10 O'Clock Live

[sebastienne]

Dear anyone (including Mark Lawson in the Guardian!) who is criticising last night's 10 O'Clock Live for having "a liberal agenda" (by which, given the strong anti-bank-bonusses, anti-free-market-of-universities tone, I'd suspect they mean liberal in the sense dominant in US political discourse, ie, a generic pejorative closer in meaning to 'socialist') - well of course it bloody does. That is because, given our current dominant political and media narratives, to satirise from the right they would need to have Nick Griffin as a presenter.

There are plenty of things to criticise the show for:

• it's 2011, do we really need three blokes to do the talking while the girl wears a pretty dress, lots of mascara, and giggles? Even her one (pre-recorded) comedy segment apparently needed a random guy in it.
• Jimmy Carr appeared to have nicked all his jokes off Twitter - oh well, I guess it was better than letting him ad-lib..
• Far too much sexist humour around Sarah Palin - "whining harridan", "I still would", "the only horseman of the apocalypse it is possible to maintain an erection while looking into the eyes of"
• why were all the interview segments cut short just when they started to bite?

But as a Thing That Should Exist, especially if we do end up with some kind of SkyFox news in the UK, I think it's laudable - I just really hope that they learn from the flaws in this episode, and get better, otherwise it will always be seen as a poor imitation of The Daily Show. And I really, really hope that they don't just dumb down from here, turning Brooker and Mitchell into the next generation's Graham Norton and Jonathon Ross.. I don't think my poor heart could stand it.

Comments

[happydork]

Very, very much with you on your bullet points -- especially, argh, I would have loved to see Laverne given more to do.

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I agree with all that. My only other thought was that David Mitchell really isn't up to political interviews. He gave people (especially David Willetts) far too much room to state their case without being properly challenged.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how serious he did get given it was basically the first thing he'd done anything like that ever (unless you count Question Time). He was the only one of the four of them who pushed himself to do something completely out of his usual performance zone - Carr was reading the autocue deadpan with a single eyebrow raised, Brooker was doing his usual incisive-but-occasionally-annoying media-dissection and Laverne was just boring.

I think they all need a bit of practice*. But hopefully they'll find their stride.

*apart from Laverne who is frankly a write-off - I can't believe she's the best they could do with their Token Female - there are a lot of really funny, smart women who are Visible on UK telly/radio atm - off the top of my head Andi Osho, Holly Walsh, Shappi Khorsandi (sp), Susan Calman and Sue Perkins (of course) spring immediately to mind but I'm sure there are more. And they got the one from Kenike and Radio 6.

[apotropaios.livejournal.com]

Was it just me that, during David Mitchell's interview, after the brief mention they they'd both had free university educations, thought;

'Ok Mitchell, this is where you demand the minister commit, on TV, that he personally repay the cost of his degree to an education charity, and if he won't, you demand why, and try to publicly shame him about it.' Obviously, Mitchell could then confirm that he already has donated his share. Thus beginning a campaign to get every MP to repay the cost of their higher education...

Instead, nope, quick snort, nervous laughter from the audience, let's keep chatting about it from a safe distance.

I was much disappointed.

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure they actually wanted Leverne to be all that funny, it seemed to me that she was meant to play the straight role of the main anchor to the sarkiness of the other three. She's done shows for Channel 4 before, which is probably why they went for her. Personally, I'm quite fond of her, and I did enjoy her mock American news segment.

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I see the inherent sexism of having the only woman as the unfunny one, though. I agree that Sue Perkins would be excellent, though I don't know any of the others you mention.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Susan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii7tLV0ctTk), Shappi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17NUxQa1f1g) and Andi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezW_4RjLPuQ) are semi-regulars on shows like Mock the Week and the News Quiz. Holly Walsh (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6jrr5Hmt2Y) (who is barely in this clip but it might remind you who she is in case you've seen her about) is also pretty frequently on Buzzcocks and (as is clearly important) is super-cute to boot.

Actually rewatching that clip of Shappi I think she'd be awesome in this sort of show.

Edit: To clarify, I'm not saying that I find only Holly attractive of these four women - to my mind they all are and it's not exactly something I prioritise in my comics, male or female. I was more commenting on the sort of look that one might want from a 'token female' in a team-run comedy show.