Sitcom about the famine

Minderbinder

'Hungry' is a sitcom written by Hugh Travers that Channel 4 were interested in producing, until some people decided it was inappropriate.

This is kind of touching on the thread about free speech but what do you think about this specific issue?

There is nobody alive today that even met anyone that experienced this event. It is ancient history. How can someone be offended by this?

Atlantic Dawn

What famine?

weldoninhio

Minderbinder wrote: »

'Hungry' is a sitcom written by Hugh Travers that Channel 4 were interested in producing, until some people decided it was inappropriate.

This is kind of touching on the thread about free speech but what do you think about this specific issue?

There is nobody alive today that even met anyone that experienced this event. It is ancient history. How can someone be offended by this?

Where was this famine?

Cool_CM

Minderbinder wrote: »

There is nobody alive today that even met anyone that experienced this event. It is ancient history. How can someone be offended by this?

Because they they are looking for a reason to be offended.

tomwaterford

In fairness I fail to see the comedy value that can be got from the famine??




You don't see too many comedies on genocide in fairness

masti123

Too soon..

XR3i

too soon

Cool_CM

tomwaterford wrote: »

You don't see too many comedies on genocide in fairness

Here's a good one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmYIo7bcUw

wylo

If it was well written then I'm sure it wouldn't be laughing at the expense of the dead. You can have comedies about tragic historical events , black adder, mash. These comedies were not only funny but thought younger people a thing or two about those events

My name is URL

Minderbinder wrote: »

interested in producing, until some people decided it was inappropriate.

They never said it was cancelled due to people's reaction after it was announced.

New shows get canned all the time. Maybe it was just as shit as it sounded

Ruu

Didn't like the canned laughter in dis.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Minderbinder wrote: »

There is nobody alive today that even met anyone that experienced this event. It is ancient history.

On a point of order. My grandfather was alive during the famine of 1879 and I met him many times.


It's a crass subject for a comedy. No more no less.

osarusan

It would all depend on how it was written and how it treated the subject of the famine itself.

The fact that a comedy is set in the famine does not necessarily mean that it is trivialising the famine, in my opinion.

Hard to imagine it continuing to be funny as the series progressed though and as characters and plots developed.

weisses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2DCExerOsA

Bigger tragedy

And hilarious

So not too soon

Azalea

wylo wrote: »

If it was well written then I'm sure it wouldn't be laughing at the expense of the dead. You can have comedies about tragic historical events , black adder, mash. These comedies were not only funny but thought younger people a thing or two about those events

I will never understand the appeal of M*A*S*H (just don't find it funny - not tasteless though) but otherwise, fully agreed. Blackadder did a beautiful job of the first world war. There was never disrespect of the dead, only of the powers that be which sent them to their death.

Ditto numerous Jewish comedians in relation to Hitler.

Their philosophy was: monsters should be laughed at.

Not sure how the Irish famine could be placed in a satirical comedy context though - difficult one to pull off, but perhaps...

c_man

Minderbinder wrote: »

There is nobody alive today that even met anyone that experienced this event.

My granny (still kicking at 98) tells stories that her grandparents told her of the time.

I'm not offended at the idea of the sitcom, if it was funny at least. But big meh tbh. Such a comedy coming from the Brits differs from the example of Jewish comedians doing The Producers for obvious reasons I would have thought.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Cool_CM wrote: »

Here's a good one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmYIo7bcUw

I might be the only one but I honestly never found the producers to be that funny.Seemed like they were just hitting you over the head with the joke over and over.

Minderbinder

My name is URL wrote: »

They never said it was cancelled due to people's reaction after it was announced.

New shows get canned all the time. Maybe it was just as shit as it sounded

In what way did it sound bad? I didn't read it myself as I didn't know the script had leaked.

It's a sitcom based during a particular time in a particular place, just like every other sitcom. The time and place generally has no bearing on whether it's good or not.

RobertKK

My great grandfather was 18 years old when the famine started.

I must ask my father while he is still alive (will be 90 this year, I am still under 40 for a few months) if his father told him anything about the famine from his father. Never thought of asking.

As for the now canned sitcom, guess it lacked enough meat.

Satts

My Great Grand Aunt was alive during the famine, a proud lesbian she was, she told my Grandmother that she didn't have a bit of meat inside her during those years.

My name is URL

Minderbinder wrote: »

In what way did it sound bad? I didn't read it myself as I didn't know the script had leaked.

It's a sitcom based during a particular time in a particular place, just like every other sitcom. The time and place generally has no bearing on whether it's good or not.

