Hungry? C4 to create comedy series...about the famine

david75

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Does he? Can't see that on his list of credits.

Would you admit to it? i wouldnt.

AnonoBoy

david75 wrote: »

Would you admit to it? i wouldnt.

Probably not.

But where are you getting that he does write for her?

Doris300

People love nothing more than to get offended

Timberrrrrrrr

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

So when will the series on the famine in Ethopia be coming on our screens, bet that will be hilarious.

30 years ago might be too soon though, let's laugh at the 1 million who died by the roadside in the 1840's instead and are probably buried all around us.

There's a comedy out about North Korea atm not seeing too much hand wringing over that.

Galwayguy35

Venus In Furs wrote: »

Wish people would stop getting offended before seeing the flipping thing. As has been said, comedies have been done about lots of awful periods in history, and with taste and sensitivity.

Kinda begs the question why make them into comedies in the first place.

AnonoBoy

Doris300 wrote: »

People love nothing more than to get offended

I'm offended at how offended people are getting and I love it!

AnonoBoy

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Kinda begs the question why make them into comedies in the first place.

Because it can be funny to do so?

Paedophilia is a serious topic but the Brass Eye paedophile special is hilarious.

But then again Heil Honey I'm Home - the sitcom about Hitler - was awful.

flunkyfearsome

I know I've possible got loads of family who sadly died in the Famine and I think we need to get over it, the past is the past we need to look at the future, also anyone else look at horrible history they have a good try at making fun at their own expense, stupid deaths is a good one.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

pillphil wrote: »

Do you imagine that despite the misery, there wasn't a streak of black humour running through the people who had to endure the famine?
Humour is how we survive the worst things that happen to us.
A show laughing at the stupid dying paddies who didn't know how to grow anything but potatoes would be disrespectful (but since it happened 200 years ago, not something to be offended by), a show about how people used humour to cope with the misery wouldn't be disrespectful.

For all I know, he could be making the first example, but since it doesn't even exist yet, perhaps it's a bit early to getting outraged.

I'm not outraged, nor does my post convey outrage. I've actually said I'll wait and see. Just think it's a risky theme given the reasons I mentioned. If they nail it, I'll be the first to say fair play to them.

Galwayguy35

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

There's a comedy out about North Korea atm not seeing too much hand wringing over that.

Big difference in a comedy about North Korea and what this is about.

Obviously not to you though.

AnonoBoy

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Big difference in a comedy about North Korea and what this is about.

Obviously not to you though.

Ever seen Life is Beautiful?

I have Jewish friends who laughed and cried at that film despite having lost family members during the Holocaust.

Galwayguy35

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Ever seen Life is Beautiful?

I have Jewish friends who laughed and cried at that film despite having lost family members during the Holocaust.

Strange reaction.

There is a famine graveyard up the road from me, all the bodies thrown in together and only a few rocks to mark their passing and no headstone to remember them by, I pass this place everyday and it's just seems a strange subject to want to make fun of.

AnonoBoy

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Strange reaction.

Not a strange reaction at all. It's a funny film which manages to be about the Holocaust without being disrespectful to the tragedy.

There is a famine graveyard up the road from me, all the bodies thrown in together and only a few rocks to mark their passing and no headstone to remember them by, I pass this place everyday and it's just seems a strange subject to want to make fun of.

This is the thing. It's a comedy set during Famine times - that doesn't mean it's making fun of the famine.

scouttio

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Strange reaction.

There is a famine graveyard up the road from me, all the bodies thrown in together and only a few rocks to mark their passing and no headstone to remember them by, I pass this place everyday and it's just seems a strange subject to want to make fun of.

This is what is annoying me about the reactions about the idea. People seem to think its going to be poking fun at the stupid hungry paddy Irishman. Nobody knows what sort of tone it will take, what sort of stories will be told, nobody knows where the comedy will come from. The likes of MASH (the tv show anyway, never saw the film) most of the comedy in the show came from the characters and their indiosyncracies and their personalities, and just happened to set during a war. People seem to get the wrong idea about comedy and think its all about making jokes at peoples expense.


Or, you know, what the 2 guys above me said...

niamhstokes

Will they be making a comedy about the holocaust too?


I don't see anything funny in over ONE MILLION of our people who died of starvation (while the British at the time had hoped more didn't die for the economy and exported food from Ireland under armed escort).

Billy86

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Strange reaction.

There is a famine graveyard up the road from me, all the bodies thrown in together and only a few rocks to mark their passing and no headstone to remember them by, I pass this place everyday and it's just seems a strange subject to want to make fun of.

Great films, TV shows, etc tend to do that - Life is Beautiful won the second highest prize at Cannes, best foreign language film at the Oscars and was even nominated for best picture (which is very rare for foreign language films). Basing a comedy on something tragic does not automatically mean you are making fun of or mocking the victims of it, I'm not sure why you seem to think it does?

AnonoBoy

niamhstokes wrote: »

Will they be making a comedy about the holocaust too?

It's already been made - Life is Beautiful. Guy won best actor in the Oscars for it.

Again people are jumping to presume it will be mocking the dead as opposed to possibly just being a comedy set during that time.

Many would fail to see anything funny about all the millions that died in WWI but yet Blackadder managed to be a brilliant sitcom set during that time.

My name is URL

scouttio wrote: »

This is what is annoying me about the reactions about the idea. People seem to think its going to be poking fun at the stupid hungry paddy Irishman. Nobody knows what sort of tone it will take, what sort of stories will be told, nobody knows where the comedy will come from.

