Until someone makes "Kung Fu Cheerleaders Battle Zombie Elvis", "Lesbian Vampire Killers", James Corden and Matthew Horne's new flick, might be my perfect film title. I won't be rushing to the multiplex to see it, though, and I'll tell you for why.
Now, I always feel like I'm coming out of some comedic closet when I say this, but I don't get "Gavin & Stacey". There. I said it. Yes, it's a pleasant enough story and the characters aren't too punchable (those that aren't thinly sketched out cyphers, anyway), but they appear to have left out the jokes. I might be old fashioned, but I was always taught that jokes were a pre-requisite for a comedy.
Take one scene where four characters enter a house. They're singing the John Barnes rap from "World In Motion". That's it. The whole scene. It's not funny, doesn't advance the plot and you learn nothing about any of the characters. That probably took up a page and a half of script. A rough rule of thumb tells me that you could've got six jokes in there. Or maybe Ruth Jones and James Corden were ruthlessly applying the "Royle Family" formula of "Working Class People = Jovial Singing".
Still, the scene where Gavin & Stacey were having sex while everyone was having breakfast was fried comedy gold.
I'm very generous with my laughter, hell, even "Lab Rats" raised a couple of chuckles, but I turned over the television and then laughed more in the first twenty seconds of "The IT Crowd" than in the whole of "Gavin & Stacey".
In a post- "The Office" and "Peep Show" world, Graham Linehan deserves all the praise he gets for showing us that the studio based sitcom is not dead. Funny stuff acted out by funny people, that's what it's all about.
Am I wrong? Have I been unlucky with the episodes of G&S that I've caught? Let me know. I have to go now as, apparently, it's very important that I help complete an "In the Night Garden" jigsaw. Forget "Crooked House", that's a creepy show...
Monday 12 January 2009
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(stands up) My name is Laurence and I don't find Gavin & Stacey all that funny either.
ReplyDelete(sits down, wipes brow) I've just assumed that other people like that style of comedy. Therefore I've left it for other people to enjoy.
I wonder whether I'm right. Does G&S have an avid, dedicated fanbase? Or have the tv execs just fooled themselves into thinking that everyone loves it? I have no idea.
The IT Crowd makes oi laff. I like it. Simple.
Put it this way: the sitcom I'm straining to expel at the moment owes more to Linehan, Elton and Curtis than it does to Gervais, Jones, Corden et al.
There. Feels better doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure who their fanbase is. It started on BBC3, but everyone I meet in that demographic doesn't find it that entertaining. But my Mum loves it.
There are several Facebook groups about it full of bile, but I'm a lover, not a fighter.
I'll tell James Corden all this next time I see him down the Groucho.
Good Call , i just dont get it either i just turned over to watch Eastenders on Beeb 3 and caught the last few minutes and it even has some slow rock theme tune at the end like the office. To me it is just the modern formulaic version of what the sitcom is nowadays. Part mike leigh part my family with no real substance , Still parents and work colleagues love it , then again they love friends and the sex and the city movie so what the fuck do they know.
ReplyDeleteOh dear god, thank you. I thought it was just me. I'm not alone. I'm not alone.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some kind of support group is in order?
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit late reading this but I completely agree! Thank you! I thought I was the only one... whenever I say it people look at me as though I have no sense of humour. One of the worst scenes I ever saw was the family in a car playing the game where you have to chose who you would marry, who you would shag and who you'd go to a desert island with. It went on for ages! Lazy writing.
ReplyDelete