Bad TV: Derek/Ja'mie: Private School Girl

[justinmh05 1968]

Okay, I know the podcast doesn't do TV, but perhaps we can still discuss these two examples of comedians becoming exactly what they once parodied.

 

The clip Tom Scharpling plays on the Best Show of Gervais talking about the pathos in Derek is one of the most most douchey things I've ever heard.

 

Derek is so perfectly wrong-headed that it's insane that it came from the same man who co-created The Office. It almost taints the memory of the Office for me - just like Ricky continuously trotting out the Brent character does.

 

I have to conclude that Stephen Merchant had a much larger influence on The Office than he is given credit for.

 

As for Ja'mie Private School Girl, all I can do is shake my head. What the heck happened to Chris Lilley?

 

Granted, this character was simply wrong to base a solo series around in the first place. Honestly, there's so little of what made the character so genuinely funny in Summer Heights High and We Can Be Heroes.

 

It just seems like in the new series that Lilley goes goes for the laziest jokes every single time.

 

Hopefully he can right the ship with the Jonah series due out next year.

 

So am I nuts for being so disappointed with Chris Lilley and Ricky Gervais?

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Gervais needs to find his spirit animal or something; he seems to be awfully cynical these days. Derek isn't very funny, but I don't think it's exactly intended to be. I tend to find it problematic when actors portray differently-abled people. The work is always much more compelling when the actors really do have the specific mental trait they're trying to portray (see:

).

 

Looking at Stephen Merchant's resume, it doesn't really seem like he's contributed to anything nearly as funny or interesting as his work with Ricky Gervais, so I'm not so sure. To be honest, I've never found any of Gervais' work worth watching except for the original run of The Office.

[Hot - Slunch 772]

Strongly disagree about Ja'mie. I've watched the whole series online since it just started here in the states. (I haven't seen Derek and probably won't.) I think Ja'mie was Lilley's second strongest show behind Summer Heights High... Given Summer Heights High was astoundingly good.

 

What was so different about her character to you? She was still horrid, vapid, rude, puts on a face like she's doing something charitable yet it's for her own gain. I think it was on par with what we've seen of her in the other shows. I love that they brought the same actress back to play her mom in all three shows, and that her friend from her first school in WCBH appears in all three too. How can you not love lines like, "I wish I would've drowned you as a child"?

 

He absolutely nails the teen girl to a frightening degree. It made me rewatch Summer Heights High stuff, and in one of the bonuse features you see him flip the switch into character and it is amazing. The only other time I remember seeing someone snap into character was Bill Hader on the Human Giant 24 hour marathon.

 

Rank in my book:

 

1. Summer Heights High

 

2. Ja'mie

 

3. We Can Be Heroes

 

 

 

4. Angry Boys

[justinmh05 1968]

I think my biggest problem with it - and I kind of alluded to it in my original post without much detail - is that I don't think Ja'mie should have ever been given a solo series.

 

Ja'mie worked perfectly in We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High as part of an ensemble. She's of course a horrible, horrible person who says horrible, horrible things. To me, that worked when you balanced her with, say, Jonah and Mr. G. Mr. G was pretty awful himself, but in a totally different way. Jonah acted out, but his heart was in the right place.

 

So with each episode giving each of them equal time, it worked really well. I don't think watching Ja'mie say horrible things for 30 straight minutes for six episodes was particularly funny. And the jokes just seemed tired to me. I don't think Private School Girl brought anything new to the character. It's an attempt to recapture and heighen what made the character popular - but IMO the character was great in measured doses.

 

That said, I think you can say that about almost all of Lilley's characters. I think only Mr. G and Jonah are well-rounded enough to carry a solo series. Maybe the prison guard from Angry Boys as well.

[jarrycanada 2483]

I noticed this show on the net and looked it up on youtube, from the little clip I watched. I asked my self how many episodes of this program can a person watch before the joke gets old. as you guys pointed out it's the same thing as Derek. Stephen Merchant is doing a show for HBO called Hello Ladies and I've watch two or three episodes of that and i have to say the magic is gone, he just isn't funny. I really was so looking forward to "Hello Ladies" but it's gone from sorta funny to, OK this is stupid!. no one can be that dum with the ladies. the episode with the gay night club was my, ok I am done with this show now episode.

 

as we are on the subject of bad comedy shows. I feeling this way with Bob Odenkirk's, The Birthday Boys show. I love Bob Odenkirk and Mr Mr show. I think it's one of the best comedy shows ever done since SCTV and Kids in the hall. I'd even say it's better then Kids in the hall and I am Canadian so there. But the show Birthday Boy's is just trying too hard to be like MR MR show and it's not. The first episode was good and some of the other episodes have it's moments but over all it's not funny.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

as we are on the subject of bad comedy shows. I feeling this way with Bob Odenkirk's, The Birthday Boys show. I love Bob Odenkirk and Mr Mr show. I think it's one of the best comedy shows ever done since SCTV and Kids in the hall. I'd even say it's better then Kids in the hall and I am Canadian so there. But the show Birthday Boy's is just trying too hard to be like MR MR show and it's not. The first episode was good and some of the other episodes have it's moments but over all it's not funny.