The creator said that it was going to be 'Shameless set in famine times'

I don't know if it would have been good or bad as an actual show, but as an idea it sounded pretty crap. Just my opinion

Hammer89

Was it called The Price is Blight?

The Randy Riverbeast

It was only around the proposal stage. There was a script for the pilot at most as far as I remember. Scripts are rejected all of the time. I would guess this was more about not meeting a standard rather than offence.

Galwayguy35

Lot's of things that can be used to make a comedy series apart from the famine that killed over a million of our people, there is a famine graveyard near where I live so I'm glad this programme was scrapped.

JustShon

I think it's in bad taste so I wouldn't watch it if it was produced.

The idea of it doesn't offend me so I wouldn't be breaking out the protest signs but I'd probably have a little personal boycott of the show.

bruschi

Sofia Plump Rink wrote: »

On a point of order. My grandfather was alive during the famine of 1879 and I met him many times.


It's a crass subject for a comedy. No more no less.

well you are wrong by about 30 years, which in most cases is a generation.

edit: I meant the subject of the sitcom was the Great famine of 1847. Meaningless point in the scheme of things though, carry on...

Galwayguy35

bruschi wrote: »

well you are wrong by about 30 years, which in most cases is a generation.

There was a famine in 1879.

looksee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines

And there was a famine in 1879, though it did not have the impact of the earlier one.

bruschi

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

There was a famine in 1879.

the sitcom was about the great famine was it not?

weldoninhio

The fact that so many people still call it a "famine" shows how little people know about it. There was plenty of food around to feed the Irish, it was exported by the English though.

This was a genocide on a mass scale and nothing else. I'd recommend the book "The Graves are Walking" to get a better insight into what happened.

AnonoBoy

bruschi wrote: »

the sitcom was about the great famine was it not?

Well it was a good famine but I'm not sure if you'd call it a great famine. /Dunphy


As people said - there's no suggestion it wasn't greenlit because of the subject matter. Broadcasters commission scripts all the time that don't make it to air - they even shoot pilots that don't make it to air.

Galwayguy35

bruschi wrote: »

the sitcom was about the great famine was it not?

It was.

bruschi

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

It was.

sorry, just re read my post there and it should have been clearer.

Lollipops23

I remember hearing about this a while back and, like other posters have mentioned, I was at a loss to see how it could be at all entertaining.

There's a reason we've yet to see a sitcom set in a concentration camp- some subjects are just not suitable for humourous scripts, even if the best satirists have a crack at it.

Menas

A sitcom about the famine sounds about as much fun as making a romcom from Peig Sayers's book.

The Backwards Man

A sitcom about the extraordinarily exciting lives of those who cry genocide at the first mention of famine would be funnier imo.

Lollipops23

Lollipops23 wrote: »

There's a reason we've yet to see a sitcom set in a concentration camp- some subjects are just not suitable for humourous scripts, even if the best satirists have a crack at it.

Tenko.

Except it wasn't a concentration camp. And it was never funny.

HalloweenJack

Like others, if the sitcom was actually funny, I don't see the problem.

If something is genuinely funny, regardless of the subject matter, I don't have a problem, it's a joke, and I think once people start saying "Oh, you can't make jokes about X" then we start losing our sense of humour.

If it's just piss-poor jokes about people starving and people in ridiculous Irish accents running around saying "po-TAY-toes" then I wouldn't be inclined to watch it. It doesn't strike me as particularly funny subject matter so I would be interested in seeing what it's like.

Anybody ever hear of/see "Heil Hitler, I'm home"? It's terrible, but not because of the subject matter, it's just terribly unfunny.

psicic

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Tenko.

Except it wasn't a concentration camp. And it was never funny.

Hogan's Heroes.

Except it wasn't a concentration camp. And it was never funny.

vagazzled

The Backwards Man wrote: »

A sitcom about the extraordinarily exciting lives of those who cry genocide at the first mention of famine would be funnier imo.

Yea, and like Alan Partridge says, "Well, if they could afford to emigrate,, they could afford to eat in a modestly priced restaurant."

I suggest you educate yourself on the real history, there was no 'famine'-there was still plenty of food in the country. The potato crop failed yes, and a huge percentage of the remaining food went to England, under armed guard.

AnonoBoy

Lollipops23 wrote: »

I remember hearing about this a while back and, like other posters have mentioned, I was at a loss to see how it could be at all entertaining.

