Una – as a TV previewer, you get to groan at them before any of us. While I can’t get over how bad the shows were over Xmas, I’m more puzzled by the good reviews The Savage Eye got – even some of the people involved in the show were surprised by that.

It really is dross. You missed out on Val Falvey.

I think the Savage Eye is brilliant. Occassionaly, a sketch hits a dud note, but I really enjoyed it. And I can’t stand the sight of McSavage.

The big problem with Irish TV comedy is that it seems to be relying on a small clique who take turns playing the International, then go on to the Panel before making a terrible pilot.

the International crowd, i.e. Des Bishop and his frm

Kev – Maybe RTE think if they though enough shit at the wall, some of it will stick and slowly start to form a new Dara O Briain.

You obviously saw his Three Men In A Boat show too, then? Am intrigued by that new Mario Rosenstock/Kevin Myers/Barry Murphy show That’s All We Have Time For. It’s RTE’s attempt at a Have I Got News For You?, I suppose. Could be good.

Nerraw – I must have successfully scrubbed Val Falvey from my mind. Woeful, woefu, woeful shite – I think it’s safe to say that we now know who was the real talent in the Fr Ted writing pairing on the basis of that series.

Brother Colm – I think RTE assume that the comedian already can write when they should know damn well that writing for TV is a whole different skillset to writing gags to entertain drunken punters at a standup gig. But will they ever admit this? Not a chance because it might mean having to allocate resources and cash currently spunked on the talent on writers and editors.

I wouldn’t blame Matthews for Val Falvey, the man has written for some of the greatest shows of the last twenty years, Alan Partridge, The Day Today, The Fast Show – he wrote the second series of Big Train by himself and some of it is sublime. There are smatters of a good show in there but they’re buried beneath RTE’s hose style of toneless, rushed, dumbed-down mediocrity.

If the most experienced comedy writer resident in the country can’t make a decent show in the RTE anti-talent system than no one ever will.

Simple. Start with Radio. I’ve posted this opinion before, and I’m still right! The BBC do this with their comedy on Radio 4. Half six of an evening and you’re guaranteed comedy on otherwise stuffy Radio Home Counties. RTE should do something similar. It’s about taking a chance, but doing so relatively cheaply. At half six, the audience share is dwindling anyway, but if performers and writers got this slot, say, to learn to create JOKES, and good ones, then it can’t be money wasted. (I don’t mean ‘my mother in law’ jokes, but y’know, well crafted, clever stuff) I

Course this’ll all never happen. This would require investment. And a willingness to take a chance. My harebrained scheme would attract bog all listenership, so what’ll continue to happen is that RTE commissioning editors will continue to sanction Pat Shortt pilots, half arsed rip-off shows and the wonder why the critics bemoan the lack of laughter and the wanton waste of money.

Agree totally with Ivan. RTE needs to have another look at how it breeds comedy.

Be it on radio or elsewhere, RTE needs to be patient in how it develops writers. Perhaps not a popular idea, but the Irish language emphasis on TG4 should, on occasion, be sacrificed to develop niche programmes that aren’t ready for the exposure to RTEs 1 & 2.

As for Hannigan being TV3’s attempt at comedy, you must have missed Fran: Assistant Manager – lucky lucky you.

I agree with your article in general, Jim but I thought The Savage Eye was very funny. Much better than anything else RTE offered. Also, Maeve Higgins’ style might not please everyone but I liked some of it.

And it’s not true that all stand ups here make bad TV. David O’Donherty’s show from a few years back was quality.

We got digital TV for €30 before christmas which means I no longer have to worry about RTE. Around our house it’s wall-to-wall Come Dine With Me/Grand Designs/Top Gear/QI/Have I Got News for You. Once the young lad gets a bit older we’ll have a decade of spongebob etc, so I’m getting me blokey/Dave fix in now.

I do wonder what in the world RTE people think about when they come up with this stuff. I applied for tickets for their new show with that one guy who makes voices and the other football guy and then that guy who is angry and was told I wasn’t old enough for them!!

What sort of X-rated theme park are they running in there when a 28 year old is not old enough to visit the buildings.

Republic of Telly resorted to mocking the speech of the presenters from ‘Hands On,’ the programme for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities in Ireland.

Yup, Delamare, actually did an impression of how a dear person speaks. Oh how I laughed at his comic genius.

bbc2 ruled christmas with this wonderful
progamme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZeI8hlqH0w&NR=1

My stand-out RTE comedic moment was unintentional and happened last year when Lucy Kennedy on winding up a “Livin’ With Lucy” episode she did about Shane Lynch, commended him to camera for being a “SELF-DEPRECIATING” guy.

This was broadcast in all seriousness on RTE television. Either those who produced, filmed and edited the piece think as little of her as I do, or are as thick as she is.

But thickness is obviously celebrated by RTE television. Kennedy went on to get her own chat show and appeared in an ad, getting paid who knows how much, for Bord Gais.

