I cannot believe that Frankie Boyle has said something funny

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.

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

on chortle, a comedy website.
http://www.chortle.co.uk/correspondents/2009/07/01/9207/where_is_the_lov...

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I enjoy watching him on Mock the Week because within that setting, his crudeness can be curtailed and balanced with other comedians, and he comes out more witty than crude (although that is obviously subject to debate). However, his standups are just OTT and they verge easily into offensive territory. He has insulted many politicians and entertainers, why is Katie Price so special that she needs personal retribution? Everything blows over in the end and in the way that Frankie has over criticised, she has over reacted. For others who are offended by this, don't watch if Frankie is on, it's as simple as 1 2 3.

Katie Price is a pathetic representation of women and grossly misrepresents their value in the media. She is a blow up doll, and being a 25 yro woman I am offended by her tbh. My bf also thinks she is vulgar and distasteful. I wouldn't be surprised if other people of my generation won't agree with me. Anyone that derives any value from Price clearly has cultivated a diet on Porn or is very impressionable.

Just to add, I love Frankie he's a maverick. I wonder what it must feel like to walk around with his head on...

but I have to disagree with you. Firstly let me say I am not personally familiar with Frankie Boyles work but judging from the reports he is the sort of comedian I would laugh at. For people to laugh at sick jokes doesnt in any way mean they need to 'sort out their morals' which to be frank is holier than thou bullshit. If I find something that is distasteful funny it does not mean I am less moral than you. It may mean I have a warped sense of humour but nothing more than that. The text jokes I get on a daily basis from all sorts of people are if anything as dark as this or darker still. The British way of dealing with all manner of sad subjects is to make light of them. Jesus, lighten up for Gods sake.
The guy will live or die depending on whether his audience goes with him or not. Some of the MJ stuff missed the mark but some of it was funny and also true. What's the problem? If you dont like it so what - there are tens of thousands that do. Are you going to deprive them of experiencing his humour because your morals say he is wrong?

and my morals are perfectly fine thank you very much

Perhaps The Record just got annoyed at paying someone to repeat jokes from old episodes of MTW. The set of jokes is the equivalent of ten minutes of watching Dave.

I doubt he'll be going to Hollywood.

...had Manning, Chubby Brown or Davidson tossed out the same "gag". I expect those lauding him for his bravery and the dreaded "dark and edgy" would be the same Twitterati foaming at the mouth and bombarding the media had any of the 70's era guys done it.

It wasn't funny, a poorly chosen and unfair target. There's no excuse for it other than bare faced publicity. What next in Boyle's stunning repetoire? A couple of Sambo jokes and a Joey Deacon impersonation?

A deeply unfunny man.

Jerry Sadowitz fit into the Boyle - Manning question.

I have found him to be very funny since the late 80s but I can't make my mind up about Boyle. I liked the Susan Boyle material (I didn't get the Katie Price jokes, knowing nothing about the condition of her child).

When I saw him 1st on MTW, I thought he was well edgy. I even banged on once on a thread here about how the best comedy is informed by anger etc. I also really enjoyed his book.
But, pass me my slippers etc, that gag was abominable. It's like someone loudly telling a racist joke at the Christmas party: you just never feel quite the same way about them again.
Tramadol Nights is also a big, stinking dog.
A pity.

A Channel4 spokesperson defended their decision to broadcast the material, telling MailOnline yesterday: 'Frankie Boyle is one of the highest profile comedians in the UK; he’s well known for his controversial humour and the programme carried appropriate warnings as to the nature of the material.

'The joke aired in the context of a late night comedy show. The joke itself has been performed by Frankie as part of his stage show and, as with much of his material, is an absurdist and satirical comment on high profile individuals whose lives have been played out in the media.'

So Harvey is a high profile individual. I think not. Bollocks to Ofcom. In this instance I prefer the Harry Hill way of settling the argument, in a cage and against Alex Reid. Now THAT would be good television.

I think the aggressive subtext of that diatribe can be summed up in the quote "Actually, they were all wearing white as usual, but that family had always had a little trouble admitting the difference." Now, concentrating on the word "admitting" - Bernard Manning and Roy Chubby Brown eat your racist hearts out. Thats all I can say.

here

and

here

but his joke last night about Jordan's kid was in extremely poor taste.

that "My Night Out With Frankie Boyle" didn't make the magazine this month ;o) http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/frankie-boyle

From today's Daily Sport

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