A good writer can wring humour or pathos from nearly any subject. Chris Morris managed to make a hilarious show about paedophilia and a really brilliant laugh out loud film about suicide bombers.

Now I'm not suggesting that this script was fantastic (in fact none of us know because we haven't read it) but deciding that it couldn't be funny because of the subject matter is just blinkered thinking.

There's a reason we've yet to see a sitcom set in a concentration camp- some subjects are just not suitable for humourous scripts, even if the best satirists have a crack at it.

Ever seen Life is Beautiful? Hilarious, heart warming film about the Holocaust....

ohnonotgmail

Deleted User wrote: »

Tenko.

Except it wasn't a concentration camp. And it was never funny.

It was never funny because Tenko was not a sitcom. It was serious drama.

Junkyard Tom

I think English/British producers would be better placed to make a few documentaries about the numerous mass-starvations that happened due to British colonialism.

"The great evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine itself but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse, and turbulent character of the [Irish] people"

Sir Charles Travelyan.

The Backwards Man

vagazzled wrote: »

Yea, and like Alan Partridge says, "Well, if they could afford to emigrate,, they could afford to eat in a modestly priced restaurant."

I suggest you educate yourself on the real history, there was no 'famine'-there was still plenty of food in the country. The potato crop failed yes, and a huge percentage of the remaining food went to England, under armed guard.

Right on cue.

By real history do you mean your slant on it, or the truth?

Junkyard Tom

Making a sitcom about the Nazi holocaust doesn't require the viewer to wonder whether or not the Nazis were to blame - it's cut-and-dried. Here in Ireland we have an entrenched 5th column who will do their utmost to deflect responsibility from where it ultimately lay i.e. British colonialism.

Lollipops23

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Ever seen Life is Beautiful? Hilarious, heart warming film about the Holocaust....

I have, great film! Having said that- it's been featured in psychology classes to study the paradoxical ending- as in, it's happy but also devastating.

The Backwards Man

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

Making a sitcom about the Nazi holocaust doesn't require the viewer to wonder whether or not the Nazis were to blame - it's cut-and-dried. Here in Ireland we have an entrenched 5th column who will do their utmost to deflect responsibility from where it ultimately lay i.e. British colonialism.

Well, I think that depends on whether or not you believe that directly causing something and indirectly allowing (most) of the conditions to exist for causing something are one and the same. For some it is cut and dried, for others it's a bit more complicated than that

Junkyard Tom

weisses wrote: »

Bigger tragedy

It's not considered a tragedy in Britain but 'The Great War'. The people who died in it are not considered victims but principled heroes who died for a 'good cause' (whatever the fuck that was? British Imperialism?).

Junkyard Tom

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Well, I think that depends on whether or not you believe that directly causing something and indirectly allowing (most) of the conditions to exist for causing something are one and the same. For some it is cut and dried, for others it's a bit more complicated than that

Oh I'm sure you'd find plenty of literature that would say the Nazi holocaust was not a cut-and-dried evil project if you were to look for it. It's just that that type of literature is not taken seriously because the Nazis lost spectacularly.

The ideological underpinning of both the holocaust and the Irish mass-starvation was essentially Malthusian. The feeble-minded subordinates need to be culled before they out-breed the good stock. The motivations were also similar - control of persons and property, racism, ideological fundamentalism etc.

RobertKK

In Ireland, it is not the done thing to say the famine was a form of genocide, even though the policy of food exports from a starving nation was a policy that came from the government in Westminster.

In New Jersey and New York, education about the Irish famine became contentious in the 1990s as the British were not happy that the Irish famine was included as being a holocaust.
The apologists for the British just wanted to make out it was simply a crop failure, and not mention how food was exported from a famine region and in some cases under military guard.
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-87915680/the-new-jersey-famine-curriculum-a-report

It should be viewed as something that was avoidable.

The Irish famine was probably the most significant famine in world history. All the talk about the 1916 rebellion but the famine was the catalyst. Irish people to this day I believe are still affected by that history, it is so powerful.
It led to a much increased wave of emigration to the point far more people who meet the requirements for an Irish passport live outside the island, and so many people from abroad have direct links back to Ireland.

The famine if it was designed to crush the Irish (given it could have been avoided) in the end made Ireland a far more powerful country on the international stage, compared to our size.
It gave us blood links to some influential countries.

Fratton Fred

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

"The great evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine itself but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse, and turbulent character of the [Irish] people"

Sir Charles Travelyan.

That's right, the evil people who profitered from rising crop prices and bought up imports, stick piled them and sold them to the work houses at exorbitant prices.