Before comedy became a niche issue, studio audiences had a rather lovely mix of ages and types, and "yoof" comedy was regarded by the media as the most insulting tag any show or act could ever be awarded.

Now of course, "yoof" comedy is the only way. It would seem.

F

nonsense. most tv audiences were/are filled by any old passer-by who didn't know when to laugh. if that doesn't happen anymore then it's a good thing.

>Look at an audience shot from any comedy show pre-1995 and observe the sea of lovely, ugly, real-life, I-understand-comedy faces. Then compare them to the Euro-specs-wearing, spiky-haired, here's-my-opinion trendies who inhabit your average TV recording nowadays. Something has changed, and I don't like it.

Possibly. I can imagine that producers are paranoid that their show could look like it is popular with ugly people. That's not a demographic that they want to attract.

But how would they go about choosing that only the best-looking people come along? Or is it just clever use of the *right* audience shots?

But have you seen the audiences on the (no doubt despised around these parts) Graham Norton show? It tends to look like a fairly genuine mixture of his fans, I always think. Or is that not the kind of comedy programme you want to include?

Bring back men with big thick glasses and deep booming laughs. They were great.

>Bring back men with big thick glasses and deep booming laughs. They were great.

'Allo 'Allo and Hi De Hi used to always have laughter from a very loud (and I assume very large) woman. She would laugh loudest at the muckiest jokes, of course. I hope she was invited back every week to add her incomparable guffaws because she was brilliant. I wonder what she does now?

>Bring back men with big thick glasses and deep booming laughs. They were great.

They were extremely fashionable in 1983. Look at Duran Duran's 'Rio' video. It's basically Simon and the boys on a boat full of men with big thick glasses and deep booming laughs.

Hey, Duran Durans Rio is a high-octane pop song, with a 'kick your fuckin head in' bass line. Don't mock the song. I'm not having ago at you, its just –I'm a bit d***k and that makes me protect Rio (alcohol does cause confusion), 'wild boy's' oon the other hand gets washed off quickly, as does living daylights.

Wave goodbye to the original topic, Mike. I think you're right, NicarfukurasMumanBeTwox, but the standout Duranny track for me is 'Is There Something I Should No?' It's quite lazy the way journos dismiss them as shallow and already forgotten about. Particularly lefty types who like to equate them with Thatcherism.

>I'm a bit d***k and that makes me protect
>Rio (alcohol does cause confusion), 'wild
>boy's' oon the other hand gets washed off
>quickly,

! There's nothing wrong with Wild Boys. I mean, near-naked dancers, a bloke lashed a wheel, clips from 'Barbarella', and that giant penis - one of the finest fucking videos of its day, that is.

>as does living daylights.

'View to a Kill' ('Living Daylihgts' was A-Ha). And it's an awful video - not least because the track itself (best Bond theme, mind) is so strangely quiet, subdued under all the sfx laser noises.

>Look at an audience shot from any comedy
>show pre-1995 and observe the sea of
>lovely, ugly, real-life, I-understand-
>comedy faces.

"I-understand-comedy"??? COme on, one example of ugly, real-life people who "understand" comedy.

>Then compare them to the Euro-specs-
>wearing, spiky-haired, here's-my-opinion
>trendies who inhabit your average TV
>recording nowadays. Something has changed,
>and I don't like it.

It's very simple. It used to be that the people who watched TV the most were ugly, real-life people, and sickeningly proud of their ugly, plebby, real-life status (the worthless shit-kickers). These days, you're more likely to get - or, at least, want (because they've got the money to buy things, so your advertisers want you to want them) - the trendy people. The beautiful people.

But the audiences haven't changed altogether. TV audiences are mostly made-up of anyone who happens to be around - people turn up, maybe get to see whatever show they wanted to see, but probably get shoved into the nearest studio and told to laugh whenever a bloke holds a sign up. And it's always been like that - right back to the 'Goons'. Sadly. The thing is, when they film the audience, they point the camera at the person they think is most likely to be watching, or at the sort of person they want to keep watching. So, in the old days, when middle-aged wankers with empty lives were the backbone of Britain, they pointed the camera at these people, having their empty lives filled with half an hour of naff comedy (and remember, it's the same ugly, real-life people who used to turn up in the audience of O'Connor, of Monkhouse, of 'New faces' and 'Les and Dusty's Laugh-In', or anything else in LE - the Iain Lees of their day). Now that trendy, young wankers with empty lives are the backbone of Britain (thanks entirely to Thactherism - people are still useless, they just look better), they're the ones who get filmed.

Do you see?

PLus, most things are filmed in London. All the ugly people live in the North. Well documented, that.

>Do you see?

Yes, yes, anything, just don't make me read that lengthy explanation.

