Taking Sides: Adam and Joe vs Lee and Herring

And do Adam and Joe have anything to do with Rob Brydon's new show, I know they came up with the idea for it, but was it just ripped off them or what?

I don't know what the value of being a good NMTB guest is but if Adam B. nailed Mark Lamarr, good on him. Have met Joe a few times as he is work-related person's boyf. Like their show better than Fist of Fun. Also my pal Lucien produced 'Toytanic' et al for them.

I have seen Jerry the Opera, recently. It was fun enough, but I'm surprised how successful it seems. (though saying CUNT in an operatic voice is a joke that really can never pall.)

Separately, I've seen (probably stevem every time) Time Gentlemen Please get a bad reception here, but it does all the things I want a british sitcom to do - it has loads of rude catchphrases.

Has anyone seen any Patrick Marber play and thought it any good. I saw Closer and thought it was bollox

'I prefer my Verve with a little more Cliquot'

Baaadad on 'Bittersweet Symphony'

I interviewed Adam and Joe a few years ago for my student rag, and Adam took me to one side and said "I actually quite fancy Trisha. She reminds me of Kelly from Destiny's Child when she's well-oiled". A&J win.

actually no. I'm not that ashamed.

Baaaaaaaadaaaad on "Paranoid Android"

"Mor-ton Har-ket"

The Lee = Nice bloke, Herring = shag monster dichotomy I have heard from other sources too. Stewart Lee signed our barbeque.

I always get the feeling though that if I fancied men I'd quite fancy Adam, but I'm never sure why. He's got a very cute grin.

A&J: the welsh anarcho students who did the piss-take of jaaaaam "but it's meant to be daaaaaaaaarrrrrk, innit"

L&H: coffee and naan for kofi annan, curious oranj, "i said chisholm" etcetc

the ad and joe 'Trigger Happy' piss-take (it's DOG walking A MAN).

This is really tricky. Hmmm it's true about the repetition of A&J, but there was a smugness factor (like the Krypton one, but with Kilroy-Silk hosting instead of Gordon whatsisface) with Fist of Fun ect. that got on my tits a bit. Hmmmmmm. I only bothered to record lots of A&J, though, so maybe that's the key to my side-taking.

Tell you what, bring out extensive DVD box sets of both, and foibles will be forgiven in exchange for being able to watch the toys in the toy version of Larry Clark's 'Kids' getting BRAIDS through casual snuggling. And reminiscing about how much it hurts my throat to imitate the Kurious Oranj noise. Ahahaha.

"It's either something for TV, or students messing about"

"Well, that piece of lettuce will be thinking twice before he attempts to grow in the ground again."

And Trevor. His face was like a 5p coin sellotaped to a 50p coin.

(and I've just been reminded of the Ad&Joe Go Tokyo! tapes my mate lent me! That's my evening sorted, then.)

shock video was poor, i hope they got paid well. a&j on 'dermot's sporting buddies' were good though, in fact the whole series made me like the participants all the more, j vegas, davina (saw them filming the dermot and davina in london zoo sections, by the gorillas) etc.

andy

Enrique, Deputy Editor, Ironic Review

As everybody has said, a complete edition of TMWRNJ might change my mind. Though rewatching the Jam tribute by A&J might change it back. And the League of Gentlemen 'Adam & Joe do a toy LoG' clip probably convinces me.

Another L&H bit of schtick I still find myself using is the 'What you've done there is confused [x] with [y]...'. Which is still funnier to my mind than the similar 'If by [x] you mean [y]' construction.

And sometimes if I am feeling v.tedious, the literalist demolition of an analogies, as with the parables of the men.

All these are Stewart Lee things, though someone once told me that they used to usually swap lines with one another, Herring writing Lee's misanthropic stuff and he writing the daft Herring stuff in return. This doesn't seem to be borne out by the solo work I've seen of theirs though.

yeah, what sketch?

I need to have sex with all four of them before I can make up my mind though.

STU -What do you mean?

RICH -I've been following them ever since they began their careers...They don't know it's me who has been following them.

STU -You are sick, Rich.

RICH -Or who it is who has been sending them the drawings.

STU -You are sick, sick!

RICH -They are very tasteful drawings, Stu, and I'd ask you this question: Who is the real sick man in this so-called society?

Is it the ordinary, normal man who gets some harmless pleasure from stalking five innocent young women, and then possibly sending them drawings - that he's done himself...

STU -You are sick!

RICH -...of his winkie.

STU -You ARE sick!

