10-00 pm BBC2 Tonight. STEWART LEE'S COMEDY VEHICLE
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 7:26 pm
Something of a rarity, a British stand-up comedian, who's actually quite funny.
A group for contestants and lovers of the Channel 4 game show 'Countdown'.
http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/
Harsh. Actually I don't read his Guardian articles as a rule, but I do enjoy his stand-up. However, from previous series, I do think these shows are a bit of a waste of the TV format. It's largely him doing stand-up, which you can get from going to see him doing stand-up. And although you get the odd sketch and stuff, it's not the bulk of the show.Jennifer Steadman wrote:I don't know about his stand-up, but his Guardian articles are among the worst things I've ever read. Tediously overwrought, pretentious shite that you'd expect from the try-hard 'literary' journal of an 18-year-old vegan Communist who's just turned up at university and hasn't got round to signing up for the self-awareness module.
Some decent ones but I wouldn't go as far as excellent (I liked Tony Laws and some Scottish guy whose name I can't remember, not Limmy, although I like him too). But the main problem I have was the attitude about it. There was a snobbish attitude that he was doing something radically different to something like Jongleurs Unleashed or the comedy store or even that, admittedly nobheadish, Russel Howard. He wasn't. There was nothing extra special about the comedians he had on compared to anyone else. And often times they were even worse than the mainstream kind of comics who I still don't like, but just because they're mainstream and the people he had on weren't doesn't mean one is better than the other. In fact I hated far more of the comedians he had on than I would hate say Michael McIntyre and that ilk. Simon Munnery? Fuck off. He's just not funny. Even someone else who I really like, Kevin Eldon, is better at comedic acting than stand-up and was a waste on that show. And I find it hard to believe that there's actually a hidden agenda by society or mainstream media or whatever to keep these people form getting the recognition they supposedly deserve. Also, as a final note, I hate pretty much any comedian with a guitar. Comedy songs are the lowest form of comedy as far as I'm concerned (with Weird Al Yankovich and Dennis Leary's "Asshole" being the exception to that rule, and maybe even David O'Doherty if I wanted to be generous).Matt Morrison wrote:Haven't watched comedy vehicle yet, forgot (essentially the same as "missed it" but more stupid).
He's excellent but always treads a thin line between very clever and pretty annoying.
There were some excellent comedians on that show Mark. Josie Long? Not one of them.
Wait, are you talking about his Guardian articles or your travel blog?Jennifer Steadman wrote:among the worst things I've ever read. Tediously overwrought, pretentious shite that you'd expect from the try-hard 'literary' journal of an 18-year-old vegan Communist who's just turned up at university and hasn't got round to signing up for the self-awareness module.
Michelle likes the Steadman As She Goes page on Facebook, so at least she has better taste in blogs than in menRyan Taylor wrote:Wait, are you talking about his Guardian articles or your travel blog?Jennifer Steadman wrote:among the worst things I've ever read. Tediously overwrought, pretentious shite that you'd expect from the try-hard 'literary' journal of an 18-year-old vegan Communist who's just turned up at university and hasn't got round to signing up for the self-awareness module.
I agree, quite unnecessarily harsh! I think his writing's really good and his stand-up is excellent (although I've not seen any of the new series yet, I'm looking forward to watching it).Gavin Chipper wrote:Harsh.Jennifer Steadman wrote:I don't know about his stand-up, but his Guardian articles are among the worst things I've ever read. Tediously overwrought, pretentious shite that you'd expect from the try-hard 'literary' journal of an 18-year-old vegan Communist who's just turned up at university and hasn't got round to signing up for the self-awareness module.
You can say that about anyone vocab-heavy that you don't agree with, really.Jennifer Steadman wrote:I don't know about his stand-up, but his Guardian articles are among the worst things I've ever read. Tediously overwrought, pretentious shite that you'd expect from the try-hard 'literary' journal of an 18-year-old vegan Communist who's just turned up at university and hasn't got round to signing up for the self-awareness module.
Agreement doesn't come into it (there was nothing to agree or disagree with from what I remember about the pieces; they were self-indulgently pointless). It's just a godawful style of writing.Mark Deeks wrote:You can say that about anyone vocab-heavy that you don't agree with, really.Jennifer Steadman wrote:I don't know about his stand-up, but his Guardian articles are among the worst things I've ever read. Tediously overwrought, pretentious shite that you'd expect from the try-hard 'literary' journal of an 18-year-old vegan Communist who's just turned up at university and hasn't got round to signing up for the self-awareness module.
If he's self-aware about his writing being dreadful, then what's the point of it? Is it meant to be comedy? If you have to explain the joke, it's probably a bit of a shit one.Mark Deeks wrote:What about Stewart Lee makes you think he's not self-aware?
Isn't this more about his newspaper column writing style though? Possibly it's too bourgeois.Marc Meakin wrote:What we have learnt today.
Some comedians are funny to some people and not funny to others.
Maybe you need to be of a certain age to find Stewart Lee funny.