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Re: The end of the binge

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izandalMar 5, 2017
 

 
I would agree that Aimi learned quickly and could be quite clever. I find myself looking
forward to hearing her when I listen to the older episodes.

As for Clement's lists, I passed through the stage of annoyance to wondering how long he
could keep it up before he got bored with his own trope.

Pam

On 5 Mar 2017 at 23:16, Amro Amro_Bilal@... [just-a-minute] wrote:

To: "just-a-minute@..." <just-a-minute@...>
From: "Amro Amro_Bilal@... [just-a-minute]" <just-a-minute@...>
Date sent: Sun, 5 Mar 2017 23:16:56 +0000
Subject: Re: [just-a-minute] The end of the binge
Send reply to: just-a-minute@...

>
>
>
> So that was about 20 days worth of JAM if you listened continuously!
> I've only listened to the
> recent years of JAM plus few old episodes so perhaps I'm not in a
> position to add much to this
> entertaining account, but, I'd agree with most of what you said
> particularly the bit about Paul and,
> dare I say it, what you said about Nicholas! I still find Gyles's
> (triggers) funny though, like when he
> goes on about losing the election.
>
> I think I only heard Aimi MacDonald in two episodes and I thought
> she was alright. Maybe I should
> dig up more episodes where she appeared.
>
> Amro
>
>  
> On 05/03/2017 06:46 AM, Mark sirnylon@... [just-a-minute]
> wrote:
> Hi, JamFans
>
> I've just finished listening to all 875 JAMs from 1967 to 2016.
>
> I realise now that I should have been recording historic firsts
> and landmarks as I went
> through them all - e.g. first uninterrupted minute, first
> challenge for repetition of "B" in "BBC",
> largest number of uninterrupted minutes per episode, first time
> a newbie won a game, first
> 'bonus point', etc. 
>
> I know Dean often marks special moments - such as players' first
> and last appearances - in
> his transcripts, but I'm not sure if there is already a list of
> milestones as mentioned above.
> If Dean has not already done it, perhaps we can divvy up the
> decades and make it a
> community project...
>
> Random notes:
>
> Apologies in advance if these sound overly-picky. Listening to
> years of shows in a
> continuous stream tends to consolidate players' annoying habits
> in one's consciousness...
> just like camping with your loved one in a two-person tent for
> two weeks tends to amplify
> EVERY DAMNED ANNOYING thing that they do that USED TO BE
> charming and quirky
> and is now ARGHHHHH! JUST STOP IT ALREADY!
>
> - Will Self really rubbed me up the wrong way, and I think he
> really started to irritate
> Nicholas with his pedantic, unfunny and overly-competitive
> carping. Esther Rantzen is very
> similar, but she must have been much worse off-mike for Paul to
> loathe her as much as he
> did.
>
> - In terms of petty and unfunny annoyance, Will was only
> overshadowed by Wendy Richard
> with her incessant whining about Clement's lists and her
> one-track commentary about her
> damned pets. It's no wonder Paul had her black-balled.
>
> - My 'Most Valuable Player Of All Time Award' must go to Kenneth
> Williams. His
> unpredictable magma of erudition, outrage, vanity, urbanity,
> cheekiness and thinly-veiled
> obscenity was always compulsive listening. He always teetered on
> the edge of letters to the
> editor, but always managed to recoil as an innocent lamb,
> misunderstood and poorly
> treated.  "Kick me as you pass". Classic.
>
> - A close second as MVP is Paul Merton, who ensures there is a
> skilled player and
> on-stage director who knows how to pace a show (e.g. by stepping
> back to let a talented
> newbie shine, or to ramp up his performance when things are
> dragging), and to gently
> intervene to guide decisions and proceedings when Nicholas loses
> the plot (not a rare
> occurrence). I think only Paul knows how to be an actual
> director for Old Nick, since the
> Beeb would be scared to upset their aged talent's feelings.
>
> - NICHOLAS PARSONS ADMIRERS - SPOILERS FOLLOW... YOU MIGHT WANT
> TO
> SKIP THIS POINT.
>
> - It's worrying how often Nick quickly agrees with an invalid
