Let me count the jokes... (A rant)
May. 29th, 2010 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tigerfortSome time ago, a friend recommended "The Thick of It' as TV comedy that was intelligent and, you know, funny. While his taste in music is sometimes questionable (how can anyone prefer "Revolver" to "Sergeant Pepper", I ask you?), we seemed to have reasonably similar tastes in humour, so I gave it a try.
Conveniently, there was a series on at the time, so I looked up the previous week's episode on iplayer. I watched it for ten minutes before giving up in disgust: not only was it not actually very funny, it managed to be amazingly offensive at the same time. Maybe I just hit a bad week? So I tried again when the next episode was available, and stopped after only about five minutes. It was much less offensive, but still suffered from being not funny.
The friend (who'd been away for a week) admitted he'd not actually seen the first of those two episodes, and hadn't thought highly of the second one.
Rather more recently, he bought the DVDs of Series Three (for his own pleasure, not for me:) and persuaded me to try again. I managed to struggle my way through the whole of the first episode, but I really can't bear to watch another. I mean, I found it funnier than "The Office", but only because that's about as funny as a typical concrete paving slab. I've had head injuries that gave me more pleasure than watching either "The Office" or "The Thick of It", and I do mean that literally[1].
So where is the problem? It isn't the swearing - while swearing is very rarely funny in its own right, I don't have a problem with it; it can even (rarely) be effective for enhancing a joke or (more often) for character or situation development/revelation. The swearing in TTOI doesn't achieve either of those things, though; Malcolm Tucker's swearing doesn't tell us anything about the situation, or even about him as a character except that he swears all the fucking time.
The primary subject matter is fine too: I have a long history of enjoying political satire both ancient and modern, including plenty that has a low opinion of politicians and their dirty-handed minions. Much political satire is polite to its targets, and indirect in its complaints and assertions, but much of it isn't - "Spitting Image", for example, was capable (at its best) of pointedly shredding a politician's argument (or policy), whilst simultaneously being hilariously funny (and frequently obscene as well).
The problem lies in the attitude the writers take to society; the casual (but often vicious) kicks down at people in less privileged positions, or fighting for causes they think are good. The first episode of Series Three, in one short scene, takes stabs at:
And the whole of the rest of it is like that - that scene was particularly concentrated, true, but everything that seemed to me to be intended to be a joke was aimed at a disadvantaged group. (With one exception, which was also, by a remarkable coincidence, the only time in the episode I was actually amused.)
The bits of other episodes I saw were much the same. The main focus of the first one I saw, which I switched off in disgust, was the best way to make political capital from a woman's legal campaign against the safety-regulation-dodging employer whose tactics had killed her husband and coworkers. After all, what could be funnier than corporate manslaughter? It's right up there with rape and genocide, don't you think? Personally, I'm with the writer on the "Spitting Image" pilot (a couple of months before the actual series, for some reason) who, when asked by a member of the production team why they hadn't done a sketch on the week's main news story (the Harrods Bombing) replied "It isn't fucking funny".
According to the back of the case (quoting the Observer), "The Thick of It" is
[1] I was about five years old, and the nurse gave me a cream egg after stitching me back together. The cream egg more than made up for a bit of blood and inconvenience, and the experience was definitely positive overall. If I'd fallen about an inch further along I'd have lost an eye on the same sharp edge, and it would be a much less amusing story.
Conveniently, there was a series on at the time, so I looked up the previous week's episode on iplayer. I watched it for ten minutes before giving up in disgust: not only was it not actually very funny, it managed to be amazingly offensive at the same time. Maybe I just hit a bad week? So I tried again when the next episode was available, and stopped after only about five minutes. It was much less offensive, but still suffered from being not funny.
The friend (who'd been away for a week) admitted he'd not actually seen the first of those two episodes, and hadn't thought highly of the second one.
Rather more recently, he bought the DVDs of Series Three (for his own pleasure, not for me:) and persuaded me to try again. I managed to struggle my way through the whole of the first episode, but I really can't bear to watch another. I mean, I found it funnier than "The Office", but only because that's about as funny as a typical concrete paving slab. I've had head injuries that gave me more pleasure than watching either "The Office" or "The Thick of It", and I do mean that literally[1].
So where is the problem? It isn't the swearing - while swearing is very rarely funny in its own right, I don't have a problem with it; it can even (rarely) be effective for enhancing a joke or (more often) for character or situation development/revelation. The swearing in TTOI doesn't achieve either of those things, though; Malcolm Tucker's swearing doesn't tell us anything about the situation, or even about him as a character except that he swears all the fucking time.
The primary subject matter is fine too: I have a long history of enjoying political satire both ancient and modern, including plenty that has a low opinion of politicians and their dirty-handed minions. Much political satire is polite to its targets, and indirect in its complaints and assertions, but much of it isn't - "Spitting Image", for example, was capable (at its best) of pointedly shredding a politician's argument (or policy), whilst simultaneously being hilariously funny (and frequently obscene as well).
The problem lies in the attitude the writers take to society; the casual (but often vicious) kicks down at people in less privileged positions, or fighting for causes they think are good. The first episode of Series Three, in one short scene, takes stabs at:
- single parents
- teenage pregnancy (I mean, that's inherently hilarious, right? Oh, not so much, actually)
- 'mixed-race' couples (if a white teenage girl has a black boyfriend, obviously he must be a drug-dealer)
- disabled people
- at least a couple of other groups that escape me now (I'm hoping to expunge the whole thing from my memory if at all possible, and this seems a positive start)
And the whole of the rest of it is like that - that scene was particularly concentrated, true, but everything that seemed to me to be intended to be a joke was aimed at a disadvantaged group. (With one exception, which was also, by a remarkable coincidence, the only time in the episode I was actually amused.)
The bits of other episodes I saw were much the same. The main focus of the first one I saw, which I switched off in disgust, was the best way to make political capital from a woman's legal campaign against the safety-regulation-dodging employer whose tactics had killed her husband and coworkers. After all, what could be funnier than corporate manslaughter? It's right up there with rape and genocide, don't you think? Personally, I'm with the writer on the "Spitting Image" pilot (a couple of months before the actual series, for some reason) who, when asked by a member of the production team why they hadn't done a sketch on the week's main news story (the Harrods Bombing) replied "It isn't fucking funny".
According to the back of the case (quoting the Observer), "The Thick of It" is
The funniest program on television. That would probably explain why I haven't watched much TV in the last few years.
[1] I was about five years old, and the nurse gave me a cream egg after stitching me back together. The cream egg more than made up for a bit of blood and inconvenience, and the experience was definitely positive overall. If I'd fallen about an inch further along I'd have lost an eye on the same sharp edge, and it would be a much less amusing story.
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Date: 2010-05-30 08:39 pm (UTC)Yes, DtDD and YM were both extremely funny. Both shows dropped the ball on occasion, but even their most unfunny episodes didn't leave me offended and angry the way that TToI reliably seems to. The difference was that they actually appeared to be mocking the unpleasant views held by many of the characters, whereas TToI just seemed (to me) to be presenting them, like a documentary about the BNP.... (See my response to Neuromancer further up for more detail if you want it.)