TV comedy audiences have always included coach parties from Asda and the Inland Revenue and your observation is, therefore, bollocks. Dennis from the Accounts Department is omnipresent, complete with thick glasses and stupid laugh. This is a fact and you cannot argue with me because I have my fingers crossed and carry the lurgi which I will immediately transmit through the power of feignites.

>Wave goodbye to the original topic, Mike

Why?

It was just a sheepish apology for replying to something off topic, Mr TJ (I thought you said "You scratch my back and" etc.)

Oh, I see why. Because none of you can be bothered to address the actual intended topic of this thread in any rational or substantial way, and prefer to fill it up with wank while your brain and fingers are on autopilot. Fair enough.

It's okay, I've had a better idea, let's get all bitchy with each other, tremendous fun.

Diversions happen a lot, though, surely.

They often turn out to be more interesting than the original topic.

Not in this case though.

It could hardly be more trivial than the original topic, though, could it? In all fairness to Mike, the physical appearance of comedy audiences through the ages isn't exactly the most serious and hard hitting thing to discuss - and why should every bloody message be a terribly deep and earth shattering pseudo manifesto?

The reason people looked uglier pre-1995 was because of changes in fashion, anyway. At the time they were probably viewed in a similar way as we view current audiences - ie ever-so-trendy. In 10 years time we'll think the cynical 2001 audience were spotty, unattractive, comedy-understanding freaks.

>Because none of you can be bothered to address the actual intended topic of this thread in any rational or substantial way, and prefer to fill it up with wank while your brain and fingers are on autopilot. Fair enough.

Ah Well.

You admitted to being shallow on a previous thread.

Channel 4 DID used to be better, it DID.

>>Do you see?
>
>Yes, yes, anything, just don't make me read
>that lengthy explanation.

Hmm. I wonder if this approach would work in national politics.

That's reminded me of going to see Fry and Laurie (Bit of, Series 3) being recorded back in the mists of... blah blah. I recall having to laugh twice as loud as normal to shatter the yawning silence of an audience full of pensioners who (at best) were expecting Jeeves and Wooster. Their audible horror at jokes about "stiffening and engorging" needed to be drowned out by somebody.

(That's me and hazeley making a ghastly racket after Fry says "Did I ever tell you about the day I forgot my legs?". After two hours of supplying the appropriate booming laughs, I was in danger of having a cornonary.)

So, about ten years ago, they were still old, stupid and badly demographically targetted by the ticket unit. Just as they were in the days of Python.

This story proves nothing. Except the myth of the "comedy understanding" crowd shots we've apparently lost.

Should we be looking out for shots of Mike in audience shots in future? He'll be the one with the booming laugh, in the rose tinted glasses.

>>>>"I-understand-comedy"??? COme on, one example of ugly, real-life people who "understand" comedy.


I saw some photographs of a SOTCAA meet up once.

>>"I-understand-comedy"??? COme on, one
>>example of ugly, real-life people
>>who "understand" comedy.
>
>I saw some photographs of a SOTCAA meet up
>once.

They're elitists (apparently), ergo they don't count as "real-life people". Otheriwse I'd count.

did someone piss in TJ's coffee?

Good question. Bear head heap sore.

I quite like hearing audiences being uneasy and horrified sometimes. Frank Skinner is the only performer at present who seems able to inspire that mix of laughter and unease. And he has an across-the-board audience. I think.








(btw
Skin Trade is the best Duran single, even though it was a Prince rip-off.)

Look at an audience shot from any comedy show pre-1995 and observe the sea of lovely, ugly, real-life, I-understand-comedy faces.


That's me that is

(Oh, and The Chauffeur should have been a single. Best thing they ever did)

(Shall we start a new thread so as not to annoy anyone?)

>Oh, I see why. Because none of you can be bothered to address the actual intended topic of this thread in any rational or substantial way, and prefer to fill it up with wank while your brain and fingers are on autopilot. Fair enough.


Jeez, TJ - calm down.

I thought and still hope that the entire topic of the thread was a 'joke' intended to provoke people.

Am I mistaken, Mike?

>>>>>"I-understand-comedy"??? COme on, one example of ugly, real-life people who "understand" comedy.
>
>
>I saw some photographs of a SOTCAA meet up once.


Did you see me looking like the beautiful reject?
I don't understand comedy, which is how I manage to retain my gorgeousness! : )

Re: Fry&Laurie VS the pensioners

A similar thing happened to Alan Davies when he went back to stand-up after doing some Jonathan Creeks - the first few rows of the audience were all filled with middle-aged fans of that nice young man who plays the TV detective. Who weren't expecting to hear his actual act.

> 'Allo 'Allo and Hi De Hi used to always have laughter from a very loud (and I assume very large) woman.

Jimmy Perry's mum?