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Re: Paul Merton channeling Kenneth Williams?

Messages in this topic: 6 View All
CatDec 13, 2008
 

 
Agreed, I always understood it to be a tribute, seeing as Paul has
stated he was a fan of the show long before appearing.

--- In just-a-minute@..., "Bob Slee" <bobslee@...> wrote:
>
> There's something very touching and respectful about Paul's occasional
> "homage" to Kenneth Williams. It's nothing to do with plagiarism. Paul
> Merton is one of the sharpest, wittiest comics around. He doesn't
need to
> pilfer anyone else's material. But he clearly has a strong sense of the
> heritage of his craft - viz his expertise on the silent screen era -
and I
> think he knows exactly what he's doing when he rekindles the spirit
of KW
> and we love him for it.
>
>
>
> From: just-a-minute@...
[mailto:just-a-minute@...]
> On Behalf Of Robert L. Torres
> Sent: 12 December 2008 21:59
> To: just-a-minute@...
> Subject: [just-a-minute] Paul Merton channeling Kenneth Williams?
>
>
>
> Something that I've noticed fairly recently is that Paul Merton seems
> to be taking up a position of overly praising Nicholas Parsons as
> being 'the best chairman we've got' whenever a decision goes in his
> favor, much like what Kenneth would do in the old days.
>
> However, Paul seems to be taking things a little further, whereas
> nowadays he is now making the complaint that he hasn't come 'all the
> way from Great Portland Street' to listen to this rubbish, or
> whatever it is he's complaining about.
>
> I mean, I would think that someone as brilliant as Paul is would come
> up with his own catch phrases or come up with his own ways of
> creating comedy without having to steal something established by
> someone who is long dead.
>
> it's one thing for Kenneth's influence regarding camp behavior or
> even the propensity for elongating words without being penalised for
> hesitation, but this is just blatant plagiarism.
>
> I mean I would think that something like this was below Paul, I mean
> granted its one thing to pick up the threads of what someone else is
> saying in order to create incredible moments of surreality, but come
> on. Something like this is just plain sloppy. I would expect this
> brand of plagiarism to come from Nicholas, who has tried and failed
> to elicite laughs based on using other people's catchphrases and
> material.
>
> What's Paul gonna do next? Say that they shouldn't have women on the
> show? Is he gonna start kissing Clement Freud? Where does it end?
>

 
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