In fairness, though, an awful lot of what passes for comedy, and not just in Ireland, is just not funny. I watched a Bill Bailey at Wembley DVD recently and thought he was very poor.

I admit I watched The Savage Eye on the RTE Player and while I think it contains some brilliantly sharp, hilarious moments (particularly in episode one about Ireland and the arts), elsewhere it’s riddled with cliches and unoriginal elements.

Still, I was very glad to have watched it. There is hope!

Apart from the writing, the major problem with Irish comedy is the audiences.

Even in this comment thread The Savage Eye, Maeve Higgins, Val Falvey and Don’t Feed The Gondolas have all been defended, more or less, as being good. They’re not.

There are too many people who think Pat Shortt’s gormless country eejits are hysterical; there are too many people who think that being deliberately offensive like Savage is cutting edge; there are too many people that think ranting and raving, exaggerating an accent and leaping around like a buffoon a la Byrne or Tiernan is comedy gold. Simply put there are too many people who think the same sort of comedy they laugh at when half-locked with their mates in the pub is funny on TV.

How many times has RTE tried to rip off Have I Got News For You at this stage? It always fails because there isn’t a single comedian in Ireland that understands comic timing (and just aren’t intelligent enough to make the most of intelligent material). For that matter O’Briain’s Mock The Week is a pathetic imitation also. Yet HIGNYFY is 20 years old now.

It needs to be said that David McSavage is a horrible piece of work who is completely undeserving of a spot to busk at nevermind air-time.

Whoever approved and funded his program on RTE should be shot.

RTE is interested in current affairs and the generation of 50s+ who also listen to RTE Radio 1 but switch on the TV in the evenings. It’s basically a company that understands middle-aged radio very well, but has a ‘that’ll do’ attitude to TV.

In the US and UK stand-ups tend to get sitcoms. Seeing that RTE has no money they have to make sketch shows.

Have to say i agree with pretty much every one of these views, relief to know there is a healthy dissent out there somewhere…I’m 18 and like so many in my coveted age-bracket I’ve almost completely up watching television in general, especially anything that RTE passes off as comedy, in favour of the ADHD instant auto-entertainment cocktail of Facebook and Youtube. I see no need to waste my free time watching a bunch of smug one-note cliché artists patting each other on the back over their latest telegraphed ‘gag’. Call me cynical but I reallly don’t see why RTE will actually consider trying to appeal to anyone above the lowest common denominator as it’s fairly apparent that they are content to conservatively hold onto the people who like their comedy loud, broad and preferably without anything as highfalutin’ as a sense of humour attached. It should be apparent that there are plenty of idiots out there, more than enough to constitute a status quo, which in my opinion, is staying put for the present.

On a sidenote it is painful to see once funny comedians such as Tiernan, whose juvenile ranting and gloriously poetic profanities once genuinely charmed more than they offended,gradually overreach himself and potentially squander his legacy. Likewise Shortt, for all his wearisomely broad eejitry, had a fantastically warm and side splitting gift for relating the idiosyncracies of rural Ireland in a fun and accurate manner, especially when teamed with the equally good Jon Kenny, gradually grow into an embarassment who is grotesquely over reliant on the same jokes told over and over again ad nauseam it is difficult to imagine him ever redicovering his flair.

Apologies for rambling but finally I will say that RTE deserve credit for their excellent Storyland competition encouraging grassroots comedy around Ireland last year. Though inevitably there was plenty of chaff to separate from the wheat, the emergence of the incomparable Hardy Bucks as winners is a testament to the worthiness of the venture. To say Hardy Bucks has become a phenomenom amongst people my age would be a gross understatement, the religious fervour with which students will quote them all over the country betrays a burgeoning and obsessive fanbase who really feel a connection with these feckless wasters from East Mayo.(as far away from Montrose as its possible to get,in every sense). Though it is incredibly vulgar, it is also the most hyper real, painfully hilarious and affectionately satirical portrait of the Ireland I know and live in and the eejits that everyone will recognise. Think Killinaskully, but with balls, humour, real characters, jokes, Office-worthy talking heads…actually perhaps just scrap the Killinaskully comparison altogether. Ignore these guys at your peril because they will inevitably make to TV albeit probably in a slightly diluted form, so theres no excuse not to check them out on Youtube right now.

That concludes the rant/shameless plugging session,for the hell of it can I suggest this trite quote from Harvey Dent summarises the current state of our TV comedy:”You either die a hero,or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” ugh

I agree with Eoghan. Your Bad Self is no Fast Show. And as for Amy Huberman, the biggest joke she’s created is on us – by being awared Tax Exemption status for her “book” (as has the great Tommy Tiernan, btw):

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/artists-exemption-section-195-1997-act.html

Face it, the “edgy” Celtic Tiger pup-oriented comedian – Tiernan, Byrne X 2, O’Heochagain (can’t be bothered to spell it even), have had their day. Pat Shortt shouldn’t even be let on screen as a background extra in Fair City. Replacing these with the lip glossed dross of Ireland’s social scene is insult to injury. We’ve already had Rosanna Davison on one comedy quiz show (the Crash and Byrned Ultimatum, and Lorraine Keane (who she? Ed) on another in the last week on RTE.

