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taffyles

Listed below are comments made by taffyles between Thursday, 6th November 2008 and Friday, 7th November 2008.

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Open and shut case? 10:12pm on 07 Nov 2008 freeflow-

noooo I wouldn't pay out any of my hard earned cash to see Brand live. Maybe, I'll watch his stand up on comedy central if I'm in the country then.

I agree with much of what you say.

The sleeping giant in the country has been woken up by this issue I think. Many have deplored the steady drop in standards of BBC programming but have just switched over or off. I don't personally know anyone who watches Ross anymore because of his crudity and 'ego'- its very base humour and gets old very quickly. Very limited in appeal. Well his dwindling ratings tell the story.
People have had enough- they are seeing it in society as well. So there may well be more complaints now because they've been smacked out of their complacency. And in that respect I think the uproar is good.
Russ and Brand took this "humour" to its predicted conclusion- a member of the public's rights were completely violated.

If what Brand and Ross do was in any way innovative or cutting edge- I'd defend them. But its not new, and its only marginally comedy. They debase women and comedy. Dragging it down to gutter level because neither of them has the wit or talent to refine their humour. Its a huge backward step. Ross is not original- his friday night show copies the American late night chat shows that have been on for decades. David Letterman et al. Excellent shows- immensley popular and not a crude remark in sight. Far more intelligent material. heck he's even trying to look like Peter Cook- of course the young don't know- but I'm surprised no-one has commented. Brand takes his comedy from Monty Python (the high pitched screeching) and general 'goonery'. a bit of AliG thrown in and Essex boy - much of it the product of an addicts frazzled brain. But not original. Undertones of both are misogyny and sexism. Very base humour. Anyway I digress.

The BBC lost the plot in hiring these tabloiders in trying to "attract the young" in some misguided notion of future loyalty. They forgot that the young grow out of this stuff and get more sophisticated tastes. They also forgot that high quality humour appeals to all ages. If they carry on with this philosophy they will lose their charter. People won't see the point in preserving what used to be a National Treasure anymore if it's completely gone to the dogs.
I know its part of being British to complain about the TV licence, but when you've lived abroad you really appreciate, or used to, the BBC.

I wasn't one of the 30 thou who complained to the beeb. I, and quite a few others I know, have been biding our time to find out the facts before writing to the DG and the Trust.

And I've spent way too much time on this blog. So I'm off. A pleasure talking with you freeflow. And some great comments on here QuietT and Kitbag and many others.
Open and shut case? 9:19pm on 07 Nov 2008 #624

I'm not a fan of Bruce Forsythe, but he used sexual innuendo which goes over the heads of children. It's a refined and more intelligent form of sexual comedy which can be broadcast to a much wider audience. children won't get the sexual meaning and adults will. Sexual innuendo is an art.

R and B' brand of comedy is crude- get the OED out and look up crude. It's unrefined. It's sex, profanity etc in the raw- requiring no intelligence, wit or comedic genius. It's comedy at its base level with limited appeal. And highly unsuitable for children.

Since you like to use the OED so much, I suggest you look up obscene too.

You said "Is there a decline in "christian" values. YES, and thank GOD!"

I take it that would be YOUR God you're thanking. The BBC is Britain's public broadcasting service and broadcasts services from the established Church of England. and it probably will until such time as the C of E is disestablished. I don't watch it (unless there are some good old Welsh choirs on) but it has its audience. BTW Songs of praise still gets high ratings.

Yes there has been a decline in the moral standards. How you define your own morality is allied with your maturation and education. But against society's norms and mores, yes there definitely is a decline in moral standards. As for the young, teenagers have always flouted the norms- it's a necessary part of growing up and most grow out of it. But there are very worrying trends in the young people today- "happy slapping" being one of them, the lack of respect for other people's rights, lack of empathy and compassion, and lack of manners. A sad reflection on society is an old woman lying in a shop doorway dying, and a youth seeing an opportunity to spray her with shaving cream and use his mobile to video it and stick it on youtube- there are many examples of that in UK.

As for my other post on politics- Most of what I said is common knowledge which doesn't need to be cited. I know you get a different view from the media over there though. For instance some British media are saying the African American massive turn out is responsible for Obama's success- which is only a tiny part of it. They ignore or don't see the relevance that the Deep South (Suwanee river) States with its mass populations of African States stayed firmly red- Republican.

