Things I love about British media
Oct. 1st, 2008 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abendgulesBritain has some of the best and the absolute worst media imaginable.
British TV and radio (particularly BBC - I'm a faithful listener) has two flavours of quizzes and game shows: ones where the score is crucial (MasterMind, University Challenge, Question of Sport) and ones where the score is completely irrelevant- they issue scores, but the point of the game is to be witty, and to showcase the ad lib skills of comics.
In the studios, they just let the comics and guests run off at the mouth, and then edit as needed - so keeping track of the score is a bit pointless.
What is great about the latter is that most of them are based on current affairs - the appetite for harsh, sarcastic humour about politicians and news items is almost bottomless.
So you can choose from 'Have I got News for you', 'Mock the Week', the radio-based News Quiz (which we went to hear recorded last week, w00t!)...
or just listen to Jeremy Paxman (journalist and anchorman) grilling someone on BBC2's Newsnight. He's absolutely merciless and calls interviewees on their waffling answers fearlessly. He makes us gasp regularly when he puts questions to someone that are so bald you could play snooker with them.
I think it's part of the English fondness for wordplay and playing with language that gives so much scope for comics here. It's like 'This Hour has 20 minutes' but cranked up to a sharpness that would make CBC cringe.
There are also shamelessly silly games, again often based on wordplay - 'Just a minute', 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue', 'Real Genius' are just a few on radio. Some move to TV, like 'Room 101', where celebrities 'exile' things that they hate to Room 101 (leaving Orwell doubtless spinning in his grave).
The downside is the inanity of the bottomfeeding level of British tabloids and celeb magazines.
I cannot picture a show called 'Wife Swap' airing in the US/Canada, or worse, 'Celebrity Wife Swap' (apparently it has, but it's called 'The Swap'). The utter mindlessness of the 'celeb mags' and the free papers in London could drive you to drink.
British TV and radio (particularly BBC - I'm a faithful listener) has two flavours of quizzes and game shows: ones where the score is crucial (MasterMind, University Challenge, Question of Sport) and ones where the score is completely irrelevant- they issue scores, but the point of the game is to be witty, and to showcase the ad lib skills of comics.
In the studios, they just let the comics and guests run off at the mouth, and then edit as needed - so keeping track of the score is a bit pointless.
What is great about the latter is that most of them are based on current affairs - the appetite for harsh, sarcastic humour about politicians and news items is almost bottomless.
So you can choose from 'Have I got News for you', 'Mock the Week', the radio-based News Quiz (which we went to hear recorded last week, w00t!)...
or just listen to Jeremy Paxman (journalist and anchorman) grilling someone on BBC2's Newsnight. He's absolutely merciless and calls interviewees on their waffling answers fearlessly. He makes us gasp regularly when he puts questions to someone that are so bald you could play snooker with them.
I think it's part of the English fondness for wordplay and playing with language that gives so much scope for comics here. It's like 'This Hour has 20 minutes' but cranked up to a sharpness that would make CBC cringe.
There are also shamelessly silly games, again often based on wordplay - 'Just a minute', 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue', 'Real Genius' are just a few on radio. Some move to TV, like 'Room 101', where celebrities 'exile' things that they hate to Room 101 (leaving Orwell doubtless spinning in his grave).
The downside is the inanity of the bottomfeeding level of British tabloids and celeb magazines.
I cannot picture a show called 'Wife Swap' airing in the US/Canada, or worse, 'Celebrity Wife Swap' (apparently it has, but it's called 'The Swap'). The utter mindlessness of the 'celeb mags' and the free papers in London could drive you to drink.
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Date: 2008-10-02 11:46 am (UTC)