There are funny women in Ireland – try Gina Moxley.

And where is our Frankie Boyle out there taking the mick out of Ireland’s versions of Kerry Catona that litter the pages of the Irish Daily Mail and RIP, sorry VIP magazine? Eh? How that would be edgy…

I have written to RTE about this before (e-mail correspondance available on request) and didn’t get much of a response other than “the viewing figures were quite high” and an assurance that the Head of Entertainment would review my query.
The Dead Cat Bounce show (“Work”) was appalling and was only beaten by “The Roaring 20s” for how offensively bad a comedy RTE are capable of producing.

Savage Eye was very patchy but in several places quite funny, which surprised me (McSavage is still loathsome, though). I agree with whoever said that the main problem is about writers, and RTE’s apparent lack of ability to train or spot talented ones. They seem to take a scattergun approach with new shows, a dozen half-thought and rushed ideas are thrown onscreen every year in the hope that eventually one will stick.

Did hear there were good sketches in the Savage Eye but couldn’t take the risk of seeing David McSavage.

I remember “Paths to Freedom” from a few years back. That was quality: good writing, good cast, good production.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paths_to_Freedom)

Recent offerings from RTÉ all seem horribly amateurish.

Never mind all those dreadful offerings; how does the incomparably awful “Mrs Brown” garbage still get made (although admittedly I don’t know if it’s still on TV)?

Daniel – don’t even think about it! Chances are RTE would commission it too…..

I have to say I was surprised to find that maybe 10% of the Savage Eye was funny (the rest pretty rubbish, trying too hard, just blah) because I don’t rate McSavage as a comedian. He must have had some wild epiphany to write that show since he’s been peddling the same gags for years previous to it.

What people are forgetting though is that it’s not like Britain is some kind of city of gold when it comes to comedy. Most of their stuff is shite as well. The only good thing that’s come out in the past few years from the BBC in terms of sketch shows is Man Stroke Woman.

RTE’s problem is that they constantly go for lowest common denominator stuff. A lot of the ‘comedy’ programming seems to be aimed at 5 year olds. I KNOW, LET’S MAKE SOMEONE DRESS UP AND PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE ELSE AND CALL IT ANONYMOUS BAHAHAHA. And so on.

RTE is also obSESSED with ‘names’. If you are Jason Byrne or PJ Gallagher or Des Bishop or Katherine Lynch or whoever, you are guaranteed a programme because you’re a name that works in terms of ratings. (Let’s face it, the real people who need to be blamed here are those who actually watch these programmes, giving RTE justification to commission them again, or something similar to them.)

RTE is also scared of trying to do anything differently because it rarely works (and I give you, Roaring Twenties.)

Also, the culture of comedy writing for TV in Ireland is balls. It’s generally just one or two people writing a show, or it’s written by the ‘personality’ involved. Everyone knows that generally, unless you’re a genius like Gervais or someone, good comedy comes from a pool of writers.

Essentially, the people picking up on pilots or ideas in the commissioning rounds probably think most of the programming is as muck as we do, but it’s the guys above them who are in charge of the actual programming who are too conservative to try something different, IMO.

Or maybe, MAYBE, there’s just not that much good stuff out there that’s not on TV already?

“The Royle Family” was funny (though Tomlinson on stage is lame). I’m hoping RTE might commission “The Doyle Family” where comedy dealbreaker Eddie Doyle of RTE sits at home in his vest in front of a TV making jokes and smart comments about Michael O’Doherty on Total Xpose and Brendan Courtney on Off the Rails while the other members of the family sit on the couch doing impressions of the guy in the TV license inspector ads “We’re heard all the excuses” (yes, so have we, RTE, when it comes to your comedy programming – it’s loike, total shoysh, roysh)?

At least RTE have limits to how low they’ll go in their hunt for new talent. Even they realize Twenty Major is as humourless as a dead sheep. No commission for him. Ever.

I have been abroad for the past few months. I havent seen any of the programs mentioned in this article. Podge and Rodge got less funny as they went on. never seen a single ep of Savage Eye. The panel was never really that funny except for Colin Murphy. BBC killed off The panel by creating a clone show with that bearded bloke from Hole in the wall gang, which was bettered by the folks on the Hill. which for a while was the funniest thing Northern Ireland ever produced. thanks to sublime talents of Sean Crummby who makes Mario look like amateur. re Barry Murphys topical news quiz. That sounds familiar. Dermot Morgan and Gerry Strembridge tried that. it was pulled by Rte and no trace of that exists to this day. Why? everybody who saw it said it was uniformally dreadful. Apart from current affairs which are superb.why do we pay a licence fee.

