i've said before about spitting image, it wasn't as funny after thatcher resigned. they couldn't make fun of john major in the same way.
I couldn't see a spitting image type programme working today because there are no characters in politics anymore. whichever side of the commons you look they all look and sound the same (sharp suits, posh voice) the modern day yuppie.
showbiz is dominated by simon cowell, cheyl cole, towie and big brother. they're rammed down our throats so much that whenever they're names crop up it's whatever.
i've said before about spitting image, it wasn't as funny after thatcher resigned. they couldn't make fun of john major in the same way.
I couldn't see a spitting image type programme working today because there are no characters in politics anymore. whichever side of the commons you look they all look and sound the same (sharp suits, posh voice) the modern day yuppie.
showbiz is dominated by simon cowell, cheyl cole, towie and big brother. they're rammed down our throats so much that whenever they're names crop up it's whatever.
Yes, today's politicians are just men in suits. John Major was well portrayed as grey and dull but that worked well against a backdrop of colourful characters. These days they'd all be grey and dull. Politicians nowadays have all been stage-managed into utter blandness by media-savvy PR firms, no doubt in an effort to avoid them being lampooned by political satirists. It's a sad situation. The only colourful character left is Boris Johnson and he's his own Spitting Image puppet anyway, a living caricature of posh knob buffoonery.
As for the celebrity side of things, they might find a few faces to poke fun at (I'd like to see them have a go at the Top Gear team...) but mostly it would be somewhat pointless because the whole status of celebrity has been devalued and undermined by the "reality" nature of celebrity; again, many faces on TV are bland and virtually immune to caricature because celebrity is largely devoid of personality.
Even the Royal Family are an afterthought for most people these days. They only make headlines now when they're getting hitched or having babies. As much as the media tries to create some sort of Diana-substitute out of Kate I don't think many people really care.
Sad, really. With a General Election coming in the next year we really need a vehicle to laugh and poke fun at them. The trouble is that politics isn't as polarised as it was in the 80s. Most people (especially the young) don't even care who's in power because they see little difference between one party and another.
I think cost is one of the reasons why the show wouldn't return as the puppets were expensive to make and maintain and being a topical comedy, that would be hard to sell worldwide.
I do think there are political figures like Michael Gove who would be prime to be ripped to shreds plus Boris Johnson but beyond UK politics you could have Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Barack Obama who are often lampooned in stuff like SNL.
You might have sat round watching it with mates and felt the need to laugh along to fit in, but I didn't.
Hey ho, haven't watched it yet, downloading it now.
IIRC from BBC's Witness documentary there are still foreign versions of Spitting Image still running, as they sold the format, Hungary comes to mind, but I could be wrong. As someone mentioned a successor to Spitting Image, I thought that was 2D TV, not that I can remember anything of it.
Edit: On the 2D TV tip, I saw Enn Reitel was involved, now that's a face I haven't seen on TV in years, I was wondering the other day where he'd been.
There was 2D TV, which is a good example, but there was Headcases as well which I mentioned as an example as it was made more recently and as a consequence may be closer to reflecting what a Spitting Image type of show might be like now.
A lot of work must have gone into it, but the writing just wasn't funny enough and some of the sketches seem to go on for ages.
I enjoyed this documentary more than some of the Spitting Image programmes, but not all of them !
Royal Family piss takes and songs were my favourites.
Really enjoyed this. Very innovative and talented team worked on this and it was pretty ground-breaking at the time. The Thatcher and her vegetables skit is never not funny, imo.
Wouldn't work now though: 21st century satire is more cerebral/verbose and less visual...
I think cost is one of the reasons why the show wouldn't return as the puppets were expensive to make and maintain and being a topical comedy, that would be hard to sell worldwide.
I do think there are political figures like Michael Gove who would be prime to be ripped to shreds plus Boris Johnson but beyond UK politics you could have Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Barack Obama who are often lampooned in stuff like SNL.
How about a CGI version? If someone is in the news and they don't already have a GCI 'model' of them, an animator working with photos and a satirical cartoonist to exaggerate the features might come up with something usable in a few hours. Once they have some stock characters it comes down to the writing. I don't know how long it takes in CPU time to animate them so it might be limited to a range of existing backgrounds and settings (an office, House of Commons, press conference, a meeting room/Cabinet...) but still much cheaper and more immediate than designing puppets, making moulds, casting rubber and colouring it, making costumes, rehearsing puppeteers etc. I think it could work IF they had good ideas and good writing.
There was something similar called Secret World on Radio4 more recently. No puppets obviously, but impressionists playing famous people in silly situations. Brilliant stuff, and cheap!
