Zeke Newbold
Carbon based biped.
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2015
- Messages
- 1,249
I first caught the beginnings of this series when it was a touring stage show called `Fright Night` on at a small arts theatre in Leicester. I could connect with it. but only a bit later when it became a TV show - `Garth Marenghi's Dark place` - did it become something I really loved - and have since considered to be one of my all time favourite comedies.
I will say upfront that it is something of an in-joke. To really get it it does help if you:
(A) Are a child of Eighties and early Nineties culture, (B) a fan of horror paperbacks, especially including the dross element and (C) you know about about the writer Shaun Hutson. I think the reason many people didn't - and don't - `get` Marenghi is because none of the above applies to them.
So be it. The Office was an in-joke for those who worked in offices. As this did not include me, I never really laughed at that show myself either.
For those of you who don't know the series, suffice to say that it was something of a skit on Shaun Hutson (or at least his kind of writing and corresponding persona).and, on top of that, on a whole array of television tropes and presentation styles - particularly from the Eighties and early Nineties. It was a dry black comedy combining satire, social commentary and farce. (I'll post a link or two beow to lift a few veils).
It seems that - more lately - Richard Aoyade seems to have become something of a celeb in the UK (while I've been away), but the other actors remain quite obscure. That's good - as if all the actors had become well known the show would lose its freshness.
Favourite line? Doctor Lucian Sanchez saying to Marenghi: `My aunty lives in Scotland. She says it's quite nice` (An exercise in bathos - as Marenghi has just delivered a blood-and-thunder monologue on the horrors of Scottish life). I guess you had to be there....
I will say upfront that it is something of an in-joke. To really get it it does help if you:
(A) Are a child of Eighties and early Nineties culture, (B) a fan of horror paperbacks, especially including the dross element and (C) you know about about the writer Shaun Hutson. I think the reason many people didn't - and don't - `get` Marenghi is because none of the above applies to them.
So be it. The Office was an in-joke for those who worked in offices. As this did not include me, I never really laughed at that show myself either.
For those of you who don't know the series, suffice to say that it was something of a skit on Shaun Hutson (or at least his kind of writing and corresponding persona).and, on top of that, on a whole array of television tropes and presentation styles - particularly from the Eighties and early Nineties. It was a dry black comedy combining satire, social commentary and farce. (I'll post a link or two beow to lift a few veils).
It seems that - more lately - Richard Aoyade seems to have become something of a celeb in the UK (while I've been away), but the other actors remain quite obscure. That's good - as if all the actors had become well known the show would lose its freshness.
Favourite line? Doctor Lucian Sanchez saying to Marenghi: `My aunty lives in Scotland. She says it's quite nice` (An exercise in bathos - as Marenghi has just delivered a blood-and-thunder monologue on the horrors of Scottish life). I guess you had to be there....