Ross and Brand vs. Civilisation

[DavidXBrunt]

http://heady.co.uk/rm/jonathan_ross_rus ... _large.jpg

[paulvonscott]

BBC in the shite, Murdoch's delight.

[Matt Timson]

Yes he has a multi-million pound stand up career, with sold-out tours, DVDs and everything. Wish I was that talentless.

Well said Dandontdare. I've enjoyed his radio show for a fair few years now and have often been in a belly laugh while listening to it. Yes, he can be a self indugent fool but he also shows flashes of brilliance and individuality that no other British commedians today can touch. I recently saw him live and he was excellent and thoroughly charming.

I believe the number of complaints is up to 27,000 now. It makes me so angry my favourite radio show of the week has been killed off by the misguided hysteria of people who have probably never even heard the man or the incident.

That's exactly how I feel.  No more phone calls from Noel for a start.  I didn't think it was even possible to enjoy a conversation between a Gallagher and anyone else before listening to this show.  Terrible shame.

[paulvonscott]

Latest news, Brand has been executed apparently and Jonathon Ross is on the run.

Police are looking for a man, white, over six foot in a purple dinner jacket with a white top hat and fluorescent winkle pickers.  He may have grown a moustache to disguise his features.

[TheEdge]

Brand's on his way to sign on this morning, rossy's 6 million is safe

[the shutdown man]

Sky News was discussing the morning papers today, one of them (can't remember which) was saying that the BBC heads are now talking about banning "all edgy comedy"? Jesus Q .Tip, this is getting out of control.

[Richmond Clements]

Bah! I don't care what you all say!

I'm cool, I'm down with the kids, man!

[Queen Firey-Bou]

I'm not young & hip, celeb culture crap is crap, but then mainstream crap always has been crap, prehaps 'kids' think shouting "balls" "Fuck" "heroin" is halarious, me i'm quite happy to be old enough to think its crap, as is the current fashion for burlesque, ooo girls look its so emancipating, lets all dress like whores & act simple, as is x factor, strictly crap and crap, madonna, Guy, Brand, that croaky bloke who used to be lilly savage, all the bollocks crap crap.

.... WHY am I exposed to this? why am I supposed to have an opinion, or give a shit about what these whores are all doing ? great good on them fill yer fucking boots, but they need to remember & not start believing in their own press myths, get some fucking perspective, theyre only puppet mummets in the media machine, only there to distract a depressed public from tightening debts & not hope, no christmas presents, no new shoes...ooo look at the celebs ! they're famous you know !

and yes I'm old & grumpy, & i don't think basing careers on drug addiction, swearing, insulting people etc are particularly commendable or entertaining, 'next item on the news is the terrible youth behavior problem'... well look at the fecking role models you adults all worship. Now they can all fuck off & go save some blind orphans ( except Madge who'll just steal them all for the mantle peice )

[Leigh S]

I'm torn on this one – while I agree with Paul that there's underlying big business reasons for the press delighting in Brand and Ross's woes, and doing all they can to further them, for me it comes down to the fact that I find what they did to be unjustifiable.  You've got an old man who has to declined an interview (whose wife is in hospital – not sure if the two are connected, but I'd imagine that Ross and Brand weren't sure either) who gets a series of lewd messages left for him about his relative.  Sachs, as far as I'm aware is a real person, and as such deserves a lot better than this.  Disrespect for authority is one thing, but disrespect for everybody and anybody?

Imagine that Sachs is your dad and that's your daughter he's talking about?  Imagine they'd phoned your granddad and told him something about your own private life?  Would it remain hilarious?  

I like Ross, though less so since he seems to have become swept nearer to this comedy of spite that seems to be worryingly popular.  Brand vaguely annoys me but I can't really say why - other than being compared to him a while back - I imagine its mostly his bountiful head of hair that really riles me.

I don't like the Daily Mail, and yeah, they are just using this as an excuse to kick up a stink, as always. That said, they must have hit on something to make the front cover of all the broadsheets as well, and whilst a lot of the anger is directed at Ross and Brand because of personal dislike, for me there is a broader principle at work, which is how far are we going to go to get a laugh?  