> challenge, only to immediately,
> transparently, and decisively reverse his opinion when another
> player (or the audience)
> indicates how incorrect the challenge was. e.g. 
>
> Player 1: He said "hat" twice.
> NP: Yes indeed. He said "hat" more than once. So that was a
> correct challenge to-
> Player 2: But wasn't it "hat" and then "hats"?
> Player 1: O yes...
> NP: 'Hat' and 'Hats'. Two different words. Indeed. Incorrect
> challenge... Singular and plural.
> Yes. A common mistake for beginners. So, an incorrect challenge
> means one point to-
>
> Nick's decisions are more a matter of luck and whim than good
> management. One
> egregious case was when Will Self said that Jack Kerouac typed
> his novel 'On the
> Road' using a continuous roll of paper instead of separate
> sheets of paper. Nick
> disdainfully (even contemptuously) rejected the statement - in
> spite of the fact that Will
> was completely correct. 
> I know it's harsh to say this, but - to me - Nick's earnest and
> pompous belief in his own
> talent and genius is one of the funniest aspects of the show
> that no-one is willing to
> acknowledge out loud. 
> At times you can hear the palpable intake of breath by players,
> audience, and listeners
> around the world  after Nick says something really silly or
> unfunny.
> It grates on me whenever Nick says something banal that he
> thinks is witty and
> concludes with "Right" to give the audience time to laugh -
> which they never do. The
> pregnant silence afterwards is always filled with the distant
> chirping of crickets and
> rolling tumbleweeds.
> It has just dawned on me - Nicholas Parsons is a real-life Alan
> Partridge.
>
> AND WE'RE BACK! 
>
> - One of my personal "Oh! Goody! He's back" performers is Julian
> Clary. Like Humph on
> Clue, he can utter the most outrageous 1.5 entendres with the
> gravity of a statesman and
> make listeners guffaw when they eventually realise what's going
> on. Julian is far more clever
> than many people care to acknowledge.
>
> - Sue Perkins is always welcome, as is Graham Norton. They never
> grow stale.
>
> - Tony Hawks can be fun when he's not preoccupied with petty
> (albeit valid) arguments
> about earning points instead of providing wit and entertainment.
> Paul knows when a bad
> decision has been made against him, but the time is not right to
> pursue it. You can often
> hear Paul mentally back off a challenge because it's no longer
> funny or worthwhile, and that
> winning a point is pointless. Tony sometimes seems to forget
> that JAM points do not mean
> prizes. 
> Clement was the primary predator in the JAM pond, yet even he
> sensed when it was time to
> back off his aggression for the sake of the show (e.g. making
> ridiculous but funny
> challenges to give points to other players to even up the
> scores.) Tony also understands this
> eventually, but it it sometimes it takes more time than it
> should.
>
> - There should be a law announced in the Green Room before every
> show that no player -
> under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE - is to speak French on the show, because
> it guarantees to
> set Nicholas off in his long mock-French performance which
> embarrasses most of the panel
> and audience who speak French.
> A similar warning should apply for mentioning Scotland which
> brings on Nick's "I worked on
> the Clyde for five years as an engineer" accent, which always
> brings proceedings to an
> anvil-dropping stop.
> Or mentioning Hollywood to Paul.
> Or cults to Kenny.
> There are multiple-triggers for Gyles - I cringe at his frequent
> tired references to:
> Hamlet/omelette, nod to a blind horse, porn mackintosh, first
> wife, voters rejecting him,
> Ophelia Balls, etc.
>
> - I'm also weary of the routine where a player buzzes
> him/herself, gets a point, keeps the
> subject etc. They've been playing this routine for years as a
> new and funny gimmick. It's not.
> I wish Nick would just quickly dismiss as he does repetitions of
> "and" and "I" etc.  
> On a similar score, challenges to repetition of "B" in "BBC"
> began decades ago with
