Doug Stanhope: Voice of America

[Cassander]

Doug Stanhope has a little corner of Charlie Brooker's Newswipe every week, and I think it's both brilliant and fucking hilarious, so I'm just going to post them all here.

"Statisical high vegas odds is that nothing particular will ever happen to you in your boring life"

[Cassander]

"oprah winfrey is the PT Barnum of the 21st century."

[Cassander]

"Don't fuck in front hole because that glut of humanity you're creating is the real problem."

[Cassander]

"By 11 o'clock at night some buffoon in a suit has the same news stories but he has a punchline."

[RottingCorpse]

That shit is really funny.

[nacho]

RC, you (and everyone) should be following Brooker.  Newswipe and Screenwipe are both brilliant.  Though I think Screenwipe has had its teeth pulled lately.  The Beeb really is taking a step back from the inflammatory stuff.

[RottingCorpse]

Is it basically a British version of 'The Daily Show?'

[nacho]

Not really. 

It's basically the only voice out there railing against the brutality of the institution.  Screenwipe, in the early seasons, is all about how TV shows work, what goes wrong, why, and a sort of Penn and Teller Bullshit glimpse behind the scenes, intermixed with Brooker's rapid-fire pocket reviews of various shows.

Screenwipe is now more just embittered complaining about the industry.  I like to say there's a pre- and post-Dead Set feel to Screenwipe.

Newswipe is the same sort of behind the scenes analysis of the news that Screenwipe is for entertainment TV.  Why the news industry does what it does.  Stanhope's clips above are a fine example.

Start here and go click crazy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker

[nacho]

In fact, there's a Screenwipe episode that's loosely dedicated to what went wrong with Dead Set and how much the whole experience sucked.  Which is great.

[RottingCorpse]

I still haven't watched Dead Set.
[/confession]

[nacho]

It's worth watching. Though Brooker's bitter rants about it both on Screenwipe and in his Guardian column have kind of put me off of it.

What's most upsetting about both shows is how much British television has come to ape American programming.  Though Brooker did a Screenwipe in America special that was eye-opening.