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Frankie Boyle goes a little too far

Sid Williams's picture

for his bosses at the Daily Record.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2009/06/28/9180/boyle_quits_over_michael_j...

Well, heres why:

"So the Michael Jackson roller coaster has stopped. Looks like he got enough.

Apparently he died after walking into a pub in Paisley and saying “Do you wanna be starting something?” We can all learn something from Michael’s life. For example, it looks like oxygen tents are a big waste of money.

Why did no one pick up on it when he had shown all the signs of a heart attack? Wheezing noises, jerking of the arms, ashen complexion? I suppose to be fair he has been showing all those symptoms since the mid eighties. Had Jackson’s staff noticed something was wrong earlier he might have been saved, but when they saw him grab his left arm, go stiff and yelp they just thought he was practising his moves for Beat It.

It’s not known what triggered the heart attack, but High School Musical 3 was on cable at the time.

In many ways he was a tragic figure. Let’s be honest, he had more personal issues than Batman.Who could have imagined that the monster he transformed into in “Thriller” would look less weird than what he transformed into in real life? It’s got to be a tossup whether he get cremated or recycled. His postmortem will look like the Roswell autopsy.

I was a big Michael Jackson fan when I was 8. I didn't know it at the time, but I was his 'type.'

For his London concerts Michael Jackson advertised for children in wheelchairs or with missing legs! What parent would agree to that? Look what happened with kids who could run away!

Those tickets sold out in minutes. An interesting attitude we have to paedophilia in this country, “ We don’t want paedophiles round here! Unless they’ve really worked on their choreography…”

He was a legend and his funeral will be amazing. Ironically the funeral will be the first time in years his children haven’t been forced to wear veils.

With the amount of money the concert tickets have made I wouldn’t be surprised if they still wheeled him on. It would add an interesting touch to I’ll Be There. Michael Jackson was apparently refusing to eat ahead of his O2 gigs. He now weighed less than nine stone and the only thing he would eat willingly was nachos. Nachos being the name of a young Mexican boy.

It’s said that Jackson had developed a phobia about being fat. Not like him to worry about his looks.

Apparently when the news broke Jackson’s father rushed straight to the hospital, just to check if the medics needed a hand with beating Michael’s chest.

Jackson’s family said they were moved to see that the hospital staff were all wearing black. Actually, they were all wearing white as usual, but that family had always had a little trouble admitting the difference. The man may be gone but he has left a musical legacy that will be around for hundreds of years. As will his face."

Ouch!

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This is shocking

I cannot believe that Frankie Boyle has said something funny

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Sheev | 3 July 2009 - 6:40pm

The interesting thing is that

most people will have laughed at and passed around individual jokes about MJ, most of which are in poor taste. But as it's just one poor taste gag, that seems to be OK. Naughty but nice, I suppose.

Then Frankie puts a run of them together and doubtless will be pilloried for it in certain prurient quarters. But so what? Why is it that one poor taste gag is OK but several together isn't?

Well done Frankie.

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Mark JF | 3 July 2009 - 7:27pm

Magic

You can always rely on FB to cut through the crap - consistently funny guy.

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torrential1 | 3 July 2009 - 9:56pm
Mr Drayton | 3 July 2009 - 9:58pm

You

Are cock on, Mr D. Well said. And some of that Jackson stuff was very weak.

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Graham Johns | 3 July 2009 - 10:09pm

Good points well made

I'm sure that living outside the UK I'm not overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the kind of humour you talk about but seeing Jimmy Carr on various panelshows, I kind of get what you mean. I'm sure there is a case for ensuring that paedofelia doesnt become the modern day Spanish Inquisition but its a bit much to base your whole act on it.

Regarding Ricky Gervais though, I remember the episode of Extras with the girl with celebral palsy as being very funny and extremely moving at the same time, I didnt feel embarrassed to laugh at it. I have a friend in his 40s with motor neurone disease and humour is the only way he copes, he doesnt get offended, how could it make things worse?

I think your point is more about repetition, whether it be mother-in-law gags, 'er indoors or "bad taste" I think its a fine trait to be able to laugh about anything and I'm quite proud of the British ability to do so but I must admit I've never heard a Madelaine McCann joke and I struggle to think of anything I'd find funny about that.

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Sid Williams | 3 July 2009 - 11:36pm

I was listening to a Billy Connolly concert today.

I had realised that I carried a lot of received opinions about comedians whose work I'd never actually heard in context. It's very easy to find their stuff in charity shops. I won't be listening to Jethro again (creepy), though I hadn't realised that The Two Ronnies and Lenny Henry had filletted the same joke book. Presentation is key.

The Connolly stuff is a breath of fresh air: an amiable man telling stories about his school days in front of a crowd who are up for a good time. A folk club in the mid-1970s might well have been the best fun in town. I liked Bruce Morton's work a lot, about fifteen years ago. Which comedians tell stories now? Daft stories are the heart of a good family reunion. Perhaps fewer people are familiar with the form.