The Comissioning Editor of entertainment programmes at RTÉ is a disgrace.

To wit:
Upwardly Mobile – RTE’s most developed display of the Northside/ Southside Divide Genre… utter s***.
The last few seasons of “Don’t Feed The Gondolas” – it started off so well, then they decided that ‘ad lib’ wasn’t good enough, that maybe writing sketches and performing ‘comedy routines’ would be a good direction. It was painful to watch.
The Panel – one comedic host, one comedic team captain, one other team captain whose mates thinks he’s funny, a token female panelist (whose lack of comedic ability is usally made up for by the fact that she’s oh-so-photogenic) and one other dry guest all of whom are unimaginitive bores who smile and laugh dotefully at their own jokes.
Stew – RTE & irish comedians can’t do sketch comedy
Couched – see previous
that project H.A.H.A. series – which featured terrible comedians performing their on stage comedy routine for a half hour – especially the awful ‘Dead Cat Bounce’ show ‘Work’, while they’re a decent group of performers, this doesn’t transfer to them being decent television writers- especially considering they just re-used a lot of their ’stage material’ for the show- really this was a ego-stroking move on their part, rather then a programming move on yours.
The Roaring Twenties – Awful, looked like a student film. &, yes, i know technically it was a student film that the makers submitted to you and duped you out of a good deal of money for, but the increase in money you gave them should have increased production values… the “quality” of writing/ acting could not have been improved with any amount of money.
Killnaskully – Stop giving that D’Unbelievabes one-hit-wonder ANY shows on RTE!
Maeve Higgins Fancy Vittles – She has ONE joke “oh, i’ll act like a dipso- then i can say anything really dull & people will sympathetically laugh along!” and you, somehow, think this extends past her ‘parking inspector looking for a date’ routine on ‘Naked Camera’. It doesn’t.
Katherine Lynch’s Wonderwomen – A programme so badly written and performed that it went past ‘tired cliche’ and towards ‘offensive towards people with a sense of humour’.
The State of Us – inexcusably dire, like a bunch of executives wrote a show and approved it in same half-hour lunch meeting.
This is Liveline – RTE’s pat on the back to some terrible irish publisher who wanted to rip off the Colbert Report, the Day Today, Drop The Dead Donkey all the while p*ssing away our licence fee; basically approved through the same “writing/ approving lunch meeting” system so you can give your good media friends another reason to keep that self-congratulatory smirk on their faces for another while.
Smoke & Mirrors – Andrew Maxwell is not funny (I know, he’s geared towards your ‘student’ demographic, but sooner or later you’re going to have to give students credit for something: not laughing at this guy) neither are irish “variety” shows.
The Savage Eye – “Hey, didn’t that guy used to do the warm up for the crowd of Pat Kenny’s show? You must be a wonder-woman-type-man to go out there & know that you’ll be dwarfed by the hilarious power-house of comedy that is Pat Kenny! He must be good- Let’s give him a show! & a wheel-barrow to cart around the massive b*lls he must have for performing the same 6 jokes for over 10 years on the streets around town- he’s so edgy!”
Anonymous – “Let’s have jason byrne shout in someone’s ear!”
The Byrne Ultimatum – “Let’s have jason byrne shout at A WHOLE ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE!”
Langerland.TV – Because giving websites a TV show HAS TO be a good idea! Someone in your programming department needs to know there’s a difference between websites & tv shows, they need to know that! Why else do they think YouTube doesn’t have it’s own digital channel?
Makin’ Jake – A Naked Camera spin-off, the one-joke wonder that is Jake Stevens goes to the one place in the world that thinks he’s even less funny then we do! Which is a shame, because the comedian is a genuinely nice seeming guy who’s gotten stuck with the least-funny ‘running joke’ ever conceived. Whistling?! Even he’s annoyed when people ask him to ‘whistle’ at his shows now.
Paths to Freedom – The wonderful world of writing a show like a hack is best summed up in this show which week-after-week repeated the same painfully stereotyped northside/ southside jokes which added nothing to the North/ Southside divide genre.
The Republic of Telly – if it was a democracy of telly then we could have some justice and oust Neil Delamare fro RTE entirely.
The English Class – what. the. hell. RTE?! What was that?! a bad attempt to write like Ricky Gervais writes! it hardly works for him and you managed to somehow make it even worse! Cringing turned to bowel-voiding horror when this aired.

Lots and lots of traffic on this post from RTE today for some reason.

Hello everybody in Montrose!

not gone on most UK / Irish comedy shows,
but I liked Sarah and Steve, and Dan & Becs was ok, did the guy who wrote them ever do a full length show ?

Dead Cat Bounce being our best hope is setting a very low bar for talent, and one which (from their tv show) even they will fail to clear.
Apologies if this offends their fanbase, but they are a student-oriented comedy group- not a comedic powerhouse.
They work well on stage, but floundered on tv… and do even worse if their audience hasn’t been given a 6-pack of Bavaria prior to their performance.