How about a CGI version? If someone is in the news and they don't already have a GCI 'model' of them, an animator working with photos and a satirical cartoonist to exaggerate the features might come up with something usable in a few hours. Once they have some stock characters it comes down to the writing. I don't know how long it takes in CPU time to animate them so it might be limited to a range of existing backgrounds and settings (an office, House of Commons, press conference, a meeting room/Cabinet...) but still much cheaper and more immediate than designing puppets, making moulds, casting rubber and colouring it, making costumes, rehearsing puppeteers etc. I think it could work IF they had good ideas and good writing.
There was something similar called Secret World on Radio4 more recently. No puppets obviously, but impressionists playing famous people in silly situations. Brilliant stuff, and cheap!
Computer Animation isn't cheap either and you couldn't make episodes fast enough to ensure it was topical, Headcases was probably trying to be a CG Spitting Image but failed.
I think cost is one of the reasons why the show wouldn't return as the puppets were expensive to make and maintain and being a topical comedy, that would be hard to sell worldwide.
I do think there are political figures like Michael Gove who would be prime to be ripped to shreds plus Boris Johnson but beyond UK politics you could have Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Barack Obama who are often lampooned in stuff like SNL.
They sold the concept and their expertise worldwide, obviously a British show isn't going to work abroad, no sales to be had there.
You, sir, clearly have a wafer thin knowledge of British comedians.
I thought it summed up a lot of British 'comedy' quite well.
I think the main problem with Spitting Image was that it got very repetitive, some people would watch the same gags every week particularly if they are gags about a politician they dislike, but most soon get bored. It is the same problem that most impressionists have, it does not matter how good you are if you do not have the material.
King's New Clothes syndrome. It was considered cutting edge comedy and who, in their younger days, wants to be considered out of step by not agreeing that every minute of every show was the funniest thing they'd ever seen? Some of it was funny, some of it was puerile and contrived. Blackadder was John Lloyd's finest achievement, once he got Ben Elton on board. Series one wasn't that great.
`Emperor`s New Clothes¬, you mean? I`m not sure Spitting Image falls into the category of laughing because all your mates did. It was shown on ITV on a Sunday and actually tended to be watched by all the family. Of course it was always patchy, and everyone admits that. Making a weekly, topical satire show must be difficult enough. Making a weekly, topical satire show with puppets must have been an absolute nightmare. I believe they were occasionally still putting the show together hours before it went out.
It took a couple of series to get into it`s stride, and then really took off around 85/86. I think the consensus is it dipped in quality when they stated concentrating more on showbiz than politics
.At it`s best it was daring, ground-breaking, and, yes, extremely funny.
`Emperor`s New Clothes¬, you mean? I`m not sure Spitting Image falls into the category of laughing because all your mates did. It was shown on ITV on a Sunday and actually tended to be watched by all the family. Of course it was always patchy, and everyone admits that. Making a weekly, topical satire show must be difficult enough. Making a weekly, topical satire show with puppets must have been an absolute nightmare. I believe they were occasionally still putting the show together hours before it went out.
It took a couple of series to get into it`s stride, and then really took off around 85/86. I think the consensus is it dipped in quality when they stated concentrating more on showbiz than politics
.At it`s best it was daring, ground-breaking, and, yes, extremely funny.
As you write, making a weekly topical satire show is difficult to enough. Add the complication of puppets then it is even more difficult. Probably the best topical satire shows have been the simplest, That Was The Week That Was had excellent writers and actors just performing the items to camera. Similarly radio programmes like Week Ending and Huddlines were very simple so could be very topical.
As you write, making a weekly topical satire show is difficult to enough. Add the complication of puppets then it is even more difficult. Probably the best topical satire shows have been the simplest, That Was The Week That Was had excellent writers and actors just performing the items to camera. Similarly radio programmes like Week Ending and Huddlines were very simple so could be very topical.
Well, the writers of Week Ending were also writers for Spitting Image. I recall more than one edition where the sketches were practically identical.
Did anyone notice from the clips that they had more than one version of the Margaret Thatcher puppet?
They redid the Thatcher puppet at least twice as time went by (she was is power for, what, 12 years?), if I remember rightly making it more and more masculine with each incarnation. I suspect that puppet had an awful lot of wear & tear, being probably the only puppet to appear in every episode of the show (maybe the queen did as well?) up until she resigned.