I am so bored with the current wave of comedians churning out gags about complex issues. I've read the How To books. I can imagine the brainstorming session at work. It's so procedural.

I'm going to look to clowns for my comedy. Seriously. They're the tabula rasa. I saw one man transmit more character in one double take than David Walliams has managed in his whole career. Many British comedians have nicked moves from clowns.

And I'd love to know more about the types of humour that shows like "Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead" explored. I'd rather have a belly laugh after 200 pages than a production line punchline every twenty words.

I enjoyed your article.

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Robin Clarke | 4 July 2009 - 12:28am

If you're after story telling...

check out Daniel Kitson, the finest comic on the circuit in my opinion. He was in Phoenix Nights, but don't hold that against him, his act is nothing like Peter Kay.

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theblindstagger | 4 July 2009 - 8:42am

new

What's he up to these days? I seen him at the Kilkenny comedy festival a few years ago and he was brillant. Why isn't he on the box more instead of Jimmy bloody Carr and that unfunny posh bloke on bbc1. Comedy is shite on tv at the minute.

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paintyface | 4 July 2009 - 5:08pm

He usually tours once or

He usually tours once or twice a year, and has a couple of shows at Edinburgh most years too. I haven't seen him since we left the UK in 2007, and although he comes to Australia every now and again, he doesn't seem to make it to the cultural backwater that is Perth. (Can't say as I blame him, though).

As well as the stand up shows (which are the best crafted shows I've seen) he has also done a few strictly story-telling shows, where he puts aside the funny and gets all Jackanory on the audience, normally with stories full of heartache.

As for TV, he does seem quite publicity-shy. ("I'm trying to whittle my audience down to a core of 12... let's call them apostles") One of the running topics at his gigs a few years ago was that he'd signed a deal to produce a live DVD, but never got around to doing it, despite the hefty advance for the production company. It's always seemed to me that the size of a comedian's funny is inversely proportional to the size of their audience, so I'm hoping he doesn't embrace the limelight too much.

(But maybe if he wants to visit Perth, WA just once, please???

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theblindstagger | 5 July 2009 - 12:21am

Phoenix Nights

Kay in Phoenix Nights was superb. All he needs is a good editor and someone to say "no". Maybe Neil Fitzmaurice or Dave Spikey could help there. Maybe not.

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Six Dog | 28 July 2009 - 3:44pm

Owen O'Neill

Might be your kind of thing. A very funny stand-up, playwright and poet. While I like Frankie Boyle a lot, I find Owen O'Neill a bit more life-affirming.

He has a hilarious story about coming to Scotland to work on the rigs, involving a boarding house and sausages. The ending is so moving it made me cry. Bastard.

Bruce Morton is another highly recommended purveyor of light and shade.

Isn't the problem now that we have 'soundbite' comedians? If they can't come up with a punchline within 30 seconds, they won't be invited on any panel shows and will therefore be below the radar.

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Lando Cakes | 28 July 2009 - 7:47pm

Joylessness

I have seen Frankie Boyle loads over the years, both in clubs and theatre shows, and there is a terrible joylessness about the targets in his set. (Same for Jimmy Carr over the years). He may be saying that which has been unsaid, but perhaps this isn't as revolutionary as it once was. There is a dark, brutal negativity which is frequently funny but leaves an awful worthless void in the end. He's always pointing out the shit without giving any light to the shade. Mark Steel, Linda Smith, Jeremy Hardy and Steve Gribbin plough(ed) a similar satiric furrow without ever being utterly negative.

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PaddyH | 3 July 2009 - 11:50pm

never warmed tae Frankie

but (in context) his column was excellent and at least he had the sac to throw the towel in when it was rejected - he's went up in my estimation

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James Blast | 4 July 2009 - 11:23pm

Isn't very good

Also, the piece posted above wasn't very good anyway. Especially the nachos gag, terrible.

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PaddyH | 3 July 2009 - 11:53pm

Say something funny without stereotypes

With the exception of Lee Evans there are no great clownish stand-ups anymore because of the multitude of broadcast panel shows which mark the trajectory of modern comedy industry.
Without exposure through these TV formats you can't hope to break away from the club circuit and without the kind of set that fits in with these formats, you are left to travel the Jongleurs, Glee Clubs and Comedy Stores of Britain.
If you can't get an Edinburgh Festival-originated speech format for Radio 4 and which may transfer to TV or brutally banter with Boyle or Russell Howard or Simon Amstell or joust with Stephen Fry then there is nothing down for you.
It doesn't even matter that you are a comedian; how can Clarkson, the apotheosis of a wave of opinionated gobshite intellectual mediocrity besetting modern Britain get gigs on Buzzcocks and QI regularly?
In a bid to circumvent this morass of Dave TV homogenous mush, women and gay comedians also cater to this angry median to get a gig.
There is no other reason to explain Catherine Tate, Mighty Boosh (Noel Fielding ironically blacking-up anyone?) or Little Britain, whose writers assemble all the negative prejudices of chavs et al but present them oh so ironically.
Ultimately the taste of (London-based) BBC commissioners dictates the humour of the age. I don't need to qualify that statement BTW.
When was the last time you heard something genuinely, intellectually demanding and affectionate from a comedian on TV? (Bremner is intelligent, but perhaps not funny anymore).
The last was Mark Steel's Lecture series, something with a bright, interesting good heart which had great gags and which didn't include a stereotype or attack anyone personally. (apart from Blair and Thatch).
When did satire mean hate first and funny second.
... And relax. Nurse, flannel please.