Jim, if folks in RTE are reading this blog, then I’d like to say “Hi” to Eddie Doyle and Peter Feeney and whoever it is behind the Twitter account for the RTE Player (probably a relation of the DG).

Also, they should know that we’ll all we watching RTE TV’s ‘comedy’ output over the next few weeks to see if any of the witticisms here are recycled. Since they’re not capable to writing or commissioning anything that comes remotely close to this quality, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Happy New Year, Montrose.

The best irish comedy isnt even on tv at the moment, get HARDYBUCKS on the air,

If you want real comedy, watch Hardy Bucks!
Its the best comedy since Father Ted. An absolute gem of a show. And if RTE want a real success they should put it on air!

Hardy bucks were very good last year, though as some one said previously they seemed to taper off a bit in the last couple of shows. Still much better though then Val falvey, pj gallagher, Maeve higgins and Jason Byrne(Id like to know how to get a show just consisting of shouting at people?) etc

RTE’’s comedy over the last decade has been nothing short of worthless. As many have pointed out it’s these copycat formats and terrible comics who are responsible. We need to shape a new generation of comedy writers based on a strict diet of the cult sketch show ‘Couched’.

I interviewed Hardy Bucks some time ago and had the infuriating experience of trying to get the press to cover them early last year and continued trying for many months. Take my word, the media’s unwillingness to support Hardy Bucks runs much deeper than RTE. The guys are a bunch of friends who use a cheap camera and a sound operator and have made the funniest show produced here in Ireland probably ever. They did this without a producer, professional actor or development executive and didn’t need to advertise anything in the process. At best, the media doesn’t have the vision to know what to do with them and at worst, it resents them for effectively invalidating most of what the top paid people in the industry do. In any other country they’d be national celebrities by now. What I’d say to them is, you know you’re doing something radical when you get this much resistance. Good luck to them.

Not being resident on the auld sod at the moment I can only judge by what I have had the dubious pleasure of viewing on visits home. I was not impressed by any of it.

However one thing I do note about the “system” in the UK is that as well as the constant touring comedians here do, there is usually a fairly long stint on radio before progressing them to TV. With the staples such as radio 4 “Just a minute”, “the NOW Show” etc on friday evenings, providing deeply irreverent laughs. Radio 7 provides hours of fun, brand spanking new and old.

BBC Radio has continued to be a breeding ground for new talent and many programmes have transferred successfully to television in recent years, including Whose Line is it Anyway?, Goodness Gracious Me, Knowing Me, Knowing You, The mighty boosh, Little Britain, QI (to name a random few).
This allows the artiste to hone their material and build their confidence.
This does not seem to be the case with RTE who appear to slap anything on the screen without proper proving.

Perhaps the fact that the likes of Armando Ianucci is heading up BBC comedy, and frequently discusses his plans on BBC consumer shows (Do RTE afford the public these kinds of forum?).
Personally I think there is a certain laziness about the comedy department of RTE, which need to be addressed. Perhaps they are too old and out of touch, or perhaps they do not understand either their audience or their subject matter.
Either way, the talent is out there it is just not being picked up for whatever reason.

I expected on my last trip (just back) to witness some serious ass whipping of the government, NAMA etc. I may have missed it but there seemed to be nothing substantial. Hard political times usually produce excellent satire etc. This vacuum will need to be filled, the people want bread and circus’s Jim, bread and circus’s.

Which is exactly why there should be more Hardy Bucks on RTE. Or perhaps they would prefer another promising comedy vehicle to be shipped off to Channel 4 Re: Father Ted. Wake up RTE!

A lot of it comes down to simply RTE meeting a demand they think is there. They look at the huge success of standup comedy shows in Ireland – especially in Dublin – and think “people like comedy so let’s get the comics to do some shows”. The problem as has been addressed again and again and again here is that a good standup comic does not a comedy TV show star make – there needs to be a whole lot more in place first – script, writers, direction, ideas, more than just two solid one-liners etc.

I also agree with what Dave McG has to say above about nurturing new talent. While the Hardy Bucks are well able to launch a Facebook campaign to over-run this blog post with positive comments (they are certainly good at marketing themselves), their actual WORK needs far more development. This comment is based on watching 3 YouTube clips and, while there is definite talent there, it actually needs guidance, better writing, sharper editing and more coherence to work as a series. It’s what someone like the Beeb or C4 would be doing if they saw some spark in the material. Remember that when people go on about Father ted as the greatest Irish comedy show of them all, the writers had a long (long) apprenticeship working on other shows before they got their chance to do their own thing.

