Quote: Godot Taxis @ 16th April 2010, 3:01 PM

You miserable, sad, tedious bastards. No-one's making you like Frankie Boyle, but don't try to make out he hasn't got anything to say or he's not one of the funniest comics around.

View original

Below is an interview with Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr, where the pair recommend other comedians of their ilk. I post this, because it was a rich vein of discovery for me and we like sharing on this forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlZH-VmhSwE

I appreciate some find him offensive, but by provoking though on a topic you promote it. If you push the boundaries of comedy, then you have to accept some experiments will go wrong. It does seem that currently the edgy stand up comedians are coming from abroad. So if anyone has any recommendations, let me know.

British comedians are so desperate to conform they all merge together in a polished PC mush. Too few prepared to take a risk and upset some. Interestingly our fine stable of British political cartoonist don't suffer in that way. But for stand up Frankie and John Oliver are, in my opinion, our two best and the latter works in America. Does anyone have some British recommendations ?

Quote: Firkin @ 13th September 2017, 7:00 PM

Below is an interview with Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr, where the pair recommend other comedians of their ilk. I post this, because it was a rich vein of discovery for me and we like sharing on this forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlZH-VmhSwE

I appreciate some find him offensive, but by provoking though on a topic you promote it. If you push the boundaries of comedy, then you have to accept some experiments will go wrong. It does seem that currently the edgy stand up comedians are coming from abroad. So if anyone has any recommendations, let me know.

British comedians are so desperate to conform they all merge together in a polished PC mush. Too few prepared to take a risk and upset some. Interestingly our fine stable of British political cartoonist don't suffer in that way. But for stand up Frankie and John Oliver are, in my opinion, our two best and the latter works in America. Does anyone have some British recommendations ?

View original

political cartoons are usually pretty bad
John Olivers maybe one of our best comedians just in general, but his standup really isnt anything compared to last week tonight. his standups pretty mediocre. not to mention that hes pretty much the 'polished pc mush' you describe.

Is volume 2 of his Promethiad really 5 hours long or is that a cock-up with iTunes?

[update]
Yes, it is actually just 5 hours 20 minutes of Frankie reading all his Guardian columns. Fair enough.

I laughed very heartily at Vol 1. Wickedly funny.

Damn some shit went down here in 2013 because of el Frankie.

He is a love him or loathe him person and I went from loathing to loving after watching his stand up DVDs. He's offensive but enlightened so that makes it ok. You go to his shows and must be prepared for the most degrading experience of your lives.

I've nearly made it through the whole of Vol. 2. It's quite interesting. However every time he pronounces Brexit as "Breggzit" I want to write him a strong tweet.

I have only recently found his stand-up material funny, but have always thought of him as a genuine prick. His delivery of material is so hateful that it's almost believable.

He had chosen the path of being as offensive as possible, which is, it's fair to say, the cheapest and easiest way to get laughs - but it works for him and he's doing alright.

Quote: Tommy Griff @ 15th October 2017, 6:27 PM

He had chosen the path of being as offensive as possible, which is, it's fair to say, the cheapest and easiest way to get laughs - but it works for him and he's doing alright.

View original

This may have been the case when he started, but I'd say 2017 is hardly an easy time to be peddling nasty material given the howling online masses' burning need to be as offended as possible by everything they hear and read. It's probably a good way to stay in the public eye, but these days you're one gag from a social media lynching. I bet even Frankie finds he has to triple check his material these days.

I think as someone mentioned earlier going back on stage/tour might be the best place for him. If you go to see Frankie Boyle live then surely you know what you're getting? I'm being slightly sarcastic as some of the court cases suggest not.

Personally I found him very sharp and enjoyed his appearances on Mock the Week but then I'm not looking to be offended.

Serious question here:

What happened to Frankie Boyle? I don't mean the Guardian columnist Boyle. I mean the funny Frankie Boyle?

Quote: Tommy Griff @ 3rd November 2019, 6:08 PM

Serious question here:

What happened to Frankie Boyle? I don't mean the Guardian columnist Boyle. I mean the funny Frankie Boyle?

View original

The outrageous, offensive and spectacularly funny Frankie Boyle became unemployable by the BBC and every other politically correct broadcaster - so he decided to make himself employable again.

