Urban v's the Commentariat
- Thread starter Belushi
- Start date
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
Good line in uniforms too; sartorial wizard. Highly underrated.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Magnificent stagecraft
Well exactly. And that's generally accepted. Nobody denigrates him for his demagogic abilities...just all the other stuff. That's the point. Manning doesn't even emerge with any acknowledgement that he was a skilled comic. Instead, he's condemned entirely.
JimW
支那暗杀团
Hob-nobbing with that Mazzini
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
That's cos he wasn't a skilled comic. He just told one shit joke after another with no flair, no charm and no humour
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
They'd be like a cream cracker with an impression of the fuhrer on both sides. Like that Jesus toast.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
No, that's a Schroedinger. There would be a worm in some biscuits, but not others
Yes. I am because I'm talking about his comedic skills. The guy who runs my local chippie is a right cunt...a horrible bastard. Only he makes fantastic chips...uses beef dripping and everything. Should I go to one of the other ones where the chips are soggy but they smile at you?
8ball
Maximum Facepalm
You have a point there. Also, in 20 years time when someone mentions Jimmy Savile, no one will be reminiscing about that programme with the cub scouts trying to eat their lunch on that rollercoaster.
People who denigrate Manning for his vile comedy fail to recognise what a brilliant racist he was
What...so people who fail to denigrate Hitler for his oratory skills are condoning his other views? That's just nonsense.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Can someone change the thread title to Biscuit Manning please?
Belushi - time for a fourth thread!
Belushi - time for a fourth thread!
fogbat
The Talibum
This time... This time it's gonna work
Yeah, that's one way of looking at it although I'm worried you're caught in what seems to be emerging as the default mindset around here which condemns everything connected with someone you don't like and allows no redeeming feature. If so, you'd naturally dismiss the comedy a priori as a part of the larger package.
Incidentally, comedy doesn't require charm or flair.
Why now? It's not like it's been derailed. It was never 'railed' to begin with.
8ball
Maximum Facepalm
I agree it's nonsense. It's a normal human trait, though - someone does something awful and everything else they have done is tainted. And vice versa.
However, I've taken a Google around for some Manning jokes and most of them are pretty terrible (with one or two gems which probably deserve some kudos if they weren't nicked).
I just resent the idea I'm defending Manning cos I'm either a closet bigot or that I'm trying to provoke a row. It's just that I look for the best in people.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Thanks for your concern but give me some credit. I have seen his act and come to my opinion of Manning all by myself
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
discokermit
Well-Known Member
i think you're doing it because you heard stuart lee say how good manning's timing was and you want to make yourself sound clever.
newbie
undisambiguated
agreed, and I'm largely with you on most of what you've said about the 70s, but...
he's dead now, before that did his views evolve, along with most other peoples, as the 70s became the 80s, the 90s and on? Or did he attempt to hold back the tide?
the other day I heard Barry Cryer, born only a couple of years after Manning and with as long a career, on R4s With Great Pleasure. The first passage of writing he quoted was from J B Priestly in 1934 "the leader-writers in the cheap Press began yelping again about Keeping the Foreigner Out. Apart from the miserable meanness of the attitude itself—for the great England, the England admired throughout the world, is the England that keeps open house, the refuge of Mazzini, Marx, Lenin—history shows us that the countries that have opened their doors have gained, just as the countries that have driven out large numbers of its citizens, for racial, religious or political reasons, have always paid dearly for their [in]tolerance."
I've no idea what Cryer was like in the 70s (tbh I've always loathed "comedians"), but that is the serious point he wanted to make today. Were he still alive what serious point would Manning have quoted? There's a litmus test there, which harking back to his 70s comedy timing & delivery manages to miss completely.
You're funnier than Bernard Manning
Yeah, I know.
You ever noticed how men leave the toilet seat up? I'm only asking cos if you think Manning was bad, I think it's only fair to acknowledge that men and toilet seats and how generally thick, rapacious and philistine Americans and Tories are formed the basis of 95% of televised comedy for a good fifteen years after he fucked off. Fair enough, the racism and rampant misogyny went, but other than that was there really an advance on the fat mother-in-law stuff.
Oh well, there's a thing. See I hadn't heard that but I've always thought of Lee as a bit of a dick. But, I'll readily acknowledge he knows a thing or two about delivery. See what I did there btw? I managed to successfully separate my opinion of someone's comedic skills from my view of them as a whole.
And so I'll gladly use Lee's opinion in support of my own. Which makes it me and a highly regarded professional comic on one side...and a bunch of random Internet voices on the other.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
Yes, there has been an advance on that
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