Pathetic little fat man, noones bloody laughing
January 13, 2007 3:07 PM   Subscribe

"See his pug-nose face." David Bowie, from Extras second season, which premieres tomorrow in USA. Stephen Merchant (from today's RADAR) and Ricky Gervais have been mentioned here before, but I think the David Bowie clip is worth it.
posted by headless (35 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I know the David Bowie appearance was mentioned in the thread about the British premere of the second series, but there was no video, so I hope you don't see this as a double.
posted by headless at 3:09 PM on January 13, 2007


Bittorrent is your friend! Hint Hint!
posted by newfers at 3:31 PM on January 13, 2007


I liked it.
posted by drezdn at 3:46 PM on January 13, 2007


I always loved that David Bowie clip, if two men could reproduce he'd have my man-babies.

Patrick Stewart on Extras, another must-see.
posted by mek at 3:49 PM on January 13, 2007


Gervais talks about this scene in his recent AV Club interview:

AVC: One of the funniest scenes in season two is when David Bowie writes a song about you in a bar. Did he write that himself?

RG: He wrote the music, [but not] the lyrics. I sent him the script and I said, "We thought maybe it could be quite retro, something off Hunky Dory, with an anthemic chorus, like 'Life On Mars.'" He went, "Oh, sure, I'll just knock off a 'Life On Mars.'" And I laughed and went, "Oh, yeah, that did sound quite insulting, didn't it?" He knew what to give us. He gave us über-Bowie. [Sings.] "See his pug-nosed face…" The crew was singing it for about a week.
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:53 PM on January 13, 2007


I finished watching the second series last week and it's truly phenomenal. The first season was quite good, but Gervais and Merchant have taken the "uncomfortable" factor up a notch, and it's pretty much in the same league as "Curb Your Enthusiasm" now.
posted by dhammond at 3:57 PM on January 13, 2007


Casting Daniel Radcliffe as a smarmy little perv was pretty funny, too. Especially when he flips his condom into Dame Diana Rigg's face. Emma Peel SO rocks!
posted by miss lynnster at 4:01 PM on January 13, 2007


Are we havin' a laugh?


(yuk yuk chortle guffaw)
posted by Senor Cardgage at 4:01 PM on January 13, 2007


Eh, I actually thought that scene was one of the worst from the entire season and represented everything that was so disappointing about this season.

Whilst last year he managed to accurately strike the balance between a heartfelt drama and big name stars, this year it feels like Gervais overstretched himself, he tried to be too clever. The various celebrities were led into more and more unrealistic situations and the essential heart of the show - the friendly interaction between Andy and Maggie - was ignored. Maggie feels like a caricature in most of the episodes, she oversteps the line from "amusingly slow" to something you'd except from the Vicar of Dibley.

Take the Bowie scene: the premise is that he's humiliating Andy by being unthinkingly, horrifically rude - a familiar theme. Last season it was done cringingly wonderfully by Maggie's unintentional racist remarks to Samuel L Jackson. It was a realistic situation born out of elements of the character and built up throughout the episode, it's something you could imagine doing yourself and the celebrity presence in the scene feels natural. But the Bowie scene takes a leap into the absurd and keeps on going. It feels awkward and scripted in the context of the show, they could have just as easily made the joke by having Bowie comment that he'd like to write a song called "Little fat man" or somesuch.

The episodes that managed to remember to have three-dimensional characters and tighter scripts, however, were fantastic. "How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I am portraying in the film or play."
posted by hugsnkisses at 4:21 PM on January 13, 2007


Gervais seems to be a one-note act, not least from his recent chats with other comics.
posted by A189Nut at 4:26 PM on January 13, 2007


I am distracted by his teeth in the print ads in every magazine out this month. They're so... un-British. Very obviously, and poorly, Photoshopped.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:32 PM on January 13, 2007


Ben Stiller was great on the show's pilot, but the David Bowie bit was utterly fantastic. I was crying with laughter.
posted by squirrel at 4:39 PM on January 13, 2007


By the way, what does Linda suggest? I can't quite make it out.
posted by Ian A.T. at 4:40 PM on January 13, 2007


Ah: "But the twat would probably miss."

Never mind me.
posted by Ian A.T. at 4:47 PM on January 13, 2007


I am distracted by his teeth in the print ads... Very obviously, and poorly, Photoshopped.

Oh dear. They've shopped Bowie's teeth? That's terrible. They're gonna have to take his picture out of the Big Book of British Smiles.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:48 PM on January 13, 2007


hugsnkisses, I see where you're coming from, generally speaking. I partly agree. In this Bowie case, though, I think the out-of-the-park absurdity serves the comedy rather than drags it down. No accounting for taste, though.
posted by squirrel at 4:51 PM on January 13, 2007


I laughed uncontrollably.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 5:01 PM on January 13, 2007


A189Nut: "Gervais seems to be a one-note act, not least from his recent chats with other comics."

That interview with Gary Shandling was the most awkward piece of television that I've ever had the misfortune to watch. It would have been quite easy to take it as just another piece of Gervais schtick with Shandling playing along, but I was left with the definite impression that the real Shandling actually makes Larry Sanders seem well-balanced and almost normal by comparison.

