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http://www.tvgohome.com/faq.ht...

11. Why use a JPEG for the listings instead of text?

Because I want precise control over the layout. And because it seriously annoys "real ale" Internet users who do all their browsing on text-based hand-held calculators, and that arouses me.

Even earlier than that, Charlie Brooker's (he of Black Mirror) TV Go Home had a contender back in 99, although his was directed by Ridley Scott and starred Kevin Costner.

http://www.tvgohome.com/121199...

Are we sure it's October 1st and not April 1st?

When I first saw this on the BBC news site my first thought was that this was beyond parody.

Charlie Brooker apparently stopped doing TV Go Home (a bizarre send-up of British TV listings) when reality TV ideas started coming up with ideas that were becoming as strange as his joke versions (e.g. "Touch the Truck in which contestants must continually touch a truck for 24 hours in order to win the truck as a prize").

This is the movie version of that- it already sounds like something that would have belonged in a comedy parody in recent years. You could try sending it up or taking the p***, but why bother?

The particularly silly bit in the BBC report is the comment, "In this new universe, as you'll soon find out, there's much more to Tetris than simply clearing lines." Er, no, there isn't. That's why you're going to have to make up virtually everything about it.

When the "Space Invaders" film was mooted, I (along with everyone else) thought it was ludicrous, since the original game was little more than "you are shooting waves of aliens [which we understand are "invading" from "space" going by the two-word "plot" written on the arcade cabinet]". It was likely to be little more than transparent attempt to graft a nostalgia-invoking brand on a generic sci-fi movie, which- going by recent Hollywood films- was unlikely to have much more plot than the original game.

But "Tetris: The Movie" takes the biscuit. I wasn't engaging in hyperbole when I said it was beyond parody- I don't think there's anything you can say about this sort of thing that makes it sound more ludicrous than simply restating the idea itself.

Enough of that. Here's a little musical relief.

What are you talking about?! Tetris: The Movie was shown on british TV way back in 1999.

http://www.tvgohome.com/121199.html (NSFW)

That parody is excellent. What's even funnier is that the person that wrote it is not far off being a Cory himself. Or maybe I should say a Nathan Barley

Missed Eastenders? I've never missed it in my life. They could cancel it and I'd be blissfully ignorant of the loss of my ability to peer into the lives of fictional characters whose vocabulary seems to consist of the words "bloody," "fancy a shag?" "pint" and "caaa!" (cockney for cow, I'm led to believe) but should you be of that bent, you can watch it online.

Nice troll. The fact that you claim to have a) never missed Eastenders and b) have not killed yourself from the sheer depressingly transparent ficticiousness of it all and c) have not noticed that there isn't a vocabulary at all, just the universal language of shouting that merely appears to sound like language show that you have clearly not watched it in enough detail! ;)

As an aside, are there any other soaps that use wilful misunderstanding as such an indispensible plot device?

"So you went to see Mark today?"
"Let's just say we had a little chat..."
"You know he's in hospital, right? What did you say to him?"
"Lets just say that I managed to convince him of a few... home truths"
"You're not remotely concerned that he currently has a 10% chance of survival, and even then a 90% likelihood of permanent brain damage that'll make for some more weepy stories a few months down the line?"
"Lets just say that me and Mark didn't really see eye to eye on alot of things"
"Are you saying that you attacked him?"
"Lets just say I wouldn't mind buying whoever did a pint"
"OK, I'm arresting you for the assaullt of plot device #57.285"
"What?! Leave it aht! What did I say?!"

Fucks sake, no-one in Eastenders ever speaks clearly, the entire point of the dialogue is to give everyone the wrong idea just so they can all have a hugely uneccassary fights about it a few weeks later. How anyone can watch such bilge I don't know - although I was hugely enamoured by Charlie Brooker's "Ricky's Luck" spoof spinoff (for the uninitiated, none of the things described are outside of the realms of possibility for an Eastenders character).