The Birthday Boys will eventually find their groove -- they were fantastic opening for the Comedy Bing Bong tour. Mr. Show wasn't funny all the time, either; I think people tend to hold that show in high regard without remembering how hit and miss it could be. Or what about the time they made a not very great movie (Run Ronnie Run) out of a character from a sketch? Like Justin said above, almost every attempt to take a single character and place them in the spotlight fails miserably. (It doesn't stop SNL from trying, though).

[Hot - Slunch 772]

I think my biggest problem with it - and I kind of alluded to it in my original post without much detail - is that I don't think Ja'mie should have ever been given a solo series.

 

Ja'mie worked perfectly in We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High as part of an ensemble. She's of course a horrible, horrible person who says horrible, horrible things. To me, that worked when you balanced her with, say, Jonah and Mr. G. Mr. G was pretty awful himself, but in a totally different way. Jonah acted out, but his heart was in the right place.

 

So with each episode giving each of them equal time, it worked really well. I don't think watching Ja'mie say horrible things for 30 straight minutes for six episodes was particularly funny. And the jokes just seemed tired to me. I don't think Private School Girl brought anything new to the character. It's an attempt to recapture and heighen what made the character popular - but IMO the character was great in measured doses.

 

That said, I think you can say that about almost all of Lilley's characters. I think only Mr. G and Jonah are well-rounded enough to carry a solo series. Maybe the prison guard from Angry Boys as well.

 

I can definitely see the 'too much' of the character thing. One of the reasons SHH was so good was because right when you'd get a little tired of one character, the energy would completely change just by cutting to someone else. It really wasn't a problem for me with Ja'mie though. I was kind of shocked at how much I was laughing... Probably just because I'm a bit burnt out on all the regular US stuff at the moment.

 

He seems to be doing solo shows now, because his teaser at the end of the run of Ja'mie was for a Jonah spinoff. I think maybe 2-3 characters is the magic number.

 

Have you seen the whole series yet or just the ones that have aired here? That might change your mind, or not haha.

[Hot - Slunch 772]

For the record Kids in the Hall is my favorite sketch show.

 

The Birthday Boys, while hit and miss (like all sketch) has really impressed me. I thought I would hate it.

 

They're bringing things in the right direction. No host segments, no stand up bits, just sketch. They're kind of a Mr. Show/Human Giant hybrid.

 

All I can say is I've enjoyed it more than CBB this season... Blasphemy, I know.

[sillstaw 414]

Looking at Stephen Merchant's resume, it doesn't really seem like he's contributed to anything nearly as funny or interesting as his work with Ricky Gervais

 

Careful where you say that. Rabid fans of the "Portal" series are likely to tear you apart for insinuating it isn't funny.

 

I've only seen banner ads and reviews for these shows, so I can't say whether they're great or not, but both seem like the kind of bad comedy where somebody thinks it's funny that they've dressed up a certain way, and that's all that they need. Or, in the case of "Derek," I can't stop repeating it: I think they only called it "Derek" because "Simple Jack" was taken.

[jarrycanada 2483]

 

Careful where you say that. Rabid fans of the "Portal" series are likely to tear you apart for insinuating it isn't funny.

 

Stephen Merchant's well known for trashing portal saying he's never seen the game or ever played it. He just collects the checks. he's said this on more then one talk show already. He was being a jerk about it on the nerdist podcast.

 

cat and beard is right about Mr. Show, not every thing being funny,

 

I still like Kids in the hall but it's not holding up to time very well.

[seanotron 2307]

I saw the title while browsing the on-screen guide and just assumed it was a crappy softcore Skinemax show.

[DanEngler 5249]

Stephen Merchant's well known for trashing portal saying he's never seen the game or ever played it. He just collects the checks. he's said this on more then one talk show already. He was being a jerk about it on the nerdist podcast.

Every interview I've heard with Merchant has been far from "trashing" Portal 2. The man acknowledged that he is not a gamer and has not played the original Portal, so he had no context for the role and therefore approached it as a regular acting gig. You may need to recalibrate your jerk detector.

 

Looking at Stephen Merchant's resume, it doesn't really seem like he's contributed to anything nearly as funny or interesting as his work with Ricky Gervais, so I'm not so sure.

His stand-up special, Hello Ladies, was pretty great. Evidently not great enough to adapt into a TV series, though.