RICH -Wait! Judge not lest ye be judged!

STU -What are you doing saying that?

RICH -I'm not saying I'm Jesus, Stu. That is for other people to say. Let me finish, Stu!

...of his winkie, depicted as a dragon. They're very tasteful, like a Marillion sleeve.

STU -You are sick!

RICH -Is he the sick one in this society? Or... is it the businessman in his suit and tie - drawing up his expense account?

Yeah, think about it.

STU -Well... it's the first one, Rich. It's the dragon-stalking-winkie bloke. That one, he's the sick one. The businessman has done nothing wrong

Noooooo! She can't be! She is? Another one bites the dust.

L&H vs A&J is pretty fucking tricky indeed. "You touched the girl who smells of spam!" vs "Saving Private Lion"? Sheesh.

Spaaaaamoooooooo...

Oh buggerit, L&H win, for being there first, and giving me many amusing things to say, which people occasionally thought I made up myself, and which made them laugh enough to spend a little more time in my company.

I have all of FOF and all of A&J's first two series on video btw - will gladly trade temporarily for A&J Go Tokyo on video if anyone can help...

If you have two old men the same, you can swap them with your friends by tempting them out with a bourbon biscuit - HA! Little does he realise that the old man I swapped with him is far inferior to the one he gave me! (You can take a sip of your weak lemon drink now).

It makes me rather wistful to wonder how he feels about SL's westend success with 'Jerry' (Incidentally I heard that SL is making hardly any money from this.) The same kind of wistfulness I used to feel about Ernie Wise after Eric died.

Not only can I not see the actor Kevin Eldon without thinking of him as the actor Kevin Eldon, but the Man Corr will always be just that.

It was may years ago and I was working as a shepherd boy in a semi mythical pre biblical town whose economy was dependent on the sheep farming industry.

Ha! I said the same thing to a mutual chum of ours, Jerry, based on his description of the performance! Maybe it's just because he's called Simon.

The OTH thing wrt L&H is bit more complicated than has been discussed here, but it's too boring/contentious to bother going into greater detail about. There are other web fora for that kind of nonsense.

Joe Cornish can be spotted being gunned down by the army in the closing climactic moments of Shaun Of The Dead, btw. But there's probably another forum just for that.

I vote for A&J.

also put some classic Quinlank onto end of a videotape for someone just last week but he'll probably not get around to watching it for 2 years if history is anything to go by... 8)

downloaded the first series of TMWRNJ the other week and have been reaping the rewards by er, watching it. Absence has made the heart grow fonder and I've been laughing like a drain. A friend has promised to supply me with the second series too so heads up L&H fans if you're wanting copies of the greatest thing to have ever been televised on a Sunday lunchtime.

re-watching TMWRNJ has affirmed my view that L & H together are two of the five best British comedy writers of the last 15 years, assuming they wrote The Organ Gang bits for Brian Cant as well. The hyper-meta self parodying (PARODY! LIKE A PARROT) is sublime.

I have fond memories of A&J though. Bad Daad, Ken Korda, Star Wars Blind Date with Obi Wan as a George Best style alkie, Seven with the cuddly lion perfectly cast in the Morgan Freeman role and the giraffe as Gwyneth...

just saying like

Lee & Herring are World Club Champions to Ant & Joe's Conference Play-Off contenders. And I like Ant & Joe, but jeezus people this isn't even that close.

Also the way he delivers "my mum came in, and she looked at the sick in the toilet, and she looked at the sick on the floor, and she looked at the sick all over the cat's feet towel - she was really unhappy about that - and she looked at the sick in the mouth and the gaping anus of Christ, and she looked at me, and she said "have you been sick"?

I have A&J on video. I love the one where they dupe some poor sod into doing up his house and basically wreck it by painting the walls blood red and bile green, hanging up pictures done by children about the IRA and Bosnia and erecting a giant musical chandelier made out of two golden mannequin legs and christmas tree lights. The bloke's reaction at the end is priceless.

they were usually doing it live (TMWRNJ at least was broadcast live, running with the logic of The Sunday Show plus obviously it had to be as much like This Morning as possible) which meant you'd often get the odd awkward moment, poor delivery and whatnot.

I like what Adam Buxton is up to these days.