Yet the success of someone like the Hardy Bucks in gaining a (albeit big fish in small bowl) profile on the back of various YouTube clips does point to that as a platform for new work. Then again, isn’t it the case that bringing work from online to TV will also require all of the above development and nurturing?

the problem is simple. too many jokers and clowns , not enough comedians.

i caught a few mins of McSavages show before Xmas, thought it was pretty funny tbh, and i cant stand the lad. saying that i found his street shows similarily ”instantly funny” and found out in time how shite it really was. usually anything you like instantly is shit. like eating a big mac or summit . maybe his show is the same , need to see more

dublin/irish comedy is a pet love/hate of mine. something went seriously wrong in the last 5-10 years coz we had brillant talent in the 90’s and now we’ve a bunch of wankers who think they’re halirous coz they’re on TV. Des Bishop fancies himself as the Jamie Oliver of comedy . The Panel is woeful. Brendan O’Connor even thinks he’s a comedian. Its sunk that low.

I think the problem does begin in the clubs. Take out the ticket or totally dublin and check the listings . How many ‘comedy clubs’ do you know ? that push the boat ? Chicago has Second City – a club famous as a brooding ground for SNL . Peter cook set up the Establishment in London and brought Lenny Bruce over before anyone knew who he was . What has Dublin got ? The same old shite night in , night out. By and large. Things need to change at grass roots level. Somewhere along the way, being an Irish comedian became about shouting, cursing as much as possible and generally turning into the thick , dumb gobshite you normally associate for the heckler at the back of the room and not the guy on the stage. David O Dohery and Dylan Moran remain true talents . the rest ? meh….

i should add Mario Rosenstock to that too. Gift Grub is brillant, been a big fan since day one. He’s a serious talent aswell

Frank @ 85 – nail on head. Just because there is a blog post about comedy doesn’t mean you should go “lads, lets plug the beyajus out of ourselves here”. Mentioning the X Factor is a very good point because it points to the rampant short-term thinking which has already totally buggered Irish TV comedy.

regards Frank comment 85: While I haven’t sat through the youtube offerings, having seen the hardy bucks on stage in Birdhill last week, they could definitely do with a few lessons on putting on a live show.

“Likewise, I’d also say that a lot of people have only heard about the HBs through the comments above.”

Jim, I sincerely doubt the validity of this statement for anyone under 30, the audience RTE will be chasing in the future. Even my parents (58 and 60, Tipperary) have pretty much stopped watching RTE, bar the 9 o clock news. I honestly don’t know who the majority of Irish comedy is targeted towards. I think Hardy Bucks is basically just and Irish Trailer Park Boys and even at this is better, even with the technical problems it is still better then pretty much any other Irish comedy of the last 10 years. Which I find depressing. I’m not even looking for an Arrested Development a Gavin and Stacey would do.

Also I just checked their Facebook profile, it doesn’t say spam anywhere, it merely posts a link. Jim you should be delighted to get some extra young folk on the back of it, generally I go to pitchfork, RCRD LBL or RA.

thisisciarasusername – I sincerely doubt the validity of this statement for anyone under 30

Very strange statement. Is the HBs just aimed at people under 30? Does a person’s ability to appreciate good comedy (or spot bad comedy) change on their 30th birthday? Does everyone in the country under 30 know who the HBs actually are? Can this be proven?

I honestly don’t know who the majority of Irish comedy is targeted towards.

People like you, me and those who have read and commented here since I posted this on Tuesday for a start. And it doesn’t work

I just checked their Facebook profile, it doesn’t say spam anywhere, it merely posts a link.

I didn’t mention spam anywhere above.

you should be delighted to get some extra young folk on the back of it, generally I go to pitchfork, RCRD LBL or RA.

Delighted is one way to describe my reaction to this.

that new comedian Peter Robinson was hilarious last night

“That’s All We Have Time For” – having watched it now…. well, like we needed more proof RTE cannot think of new ideas, but take existing ones from the BBC and make a complete hames of it by dismal unfunny scripts, production and most of all – the same old tired faces or nonentities. And your opening gambit is Terry Prone and Kevin Gildea? FFS. How insulting to RTE licence fee payers. Again.

Hiugh @ 96 – I hope RTE paid the Beeb the franchise fee for Have I Got News for You. Also can someone let me know on what planet Kevin Gildea is considered to be funny? The fact that he also gets a writing credit for this is telling. Very, very poor – expected better from Barry Murphy, I must say.

I agree with most of comments above – most of RTÉ’s comic offerings over last ten years have been, at worst, embarrassing, derivative heaps of steaming sh*t (The Roaring Twenties, The Byrne Ultimatum etc) and at best mildly amusing but completely forgettable efforts by people who should know better (early Panel, early DFTGs). Sack the Commissioning Editor! All comics working in RTÉ are a disgrace! The country’s gone to the dogs! A bit of snow and the whole country shuts down! and all that idiotic rhetoric…

There is hope. We must be careful not to get carried away and start to do silly things like use Paths to Freedom as an example of RTÉs ineptitude in this field (here’s looking at you Dave McG). How anyone can fail to differentiate Paths to Freedom from the rest is beyond me. It was a mockumentry before the term even existed. It was superbly written. The Savage Eye, though it is weak in places and often mistakes vulgarity for cutting edge comedy, shows promise in it’s writing… as does Hardy Bucks, whose initial episodes had me buckled over.