The guy writing it said exactly what kind of 'tone' they're going for

We’re kind of thinking of it as “Shameless” in famine Ireland.

It's clearly not going to be some kind of cerebral comedy like Frasier. The lazy title of the show alone is an indicator of what brand of humor you can expect.

mfceiling

AnonoBoy wrote: »

It's already been made - Life is Beautiful. Guy won best actor in the Oscars for it.

Again people are jumping to presume it will be mocking the dead as opposed to possibly just being a comedy set during that time.

Many would fail to see anything funny about all the millions that died in WWI but yet Blackadder managed to be a brilliant sitcom set during that time.

Cheers AnonoBoy...had never heard of this movie before. Definitely giving this a watch in the future!!

mark13

Has anyone brought up the Holocaust yet?

ireland.man

I'm finally outraged that a British show is going to make fun of (or at least be insensitive to) non-Traveller Irish people! Like a 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' but for us!! Disgraceful.

Allyall

My name is URL wrote: »

The guy writing it said exactly what kind of 'tone' they're going for

We’re kind of thinking of it as “Shameless” in famine Ireland.

It's clearly not going to be some kind of cerebral comedy like Frasier. The lazy title of the show alone is an indicator of what brand of humor you can expect.

So basically, portraying them as petty criminals..

Something that doesn't seem to have been mentioned also, is that the timing announcing that they were planning on making this coincided with this news
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/31/bones-found-on-canadian-beach-likely-from-coffin-ship-from-irelands-great-famine/

I think the people that think it may be done in a decent tone, or tastefully, are missing the point entirely.

martyos121

A comedy about the famine?!

Talk about no taste!

AnonoBoy

Allyall wrote: »

Something that doesn't seem to have been mentioned also, is that the timing announcing that they were planning on making this coincided with this news
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/31/bones-found-on-canadian-beach-likely-from-coffin-ship-from-irelands-great-famine/

I doubt that's anything but coincidence.

Also - the guy has been commissioned to write the show. That's no guarantee that it will ever get made.

Allyall

AnonoBoy wrote: »

I doubt that's anything but coincidence.

Also - the guy has been commissioned to write the show. That's no guarantee that it will ever get made.

I know it's a coincidence, hardly planned, but I just thought it unusual that it hadn't been mentioned. It may kind of sink it home to a few.

Who's idea was it to comission somebody to write it in the first place?

Standman

It could be good or it could be shite. Let's wait and see! :eek:

My name is URL

Allyall wrote: »

I know it's a coincidence, hardly planned, but I just thought it unusual that it hadn't been mentioned. It may kind of sink it home to a few.

Who's idea was it to comission somebody to write it in the first place?

Hungry came about after Channel 4 read one of Travers’s other scripts and gave him an open commission for a sitcom. “Any idea I wanted – which was a massive opportunity and at the same time, seriously daunting,” he says.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/big-ideas-for-2015-a-famine-sitcom-music-running-body-painting-and-food-1.2044322

Seems unlikely to me that'll even make it as far as production. The guy may have prematurely blown his wad by speaking about it to the media at all.

Allyall

In a world where Tiger Woods gets dropped from his sponsors because he has affairs, People get prison because of what they write on Facebook, and the UK has strict laws - their negative right to freedom of speech, I doubt that it will get made also. The fact that a TV station from the Country responsible for the great famine, has even discussed it, is quite surprising.

Let them try and make the same sitcom, but base it in Ethiopia.

buried

What would the response in America be if a sit-com was made with "wit and sensitivity" about 9-11? Or for the British to make one about the death of Princess Diana or the Hillsborough disaster maybe? Make one about the famine in Ethiopia during the 1980's? Those subjects would never be touched with a barge-pole by any 'sit-com' TV executive, but its acceptable for the British to make one about a disaster that was orchestrated towards the poorest of Irish people and the grim situation made even worse by the then British authorities during it? That's not funny, That's F**ked up.
And whats the title - "Hungry"??? Should be called "Genocide" because that's what it was. That's akin to NBC in America making a sit-com about the history of African Slave trade and calling it "Whipping" or some other totally f**king ignorant title.

bnt

martyos121 wrote: »

A comedy about the famine?!

Talk about no taste!

Well, of course - how can you have taste if you don't have food?

Ever tried Googling "Holocaust Humor"? Try it, you might be surprised by articles like this (in the highly respectable Utne Reader):

Israeli children of survivors collect Holocaust jokes as a hobby, notes Tamar Fox, who wrote Inherited Memories: Israeli Children of Holocaust Survivors (Cassel Academic, 1999). "Mostly, they are a kind of ethnic joke, whose self-irony aims at deflating, rather than destroying," she writes. In a telephone interview, Fox quietly recounts jokes she told as a child, afraid her 7-year-old son might overhear. "Why did Hitler commit suicide? Because he got the gas bill." Or, "What's the difference between a loaf of bread and a Jew? A loaf of bread doesn't scream when you put it in the oven."

"At the time it was the need to shock," she continues. "I don't think I was a wicked child. It seemed like the only way available to tackle something scary. For me, at home, it was easier to discuss sex than the Holocaust."

"Fun!" Moshe Waldoks spits, imitating the accented fury of a survivor. "You're making fun of our suffering?! What do you know about vat vee vent through!" Into the silence ripped by Waldoks' scripted fury, Lisa Lipkin drops an answer: "We're not making fun of what you went through. We're making fun of what we're going through now."