Gervais didn't come across well either -- but Shandling seemed like the archetypal LA megalomaniac who buys into his own self-authored mythology and thinks that the vacuous new-age crap he spouts actually has some value.

Yet because the Larry Sanders show was so well observed, at the back of my mind, I still couldn't stop wondering, 'Is this all a put-on? Some sophisticated comedian's meta-joke gone wrong?'
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:31 PM on January 13, 2007


For what it's worth, and in all fairness, this has been posted on Metafilter before. But it is definitely deserves its own FPP- it's probably one of the best scenes on British television of the last few years.
posted by Flashman at 6:17 PM on January 13, 2007


I have been anxiously waiting for the second season. I can't help to worry after reading incomple's comment on the other Extras post.

Say it isn't so.
posted by LoriFLA at 6:36 PM on January 13, 2007


it's probably one of the best scenes on British television of the last few years.

You obviously missed Big Brother tonight. There's a rather crappy compilation here.
posted by cillit bang at 6:57 PM on January 13, 2007


Ahh, Flashman, I looked through that thread but I did not see it. The other meat link (as in meat and veg) -- the radar link, I thought was also good. I really liked stephen merchant as "oggy" and on the radio shows I've heard, it was nice to hear from him instead of gervais.
posted by headless at 8:07 PM on January 13, 2007


Didn't Bowie get his teeth "un-Britishified" just before "Black Tie White Noise"? The video for "Jump They Say" shows them off to great effect.
posted by John Shaft at 8:47 PM on January 13, 2007


Gervais can touch me inappropriately any time he wants. He had me season 1, episode 1, when Kate Winslet is caught in a joke miming being on the phone saying naughty things...and she takes the time to hang up the imaginary phone.

I don't think I've laughed that hard since the very first time I saw Airplane!
posted by thanotopsis at 8:47 PM on January 13, 2007


I've never seen this show before, and I think I really like it. Thanks!
posted by moonbird at 10:44 PM on January 13, 2007


What squirrel said about what hugsnkisses said. The Bowie sketch was good, but missed by a long shot being the brilliant shit you expect from Gervais with a guy like Bowie to feed lines to. "Extras" seems to me like a wider-audience effort on his part, but a good laugh none the less.
posted by three blind mice at 10:56 PM on January 13, 2007


I hereby lodge a formal complaint against this scurrilous slur against the most noble and perfect of all dog breeds.
posted by docgonzo at 12:33 AM on January 14, 2007


That interview with Gary Shandling was the most awkward piece of television that I've ever had the misfortune to watch.

Maybe it was the fanboy in me but I laughed my arse off from beginning to end. I saw two guys who had a nervous first few minutes who, when relaxed, were playing on that nervousness.
posted by vbfg at 12:44 AM on January 14, 2007


Definitely beats crap like the chandelier scene in Only Fools and Horses when it comes to compiling the funniest moments in British comedy. I have never laughed so hard at a TV program than I did when I first saw this.
posted by fire&wings at 2:13 AM on January 14, 2007


I wish you loud, brash, culturally ignorant twits would shut up about our teeth.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:55 AM on January 14, 2007


You obviously missed Big Brother tonight. There's a rather crappy compilation here.

That wasn't as good as this bit though
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:59 AM on January 14, 2007


hugsnkisses: "Whilst last year he managed to accurately strike the balance between a heartfelt drama and big name stars, this year it feels like Gervais overstretched himself, he tried to be too clever."

Merchant (who would possibly be amused at someone ascribing all the work to Gervais) covers that in the Radar interview.
posted by Auz at 3:01 AM on January 14, 2007


They've shopped Bowie's teeth?

Gervais's.

English teeth! English teeth! Shining in the sun...
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:38 AM on January 14, 2007


That Bowie song is very similar to Arctic Monkeys' "When The Sun Goes Down"



Who's that girl there?
I wonder what went wrong
So that she had to roam the streets
She dunt do major credit cards
I doubt she does receipts
It's all not quite legitimate

And what a scummy man
Just give him half a chance
I bet he'll rob you if he can
Can see it in his eyes,
That he's got a driving ban
Amongst some other offences

And I've seen him with girls of the night
And he told Roxanne to put on her red light
It’s all infected but he'll be alright
Cause he's a scumbag, don't you know
I said he's a scumbag, don't you know!

Now I get their influence.

Too bad there's no Bowie's "Little Bombardier" vid.


"Let's go with fatso".
"I like that".

Wicked. The British sure have a way.

Defendant's Lawyer—"Objection", "When did you ever send me flowers¿"
"Let's stick to the facts, shall we¿"
"Shove your facts and your flowers"

BRILL./

"Are ya 'avin' a laff"¿

Bloody 'aye.

"There is a lot to remember, it's called acting." Wooop.
"Door's stuck"
"K, that's lunch".

No HBO for me in Canader. Dang./
posted by alicesshoe at 8:31 AM on January 14, 2007


I'd never seen any Extras eps until this thread. I don't think I'll be able to watch Harry Potter again without rolling up into a big ball of cringe. Yeeks.
posted by lunalaguna at 6:33 PM on January 15, 2007


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