Stewart: Hello I’m a mac
Richard: And I’m a pc. Interesting how I dominate both the home and the office.
Stewart: Yeah that’s the funny thing
Richard: What do you mean funny?
Stewart: Well, the way I see it you wouldn‘t run your home like an office so why run your office like a home.
Richard: Fuck off. Fuck off.
Stewart: What?
Richard: It should have been us.
BLAH BLAH BLAH
Richard: It’s great doing Tedstock Stew. I saw Simon Amstell Stew, backstage, from Never Mind The Buzzcocks. He’s on the telly Stew, like I used to be. He could get to have sex with any woman he wants.
Stewart: Hmmmmm. You are an ignorant man.
Richard: What you mean he’s gay?
Stewart: Yes.
Richard: What? Uuuugh.
Stewart: There’s nothing funny or embarrassing about sex Rich, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to discuss people’s sexual preferences in a mature and grown up way.
Richard: Nice.
Stewart: Ah yes. There is a reason isn’t there. The reason is you.
Richard: I know all about sex Stew, and I saw a bare lady once. It was in a magazine but it still counts.
Stewart: A magazine.
Richard: Er no. The internet. It was on the internet.
Stewart: You’re updating this. You are out of date. You are like a PC.
Richard: Fuck off, just fuck off, that should have been me. What went wrong? What went wrong?
Stewart: Calm down.
Richard: It’s weird right, because I haven’t had a serious relationship for about three years now.
Stewart: Three years.
Richard: Yes.
Stewart: It was three years when you wrote this material.
Richard: Yes.
Stewart: How long is it now
Richard: Fifteen years. Fifteen years. It should have been me Stew.
Stewart: Strange isn’t it, because take mayflies for example, they only have three hours inbetween hatching anddying in which to find a mate, and yet they always succeed, don’t they right. So if a small unpleasant fly can manage to form a sexual relationship in an 8th of day then you’d think you could have managed it in 39years.
Richard: Yes Stew, but I am more choosy than a fly Stew. I would never try and get off with a fly, for a start. Well, not unless I was really drunk. Alright Stew, you’ve badgered me into it with your questions questions questions, I did once actually get off with a fly at New Year and it was quite good actually because a gnat’s chuff is literally as tight as a gnat’s chuff.
Stewart: Yes but that’s because a gnat’s chuff is literally a gnat’s chuff. What you’ve done there is you’ve misunderstood the art of simile. You’ve confused being like something with actually being the same as something, with actually being the actual thing.
Richard: Ah yes. I have. Haven’t it. I like all flies Stew, I’m not prejudiced. Mayfliers, dragonflies, butterflies. Mind you, they’re all butterflies by the time I’ve finished with them. Last Tango In Paris.
Stewart: Yeah that’s the funny thing
Richard: What do you mean funny?
Stewart: Well, the way I see it you wouldn‘t run your home like an office so why run your office like a home.
Richard: Fuck off. Fuck off.
Stewart: What?
Richard: It should have been us.
STEW STARTStewart: SMOKING
Richard: You know Stew, I’ll tell you something you don’t know. Smoking is a drug. You are a drug addict. Tobacco is a drug. I am anti all drugs Stew, even drugs used in hospitals to help little children. You are a drug addict Stew, you are addicted to drugs etc
Stewart: Rich, Rich, Rich. Heroin is a drug.
Richard: It isn’t.
Stewart: It is, it’s a drug.
Richard: It isn’t, it’s just a pick me up, gets me going in the morning
Stewart: It’s a dangerous drug
Richard: It isn’t dangerous. If it was dangerous there’d be a health warning on the packet. There’s nothing on the packet.
Stewart: Drug.
Stewart: Drug
Richard: Isn’t. You smoke drugs, everyone knows that.
Stewart: You are addicted to drug of heroin.
Richard: Im not
Stewart: If you’re not addicted have you ever tried to give up.
Richard: No. It makes me go all shakey, and unwell, so it’s a health tonic, keeps me healthy.
Stewart: How do you afford it? You haven’t really worked since the late 90’s.
Richard: Well, I have ways.
Stewart: Ways?
Richard: Yeah, if I go to King’s Cross there are businessmen who pay me to have sex with them. So it’s a win win situation. I get to have sex, and be beaten and stuff, like I deserve, and then I get money for the heroin.
Stewart: You spend all the money on heroin?
Richard: Not all of it, I have to spend the rest on a string of flies and gnats… BLAH BLAH
Stewart: You are sick…. Sick sick
Richard: Who is the real sick man? ETC ETC.
Stewart: It’s you.
Richard: Yes.
Stewart: I feel terrible. I want to help you.
Richard: You want to help me do you.
Stewart: Yes, I want to help you.
Richard: What do you want?
Stewart: I said I want to help you.
Richard: Are you sure that’s what you want
Stewart: Yes, that is what I want.
Richard: No it isn’t. You know what you want?
Stewart: No, what?
Richard: What you want…
Stewart: What
Richard: You want the moon on a stick…
MOON MOON STICK
Stewart: Yeah that’s the funny thing
Richard: What do you mean funny?
Stewart: Well, the way I see it you wouldn‘t run your home like an office so why run your office like a home.
Richard: Fuck off. Fuck off.
Stewart: What?
Richard: It should have been us.