And racism is certainly not an alien notion to the young-an example- the racially motivated gang activity in US is immense and is growing in the UK too. Neo-nazi and white supremist groups are growing in numbers too (internet is one area they exploit) and they aint recruiting the middle-aged.

There's a difference between Male sexual freedom of expression and Male sexually aggressive behaviour, which is a primal instinct. Its the aggression that must be curbed.

You say you can't abide the tabloids, yet you defend the BBC going tabloid.
You say you want freedom, yet you post on a board where there are House rules and censorship.

Right I'm off my soap box and that's my last post to you, so pick it apart if you want but I won't be back to read it. I have spent way too much time on this.
Open and shut case? 03:19am on 07 Nov 2008 Free flow -

I'd agree with you but for the fact that they both knew before they went into the studio that Sachs would not be available for interview. So they decided to interview his answerphone, why?

Also Ross's age- he's 48, a middle aged man (just a few years younger than me, so almost the same generation) which is another thing mature adults can't get their head round. He knew what he was doing.

The mock-horror "Oh my god", "I've just said her name" - sure he did, deliberately. The mocking apology etc . Making repeated calls, amusing themselves really, but putting on a show for the audience- egging each other and both getting completely out of control. There were no real apologies until their jobs were on the line.

I agree with you Ross being the biggest culprit, and I had the distinct feeling Brand wouldn't have gone there at all if it hadn't been for Ross. And I agree it is pre-teen humour- mental age of about 10.

Sach's request that they not broadcast was ignored.

It hasn't come out, who actually phoned Sachs and I suspect because it was someone from Brands co. not the BBC. also there are vague details being bandied around that the company failed to fill in the compliance form for the BBC. And also who edited the program and deleted we don't know how many further calls to Sachs ( I suspect they filled up his answerphone) were made. Again I'm wondering if anyone from the BBC oversaw the editing - because a few comments have been muttered by people about there should be 'heavyweight' producers who can stand up to Ross and Brand. Don't know if I've explained myself well, but am in a rush. Off out for the night. :)
Open and shut case? 02:54am on 07 Nov 2008 #610

Brand wasn't humiliated- he was pretending to be. Why do you think he set Ross up to blurt out "he f..... your granddaughter" in the first place. Brand says her name and then a mock "oh no I just said her name". C'mon you're not that gullible to believe it was innocent- then singing apology was mocking- adding insult to injury. And all the repeated phone calls were the two of them getting completely out of control with it, egging each other on - Ross being by far the biggest culprit. We don't know how many calls they made in total because only 4 were broadcast- but other radio hosts have said they heard the edited out calls and they were beyond disgusting "enough to make your hair curl".

Obviously not a sociology student then, if that's your take on the election and the after effects of slavery in America. I've spent much of the last 17 years in the US (I have homes- and work- in both countries). And you're talking a load of ignorant and biased garbage. Mind you there's a lot of propaganda in UK about the US so not all your fault.

Obama never once played the race card and didn't thank anyone who did. As Colin Powell put it last night- Obama thinks of himself as simply American. He is the new American President-Elect who just happens to be African American. McCain is a good moderate man (far removed from Bush and a national hero)who made his biggest mistake in choosing the idiot Palin on his ticket, to appease the lunatic neo-con extreme right.

Obama probably lost more votes than he gained because of the colour of his skin (sad but true).

He benefitted from the massive turn out- the poor don't normally vote in America. This year Obama had so much money, provision was set up to get people to the voting polls.
This year the poor did vote.

There was a huge campaign to get young people to vote, always a problem, but this year there was a massive amount of money spent to get young people to vote. This election the young did vote.

He also benefitted from the last 8 years of probably one of the worst administrations in the modern era - the financial mess, illegal wars. How Bush wasn't impeached is a wonder to me. The Democrats were going to win this election whoever was running. People have suffered for the last 4 years. I'm a Democrat- even though I don't have a vote here- I actively support the Democrat Party.
And there are doubts about Obama- his lack of experience and foreign policy, just two- many voted for him because they saw him as the lesser of TWO evils. Personally I'd have preferred Hilary but she ran out of money.
And in the Presidential race, the best ticket was the issue not the colour of anyone's skin.

