Marc walked into the house as the stereotypical muscle-bound-dull as a brush- male bimbo

I think we were all probably taken aback to discover he was an intelligent young man with academic achievements to match his obvious quick wit and agile mind

The op suggests that his level of 'banter' is a poor reflection of all that

Well, let's consider why that might be

Could it be that he is clever enough to know he's on Big Brother, not University Challenge ? and clever enough to know that he needs to use his smarts in a way that meets the requirements of being on a show that generally 'celebrates' thickness and course behaviour ?

We've had two winners who were loved for p*ssing the bed for God's sake !

Marc I think views life as a stage with him the star of the show and everyone else his props.

I find him quite tiresome, good turn but on far too long.

Marc certainly has a Scholarship in Big Brother and must have studied years of footage to be this good an HM! I'm not doubting this is the real him, but he'd be discerning enough at home to know when to hold back the more extreme behaviour. Not here though - "these are not his friends" so we're getting the all singing, all dancing, all insulting MARC SHOW - centre stage giving the performance of his life!

Some of marcs appeal is precisely because he has gone into a house of strangers and done the unimagineable.
Somebody else on the forum (i forget who) said it reminded them of a C5 programme where a person had to take an actor posing as their best freind to have sunday lunch with their parents and the actors role was to be spikey and ott as Marc is.
Its called situational comedy.
Its comedy. Its not real life.

It's not the unimaginable, it's something most people don't do because they aren't obnoxious jerks and delusional. People still do stuff like that all the time in real life... Marc's not something special or one of a kind, you will find people like him all over colleges getting drunk, or party spots acting like an idiot even moreso. I mean his show is a spinoff of a spinoff.... People have been acting like this for years.

It's not real life technically being a surreal environment and situation but it still involves real people and simulates real life in the context of people living together 24/7 and interacting with each other as such. There's a balance to be reached of entertainment and understanding these are real people living together and not characters in my opinion. There's also supposed to be some commentary/observational analysis on society through this smaller scale experience in how i see it. I don't like the idea of trying to make it out as if it's not real and it's just a bunch of characters entertaining... it takes away from the entirety which is part of the problem in what's happening. Marc can do anything and everything in the name of entertainment for example which is betraying the larger scale commentary on society with consequences and causality.

This for me too. For me it's a deal breaker.

I also see he is doing stuff by the numbers which for me isn't very clever.

I might like him if he was just himself.

Thanks, Scarlet, you've summed him up perfectly for me.

He's a bully, the HM's are like rabbits caught in headlights too aware of their public image to take him on. Being a stripper he see's the absolute worse side of females so it's no wonder he thinks they are all tarts. He certainly keeps them on their toes with his habit of one minute kicking ass, next kissing up.
It's great TV but in reality he's just an overbearing stripper.

He is just a crude wind-up merchant.

From Marc's Big Bumper Book of Banter: "You've got STDs you fat slut!"
(Young women simper and swoon at his feet...)

You can pull it apart and analyse it all you like, but he still has more charisma, character and intelligence about him than the rest of them put together. Danny who zzzzz.

Yeah except he has the wit not to put it quite like you did.

True.

Really?

Can't say I've noticed this wit of his, but it certainly sounds like something he would say.

I agree his humour is very typical Irish, he`s great craic... Though he`s a shameful Irishman that can`t hold his drink!