I hope it was done just like that.

Last time I saw Rich he did a whole bit at the beginning going "but you were the teacher, then I got off the bus, ah, 28 years old ladies and gentlemen. Right, that's that out of the way."

on tonight, written by R Herring

You Can Choose Your Friends
21:00 - 22:30 Thursday, 7 June

One-off comedy drama that reunites Anton Rodgers and Julia McKenzie, the stars of 1980s comedy series Fresh Fields. As happy couple Ken and Margaret prepare for their 45th wedding anniversary, they find three generations of their nearest and dearest descending on their home. Petty disagreements over the fluffiness of towels and simmering resentment towards cheating partners produce laughs, arguments and stand-offs as preparations for the celebrations run far from smoothly. Also stars Robert Daws, Rebecca Front, Claire Skinner and Gordon Kennedy

Ken - ANTON RODGERS
Margaret - JULIA MCKENZIE
Simon - ROBERT DAWS
Amanda - REBECCA FRONT
Jane - CLAIRE SKINNER
Pete - GORDON KENNEDY
Ian - RICHARD HERRING
Chloe - SARAH-JANE POTTS
Mark - RICHARD DEAN
Holly - ELEANOR WYLD
Nick - TONY BIGNELL
Pheobe - RUBY BENTALL

itv1 as well, get him! he'll be almost famous again soon...

Adam and Joe really need to stop doing radio adverts.

On the other hand, the most attractive girl I've ever run up on I got because I "reminded her of Richard Herring". Because, y'know, it's so hard to actually go and fuck the real Richard Herring.

best compliment you have received this wk?

only worthwhile new statesman article in last five years:

http://www.newstatesman.com/200802070059

can't be reading anything described as a 'sideways look', sorry

A glorious example of how to rip off Bill Hicks.

I think you need to get back on the booze, Herring.

ya burnt

haha truth, but it's still funny.

i doubt herring inserted the standfirst, r|t|c.

I think you need to get back on the booze,stop fucking every single comedy groupie in the UK, Herring.

the voice of moral reason

xp, I have heard this also.

Apparently Adam Buxton's 'Meebox' pilot on BBC3 has been turned down for a full series. I thought it was one of the best things I'd seen this year. The idiots.

Baadaad's cliched memories of punk.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt5fAU7tNxY

rejected by bbc3. that must hurt.

How could they reject something as funny as that.

'Everyone who was there at the Manchester Free Trade Hall went on to start a band. Pete Shelley, Bernie Sumner, Morrissey, Thom Yorke, Michael Stipe, Bono, Suggs, Lollie, Billie, Scooch, Robbie Williams'.

Risibility-tickling stuff.

The ever-affable Buxton on BBC3's current policy...

http://adam-buxton.co.uk/ad/

i suspect Meebox was deemed too highbrow for Three

yikes

yup BBC Three Pints is a fucking awful comedy dustbin, Buxton should be glad not to be on there.

P.S. I'm composing right now as I type this.

-- Owen Pallett, Tuesday, 19 August 2008 16:57 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

stewart lee's comedy vehicle: possibly not the right way to reclaim the schedules from horne and corden.

this is good: but the rest of is was terrible tv.

Went to see Adam Buxton's Bug in the week - hi-lar-i-ous and informative and what a lovely man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p7dpXSdWGI

richard herring hits the big time (~1:30 here)

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/50425bf4c8/get-him-to-the-greek-opening

OTM, also RB channelling Super Hans in that bit.
Took me a few minutes to recognise the other RB there o_O

Worth bumping to celebrate Rich's news on Twitter that he and Stew have put the money up to release FoF Series 1 on DVD in November.

woop!

news on twitter, ahh 'twitter', like a bird

finally will be able to pause properly those subliminal potshots at patrick marber

Funnily enough, that's what I thought about too, the ability to read the end titles again.

Rich is slagging people off for tweeting 'moon on a stick' at him "which isn't even in S1, thus your comments are inappropriate". He's also said that S2 will follow dependent on sales. S1 has commentaries and a new 40 min interview among the extras.

