Dear Non-Brits: Chances are high you've never heard of him. This is why Britain is cooler than you 
Am I the only one here who is a massive fan of Charlie Brooker? For those who don't know him, Charlie Brooker is a TV present, scriptwriter and newspaper columnist well-known for his cynical satire of UK television and current affairs. Beginning his career on the internet creating humourous synopses for fake TV shows, Brooker progressed to writing a TV column for the Guardian.
Since then, he has moved on to making TV shows about TV. First there was Screenwipe on BBC4, a random hodgepodge of a show with reviews of other shows, features on the processes that occur behind the scenes, random moments included simply because they're funny and a general wail of despair at the state of humanity in general. This was followed by Newswipe, a program that was much the same only about the news, and thus clearly ten times smarter.
Last year Brooker branched out with an actual drama set, the viciously satirical Dead Set, in which a zombie plague infests Britain with the last few survivors being the contestants on Big Brother. While at times drawing comedic moments on the nature of reality TV and the viewer themself, Dead Set was mostly a played straight horror survival story, and a good one at that.
His latest and most mainstream production is You Have Been Watching, a TV-discussion show vaguely dressed up as a quiz show, in which Charlie enlists the help of people he's met off the telly to help him make fun of the telly. In truth, You Have Been Watching is quite a lot like Screenwipe, except with more accessibility and occasionally Frankie Boyle. And it got Danny Dyer to stop making documentaries, so it's already accomplished something.
And that is the hysterically funny Charlie Brooker. If you've never seen one of his shows I urge you to track it down. For those of you with BBC iPlayer I've even linked the latest episode of Screenwipe below. So check him out and enjoy. Or he'll probably hunt you down and punch you while you're sleeping.
Am I the only one here who is a massive fan of Charlie Brooker? For those who don't know him, Charlie Brooker is a TV present, scriptwriter and newspaper columnist well-known for his cynical satire of UK television and current affairs. Beginning his career on the internet creating humourous synopses for fake TV shows, Brooker progressed to writing a TV column for the Guardian.
Since then, he has moved on to making TV shows about TV. First there was Screenwipe on BBC4, a random hodgepodge of a show with reviews of other shows, features on the processes that occur behind the scenes, random moments included simply because they're funny and a general wail of despair at the state of humanity in general. This was followed by Newswipe, a program that was much the same only about the news, and thus clearly ten times smarter.
Last year Brooker branched out with an actual drama set, the viciously satirical Dead Set, in which a zombie plague infests Britain with the last few survivors being the contestants on Big Brother. While at times drawing comedic moments on the nature of reality TV and the viewer themself, Dead Set was mostly a played straight horror survival story, and a good one at that.
His latest and most mainstream production is You Have Been Watching, a TV-discussion show vaguely dressed up as a quiz show, in which Charlie enlists the help of people he's met off the telly to help him make fun of the telly. In truth, You Have Been Watching is quite a lot like Screenwipe, except with more accessibility and occasionally Frankie Boyle. And it got Danny Dyer to stop making documentaries, so it's already accomplished something.
And that is the hysterically funny Charlie Brooker. If you've never seen one of his shows I urge you to track it down. For those of you with BBC iPlayer I've even linked the latest episode of Screenwipe below. So check him out and enjoy. Or he'll probably hunt you down and punch you while you're sleeping.
Charlie Brooker
- 03/09/2009 06:44:57 PM
557 Views
Agreed, but there is a flaw in your logic...
- 04/09/2009 06:04:41 PM
346 Views