Just A Minute

> Merton is one of the sharpest, wittiest comics around. He doesn't

> 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 -

> think he knows exactly what he's doing when he rekindles the spirit

> and we love him for it.
>
>
>
> From: 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

> 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?
>