8247/21166
Chortle did a story about Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones introducing Live Aid
You can see them doing it here-
It's nearly impossible to do comedy at a music gig, let alone at Wembley and this could have been a disaster. But what an incredible performance from both these men. The jokes perfectly pitched, almost guaranteed to get the (admittedly very on side) crowd on side. Not many comedians will have experienced a reaction like that. They absolutely nailed it, even with sound checks going on behind them.
Wish I'd seen it live, but typically of my group of friends at school, we eschewed anything popular (refusing to go and see ET, I recall, because it was American and popular. We'd booked a holiday cottage in Devon for the weekend and it had no TV and instead of watching Live Aid I was crying on my own somewhere because I didn't think anyone liked me or something like that. I would probably have been sniffy about Smith and Jones at that point anyway (because even former comedy heroes could not live up to the impossible comedic standards we set then), so probably best to see it now for the first time.
Kudos to Smith though, for fucking off to watch horse racing rather than experience this historic day.
I was doing Duolingo French on the toilet this evening when my wife shouted, "What's going on in there?" I had admittedly just told one of the characters I loved them on a pretend video call, but only because I was trying to use as many words as possible. Not because I am in love with one of the cartoon characters from Duolingo. And if I was in love with any of them it's definitely not Falstaff the bear, however cute his little tooth looks when he smiles.
Did Catie really think that if I was having an affair I'd be shouting "I love you" in French whilst sitting on the toilet. If I was having an affair, I would say "I love you", probably in English, very quietly, whilst sitting on the toilet.
Though maybe shouting it in French is the perfect cover.
I don't know if she believed me, but in any case it's not cheating to have an affair with a cartoon character. You literally can't have a physical relationship with them. They are 2D. You can't hold them. Or do anything else for that matter. Catie has made her views on me having an affair with a sex robot pretty clear, but she can't object to a digital cartoon of a bear. Not when she sees how cute he is.
Les ours baisent-ils dans les bois?
I hope so.
what a great clip, not seen that before. Status Quo got a massive cheer, but surely Mel Smith was taking the p!ss when he referenced them?!
(Re Duo, again: my kids are suddenly into it now in a big way, having been inspired to learn by Eurovision, and their Dad having a Finnish girlfriend for a year (she herself speaking about 5 languages). The 9yr old has been dabbling in Finnish, Norweigan (sp?) and Swedish, but now focusing on German because his brothers do it at school and it’s an easy one. The 13 yr old is doing Finnish and German (and Latin at school, which is favourite subject). The 15 yr old German and Russian on Duo, and Latin, Greek and German at school; he would have continued the French to GCSE if he’d been allowed to do more language options. 10 or 20 years ago he’d have pursued a career in translation, but AI has stolen that job option. I did do Italian on duo for perhaps a year, because my boys have Italian heritage, but it was French that seduced my focus.
(Can you tell I’ve only had a single proper conversation with an adult in the past month? And that about 50% of what my sons talk about is duo? The rest is eurovision by the 9yr old and DnD by the others … The saving grace for adult stimulation is reading Catch 22 with my older two, and some proper grown up TV: Spartacus Blood and Sand with my eldest, and then Tenko with the older two, as a feminist antidote - it’s an drama from the 80s set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. It is almost exclusively about women, constantly talking about things that aren’t men … Every few minutes of the first episode I kept exclaiming, ‘look, a woman over 50! And she’s unattractive!’ It makes you realise today just how few older woman there are on TV, and that those there are are in tailored clothing and heels. I delighted in the sour, unattractive, riveting old nun, and so many others besides.
I’ll shush now. I appreciate the indulgence of anyone who made it this far, hahaha