The Tommy Tiernan Show Thread - Mod warning, see OP

Fine Gael Spokesperson on Arts, Culture & Media, Ciaran Cannon:

Tweet since deleted but dug a deeper hole when apologising with another dig.

Very interesting first guest. That first 20 minutes flew by. Skipped Rosenstock - interviews with the RTE lifers just aren't what I watch the TTS for. Dabiri was alright, but it seems like at least once a series in latter series of the show, we get a guest whose thing is talking about their experience of being black in Ireland. It's a worthwhile subject, but I don't know how many more angles you can come at it from.

They're a bit like the girl who walked out of his show...no bother when other politicians are getting it but when it's their own...outrage.

It is worth considering how poorly crafted Tommy’s “joke” is. It has the traditional three part structure but it is completely humourless from start to finish.

The first part has him in the Zoo looking at penguins and telling us they look like nuns. Wow! that never occurred to us, Tommy! Still, it sets up a joke about religion, right? Wrong.

He then goes to the wolf enclosure and says the wolves are like the Irish because they’re fierce. Well, OK Tommy, if you say so. (Interestingly, a wolf enclosure has recently opened in Dublin Zoo - a real comedian might have used that as an intro, but not Tommy).

But here comes the payoff - the third part punchline. He goes to the Savannah area and says the animals are all taxi drivers! Oh no, that would be just nonsense. None of those animals resemble taxi drivers in any way (do taxis have zebra stripes? Do giraffes pick up passengers). So Tommy says “African Savannah” and now it’s supposed to be funny. Not because any African animal in the Zoo resembles a taxi driver. No, he said “African” only because he thinks we will be amused to imagine all Africans in Ireland drive taxis.

So yes, this is racist. And it is a crime, a crime against comedy. No wonder his daughter warned him against it. Not only is he blind to the racism, he is deaf to comedy. Did Tommy ever have a good joke, the kind of joke that a professional comedian might tell?

Incidentally, Roy Keane gave Tommy a masterclass in deadpan comedy in their recent interview (about his first date with his future wife). Wasting his breath on Tommy but there is a career in comedy for Roy if he is sick of the oil money in football

I skipped the first guest Ann Marie. Her synopsis of herself was enough to make me reach for the fast forward.

Mario was surprisingly interesting. Like you I was going to skip him. But Tommy knocked good talk out him. Got to understand the process he does when creating characters.

The sociologist/historian Emma had some interesting viewpoints. But she seemed very wrapped up in it. Would talk for Ireland.

A lot of Rosenstock's characters sound the same too.

Rosenstock just sounds like himself a lot of the time now, he must have video footage of a top today fm executive doing a Vito on a security guard to still be in employment with them

Seems like a nice enough chap but he's just not funny

Yes, that's true. I don't see or hear him that much and I also think that he sounds very much like himself these days when I do come across him on tv or radio.

I will admit to not hearing his more modern songs as I’d only hear him a handful of times a year now but the older songs you named are going back to his heyday when he was top class. Bertie, Jose, Wenger, Roy Keane, Mick McCarthy etc. He had good materiel, good impressions and the songs were excellent.

Callan just never has been, and never will be, in that league.

You guys must live in a parrelell universe. Never even heard Rosenstock signing that I am aware of and I have either a radio or television playing irish content on all day every day. Obviously he is minor league in terms of exposure/success to Callan.

That you like him more than Callan is a subjective thing and you are entitled to that, no argument. Who is the more successful is an objective fact though.

Callan's Kicks is 50 years late, and devoid of originality A poor man's Frank Hall.

That’s why I originally stated it’s an outdated form of comedy and Rosenstock is passed it now, he’s been doing it for 25 years and it’s gone stale. That’s also the problem with Callan, he’s trying to do what was extremely successful 20 plus years ago but he’s nowhere near as good as the man that made it successful.

That’s it in a nutshell.

Comedy/satire has died out? Who knew.

I hear this all the time..'such and such is no Frank Hall', i.e. tedious nonsense that ignores the fact that Hall was also hit and miss and wasn't original...satiure having existed for a long time before him. Scrap Saturday was too, it's the nature of the format. Don't like this skit, there'll be another along in a moment etc etc.

Rosenstock didn't invent the satirical ditty so he wasn't 'original' either. Maureen Potter and the vaudivilles of the Dublin scene were at it long before he was.

I assume you know that Callan started out on his comedy career by working with Rosenstock? He was a voice in some of Rosenstock’s sketches when he was working as a newsreader in Today fm, back about 15 or so years ago? He basically then moved on to try and mimic what Rosenstock had done as he saw the success of it.

Comedy and satire will never die out (I hope!) but it evolves, Rosenstock is probably too long in the tooth to evolve now and isn’t bothered, Callan should have taken over from him with something new instead of trying to rehash the same.

Anyway it seems we’re only going round in circles and this is the Tommy Tiernan show thread and we’ve majorly derailed that so I’m going to leave it at that. I’ll agree to disagree with you if you like!

Nah I will raise you one. You know that fella John Creedon? Wandering around Ireland etc. Tommy could do a version of that going around comedy clubs in Nigeria, for example.

Talk to the comedians about the type of comedy they do and the type of comedy that is now viewed as off limits. Has comedy in Nigeria changed like the way comedy in the UK/Ireland has had to change? Because of social media and the 21st century world? Tommy finds out in a new 8 part series exclusive to RTE.