today/Brass Eye cast-offs with no ideas or jokes. Lee's even got an XFM show - what's the betting they called up Morris first?

"He rips off Chris Morris's persona - true. But didn't Chris Morris rip off Victor Lewis-smith's personna. There's one to ponder."

That's like saying David Irving is alright because Hitler was just ripping off Mussolini.

Lewis-Smith hasn't done anything remotely interesting since his radio show over ten years ago. Since then all he's done is make crap tv and bitter comments about the far superior Chris morris

Hmm-I'd have to disagree with you there. VLS writes extremely lucid newspaper columns, which sets him apart from any other columnist. I also enjoyed TV Offal a great deal. Yes, he's fond of using the same jokes a lot, but they're used in such a self-depreciating oh-here-comes-another-one way that it's clear he's being 'crap' on purpose.
VLS's gripe against CM is unjustified, but VLS has had a long and difficult career, while CM rose to fame relatively quickly using some of VLS's tactics (but in his own style). I can see why VLS feels the way he does. By the way, CM is just as prone to inconsistency as VLS- Jaaammm (or however it's spelt) was proof of that.

VLS is reputed to be one of the highest-earning columnists in Britain - last figure I read was £100,000+pa (and that was a few years ago). So yeah, alright he might well be stuck for inspiration sometimes, having to churn out daily columns, he may not be stuck for cash?

Which brings us to...how the hell does Chris Morris make a living? Maybe he has a day job.

"VLS is reputed to be one of the highest-earning columnists in Britain - last figure I read was £100,000+pa"

That would be on top of having about 3 months holiday a year, by my reckoning.

VLS had a compilation of his TV reviews brought out a few years ago. Several (favourable) reviewers noted the repetition of gags, themes, etc.

>"VLS is reputed to be one of the highest-earning columnists in Britain - last figure I read was £100,000+pa"
>
>That would be on top of having about 3 months holiday a year, by my reckoning.
>
I'll bet Pete Clark and Peter Bradshaw are on peanuts by comparison.

VLS is also not averse to making shitloads out of our old friend, the advertising world. How much, I wonder, did he get for his (admittedly quite funny) radio ads for the Midland Bank in the late '80s?

On the subject of plagiarism and VLS/CM/IL. Why has no-one mentioned Vivian Stanshall? Smith's whole persona is just VS with a chip on his shoulder. Also, CM admits he was a big influence - Viv was telling the public he was from the BBC and conducting strange interviews back in the 60s. Mr Lee has never cited Stanshall as an influence - now we begin to see what the problem is! No?

"Defending iain Lee"

Face reality, some things just cannot be defended...

Chris Morris seems to have been influenced by the Derek Jarman film "Blue". The intro to the (admittedly unwatchable, but well worth listening to) film features Nigel Terry talking in extremely monged tones and saying "I take you into .. the bluuuuuuuuuuuuu (etc)". The mishmash of dialogue and music that CM sometimes used in BJ seems to have been influenced by the late great Derek. Mind, they say that there's nothing new left under the sun, so maybe we shouldn't be splidding hairs...

A friend of mine who's a barrister is going to be defending Iain "Mothercare" Lee in an upcoming legal case.
Centering on 11'OCS intellectual property rights, that is.

"11'OCS intellectual property rights"

Eh?

I mean, what intellectual property is there in this case for anyone to declare their rights over?

Apart from Chris Morris and Armando Ianucci claiming the whole thing was a piss-weak imitation of The Day Today? I'd keep quiet if I were them.

Sorry, that was a clumsy attempt to imply that he was on trial for something else. Like Jimmy Saville impressions.

hang on - is it actually being implied that Iain Lee is some kind of child botherer (allegedly) or what? I thought all this 'Mothercare', 'baby food' stuff was just another attempt to rubbish him. What's the story?

Yeah, I've been wondering that myself... didn't The Corpses make some remark about it in their 11OCS article? Can't be bothered to look it up again.