Clive Davis

ONE MAN & HIS PEN

I almost forgot to set the VCR... That proto-blogger from the Victorian era, Mr Pooter, addresses the nation tonight in BBC4's adaptation of The Diary of A Nobody. I'm not sure actor Hugh Bonneville is prim enough (watch the clip and see for yourself) but, with any luck, that notoriously raunchy scriptwriter Andrew Davies will resist the temptation to turn Charles and Carrie into suburban swingers. I once wrote a Times feature on the Pooter phenomenon, and was not particularly surprised to discover that Mike Leigh is a huge fan of the book. He told me that he and his wife, Alison Steadman, used to have a catch-phrase whenever anything particularly funny happened on-set: "Carrie roared". [Hat-tip: Jo]

THE MORNING AFTER: Ah well, nice try, but Bonneville was much too broad - more like Lupin, really. And maybe it's one of those books that just can't be transferred to the screen. Reading about the pot of red paint is so much funnier than seeing it. I'm afraid I slipped back to the Man Utd thriller before the end.

THE GREAT LARRY

I'm lapsing into TV Times mode for a few moments to point out that ITV4 is once again running nightly episodes of The Larry Sanders Show - a work of genius of which Extras is the palest of shadows. Sadly, the programmes are going out after midnight - which is more or less how BBC2 wasted them as well. Mystifying. I've already managed to miss two instalments by not setting my VCR properly.

You've already seen Ricky Gervais's interview with Garry Shandling, right? If not, go here and cringe.

And here is the classic scene in which the dear old sidekick, Hank, speaks up for his celebrity friend, O.J. Simpson:

THE END OF THE NEWS

Another of the JibJab team's animation spectaculars. This time it's the TV news follies, from Afghanistan to Britney.

[Via Adrian Monck]

LONGEVITY

A neat joke from China Law Blog's post on the country's fascination with all things Jewish:

So a Chinese guy and a Jewish guy were talking about their histories and their cultures. The Chinese guy says Chinese culture is more than 3,000 years old and he lists some of its achievements. The Jewish guy acknowledges China's rich history and then says Jewish culture is more than 5,000 years. The Chinese guy then interjects:

"No way, what did you eat for the first 2,000 years?"

Very funny. Some of the other sterotypes are a lot more dubious.

CITIZEN MORGAN

Ian Hislop and Paul Merton stick it to a titan of the tabloids:

Finally, they agree that Piers Morgan should go to Room 101. Or Piers Moron, as he's hilariously referred to in Private Eye.

"Is that unfair on morons?" asks Paul.

"And to piers," quips Ian. "I mean Southend: very nice."

Almost as good as Stephen Fry's joke, I'd say.

NOTEBOOK

"You foreigners are so clever," said a lady to me some years ago. First, thinking of the great number of foreign idiots and half-wits I had had the honour of meeting, I considered this remark exaggerated but complimentary.

Since then I have learned that it was from it. These few words expressed the lady's contempt and slight disgust for foreigners.

George Mikes, How to be an Alien.

TAKING THE SCISSORS TO BORAT'S NAUGHTY BITS

A scene that didn't make it into the film, more's the pity:

We had one instance where the studio put their foot down and said we weren't allowed to shoot a scene because it was too dangerous. But we only got word of that after we shot the scene. [The writing staff] had an idea that Borat gets lost in Mexico and the van breaks down, the exhaust pipe falls off. And Borat starts carrying the exhaust pipe, and it's extremely hot, he's walking through the desert. He takes a towel, wraps it around his head, and it looks like he's a Mujahadeen operative with a rocket launcher over his shoulder. And then the idea was for Borat to walk across the border and straight into Minutemen.   

[Via Cinematical]

The rest of the interview, with Cohen and his screenwriters, is well worth reading. Meanwhile, the hairy one seems to be doing very good business in one area of the Middle East:

In a random sampling, Lebanese audiences laughed at the same moments as did those in New York, though film critics at a special preview arranged for the Lebanese press were surprised to learn that there was anti-Semitism in America. "In the Middle East, all we know is that America and Israel are always together," said one.

Time's reporter has his reservations, however:

Borat's equal opportunity offensiveness is on par with so much else that the U.S. exports to the Middle East — it represents freedom without responsibility.

Well, I'm not entirely with him in this particular case. Although I do admit to feeling queasy when the peerless Jon Stewart  launches into another knockabout routine about bombs going off in Baghdad or a dictator swinging on the gallows. A joke too far, or just honest, cathartic black humour? I'm really not sure.

WE NOW PAUSE FOR A BRIEF AWARDS CEREMONY

Funniest Bill Gates/Apple Joke of the Week (If Not the Year):  John Naughton serves it up.

Most Promising New Sitcom Title: the Canadian show called Little Mosque on the Prairie. [Via 'Aqoul]

Dave Eggers Prize for Most Understated Book Title: Alexander Stille wins with The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi. (Business Week has a review.)

OVER MY HEAD, AGAIN

Even those ultra-sharp folks at the NY Observer seem to have succumbed to Ricky Gervais fever. Well, more or less:

Mr. Gervais holds a degree in philosophy from University College London. The only novel he’s ever read start to finish is "The Catcher in the Rye".

Or was he just pulling their leg? (There's no reason a comic should be expected to be an avid book-reader, but I think his admission tells you something.) Watching Gervais interview Gary Shandling [left] the other day was an extremely weird experience. (YouTube has the clips.) Unless my comedy antennae are completely broken, it seemed to me that Shandling made Mr G look very small with the minimum of effort. (Just as The Larry Sanders Show puts The Office in the shade.) But as everyone in the business insists that Gervais is a genius, I'm still obviously missing something important. Sorry to keep banging on about him. I just wish I got the joke. Could it be a case of clever marketing meets mass hypnosis?

IS THAT IT?

Boris Yeltsin's brain takes a wrong turning while negotiating a speech. Fortunately, the president of Belarus is on hand to help him out.