Just because there were only two complaints at the time, well, you know what you're getting when you tune in, so the 400,000 listeners were probably people who weren't going to be offended by it, as that's the comedy stream Ross and Brand are part of.  To use a "ploughing through a bus queue" analogy, if I set up a website called "Iluvstabbingpuppieswithacompass.com", I imagine most people who find their way to the site are going to be happy with the idea.  It doesn't mean that if a newspaper found out about it a month after launch, they shouldn't bring its existence to light.

Don't really want either of their heads on a plate, but I would like maybe people to think before they act, and for the comedy of cruelty to find some boundaries – if it takes a stink, hell even if that stink is from the bloody Mail, then fair enough.

[Proudhuff]

well look at the fecking role models you adults all worship.

Unlike previous generations who had role models who built empire's on slavery and drugs,started World Wars, genicide, Atomic explosions  

[Mardroid]

Sky News was discussing the morning papers today, one of them (can't remember which) was saying that the BBC heads are now talking about banning "all edgy comedy"? Jesus Q .Tip, this is getting out of control.

That would be ridiculous.

It's not so much the edginess of the comedy that was the problem. It wasn't even the fact that Brand boasted about his fling/relationship/whatever with the granddaughter (although he shouldn't. Those things should be kept private, but lets face it, she's hardly as pure and white as the freshly fallen snow. Well her make up is... but... anyhoo...) It was the simple fact that they were picking on an old man, leaving rude messages on his answer machine. (I'm sure they didn't mean it maliciously, they just got carried away, but it was wrong. As were the editors for allowing it to be broadcast.)

Banning all edgy comedy though? If people don't like it, they can turn over can't they?

As for Brand, I doubt his career will be destroyed. He'll come out ok. And I'm sure Ross will be back.

[Mardroid]

as is the current fashion for burlesque, ooo girls look its so emancipating, lets all dress like whores & act simple

Burlesque is actually an old art form (if you'd call it art) that goes back to the 1930s (possibly 20s.) It's striptease with the tease back in basically. Just shows how things are doing the rounds....

... which doesn't nullify your point mind you.

[Satanist]

I don't really mind either of them and think this whole thing has been blown out of proportion. They shouldn't be crank calling a pensioner in the name of entertainment. End of.

If I do that then I get a visit from the cops, must remember to dial 141 next time.

What really gets my goat is that Jeremy fucking Kyle is left to get on with it. The sooner he gets done for tax evasion or, well , anything the better.    


Phew!

[TordelBack]

...think this whole thing has been blown out of proportion. They shouldn't be crank calling a pensioner in the name of entertainment. End of.

That sums it up entirely for me.  Worse things happen at sea, but grown men should not be playing offensive versions of the kind of phone games we used to play when we were 10 ("Is your refrigerator running?";  "Is Mr Wall there?  Is Mrs Wall there?  Are any of the Walls there?" etc.) and getting well paid for it, not when they are well aware of the age of the recipient.  It is however the most ludicrous waste of newsprint and bandwidth imaginable, and barely a firing offence - it shoudl have stayed between the parties involved.  A formal apology and a chat with the polis should have beeb the logical end of it.      

Maybe, just maybe, we need something to distract us from the yawning horror that all other parts of the newsmedia are exposing us to?

[paulvonscott]

Someone at work gets the daily mail and the paper has reprinted the entire phone conversation.  I know other papers have too, but I don't understand how that's right.  Anyway, the daily mail is full of an awful lot of b*ll*cks.

The girl from the Satanic Sluts has signed up with The Sun.  Sympathy evaporating as she starts her new career as a celebrity. Do you have any sluts, Satanist?

I can see where this is going to end up, the BBC always buckle under media sh*tstorms (they did sex up that f*cking dossier!) and it's a shame.

As Proudhuff says the world is ending, but the papers can't really sell that.