> Clement and is now just a dull and dry cliche that just gets in
> the way.
>
> - Jenny Eclair is a regular player, usually when the 'A-listers'
> are not available. Jenny is
> enthusiastic and hard-working but I have not seen her in any
> other substantial comedic or
> dramatic role (being Australian I may have missed her doing
> meaty work on Brit TV or radio)
> and her contributions are competent rather than sparkling and
> memorable. I hope Jenny is
> not a subscriber to this list, but she seems to be an eager yet
> unremarkable stocking-filler
> for a panel. She's the rice in a deliciously tasty meal. 
> Sorry, Jenny.
>
> - It's a shame that Kenny Everett never became a regular on the
> show. He could have
> been amazing, given time and a firm directorial hand.
>
> - Sheila Hancock - the longest-serving surviving contestant is
> still the naughtiest. She has
> reached the point where she no longer has any time or
> consideration for the vanities and
> posturings of fools.  She has uttered more 'buggers' and
> 'bastards' than any other player, but
> because she is mature and dignified the words bounce off the
> critics. She is a confident,
> caustic delight. I yearn to become her as I age.
>
> - For a long time I assumed that - along with Gyles - that Kit
> Hesketh-Harvey was gay.
> Apparently I was wrong. Then Gyles keeps mentioning things like
> being "Tommy
> Two-Ways". JAM producers seem to have a rule that every panel
> needs at least one male
> player who is gay or at least sounds gay. 
>
> - It took a while for me to truly appreciate the spice that
> Peter Jones contributed to the
> show. He was a terrible speaker within the constraints of the
> show (just as Derek Nimmo
> was a weird choice as a competitor, considering his stutter) but
> each of them had value to
> compensate for their obvious deficiencies. Peter's genius was a
> brilliant two-second quip
> just as a subject was ending. 
>
> - For me, Derek was a rather painful blatherskite - a pompous
> balloon of pretentious
> Liverpudlian hot air. His endless toe-wiggling and nursery
> stories were fey and fake.
>
> - I don't care what anyone says. I enjoyed the Lovely Aimi
> Macdonald. She knew her part in
> the show, and played it consistently brilliantly - even if she
> knew she was underestimated as
> a thinker or a performer. She knew how to work in JAM and did
> it as a consummate
> professional.
>
> - Ross Noble, like many other great live performers, does not
> thrive under the rules of JAM.
> He does his best, but - like all good storytellers and jokesters
> - he's gagged and
> straitjacketed by the artificial constraints of the game. It's
> such a tragedy whenever a player
> tries to tell a classic joke or limerick or sing a funny song
> because it has to be mangled
> beyond funniness to survive a challenge. 
> I wish the BBC had a sister-programme called "Just A Joke" where
> JAM players could get
> on air and deliver their funniest jokes just to get it out of
> their systems. I'm Sorry I Haven't A
> Clue has recently had segments where players just tell jokes,
> and that is the funniest bit of the
> whole programme. I don't understand why there isn't a regular
> program where funny people
> can just tell classic jokes in their own individual way.  
> Dear BBC - you can send me an invoice, for I now own the
> concept.
>
> - Graham Norton is a treasure. It's amazing how he can
> side-slip into whimsical and
> parenthetical comments to eat up time yet retain the flow of the
> narrative and keep the
> audience's attention. He's a natural storyteller and verbal
> marvel. He could lecture at Oxford
> on The Use of Voice in Radio. And of course, he's a master of
> the use of complementary
> facial expression - but this tends to work better on TV.
>
> - I love Liza Tarbuck's voice, even if I keep mistaking her for
> Sue Perkins.
>
> Feel free to disagree. 
> Disagreement is where the real fun begins.
>
>
> Mark
>
>
> --
>
> To find out how to open the The New Jam Jar visit b9fx.com
>
> Mark
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Posted by: Amro <amro_bilal@...>
>
>
>
>
>
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