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IT Crowd (UK) Coming Back For Season 4
sammyF70 writes "Every geek's favourite non-sci-fi show (the original UK one, not the abysmally bad German and US remakes) is coming back for a fourth season! According to the IMDB's message board, it should be on the air 'Juneish.' While you wait, you can check out what kind of vintage hardware will be on the show this time, and remember: if you illegally download movies, you will face the consequences!"
By which I mean the RSS'd BitTorrent client, and the batch script that passes its products to Handbrake, then loads the transcoded files into iTunes.
Also, the batch script that restarts iTunes at 5am to force it sync with the iPad and hacked iPod touch attached.
Nerds!
That should sum up the entire series.
One-dimensional, cliched characters that portray IT people as social inadequates. Tacky sets and embarrasingly bad plots (well from a sample size of 2) and utterly forgettable dialog. No thanks.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Every geek's favourite non-sci-fi show
You have got to be joking because that show certainly isn't, it's about as funny as a wet rag.
I was part of the audience the other week for the filming of the last episode for this season. The laughing? It's real, and this season round some of it will be from me.
Though obviously it takes a long time to film and so things don't flow as seamlessly as the TV episode itself, and perhaps they reuse laughs from one take over the top of acting from another take...it's still actually real. The writer came out to the audience and specifically talked about laugh tracks - he said he filmed in front of a live audience so that a) he was sure enough things were funny and b) because the actors could spark off the reactions.
I'm not going to give anything away about it, but we saw two episodes - one already filmed and edited, the other was being filmed on the night. They are both great, so tune in and have a watch this time.
Cheers,
Ian
Exactly! Wet rags are Hilarious!
Cheers, Chris
At least it's funnier than The Big Bang Theory.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
That so many people seem to think there's some sort of objective measure for what is and isn't funny.
Some people like it. Some people don't.
I found it quite funny, but have the same objection. I wonder if the presence of laugh tracks is a preemptive move; later, they can offer a "regular" version for download, or, for twice the price, one with the laughtrack stripped out. My hopes on that front have dried up, though. I actually like certain sit-coms, but unfortunately for sit-coms they generally include it by default. (Arrested Development in one exception, but not the only one.)
Related aside: I used to watch the show MASH a lot -- it was my favorite show from a young age (I remember seeing it when the re-runs weren't yet re-runs ...), but seeing the movie on which the TV show is based unfortunately ruined it for me. Not just because I liked the movie's cast better (the show's cast is still well-suited), but because the notably absent laugh track suits the actual mood of the film; the TV version suddenly felt tacky and cheap.
Now, the IT Crowd is not a socially ponderous, lessons-of-life type show, as MASH tried to be (and, despite it all, succeeded) -- it's a light-hearted farce, comedy of errors and lack of manners, etc. But even so -- no laugh-track should be an option, just like "laugh track" should *not* be an option on The Godfather, Schindler's List, Black Beauty ...
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Never heard of it. I guess it was really bad.
bickerdyke
a) Though it's case-by-case, I've liked more sit-coms than it's smart to admit. British ones, esp.
b) As I just wrote in another comment, laugh tracks are obnoxious, but eh, I overlook them generally. When I was small, I thought that they were all recorded from the "live studio audience," but that's just what they *want* you to think.
c) There's a lot of workplace humor in The IT Crowd that rings true (slightly exaggerated if at all - like managers who don't actually understand the thing they're supposed to "manage," and huge, often willful communication gaps between departments), but I also like the more over-the-top absurdities, like the soul-searching goth (Mason? might have the name wrong) who lives in the back room.
d) All that said, I wish they worked in more wacky sketch-like stuff like the piracy ad linked in the post.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
-- no laugh-track should be an option
MASH on disc has the option to disable the laugh track on some (not all) episodes
So they tried turning the show off and then on again?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You're kidding right, the prog is unfunny in the extreme and the writer explididly choose not to include any geek humor. For a real geek comedy show see, The Big Bang Theory
As I understand it, MASH was broadcast in the UK without a laughter track. I vaguely remember there being complaints when they accidentally showed it with one.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
good god mash had a laugh track? i only ever saw it without. I imagine the whole thing seems a lot more undignified and lowbrow with a laugh track - like watching "happy days goes to vietnam" or something. On the other hand, the bbc once aired the addams family without the laugh track and every single joke hung in the air like a bad fart. It was extremely uncomfortable to watch.
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
But even so -- no laugh-track should be an option, just like "laugh track" should *not* be an option on The Godfather, Schindler's List,
Are you fucking kidding me? That would be absolutely awesome. Especially for Schindler's List. I mean, who would take that movie seriously in the first place?
... and then they built the supercollider.
As an IT worker, I found the show more depressing than funny. Too many similarities with my life and theirs.
I can see many possible positive interpretations to adding a laughter track to Schindler's List. The Nazis' killing of millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other deviants[tm] was obviously unacceptable and inhuman (or "very human", if you're appropriately cynical), but Schindler's List is a fictionalisation. Some possible purposes/interpretations might be:
(1) Experimenting with causing discomfort in an audience by juxtaposing happy emotions with ones of horror;
(2) Getting the audience to see things from the power-crazed Nazi PoV, no matter how perverse: to a true Nazi, getting rid of Jews was a a positive, enjoyable, productive, thing, and why not smile and be happy while you're doing what you think is the correct thing?
(3) Questioning the media's exploitation of victims of the Holocaust: was Schindler's List's main mission and/or lasting effect to remind people about the Holocaust, or to make a few media companies richer? Are they laughing at you by publishing this? Couldn't it be a Song for Whoever?