Disclaimer: I don't watch Eastenders, but live with someone who does.

just check an example of charlie brookers writing to see how what he said would barely register for most of his readers.

Once again, for the hard of thinking...

The piece that 'called for the assassination of the President' was not a leader column, not an editorial comment, not a news story. It was written by humorist and comedian Charlie Brooker in his weekly TV preview column, Brooker being the creator of TV Go Home, which should give you an idea of his style of humour.

The Guardian did make a mistake in putting the column up on its website where, out of the context of the youth-oriented, anti-establishment Guardian Weekend supplement, it was given the same weight as any other story and so could be jumped on by sneaky or obtuse Bush supporters as another example of the Guardian's left-wing evil.

If you actually read the piece, Brooker never says "Bush must die!", instead listing several infamous assassins and wondering where they are when we need them. Not the same thing, and perfectly in keeping with his often brutal style of comedy. Yet more FUD about the Guardian from the hard right.

Besides, why shouldn't a non-US newspaper try to influence the result of the US election? It's not like the US hasn't tried (sometimes with bullets rather than words) to influence the results of many other democratic elections around the world to benefit its own interests...

Oh please. It's not like this was a Guardian editorial. Charlie Brooker, the author of said column, is a humorist and comedian, for fuck's sake. And one who enjoys winding up the easily offended, at that. Occasionally he goes right to the edge - such as when he got an issue of PC Zone magazine pulled from the shelves of the UK's largest chains of newsagents for a comic strip called 'Cruelty Zoo' - but while his stuff is often twisted, it's still very funny.

Check out TV Go Home to see what else he does for a living.

That would be Charlie Brooker, comedian, right? You're aware of the concept of humour, right? OK, this isn't very funny, but it is clearly a joke.

I've managed to find a full copy of the column online - in China, home of free speech, amusingly enough.

For anyone not familiar with Charlie Brooker's brand of comedy, he's the creator of the (sadly resting) TV Go Home, author of numerous close-to-the-bone satirical articles in British computer gaming magazines, and is now working on various other projects. His Screen Burn column in the Guardian's Guide supplement is frequently hilarious, and he's suggested far, far worse things in it than the mere assassination of a president. I'm often amazed they can print it - this censored article was pretty tame by comparison....

Oh, and he's an utter geek too. He's allied with NTK, and I seem to recall reading something in the Guide by him extolling the virtues of downloading television programmes by Bittorrent. Yup.

Credit to TV Go Home for that one

Claric

If you want to see a good British film, with a fairly realistic take on the people at the bottom of the pile, check out Ken Loach's work. That's the real shit. Guy Ritchie's work is fake.

They read the Daily Mail, a newspaper that is so sensationalist and narrow minded that it seems unable to post any other frontpage story apart from 'Justice Being Done' and the 'Waste of Taxpayers Money'

Agreed. There's a fake TV program at TV Go Home where people are stranded on a desert island with no news except for the Daily Mail, and it takes the piss out of the bigoted trash that it produces on a daily basis. IMHO it is the single worst paper in this country since it attempts to be a "serious" paper whilst being full of the most BS ever.

Britain is a nation of winging penny pinchers. The average man in the street reads the Daily Mail, has 2.2 children and gets a new car every year or so. He lives in his shoebox house and doesn't think that the matter of censorship really has any effect to him.

True, but also not true. It depends on what part of society you're talking about. The younger generation is a lot less like this, and change will come slowly (as ever) when these people who have grown up with things like the net eventually get into positions where things can change. However, the national apathy will most likely prevent anything radical from happening - expect a slow osmosis of change at best.

Once again. You people make me sick.

Pah.

Quote from FAQ of the superb TV Go Home:

'Why use a JPEG for the listings instead of text?

'Because I want precise control over the layout. And because it seriously annoys "real ale" Internet users who do all their browsing on text-based hand-held calculators, and that arouses me.'