Rich confirms to Mark Gatiss that TMWRNJ will follow FoF if sales are good.

I am wanking as I type.

(Which is what Gatiss said on hearing the news too.)

FoF Series 1 goes on pre-order today, to ship in about 3 weeks. 4 DISCS.

Pre-order bonus should be a flask of weak lemon drink.

Anyone got the FOF DVDs then? We're halfway through watching the whole thing. More hit & miss than I remembered, and most of what I remembered seems to be from s2 (which is apparently coming out this year). Love the commentaries though, so much time has passed.

I kind of love the disparity between how much Stewart is prepared to hate it and how much Rich is prepared to love it. Rich's use of his shrine much earlier than I remembered, although Peter Baynham doesn't get great until next series. Also Rod Hull, obviously.

I'm staying with them all because the two series of FoF lead to TMWRNJ but there's so much to love in this everybody should buy it, obviously. The death of Richard's dad, or Donny Oddlegs (depending on which side you take is worth the price of admission.

Rich has tweeted that the money has been recovered and Series 2 will be out this year, to be followed by TMWRNJ idc. "The worry is it's done so well the BBC might decide it's worth doing themselves. #theydfuckitup"

xp "I thought it was pickles"

All these are Stewart Lee things, though someone once told me that they used to usually swap lines with one another, Herring writing Lee's misanthropic stuff and he writing the daft Herring stuff in return. This doesn't seem to be borne out by the solo work I've seen of theirs though.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 10:56 (7 years ago)

I've run through a whole pile of Rich's solo shows recently and he frequently does a section at the end which is very Stew-misanthropic, and even uses a Stew-like argument with imaginary people/versions of himself.

Just got the following message from Go Faster Stripe:

Hello person that has preordered Fist of Fun series 2,

Here’s a quick email to update you on what’s going on with the DVD.

It’s finished - the covers are printed - and the masters are with the duplicators. It should be in your hands in three weeks from today - they will have an exact date for me early next week, and I’ll put that on the website as soon as I know what it is.

But that’s the end of the good news, I’m afraid.

The delay has been caused by arguments that we have been having with the BBC’s Compliance department. Of course we had heard of BBC Compliance, but we’ve never had to deal with them till now. It's been a soul destroying experience.

They wanted to make loads of cuts to the video podcast that Rich did with Stew earlier on in the year, and also - more importantly - to the main broadcast shows.

Emails have been going back and forth for months. We briefly considered pulling the whole thing, but in the end we’ve decided to go ahead with a reduced list of cuts.

We’ve had to lose about three mins from the podcast and about five mins from the broadcast shows. It’s nothing major, but it’s all stupid and annoying and wrong.

So - if any of you would like your money back, please let me know sometime this week and I’ll refund your money.

So, to summarise, for a show that the BBC have no interest in AND HAVE SOLD TO SOMEBODY ELSE FOR RELEASE they not only want to edit the show itself, they also want to edit a specifically commissioned piece paid for and made BY SOMEONE ELSE or they won't allow the release of something they've already sold.

Is there anyone that's been employed by the BBC that hasn't turned out to be a total cunt?

... I worked there for a while <--------- open goal

Jesus, how can they actually do that?

Can somebody with the wmvs see if there's a Savile mention, maybe?

I assume you have now received the update, aldo?

Hello Again person who has pre-ordered fist of fun series 2,

Here's another update!

A lot of you have written in offering support and asking what cuts had to be made to the new Fist of Fun DVD. Thanks very much for saying all those nice things. It means a lot to me that I have a bunch of cool customers like you.
So here’s the list of what we have lost -

• Episode 3 - Lady Diana segment
• Episode 4 - Parents suing a theatre segment
• Episode 5 - Reference to the child in episode 4
• We’ve also removed the obsolete bbc email, post and web addresses from the end of each episode and the address of the newsagent that Peter visits.

And from the video of the podcast, we've had to lose the following -

• reference to drug taking TV executives
• “Stand-up” Stew’s opinion of his poor treatment by the bbc
• bit where Rich said Stew would lose his audience if he had sex with a child
• section mentioning Alan Partridge rights
• the section where they talk about buying back Fist of Fun for 2/3rd what the bbc paid them to do it in the first place

See - a lot of old nonsense.

Yeah, was going to post it.

The cuts to the podcast are the most illuminating - it's arguably more embarrassing being seen to be removing criticism than to be criticised.