The Room 101 thread - for things you hate or just having a bloody good moan

[Sly Boots]

[Hatredsheart]

Celebrity comedians.

People like Ricky Gervais, Russell Brand et al, and how they seem to transform over the course of a couple of decades from "people who tell jokes on TV" to "experts on everything" who seem to weigh in on debates about any subject, appear as special guests on almost any TV show -- sometimes even getting cameos in films -- and whose non-academic opinion seems to carry far more weight than it should.

Don't like Gervais, I can never tell whether his intolerable air of smugness is a character he's playing or his real self.
I suspect it's the latter.

[The Jackal]

I used to like Gervais until about the time Life's Too Short came out, at which point he became what you've both described.

Russel Brand, however, I always thought was an unfunny Edwin.

[Stormbringer]

Stephen Fry is also pretty high up there on my list.

[Maturin]

It seems a lot of comedians evolve to become rather lecturing & insufferable the older they become. Although in the last few years, perhaps the same thing can be said of young comedians, particularly on UK TV.

[Stormbringer]

This may sound daft, but I feel like the UK has this sort of "cultural establishment" of arrogant comedians of various ages who have morphed from mere tellers of jokes into authority figures of "how people should think".

[Lee]

Stephen Fry talks a lot of sense though


But in a whole I think it's down to them being bombarded by fans or others on stuff and in this day of social media they just say what they feel to try and stop being pestered about it. I don't think Ricky is that funny myself and never seen the appeal of The Office either.

I know some of them have common sense on things compared to the loonies.

[Stormbringer]

Stephen Fry talks a lot of sense though

He is a pompous windbag.

[Wrathbone]

This is a religious thing, isn’t it?

[Sly Boots]

This is a religious thing, isn’t it?

Certainly the case for my parents and their opinion of him. Personally, think he can be funny.

[Stormbringer]

This is a religious thing, isn’t it?

Mostly. My ire against individual celebrities such as Fry and Gervais is, yes, but I also generally dislike the British-TV-celebrity-comedian-led-culture.

We never watched TV growing up, and one thing I noticed from the age of 4 (as soon as I started school) was that everyone from the teachers to my fellow pupils, all spoke casually AND CONSTANTLY about these weird people I had never heard of as if they were god-like beings who floated around us and governed all we said and did. One time, when I was (I think) 6, I forgot to bring some money to school to donate to Children In Need on Red Bloody Nose Day (another TV-orchestrated event I had never heard of) and a fellow pupil yelled at me something along the lines of: "You have let down Terry Wogan!" I remember being bewildered at this comment and later on, really angry that my life and actions were supposedly governed by the expectations of people I had never heard of, and as I have grown older I have always been infuriated by that tendency of people to compare everything that happens, or base every joke, comment or remark off some TV comedy sketch or some such.

[Wrathbone]

[Strudel]

Much better to base your life and actions on some ridiculous notion of a sky faerie rather the logical arguments put forward by living individuals who can be challenged and debated with.

[Lee]

Stephen Fry talks a lot of sense though

He is a pompous windbag.

Hilarious and national treasure, windbag

[Stormbringer]

Stephen Fry talks a lot of sense though

He is a pompous windbag.

Hilarious and national treasure, windbag

If Fry is a national treasure, we're woefully impoverished.