Two questions about tonight's Doctor Who

[brixtonbrood]

1) How short would it have been if you'd cut out all the sexual innuendo?
2) What would it have been like if it had been on after the watershed?

Small did enjoy it, and I think it mostly went over her head, but my viewing was hampered by an imagined commentary of "Mummy, why did she slap Rory? Mummy....."

I want to watch Timecrash again. And The Curse of Fatal Death.

Comments

[gingerelanor.livejournal.com]

WAIT WAIT!

WHAT?

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Oh sorry, did you miss it? It was on for two slots of about 5 minutes each between 7pm and 8pm; you can probably catch it online. Fairly funny, typical Moffatt timey-wimey stuff. I'd probably have laughed more if I hadn't been watching with an 8 year old.

[gingerelanor.livejournal.com]

I was completely confused as to why on earth Doctor Who would be on now until I googled! I will look on You Tube later, thanks for letting me know it was on. I'd have missed it otherwise!

[jinty]

Also wait, what!!! Thanks for the head's up - will look out for it.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Videos here: http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/03/dwn180311200008-space-and-time.html

[jinty]

thanks!

Come along Pond.

[sparkymark.livejournal.com]

Curse of Fatal Death is at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110314_02/The_Curse_of_Fatal_Death

But from the aspect ratio it looks like they took it from YouTube the way that Neal does the official Play Station releases of video game classics by re-pirating MAME.

Re: Come along Pond.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Ooh, will try to find a mo to watch. Fatal Death was of course very smutty as I recall, but then if you're doing a spoof of a TV show that hasn't been shown in a decade you don't really need to worry about whether the 6 year olds in the audience will get the sex jokes (they'd have enjoyed the fart gags though).

[pureofthought.livejournal.com]

Given up watching Comic Relief years ago - we just give money, without enduring the attempts to be funny. Most comedians seem to have the attitude that it doesn't matter if it's good, 'cos it's for a good cause. And the presenters used to be really awful. After several times when we said "it might be better this year", we just decided to stop bothering.

This year we did watch the highlights of 24 Hour Panel People, which had at least one positive result: I'm so glad that I never even heard of Celebrity Juice. But even so, most of the shows they did were not as funny as the usual ones they put out - even cut down to about 5 mins of highlights.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

The Downton Abbey spoof was very funny, even though I don't watch the original. The Doctor Who thing was fun. Harry Hill was good if you like Harry Hill (which we do). Anything involving Miranda Hart is good value, and the Outnumbered sketch was up to its usual standards. And Rick Astley sang (a bit of) Never Gonna Give You Up! (showing my age here)

Yes they tend to take the short cut of getting incongruous guest stars in unusual situations rather than writing standard jokes, but just because it's "lazy" doesn't mean that it's not genuinely funny to see Susan Boyle singing I Know Him So Well with Peter Kay in a wig, or Gordon Brown doing fist bumps with JLS, or The Wanted (popular beat combo m'lud) as a horde of jackals bringing down Bernie Clifton. Obv YMMV, because not funny if you don't have the background of the in-jokes, but they are in-jokes shared with millions of people, hence a good way of making millions of people laugh without gambling on original comedy which is inevitably a bit hit-and-miss.

[pureofthought.livejournal.com]

Guess we're too detached from popular culture nowadays: of the things you've listed, the only one we watch is DW; we saw about half the first episode of Downton Abbey, and I know who Rick Astley and Gordon Brown are/were.

But then we watch about the national daily average amount of TV in a week, and haven't been to the cinema since the remade versions of Star Wars came out; it's over 20 years since I went to a pop concert. Maybe I should apply to become a high court judge when my current contract runs out!

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

As I typed them I was pretty sure that most of those references were going to be outside your frame - I don't read Heat or watch much ITV but I do have a brain that hoovers up popular culture from the ether and school aged children so I do know the basics of most A-D list slebs.
The point is that because you (understandably) haven't cluttered up your brain with this nonsense then this stuff inevitably isn't funny to you, but that doesn't mean it isn't funny full stop. It's like the "What do you get if you cross a mountaineer with a mosquito?"* joke - it is funny, but only to a certain demographic.

*"Don't be silly, you can't cross a scalar with a vector"

[pureofthought.livejournal.com]

Obviously what I want to watch is the co-presented Comic Relief Special from Radio 3 / BBC4 / Sky Arts / Hay Book Festival. Mind you, I thought Radio 3's Comic Relief stuff sounded dire (Basil Brush as a presenter?! - but at least I've heard of him...)

Was going to respond that "popular culture is an oxymoron", but got sidetracked into wondering who said it first, and reading an account of a philosophy lecture on the subject at Middle Tennessee State. (His argument - culture is related to society's stable values, popular is transient.)

You're watching the British Emergency Broadcasting System, remain indoors!

[sparkymark.livejournal.com]

I watched the entire died-a-death unedited ninety minute live feed of Celebrity Juice (which I normally like) which had rare good moments; Jedward being restrained like unruly toddlers by Germaine Greer while it dawns on David Walliams that their mania is not an act, and Rufus Hound addressing the audience with "If there's anything we've learned tonight it is that there is more than one type of audience, and that our little ITV2 quiz for people who read Heat is not going to appeal to an audience who came to see Have I Got News For You".

Re: You're watching the British Emergency Broadcasting System, remain indoors!

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for making that heroic sacrifice on our behalf, I can only dimly imagine how dreadful it must have been, but appreciate the effort, because that's a great Rufus Hound line. Germaine Greer on a panel with Jedward was very funny, but funny enough to repay more than 5 minutes viewing I suspect.

Re: You're watching the British Emergency Broadcasting System, remain indoors!

[pureofthought.livejournal.com]

The highlights seemed like more than 5 minutes even on fast forward!

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, RIGHT! I'm sure I've read a more detailed version in a fanfic somewhere :)