I mentioned a few weeks ago about the #BoycottCaptainMarvel campaign being run by the same people which brought you the #BoycottBlackPanther campaign last year, as well as the ongoing sad fuckwittery of Comicsgate. The weekend gone was the opening weekend of Captain Marvel, so I’d assume these protesters managed to reach out and convince people not to encourage whatever it is they’re pissed off about.
So I’m sure this weekend was a fucking disaster! Let’s look at what happened,
The comedian Jeremy Hardy has sadly died far too young thanks to fucking cancer. This is a tragedy all round because there’s a lack of actual left wing comics (as opposed to people who’ll sell out at the first sniff of megastardom) and there’s a real lack of leftish comics who aren’t just painfully woke, or are just treating comedy as a stepping stone to something else like presenting or the panel show circuit before the DVD, the tour and the BBC One special.
Hardy dabbled with the mainstream in things like this great Top of the Pops he presented with Jack Dee.
Or being on the very first episode of Mock the Week.
For me it was his stand up that set him aside from others with his performances at Glastonbury being special highlights but a special talent is gone, and he can’t be replaced. Hardy’s socialism was never the elitist kind or the type that ignores opinion from others who may not agree with him hence why people of all persuasions are mourning him today.
At a time when we needed his particular left voice we no longer have it. He’ll be missed a lot.
Billy Connolly is a Scottish institution and has been since those early days in the 70s when he was making a name for himself playing the clubs of Scotland, and in particular, Glasgow. His recent BBC documentary was a thing of glory and painful too as he’s clearly ill, hence why he’s preparing himself for the end which has to come for us all.
But this is a man who made us all laugh. He broke the mould for comedians in the UK in the 70s by not telling racist gags or tired old mother in law jokes but instead making his humour centred round Glasgow in tightly observed routines and sprawling gags that would lead off into many glorious diversions. For me growing up the one Billy Connolly routine which would make me hurt because I would laugh so much was the Crucifixion. If you’re unfamiliar with Glasgow, or the ins and outs of a city then don’t worry, you’ll pick up the main jist of it, and Connolly’s telling of the story is glorious.
At some point I fear I’ll be writing an obituary for this man,but for me this one routine shaped how I’d always think of Connolly, and it never, ever fails to make me laugh.
I’ve mentioned before that the web-series Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, is a work of genius from Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. In fact I’d say it was the best piece of satire produced in the UK this decade and just miles ahead of most things produced on traditional television. Six short episodes and it’s done leaving behind hours and hours and hours of videos on YouTube trying hard to explain the series with varying levels of success.
Well, last week a trailer for a new series landed on YouTube and it is a thing of wonder.
There’s little to nothing known about the new episodes beyond a pretty sparse statement, however a trailer suggests new episodes are coming sooner than later. In the meantime go check out the existing six episodes and lap up the twisted glory of the series.
Peter Serafinowicz doesn’t get anything like the acclaim he deserves for his series of Sassy Trump videos which are wonderful pisstakes of Donald Trump speeches using his own words, and well, you can guess the rest.
At this time when it should be perfectly clear that Trump is heading up a movement of hard/far right authoritarianism that is empowering similar movements across the West, we face a time when liberal post-WW2 values and concepts like universal human rights are under threat it is only right we take the piss out the bastard.
Imagine Chris Morris’s Jam crossed with YouTube conspiracy channels crossed with the news and you have The News Hasn’t Happened Yet created by David Firth,
Firth is probably best known for the odd webseries Salad Fingers
Firth is one of those creators whose work stands head and shoulders above most others because of not just the originality on display, but because he manages to mix horror and comedy so successfully. This can be seen best of all for me in what his his masterwork, Cream.
So go to his channel and take in the full glory of his work…
YouTube has been around now since 2005 so a generation has grown up with the streaming service as a platform to publish videos, while those of us digital immigrants have adapted to this newish medium which has helped transform how we view what they used to call ‘motion pictures’ in the olden days. Of late YouTube has had a bad press thanks to wankers like Logan Paul, but there’s a number of really creative channels out there putting out the sort of work which is of such a high standard that it puts most film and television to shame. Here then is a top five in no special order of channels you should watch.
Hi I’m Mary Mary is one of the tens of dozens, even hundreds of horror webseries out there but under the jump scare obsessed masses, this takes time to build up a very Silent Hill type of creepiness in a strange scenario before the scares (and the scares are earned) kick in. The series is ongoing still but here’s the first one which sets the mood.
There’s a touch of the Chris Morris about this fictional channel which is a pisstake of those horrendous shopping channels mixed with daytime telly. It is on the whole, genius and here’s a sample…
There’s loads of internet myths about ‘haunted video games’ but few manage to act as a story in its own right as well as acting as a nice satire of that genre of YouTube video where people play through games. In this case the set-up is that someone has found an old Playstation 1 game and is playing it for the first time with us as viewers. This also subverts a genre and the less said about what happens the better as it is a joy…
There’s lots of review channels on YouTube. Most are shite, but this one run by Mike Stoklasa and Jay Bauman does that trick of managing to critique films, take the piss out of YouTube review videos and do something you can probably only do on YouTube. Stuff like this for example..
There’s loads of crap on YouTube but dig deep enough and you’ll get gems like the stuff listed here and more as we enter a new age where anyone can upload anything and the only thing separating them from the masses is talent, ideas and creativity. All of these channels display that in abundance…
