The Young Ones

The Young Ones was an awesome, and really absurd, British comedy, based around 4 guys living in the same house while in college.  Each represents a different subset of early 1980’s pop culture – there’s a hippe, a punk, a new wave guy, and a preppy guy.   Good times.

Found TV (courtesty of Trio and Youtube)

Back in the late 1990s and very early 2000s there was a cable network called Trio.  Granted, trio was mainly infomercials.  But they did this awesome series every year based on great, but cancelled, tv shows from the 1950s on.  My favorite of that series was Action, a comedy that originally aired on FOX and which lasted just 8 episodes back in 1999.  It starred Jay Mohr, Illeana Douglas, Buddy Hackett, Jarrad Paul,  and Jack Plotnick (and there must be mention of Fab Filippo, who portrayed an amazing “It Boy” actor named Holden Van Dorn).  The show was about a producer named Peter Dragon who had a movie flop in the first episodes, and spent subsequent episodes trying to get the studio to let him make a new movie called Beverly Hills Gun Club.  He has to find a lead actor and drag him out of rehab.  The actor then steals morphine from the head writer’s dying grandfather.  Illeana Douglas’s character, Wendy, started the show as a high-price prostitute and by the end of the first episode was the head development (I think) at Peter’s production company.  So maybe I’m not doing a great job of describing it, but I haven’t watched it in a while.  Good news is, it’s out on dvd in its entirety.  And it features some pretty fun cameos from Keanu Reeves, Salma Hayek, Sandra Bullock, and Scott Wolf (because he was still popular then).

The other great thing about Trio was that it brought to American tv some really cool Australian shows, such as Kath & Kim. Yes, that one that’s currently being remade by NBC starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair.  I was fairly young when I saw the original version, and didn’t totally get it, but it was really funny.  And I seem to recall that one of the women had this short, frumpy, somewhat masculine female friend who was always hanging around and making really odd observations and stuff.  Then there was the Kath & Kim catchphrase, which went something like, “Look at moy, look at moy” and was used whenever Kath was trying to get Kim’s attention.

And then there was The Secret Life of Us.  I won’t pretend to know exactly what it’s about.  I think it’s about some 20-somethings living in the same apartment building or something.  But the style it was shot in was, I thought, fantastic.  I only managed to catch an episode or two back when I was in college.  I’d even forgotten the name, though I knew it ended with “Us.”  But, ah, Goole, my old friend, you helped me solve the mystery.  And youtube will allow me to indulge it.

Mighty Boosh . . .

I finally get it, and am now totally obsessed.

So, for those who haven’t seen The Mighty Boosh, I really can’t describe it.  Seriously.  It’s impossible.  It’s far too bizarre to describe and, honestly, it’s not for everyone.  I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, even after having watched the entire first season.  But then I spent a bored Sunday sifting through youtube and stumbled across a documentary about how they met and started performing together, and it kind of all started to make sense.  Now I’m totally in love with all things Boosh . . . even Bollo (who’s a gorilla) who I wasn’t too sure of in the beginning.

As bizarre and colorful and fantastical as The Mighty Boosh is, it’s the back-and-forth between Howard Moon and Vince Noir (played by Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding) that is, in my opinion, the best part of the show.  Well, that and Vince’s fashion sense – not all men can pull off a silver sequin jumpsuit with knee-high white boots.  Or a seaweed wig and pink tutu.

Here are some clips:

And from their television show:

Brit Lit and Young Naveen Andrews

I was thinking earlier today about my college literature courses and how astonishing it was that none of my British Lit courses included any authors of Indian or Pakistani descent.  Given that I graduated from college in 2003, it’s quite pathetic.  No Salman Rushdie or Hanif Kureishi, even though they were both included in our required anthologies.  It’s changing there now as the faculty becomes younger and more diverse in both backgrounds and interests, but it’s a shame that it’s taken so long to get to that point even a little bit.

Anyway, because I was thinking of this, I was reminded of The Buddha of Suburbia, which was a book I read in 1999 after seeing the mini-series on BBC America.  The mini-series came out in 1993 and starred Roshan Seth, Brenda Blethyn, Naveen Andrews (he was 24 at the time), and Steven Mackintosh.

Here’s a clip of Hanif Kureishi talking about his book, the movie, and how it all relates to the modern world.  There are also clips from the movie in there.

Rock Star Comedians . . . or Comedians Who Think They’re Rock Stars . . .

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was not my first exposure to the bizarre genius that is Russell Brand. I stumbled across him a few months ago via a brief obsession with Noel Fielding that resulted in much Youtube video viewing; and some of these videos featured Russell Brand. And, I’ll admit it, I was initially intrigued by the hair. Who does that to their hair? And what man would think to do it? The back-combing, the peacock-like display at the top of his head . . . but for all its strangeness, when combined with his skinny pants, half-open shirts, necklaces, bracelets, and eyeliner, the hair sort of fits right in.

