The Klaxons

[Mr. Cheese]

Least charismatic band ever? You can tell they are in love with their TVs.

 

[sodiumnightlife]

i do like some of their t shirts though.

 

[nomadologist]

Thank god for Youtube! That way Mistersloane can witness the hilarity that is a Klaxons music video without even having a TV!

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[Mr. Tea]

I completely and utterly fail to believe any sit-com is even way to half decent. And don't tell me it's 'Are You Being Served?' 'cos that was pants n all.

So...

...Spaced, The League Of Gentlemen (more of a sketch show, but never mind), Peep Show, Nighty Night, I'm Alan Partridge, Nathan Barley, The Mighty Boosh and Saxondale are all unremittingly awful? And that's just shows from the past few years - if you want to talk about old stuff, Blackadder, The Young Ones and Bottom are some of the funniest things that've ever been on TV.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Right on!

I know someone who was in Jimmy The Hoover, does that count?

You're making these up now, aren't you?

 

[noel emits]

Ned Flanders' Atomic Dustbin (for nomadologist)
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[UFO over easy]

I haven't said that TV is a pacifying medium. It's a distraction

yes, but what I'm saying is that unless it's because it pacifies, I do not see why distraction is a bad thing. I mean, what is it distraction from exactly? Other, more worthy means of distraction like books? Or the internet? Because this thread is obviously distracting you quite nicely Now you might say that Dissensus is a more worthy distraction than, say, dogsonacid, or the website of Heat Magazine, but then by the same token I think the Simpsons is more worthy a distraction than Big Brother.

But that's not the point. They still have your attention! That's all that TV demands of you.

Who are they exactly? Program makers? Advertising agencies? The inventor of TV? And why do you keep referring to TV as if it's some kind of conscious life-sapping force?

and a great way to sell stuff. The Simpson's is the pacifier allowing you to believe more easily that it can't really be bad.

Now you're just insulting my intelligence, and yours too If you're smart enough to be pointing out stuff like this, you're smart enough not to be duped into buying shit you see on tele. And for people that are, it's an issue that goes far deeper - take away television and you're still faced with the problem that society is full of stupid people. Advertising would still find a way. TV is just a medium - there's crass TV, but the same goes for everything.

I would say that you have probably exercised more conscious choice in immersing yourself in the Selected Ambient Works of Werner Herzog than in watching what makes it to the TV screen most of the time.

Most of the time is the key phrase there. Most TV is unchallenging - so is most media.

But in any case the content isn't really the point.

No, and nor is the medium. The point is that people allow themselves to be sucked in by all these different pacifying forces - if TV, music and the internet didn't exist, something else would. People need distractions. The kind of problems you're talking about can't be tackled simply by taking something away, or just calling it bad and leaving it at that - that's quite a fairly right wing, patronising viewpoint I reckon. These things run deeper. OBJECTIVITY IS THE ENEMY etc.

the more fun and the more high quality the worse it is. It's a hell of a lot easier though I'll admit.

Easier than what?

I'm off to watch the Prom on TV. Because, yknow, I'm a middle class stereotype - I saw it on TV.

 

[nomadologist]

Courtney Love claims it's that Alan Partridge guy's fault that Owen Wilson got addicted to speedballs and tried to kill himself.

 

[nomadologist]

Ned Flanders' Atomic Dustbin (for nomadologist)

bahhaaha

you think that poster still has the same haircut?

 

[Mr. Tea]

Courtney Love claims it's that Alan Partridge guy's fault that Owen Wilson got addicted to speedballs and tried to kill himself.

Steve Coogan is fucking hardcore.

He's too hardcore for Courtney Love, in fact.

 

[nomadologist]

that is a dubious honor

 

[swears]

Well, if we're going to get all youtube about this:

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[swears]

I've got to admit though, when television is good, it can be very good. Curb your Enthusiasm is one of the few things that can still make me crease up with laughter.

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[Mr. Tea]

How do you post them embedded video things?

 

[matt b]

Edit: William Hill have just offered 3/1 odds that a regular poster on this internet message board used to play bass in Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

i used to see the singer of ned's atomic dustbin' regularly on my twice weekly* wanders into stourbridge town centre of a lunch time.

to make post relevant: the fringe had gone.








*estimate

 

[swears]

There's a little box with details next to the videos, and the embedding code is in there to copy and paste.

 

[noel emits]

...

Distraction isn't so much from, it's to.

They? Well TV is expensive to produce. It has to make money nearly all the time one way or another. That immediately has the effect of skewing it's agenda.

The stuff being 'sold' doesn't have to be actual stuff, it can be ideas, gestalts, and this doesn't even have to be deliberate. Very few people are immune to being influenced by environmental factors. I'd say it's worth knowing who is creating those environments and why, and how they work? When you consume any media or art you are immersing yourself in someone else's lies.

And why is society full of stupid people?

One of the main problems with TV as a medium is the way in which it effectively shifts mental activity from left to right brain and induces alpha wave (dreamlike) activity, making it an effective mainline into the subconscious that bypasses the critical faculties. Watching TV has also been shown to trigger the release of endorphins in the brain possibly making it actually physically addictive. Can't say I've seen any evidence of that though

Easier than? Honestly facing your immediate environment? Talking to each other? Not constantly plugging into the media matrix? Producing instead of consuming? Yes I know we are not all guilty of all these things all of the time.

I haven't talked at all about taking anyones smack, sorry TV, away, except my own.

Calling it bad and leaving it at that? Well that's because I only really mentioned TV in the first place as a light hearted aside to swears wanting to ban everything.

 

[noel emits]

Yes Curb is very very good.

Better on DVD (or youtube or tv-links) though when you can watch a whole load in one go.

 

[swears]

I only really mentioned TV in the first place as a light hearted aside to swears wanting to ban everything.

You couldn't ban everything, then there wouldn't be anything left to ban. Ban, ban ban banban banana, ba ban.

 

[noel emits]

to make post relevant: the fringe had gone.

Now this is why the internet > tv.