In the main the problem is we (the Irish) seem to make comedy programs with a sort of arrogance – indeed on the latest series of The Panel most of the ‘comics’ seem to deliver their oh-so-obvious and clearly rehearsed observations with a smugness that seems to say “I’m Irish, I’m a comedian, therefore what I’ve just said must be hilariously funny!”. There is a huge gulf between being funny after a few pints in the pub with your mates and writing an original funny sketch or joke. The vast majority of our famous funny people ignoring the work, thought and attention to detail that goes into creating a comic work of note. It’s the old Irish attitude of ‘if you have to try, you’re obviously no good at it’. We seem to show more respect to those who don’t try very hard and manage to perform a little above average than we do to people who are willing to take a chance, really put the work in and do something different. Let’s have a year free from the usual rushed crapfest of RTÉ’s autumn schedule and see if the so called comedians of this land can come up with something original, insightful and relevant in 2010… the ability is there.

Slightly off topic in the context of the original post but just want to give my thoughts on the Bucks of Castletown:

I agree that the Hardy Bucks have slipped up a bit over the last 2 episodes as perhaps the instant gratification and feedback, that allowed such a youtube based cult following in the first place, has gone to the lads heads with comedy yours etc.

However all in all they have displayed some great raw talent and I would say that the majority of people under 30 and outside of Dublin have heard of them. They have captured and parodied small town Ireland to a tee. I think that to be a long term success however they need to cruel and clinical, take the original inner core of characters, cut the rest of the fringe characters (even if they are ‘mates’) and get some serious backing, both financially and support staff, and pitch professional actors for additional fringe characters. The potential is certainly there but will probably never be realised unless they step away from the ‘a group of mates messing around’ mentality – certainly they need to portray the ‘a group of mates messing around’ but behind the scenes things should be more professional……

Not currently happening from the looks of the latest episodes, comedy tours, copious chats and gallons of buckfast! – Cant really blame them though – live the dream bucks!

channel 4 would be better so rte dont ruin it like you would have done with father ted had you not been so stupid to turn it down.

Not this old chestnut again. RTE were never offered Father Ted.

Does everyone in the country under 30 know who the HBs actually are? Can this be proven?

I used asked Nielsen, they say yes.

In relation to the Facebook page comment, many other posters here have claimed the HBs asked fans to spam this discussion, which wasn’t the case.

Isn’t there some way we can extradite Graham Linehan make him write for RTE? I would gladly exchange Matthews (did anyone see Wide Open Spaces? I quite liked one of the characters hair, that was the best and most memorable part of that film), McSavage and I’d even throw in the Bucks.

I was thinking of this blog Jim after the first 5 minutes of “Thats all we have time for”.

Incredible. I assumed it was going to be a “Have I got news for you” based thing. . but the fact that it was a complete rip off was more funny for me than most of the attempts at humour from the panel. Dreadful same old rounds, with the same jokes that could have been used back in the day on Don’t feed the gondolas.

A few people have been giving out about scripting on this post. This is definately scripted. . . . badly. Both host and panel attempted reading the script like a 5 year old struggling with Ann & Barry in a class full of giggling schoolchildren.

Dreadful.

Irish comedy on TV is a joke.. Tommy Tiernan used to be but isn’t funny anymore .. He used to have great jokes but all he does now is make a mockery of people with disabilites.. He was great in his hay day.. but his time has passed. John Kenny and Pat Shortt were fantastic and genuinely funny when they did D’unbelieveables but in my opinion the only Irish comedy worth watching now is Hardy Bucks. Yes it is offensive, yes it is vulgur but it is absolutely brilliant and it is an honest and real portrayal of what it is like to be a young person in this society. for those that don’t believe that then you are living in a fanasy world. Hardy Bucks tell it like it is and have a good laugh while doing it. it was the funniest thing produced in 2009 and i hope they do get a TV show out of it.

Just on Dara O’Briain. I liked his stand-up show but Mock The Week is pretty poor fare also. It’s not much of a step up from his Panel days, which is damning the latter with faint praise.

RTE is strong on current affairs. useless on everything else.

RTE has no movie review programme? Dave Fanning’s “The Movie Show” anyone?

It’s music programme (Other voices) is on at an ungodly hour?

Funniest comedian on RTE is Dustin the Turkey.

They’ve given Twink a time machine and she’s returned to torcher us as Kathrine Lynch.

Anyone with a successful career in RTE has mastered the art of politics

It is over funded. BBC produce quality programmes with state funding and no ad revenue. RTE recieve both and still can’t do it.

No proper coverage of the Irish film festival.

Can’t catch Oxygen or Electric picnic on telly (If you dont go).

The ejits cancelled the clinic.

