The Day Today and On the Hour
November 6, 2019 10:50 AM   Subscribe

'You've lost the news!' How The Day Today changed satire forever Full of immaculately prepared insanity, The Day Today scrambled the brains of television news in a way never seen before. Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci made a satirical news show whose target was the news show itself, with every one of its conventions and excesses lovingly recreated in bent form.

Here are all six episodes and a pilot. Their predecessor, On the Hour, skewered radio news with similar thoroughness: (iTunes season 1 + season 2; YouTube playlist). Everyone went on to work in British comedy, but Steve Coogan not only started here but birthed Alan Partridge as an over-confident and under-informed sport correspondent.

As a bonus: this interview with John Finnemore (whose own Cabin Pressure is a work of radio comedy genius) about the wonderful shock of discovering On the Hour for himself.
posted by argybarg (12 comments total) 28 users marked this as a favorite
 
My first experience of Morris was his GLR show on Friday afternoons - at the end of the two (?) hours I was in shock - the real news came on and I found it completely implausible. One of the few genuinely life-changing comedy experiences of my life, usually signified by my laughing so hard I forgot to breath and began to worry for my life.

Cook'd & Bomb'd have uploaded some of them to YouTube - here's a compilation, for example. The real thing didn't move at quite that pace (there were records played throughout the programme, for example), but it catches the sheer bewilderment of it.
posted by Grangousier at 12:34 PM on November 6, 2019 [4 favorites]


(Listening through it, the compiler went mostly for Michael Alexander St John and Feedback Reports, understandably, but the show also contained news reports like On the Hour.)
posted by Grangousier at 1:00 PM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]


The Day Today > Brass Eye

I am not taking any questions at this time.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 3:32 PM on November 6, 2019 [2 favorites]


It’s war
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 4:49 PM on November 6, 2019 [2 favorites]


I first came across The Day Today by means of bootlegged VHS tapes available for rent from a hip Toronto video store. It was a revelation.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 5:00 PM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]


I love Ianucci and first came across The Day Today in this thread, so muchos gracias and dl'ing now!
posted by Meatbomb at 6:00 PM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]


Britain - It's Alright continues its 20+ year run of shocking relevance.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 7:23 PM on November 6, 2019 [3 favorites]


Back in the GLR days a lot of cutting edge comedy was going on. Even Chris Evans was good then. I remember this show and being fascinated by it. It was must listening and I recorded it every week. Sadly lost. Thank you for this.
posted by terminus at 8:14 PM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]


Chris Morris is brilliant. His improvisation with Peter Cook was a work of Art, all the way down to the tiniest micro-Christ.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:17 PM on November 6, 2019 [2 favorites]


Such a strong cast — I had forgotten how funny Doon Mackichan was in these until I rewatched. Thanks for the links to On The Hour, too!
posted by en forme de poire at 11:51 PM on November 6, 2019 [2 favorites]




The Day Today was pretty good, but some of the racehorses' names were just silly.
posted by Zeinab Badawi's Twenty Hotels at 11:11 AM on November 7, 2019 [4 favorites]


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