I have pointed out some reason why Spitting Images or show like it would not work,today the political people have no identity or personality and british culture now try hard to clone America unlike the 80's.And the celebrity's now are like some other say not funny or plain obvious dull like the politics and faceless.The only way I could see a spitting image working today if we had more money like the french to make puppets for a weekly based show like Les Guignols or Las noticias del guinol,and add original character to the cast and stick on newsnighty.Like what France have done with there one and make it a weekly not seasonal like Spitting Image was but that won't happen.
Comments
I couldn't see a spitting image type programme working today because there are no characters in politics anymore. whichever side of the commons you look they all look and sound the same (sharp suits, posh voice) the modern day yuppie.
showbiz is dominated by simon cowell, cheyl cole, towie and big brother. they're rammed down our throats so much that whenever they're names crop up it's whatever.
Yes, today's politicians are just men in suits. John Major was well portrayed as grey and dull but that worked well against a backdrop of colourful characters. These days they'd all be grey and dull. Politicians nowadays have all been stage-managed into utter blandness by media-savvy PR firms, no doubt in an effort to avoid them being lampooned by political satirists. It's a sad situation. The only colourful character left is Boris Johnson and he's his own Spitting Image puppet anyway, a living caricature of posh knob buffoonery.
As for the celebrity side of things, they might find a few faces to poke fun at (I'd like to see them have a go at the Top Gear team...) but mostly it would be somewhat pointless because the whole status of celebrity has been devalued and undermined by the "reality" nature of celebrity; again, many faces on TV are bland and virtually immune to caricature because celebrity is largely devoid of personality.
Even the Royal Family are an afterthought for most people these days. They only make headlines now when they're getting hitched or having babies. As much as the media tries to create some sort of Diana-substitute out of Kate I don't think many people really care.
Sad, really. With a General Election coming in the next year we really need a vehicle to laugh and poke fun at them. The trouble is that politics isn't as polarised as it was in the 80s. Most people (especially the young) don't even care who's in power because they see little difference between one party and another.
I do think there are political figures like Michael Gove who would be prime to be ripped to shreds plus Boris Johnson but beyond UK politics you could have Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Barack Obama who are often lampooned in stuff like SNL.
There was 2D TV, which is a good example, but there was Headcases as well which I mentioned as an example as it was made more recently and as a consequence may be closer to reflecting what a Spitting Image type of show might be like now.
A lot of work must have gone into it, but the writing just wasn't funny enough and some of the sketches seem to go on for ages.
Peter Fluck didn't like it.
Here's episode 1 on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb7_CWM48Pw
You, sir, clearly have a wafer thin knowledge of British comedians.
Royal Family piss takes and songs were my favourites.
Wouldn't work now though: 21st century satire is more cerebral/verbose and less visual...
There was something similar called Secret World on Radio4 more recently. No puppets obviously, but impressionists playing famous people in silly situations. Brilliant stuff, and cheap!
Yeah, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farrage are really dull just to pick two names at random.
Computer Animation isn't cheap either and you couldn't make episodes fast enough to ensure it was topical, Headcases was probably trying to be a CG Spitting Image but failed.
They sold the concept and their expertise worldwide, obviously a British show isn't going to work abroad, no sales to be had there.
I thought it summed up a lot of British 'comedy' quite well.
I think the main problem with Spitting Image was that it got very repetitive, some people would watch the same gags every week particularly if they are gags about a politician they dislike, but most soon get bored. It is the same problem that most impressionists have, it does not matter how good you are if you do not have the material.
`Emperor`s New Clothes¬, you mean? I`m not sure Spitting Image falls into the category of laughing because all your mates did. It was shown on ITV on a Sunday and actually tended to be watched by all the family. Of course it was always patchy, and everyone admits that. Making a weekly, topical satire show must be difficult enough. Making a weekly, topical satire show with puppets must have been an absolute nightmare. I believe they were occasionally still putting the show together hours before it went out.
It took a couple of series to get into it`s stride, and then really took off around 85/86. I think the consensus is it dipped in quality when they stated concentrating more on showbiz than politics
.At it`s best it was daring, ground-breaking, and, yes, extremely funny.
Go on then - tell us about it!:)
It wouldnt get made in this day and age.
As you write, making a weekly topical satire show is difficult to enough. Add the complication of puppets then it is even more difficult. Probably the best topical satire shows have been the simplest, That Was The Week That Was had excellent writers and actors just performing the items to camera. Similarly radio programmes like Week Ending and Huddlines were very simple so could be very topical.
I thought the show could have had more from the voice artists. It seemed to be a lot of stock footage with only a small amount of new material.
And it was a surprise that it's been 6 years since Perkins passed away.
Any one notice a Muse song/cover half way though? What was it?
Anyone remember The Jose Show with Rooney.