However when Obama acknowledged his new position of President-Elect. That's when it hit most people just what an historic event this was. And it was very emotional. I had tears in my eyes and so many, many did. Obviously African Americans- the young know only the privileges they've been given for being black- the older remember the fight. My generation and older lived through the fight for civil rights. Republicans as well as Democrats had tears running down their faces- as I'm sure Martin Luther Kings "I have a dream...." was running through their minds watching Obama. Very emotional whatever colour or politics you were.

The young today didn't fight for civil rights and this election wasn't about racism. So don't claim any reflected glory. the reason there'll be an African-American President is because of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, of Rosa parks, and all those other courageous black Americans who fought and died to change things. Certainly not the youth of today for gods sake.

BTW the term 'non-white' is racist and supremist in my personal opinion. And mixed race is not a term used in the US either. Obama is African-American, who prefers to be called simply American.
Open and shut case? 11:26pm on 06 Nov 2008 Oh I forgot Brand's addiction to sex.. now you don't need a doctorate in behavioural psychology to know that when he talks to a female he isn't wanting to explore her brain.
Open and shut case? 11:16pm on 06 Nov 2008 591 freeflow

The misogyny and sexism in their humour is all a big part of what they did- in fact where most of Ross's "humour" comes from. I have no idea what the complaints actually said, none of us do.

Anniechetri - This isn't a freedom of speech issue. However, it's the over 70's population that gave their lives and made huge sacrifices to protect our freedoms, but free speech carries its responsibilities and has restrictions in place to protect all our freedoms. Hopefully when you are 78yrs you won't bastardize it anymore.

And yes you are soliciting for your protest - facebook links are littering many forums with a "come and join us" message. Not that it matters.

Just watched the 5 documentary on this, and I saw some facebook protesters. All six of you, or maybe seven, with your placards. Anyone we know?

i_amjifrowe - Thanks for putting up the OED definition and proving my point. It's already been proven on this blog that it was a violation of the telecommunications act and indeed harassment - the media insistence on calling them 'prank calls' is just spin.

Careful how you use the word slanderous- (slander and libel law, one of the restrictions on free speech). For something to be slander is has to be untrue.

You're obviously a student, probably of social sciences as you seem to know all about the Flynn effect and standardized IQ testing. Do some research on the long term effects on the brain of heroin/crack/cocaine use and abuse. And there you'll find Russell Brand's "genius". Also check out some research on recovering alcoholics- Ross. If you want to do some analysis. Nothing new or original about either of them.
Open and shut case? 9:59pm on 06 Nov 2008 Bumped

348. At 8:10pm on 31 Oct 2008, NotDailyMailreader wrote:

When caveman Og said to caveman Ug 'I've slept with your daughter ha ha ha!' it was intended to humiliate. It wasn't funny (or 'edgy') then, it still isn't, and it never will be. Male sexually aggressive behaviour, merely verbal or otherwise, will always be with us, and males with sexually mature female relatives will always worry about it. Ross and Brand made an attack on the basic ties of family responsibility which bind us together as human beings, which is why older people, who have more extensive family responsibilities than younger people, are so angry about it.

The best that can be said of the younger people interviewed who dismissed this incident is that none of them is old enough to have a teenage daughter; when they are I suspect their attitude may change. There is a natural tendency for young people (in particular males?) to enjoy the teasing and sexual humiliation of others: this is what is being referred to here as 'funny'. It is the task of any society to socialise its young people, placing limits and restrictions on this tendency.
Open and shut case? 03:00am on 06 Nov 2008 504. At 2:54pm on 04 Nov 2008, cmcevoy3596 wrote:

To be honest, I think its an awful message to send out to kids - make one mistake, and you will lose everything.

What happened to second chances?
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Err Ross is on about his fourth and final one now!
Open and shut case? 02:58am on 06 Nov 2008 QuietTillings is spot on about the sexism- I find it a bit depressing that so many can't see it...what the hell did we burn our bras and fight for womens lib for?
Open and shut case? 02:55am on 06 Nov 2008 supportthesuperbra you're cracking me up :)

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