Can't curb my enthusiasm...

I'm excited about this (although, arguably, it should've ended before now). Although it will, no doubt, be months before I see it. Larry, I heart you, you old misery guts. The story arc for this series - cast of Seinfeld reunite, to cut several programme outlines short - sounds as promising as The Producers-based series, which was, for me, the best Curb yet. Bring it on.

Dee do do do...

Apologies to Bob, who heard all this in the pub the other day...

Lead Balloon. Hmf. It's not that it doesn't make me laugh. It's not that Jack Dee can't act. It's not the washed out colour palette. No, none of those things make me dislike Lead Balloon and its 'creator'. It's just that I wish that Jack Dee would hold his hands up and say it loud - and he could even say it proud - that Lead Balloon owes an enormous debt of gratitude to Curb Your Enthusiasm. But with each and every interview - and since the return of the show and its arrival on BBC2 there have been many - Jack Dee seems to move further and further away from acknowledging that Lead Balloon is an extremely derivative piece of work. Now, there's nothing wrong with being derivative, of course (hell, nothing's original. I thank you messrs Milligan, Palin, Gilliam, Orton, Cook, Rossiter, Nobbs, Adams et al for all that I have taken from you. My words are but a pale imitation of yours). But why can't he just say it? Just once would do. Something along the lines of "Without Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lead Balloon would never have existed". And why haven't interviewers aske him about the obvious influence? Have they been briefed not to ask the question? There are differences - Curb is improvised by a team of extremely talented comic performers around a hefty outline, Lead Balloon's each and every line is unquestionably, precisely scripted by Dee and Pete Sinclair. Rick Spleen's a made up name, Larry David isn't. But the similarities are legion. So much so that it hurts to watch it. LD is an experienced old hand, a master of comedy situations: JD is a callow youth in comparison. I get the sense that Lead Balloon is supposed to be 'ironic' - but there's no irony. It's supposed to be a sit-com - but there's no comedy. It exhudes superiority (actually over the audience, which is an alarming approach) but is woefully inferior and simply, in its efforts to ape without acknowledgement, tries too hard.

Lead Balloon doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of the comedy to be found in Curb, but I'll concede one thing - in terms of the quality of its production values, Lead Balloon wins hands down.

...But Bob, the freaking weirdo, prefers Lead Balloon to Curb. If only he'd agreed with me (because I am the great objective right one) I would have been able to stop the inner turmoil I feel every time I see Jack Dee being interviewed on the telly. Please, Jack, make your show funny and confess from whence it came.

Tags: Jack Dee, comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Fair enough...

Didn't get round to posting this dazzling image when I planned. This is as close as I got to Hull Fair this year - just a passing blur from a Northern train taking me from Beverley to Hull. I didn't miss the nausea although I wouldn't've minded a bag of Carver's chips, a nice greasy burger and a toffee apple. Must try harder next year.

Two old women on the bus: "My niece came to have a look at the new shopping centre. She thought it was bloody rubbish."
"It is bloody rubbish."
"You're right. So she's gone back home to Manchester and that's what she'll be telling everyone there - that new shopping centre in Hull's bloody rubbish. They got shops there already in Manchester, see?"
Meanwhile, I had a strange moment in Hull's transport interchange the other day, when I had a few minutes to spare and started looking around. I thought to myself, actually, this is all quite impressive. Unfortunately, Phil and Kirstie off of Location, Location, Location will be revealing that Hull is the second worst place to live in the country tomorrow night, while we're also developing a reputation for drinking a tad too much around here, so the renaissance is getting a reality check. Actually, Hull's inclusion on the Location, Location, Location hit list is a tad baffling when you read their own words: "Hull makes a return to the list as the 2nd worst place to live, following it being declared the “worst” place in 2005, but then improving enough to not even make the top 10 last year" and suggests a bit of arbitrary sticking pins in a map slice of randomness to me. Still, all nice publicity for the show and that's all that matters...

In other news, here's a film - I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With - that, title aside, has all the makings of a Killing Time favourite, starring two of my favourite people - Jeff Garlin (of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame) and the luverly Sarah Silverman, who should feel lucky that we are separated by a rather large ocean, otherwise I would be stalking her.

Tags: Hull Fair, Hull, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sarah Silverman

Corrie goes music hall...

Coronation Street's Sally Webster when it was suggested that mechanic husband Kevin accompany her to a production of Henry V: "Kevin? Shakespeare? He thinks that Coriolanus is something you go to the doctor with."

Start of a good night of hilarity. The IT Crowd just gets better every week and Moss's appearance on Dragon's Den with his spontaneously combusting Abracadabra was truly inspired, then youtube provided me with the second instalment of the new Curb Your Enthusiasm season, The Anonymous Donor, in which Larry realises that it wasn't such a good idea to donate money using his own name, given that those that donate anonymously get all the credit. Wonderful - really good and consistently excellent comedy does exist.

Tags: Coronation Street, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The IT Crowd, comedy