But this got me to thinking about comedians who look and act like rock stars. In all honesty, I can’t think of a single American comedian who can even compare to the likes of Russell Brand, Noel Fielding, and Eddie Izzard. American comedians generally have no sense of glamour – we’re lucky to see an American comedian in a suit from time to time, rather than the usual flannel over a Hanes tee shirt, or non-descript band tee shirt.

Given that I know very little about Russell Brand, I’m looking forward to reading his autobiography, fantastically entitled My Booky Wook.

Here’s a clip of Russell talking about Woody Harrelson:

Oh Jools!

When I was in high school I was totally obsessed with this show on BBC America called Later With Jools Holland. Why? Because it was the coolest music show ever. There would usually be 5 or 6 musical acts, and they’d be in the middle of this television studio, set up in a circle. The cameras were in the middle, and the audience was looped around the musical acts. So each act would get to perform once or twice, and the camera would just shift to them. Some amazing bands have been on that show, and usually a year or two before becoming popular in the U.S.

Feeder – Buck Rogers (though I don’t think they ever got to be very popular here . . .)

Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye (currently on rotation at stations like EQX)

Muse – Feeling Good (I don’t think this was ever a big hit, but it pops up in the odd tv show, and they’ve had bigger hits since then)

Morrissey – Suedehead (from 1992 – Morrissey’s voice is amazing . . .)

Ocean Colour Scene – The Day We Caught the Train (they were never popular here, but they’ve got some really good songs – this one is reminiscent of “I am the Walrus,” especially in the beginning)

Pulp – Something Changed (I used to be totally obsessed with the lead singer, Jarvis Cocker . . .)

I’m a Whore for British Television

Yup, it’s true. Have been for about 15 years, when I first discovered that Saturday nights were British comedy/EastEnders night on the Syracuse PBS station. How many times have I watched the entire series of Keeping Up Appearances? Probably 20. And I still don’t get all that tired of it. There’s something about Richard and Hyacinth and their neighbors and Hyacinth’s constant belief that she’s better than everyone else that never fails to amuse.

The thing about British television that I like the most is that the actors look normal. Sure, some could probably fit quite easily into Hollywood (such as Michelle Ryan, who was once on EastEnders, but then landed the lead in NBC’s Bionic Woman series, which has since been canceled). But most, at least on the shows I’ve seen over the years, look like they eat a sandwich from time to time without immediately running to the gym to work it off. They have hips, maybe even a little bit of a stomach. For the most part, they look like normal, healthy women. Letitia Dean is probably the perfect example of this.

I’ve always been a huge fan of British comedies. For some reason, they’ve just always struck me as much funnier than most American comedies, though I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been much of a fan of Monty Python, aside from the dead parrot sketch and Hell’s Grannies. And aside from being funnier, they’re often a bit more . . . how can I phrase this? Not exactly crude, but more adult without feeling the need to hide that they’re for adults, or cater to children who might happen to stumble across them. If that makes any sense. The level of paranoia that’s inherent in American media (though, this makes little logical sense, given the proliferation of Britney Spears and her vag-showing self) when it comes to children stumbling across television programs that are deemed “inappropriate” or a little flash of a boob that apparently sends the nation into a panic because, “Oh no, the little children might have seen Janet’s breast!” is just bizarre. British comedy (and, often, drama, which I’ll touch on in a bit) doesn’t seem to cater to this fear.

Anyway, for some examples of British comedy that I find hilarious, let’s turn to youtube:

Catherine Tate and David Tennant on Comic Relief 2007. David Tennant is the current Dr. Who, so there are Dr. Who references.

The soup song from The Mighty Boosh. While I can’t quite get into the show (it’s a bit too weird even for me), I’m oddly amused by the soup song.

And one more for the comedy section . . .

Daffyd from Little Britain.

Other great British comedies include AbFab, Black Books, and the Young Ones.

Now, on to drama. The biggest thing in British television drama at the moment seems to be Torchwood and, while I normally don’t like science fiction shows (or anything science-fiction related, for that matter), I’ve been caught up in the Torchwood frenzy. It’s weird, and at times Eve Myles gets on my nerves, but I’m addicted to Captain Jack, Ianto, and Tosh, though not so much Owen or Gwen. So far this season they’ve all had interesting story lines, though I really wish there was a bit more about Ianto’s life. Here’s a Torchwood Season 2 trailer, for the as-yet uninitiated:

And, yes, that’s James Marsters – Spike from Buffy.

Finally, there’s EastEnders. Admittedly, I haven’t seen the show in years – YEARS! – and I hate that I haven’t. But the PBS station here doesn’t carry it. But the thing I always liked about EastEnders is that, while it’s got all the drama and craziness typical of soaps, the people in the show look normal and have normal jobs. The best story lines from back in the day were the Tony-sleeping-with-his-girlfriend’s-brother story line and the Joe-Wicks-is-schizophrenic-and-covering-everything-in-aluminum-foil story line. Also, the Sonia-has-a-baby-while-on-a-date-and-didn’t-know-she-was-pregnant one was good, too. I hear there are some good story lines recently, but, again, I haven’t been able to watch it.