... why not smile and be happy while you're doing what you think is the correct thing?
Especially when it's springtime.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Assuming we're talking about comedies that are somehow geek related and aren't sci-fi, would be Spaced.
The branch of the linden is leafy and Green,
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea.
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen...
Fascism is dangerous because it can be made so appealing and positive.
I'm not sure whether this makes me happy or sad for characters like Moss. On the one hand, he'd be completely uninterested in the sort of social ritual that was Nazism. On the other, he might be too singlemindedly unaware to realise the implications of working in the basement of the IBM office which processed the census that was key to efficient execution of the Holocaust.
http://thedilbertstore.com/comic_strips/search?hidden_pc_terms=&pc_terms=damp+rag&start_date=&end_date=&x=0&y=0
are great.....
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
the bbc once aired the addams family without the laugh track and every single joke hung in the air like a bad fart. It was extremely uncomfortable to watch.
I strongly suspect that the Addams Family was scripted and acted with pauses for a prominent laugh track in mind, and that's why it sounded awkward without it- waiting for laughter that doesn't come.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
What I am starting to notice is that when I talk about IT, I am talking about programmers, developers. But others are thinking about tech-support which I personally put closer to janitors and such. And no, I don't think low of janitors, but there is a difference between the person who keeps the building running and those who run it. Of course as a web developer lots of "real" developers consider me barely worth stepping on.
This show is probably funny if you are in a support role and have to deal with the endless clueless users. However if you are a user with a clue and you ever had to deal with clueless tech support not for support but to get them to do their bloody job, it is not so funny. And of course if you are a clueless user, then you will just find it offensive.
I think the show is "young". It tries to hard. It is like a teenager trying to impress girl by wearing ten different aftershaves at once and buying 100 red roses and a corsage the size of the rainforest. It lacks the flow of older series with more experienced staff. It tries so hard to create stereo-type characters that they lack any normality, any humanity that allows you to sympathize with them, see them as real people, not just caricatures.
Take the bit about the shoes that are to small. It is to extreme, size 8 in 5? And yet all her other clothes are normal. Certainly a woman that vain would also be putting herself through hell with other parts of her body? The gag doesn't fit in its make believe world. And the problem with that is that while the gag may be funny, gags should be short. We got it, the shoe is to small. Haha. NEXT! Stand-up comedians who do gags quickly switch subjets, think the late night tv monologues, it makes no sense for Jay Leno to whine about his pinto because he would never own one, so don't dwell on it.
Longer running comedy stories, need to make the world "believable". That is why Porridge and Only Fools and Horses work so well, the characters are not just a bunch of gags in half an hour, but human beings living a life. A funny one, an unlikely one, but "believable".
The IT Crowd tends to be liked by the kinda people who claim "Every geek's favourite non-sci-fi show" despite clear evidence to contrary.
It is funny, but funny is easy. Good lasting comedy, that is very very hard and the IT crowd ain't it. It is closer to that kids show you really really liked and then your grow up and wonder how you could every tolerate it.
Frankly, I am to old to still crack up about how stupid people can be with computers. Yeah yeah, they don't know how to operate a button. I know, the joke has been done. Move on.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Great to hear The IT Crowd is returning for a new series, but does anyone know where I can get a copy of the 1995 tv show Dweebs?
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
I really miss douglas' faaaaaaaaaaaaatheeeeeeeer
"Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING".(shut it, this really needed caps. ffuuu)
IT Crowd pokes fun at the stereotypes
You could do all of that in 1 episode and still have time left over to make a comedy programme, too.
To go on for 4 series with one trivial theme (IT people == socially inept == funny) shows a lack of originality and laziness in the writing. Surely anyone with an ounce (or 28.5 grams) of discernment would say "Yes, we've got it. Now what else have you got to make me laugh?" after the first few minutes ... and would have switched over before the end of the half-hour slot. It's only a single "joke" and that the same small number of people are still laughing at it after 4 years of watching it be recycled every episode makes me thing they'll laugh at anything.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I don't know about the German remake, but I thought the US remake got canned during the 2008 Writer's Strike.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
There was only a pilot filmed for the US, never aired. The German one only aired 2 episodes. Although the UK version is great, you're not comparing apples to apples subby. You wanna do that? Let's talk the The Office.
godwinned.
I never realised until you just said it but yes, I don't recall ever having heard a laughter track whilst watching MASH over here.
God, it must be awful with one...
godwinned.
Is that when God wins? It's not really surprising. He makes the rules, after all.
... and then they built the supercollider.
"Damn these electric sex boots!"
I just dug out the series 1 box set, bought in Belgium and sitting in a drawer ever since. According to the box it has "Francais, Anglais and Anglais, piste des rires."
I'm afraid to even try it!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Especially when it's springtime.
Can you imagine Shindler's List to the soundtrack of this song?
Thank god they didn't air the American version of the show.
Oh look, he's socially awkward, it's funny! Oh look, that was a silly situation, it's funny! Oh look, stereotypes, it's funny!
It's Three's Company with computers. Blah.
I'm not sure how you personally made that determination, considering it never aired.
First few seasons anyway. Instant play or dvd. Easy enough to check out if you subscribe. Now on my instant queue.
Oh look, I'm having an orgasm!
Nonsense, everyone knows the Brits do comedy better than the Yanks.
Nothing beats Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, The Office, and Only Fools And Horses (I suspect you've not heard of the latter if you don't live in the UK?).
Did that ever get aired or leaked online? I never saw it. I read it was awful.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
In the development shop where I work, the project managers love Big Bang Theory, but the developers don't think it's funny at all. Nobody likes seeing their ox being gored...
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