They still have not produced any morning television. TV3 beat them to that punch and they’re afraid to compete so the re-run the afternoon show IN THE MORNING!!!!

Best series they make is reeling in the years

If you’re a graduating media student in Ireland, I’m sorry to say you’ll have to go abroad for a career path. (See Laura Whitmore, Craig Doyle, etc)

How much is the licence again?

QI was fantastic last night.

If there are RTE people still reading this – DON’T TRY RIPPING IT OFF or heaven help me I’ll… … probably not do anything, but still…

As a previous poster mentioned, Dylan Moran is probably the only Irish comedian in recent times who hasn’t compromised and just gets better and better. His involvement with RTE to date? Zero. That the national broadcaster of his home country hasn’t persuaded him to take part in at least one project since he became properly famous suggests that Mr. Moran might well be on to something.

I worked in London with the BBC (drama rather than comedy) but I know their model which is the same for the comedy department.
Incidentally they differentiate between entertainment shows and scripted comedy series and have a lot of people working in each department, not only in London but in their regional offices around the UK.

RTE don’t have the resources for this and the poor unfortunates in Montrose have to wear many hats, too many.

I think the posts are quite harsh on Irish comedy. I wonder do Irish people give indigenous comedy a fair chance or do they tune in expecting not to like it.
If you have a negative attitude before you watch anything it will inform your enjoyment of it.

That said I agree that most of the output from RTE is quite poor. The only way to remedy this would be to do as the BBC which is:

Pilot shows. Make one episode. Not necessarily the first in sequence just to see if it works. A funny script can be ruined not only by poor actors but poor direction, editing etc.

Use the radio to try new ideas. It’s cheap and doesn’t matter if it fails.
Little Britain, Alan Partridge, The Mighty Boosh, Flight of the Conchords to name but a few all started off as radio shows.
Once the writers and performers found their stride they moved to television.
Why couldn’t RTE do that in the morning?

There is hope though. There were a few very good shows this year and some were clearly done on a tight budget: Hardy Bucks, Fran on Setanta and Maeve Higgans.

Hardy bucks, should be on rte considering is decent, rel funny and thre guys won the shtoryland comp.

Does anyone know where I can buy Paths to Freedom? I can’t find it anywhere

I think people who have failed to pick up on the Savage Eye need to look again. Everyone of my friends who had their reservations all admitted it was genius when they actually watched it without any proconditions about the type of humour.. Welldone DmcS you have saved the day for irish comedy in contrast to your banal contempories. RTE throws away so much money commissioning painfully unfunny shows for comedians such Maeve Higgings, Andrew Maxwell, Jason Byrne…all the while not responding to the public and commissioning a series of Hardy Bucks. Its beyond tragic that rte remains so static and reluctant to accept bourgeoning new irish talent.

Email received this morning calling for audience members…

RTÉ are making a new program called That’s All We’ve Got Time For. It’s a topical, current affairs meets comedy format with Barry Murphy hosting. Mario Rosenstock and Kevin Myers are team captains.

The show will be broadcast on RTÉ1 at 22.10 on Thursday evenings. The only criteria are to have a good sense of humour and to be over the age of 30.

Are they going to card people going in?!

what happens if i am 29 and really, really love and want to see Barry Murphy??

(p.s. – I am neither 29 nor a Barry Murphy fan; I don’t even know who he is)

Funniest bit of ‘This is all we’ve got money for’ is at the end of the show (24:46 on the rte player) when Terry Prone turns to her team captain, off camera but still very much audible, says ‘I don’t understand this!’. Summed the whole mess up perfectly i thought.

Put Hardy Bucks on tv they are hilarious!
they entered rte storyland and won! they deserve a spot on tv! funnier than the 1st season of killinaskully!

Dear rte,
the state of the things ye have been putting on telly recently and ye still wont put Hardy Bucks on . That Catherine Lynch yoke, Val Falvey (not the worst but not good either), that thing that Tommy Tiernan and Hector did to name but a few. The lads are the funniest show I have seen in years and would bring your ratings way up. I even showed it to my mam, and although she didnt get a few of the jokes, was laughin her arse off through most of it. I’ve seen the lads live and met a few of them and they’re just naturally funny. Maybe they should take it to a different station like Father Ted did, probably a better move.

If I did pay my TV licence, i’d be sickened by all the shite ye show, its mainly TV3 I find myself watchin anyway.

Anyway, might see ya around the town later, gluck

It’s not strictly comedy, more of a drama, but i found the tv show ‘RAW’ to be very entertaining. Check it out on RTE on Monday nights.

Just wanted to say, and I know that the heat has probably gone out of this discussion now, that I’m so sad that the new series of ‘your bad self’ is no good. I was really counting on it! I just had a look at their pilot show which we still have taped from last year and it really is brilliant. What is it about about getting some kind of buget for a bigger show and a series long opportunity that wrecks peoples judgement? Bloody Amy Huberman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzf9xWuLKck