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PaddyH | 4 July 2009 - 1:10am

I'm a big Frankie Boyle fan

but those jokes were piss poor in my opinion... he sounds more like Jim Davidson.

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spinoza013 | 4 July 2009 - 3:19am

Jim Davidson's Popular Comedy Front

Frankie Boyle, and many comedians of his standing, are always a just a breath away from Jim Davidson's material. It'a tragic facet of modern, sneering, tabloid comedy.
Listen to Phill Jupitus go on about Jordan on the Perfect 10 podcast, and wonder how someone that bright can summon the energy to get that worked up about Katie Price. It's easy and tawdry.
Jimmy Carr, is however the worst of the lot. Could have done the Comedians in the 70s. Main chance chancer - as befits someone who once worked in marketing for an oil company.

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PaddyH | 4 July 2009 - 11:15pm

I'm sorry

my failing eyesight and dyslexia made me read Jim Davidison as Joy Division

it happened, I was confused for a second then re-focused but I thought I should inform the Word massif

yes, drink has been taken and I'm going to a barbie at my cousin's tomorrow so I'm in high spirits

inserts smiley, eh smiley

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James Blast | 4 July 2009 - 11:32pm

Good spelling though

At least the workshops have you spelling dyxlexia correctly

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PaddyH | 4 July 2009 - 11:43pm

Well, it made me laugh

But perhaps any antidote to all the sentimental crap of the last week would have made me laugh.

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Johan | 4 July 2009 - 5:36am

Shameless

contains some of the best comedy acting - acting period - in British TV. Each character is brillinatly depicted - and David Threlfall's Frank Gallagher is a defining character of the Noughties.

Slapstick, the double take, look easy but are hard. Ciaran Griffiths who plays Micky Mcguire does it brilliantly - his character - though relatively minor - is a creation of genius.

This is satire with insight, wit and warmth. A look at Britain's dark underbely -but joyous and life-affirming unlike the dystopic harangues of Boyle, Carr and their ilk.

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Sheev | 4 July 2009 - 6:54am

Frankie is incredible

In my own opinion; we can say that half of the jokes up there are 'bad' from a spectator's point of view, but most of them are from programs such as Mock the Week which is an Improv. comedy show, this stuff is pure off the mark wit. It's only funny when you are watching the show, as stand-alone jokes, granted; they aren't fantastic. I love Frankie Boyle's dark sense of humour, he cuts to the bone which I think I absolutely fine - it makes me laugh, which is the aim of the comedian.
Comedians such as Dara O' Briain are different in the respect that they don't cause such controversy by picking less sensitive topics to tear to pieces.
Going too far is Frankie's forte, and personally; I absolutely love him for it.

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drunk_fish | 28 July 2009 - 3:35pm

Improv?

I am not so sure that some of the 'regulars' stuff isn't scripted on Mock The Week. I'd like to be proved (proven?) wrong.

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Badlands | 28 July 2009 - 3:42pm

TV comedy panel shows

are crap on the whole - formulaic and predictable while desparately trying to convey that they are in fact "daring" and "edgy". Mock the Week seems to be full of comics not good enough to get on Have I Got News For You (which is in itself very predictable despite Paul Merton who always seems a genuinely witty individual)

But surely the absolute nadir is Never Mind the Buzzcocks. It ran out of gags well before Lamarr left, and the new series last week was just embarassing. Simon Amstell must be the unfunniest person on the planet and Phill Jupitus seems to be sinking to his level. It was quite sad to see Mick Avory reduced to appearing on the Identity Parade round.

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Humphrey Plugg | 28 July 2009 - 3:57pm

Simon Amstell

is very funny. Buzzcocks improved a lot when he took over.

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Johan | 28 July 2009 - 7:25pm

yes but

it went really unfunny again when Bill Bailey left. It's all about the chemistry y'see

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Macca99 | 28 July 2009 - 7:34pm

Nevermind the Buzzcocks

was funny, when, which episode, fragment, scintilla did I miss?

great on paper, terrible in 'fact' my hatred for Phil StupidAss knows no bounds, any QI he's on I don't watch

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James Blast | 28 July 2009 - 7:47pm
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