To quote the words of a Spectator article:

"And all he had to do to achieve this was to sell his soul, stop taking risks and renounce every last scintilla of his comedic integrity. Like a dissident who has found a new, more profitable and comfortable career in the secret police, Boyle now makes his living not by pushing boundaries but by enforcing their limits. His job is to say the totally and predictably sayable."

To watch him on New World Order is a truly agonising experience.

The man who was once the most wonderfully dangerous comedian on British TV could easily be mistaken for a grovelling, virtue-signalling snowflake.

The array of guests on every episode is dazzling in its diversity. Every guest is PC to the core and yet Frankie is more PC than any of them.

Many of his guests are the sorts of people the funny Frankie used to eviscerate with his comedy, but the newly PC Frankie sits there ladling honey over their ever-so-right-on heads.

His sell-out is enough to bring tears to a glass eye.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 3rd November 2019, 6:45 PM

The outrageous, offensive and spectacularly funny Frankie Boyle became unemployable by the BBC and every other politically correct broadcaster - so he decided to make himself employable again.

To quote the words of a Spectator article:

"And all he had to do to achieve this was to sell his soul, stop taking risks and renounce every last scintilla of his comedic integrity. Like a dissident who has found a new, more profitable and comfortable career in the secret police, Boyle now makes his living not by pushing boundaries but by enforcing their limits. His job is to say the totally and predictably sayable."

To watch him on New World Order is a truly agonising experience.

The man who was once the most wonderfully dangerous comedian on British TV could easily be mistaken for a grovelling, virtue-signalling snowflake.

The array of guests on every episode is dazzling in its diversity. Every guest is PC to the core and yet Frankie is more PC than any of them.

Many of his guests are the sorts of people the funny Frankie used to eviscerate with his comedy, but the newly PC Frankie sits there ladling honey over their ever-so-right-on heads.

His sell-out is enough to bring tears to a glass eye.

View original

So, he simply joined the club with the rest of the PC crazed buffoons to win the odd TV programe contract and earn a comfortable wage?
I guess, unless you're genuinly funny and successful like Ricky Gervais or Dave Chappelle, they have no choice in selling out if they want to remain relevant to TV executives?

Quote: Rood Eye @ 3rd November 2019, 6:45 PM

The outrageous, offensive and spectacularly funny Frankie Boyle became unemployable by the BBC and every other politically correct broadcaster - so he decided to make himself employable again.

View original

Or maybe, if we accept your premise that he's a shadow of his former self (which I don't necessarily do), he just got older and less relevant. For centuries artists have traditionally lost their edge as they get older. They become safer and more conservative and more risk-averse. It predates political correctness and will still happen long after political correctness is gone.

Quote: Tommy Griff @ 3rd November 2019, 7:09 PM

I guess, unless you're genuinly funny and successful like Ricky Gervais

View original

Poor Ricky hasn't done anything interesting fifteen or more years.

Quote: chipolata @ 4th November 2019, 6:40 AM

For centuries artists have traditionally lost their edge as they get older. They become safer and more conservative and more risk-averse. It predates political correctness and will still happen long after political correctness is gone.

View original

That is perfectly true but it's not what we're talking about in the case of Frankie Boyle.

If he'd lost his edge, it would be sad but entirely predictable - and forgivable.

What's happened is that he has by his own volition done a complete "about-face".

He has joined the PC Brigade and, not only that, he is proselytising on their behalf.

Let me be clear that I have absolutely nothing against comedians who are PC - some of the finest comedians in history have been PC and have abided by all the conventional rules of acceptable televisual and stage behaviour. There is, in my view, absolutely nothing wrong with a comedian being PC.

What I do object to, however, are comedians who spout PC propaganda - especially those who were previously very much non-PC but who suddenly begin virtue signalling.

And that's exactly what Frankie has done!

The only problem with this theory? It's bollocks!
Jokes about incest, Princess Di's ghost, gay sex? All of these are on Boyle's show. Anyone whose actually watched it will know it's not pc at all.
The truth is James Delingpole at the Spectator and a few true blue types have suddenly realised the awful truth: Boyle is a bit of a lefty.
But he always has been! Most of us knew this from the start.