Gray on 10/2/2007 at 04:15
Two days ago, I had never heard of Bill Bailey, comedian. I caught 'Part Troll' on TV the other day, and I found him surprisingly funny. Not only funny, but also a talented musician. I was laughing pretty hard when he was making fun of various rock stars (drum'n'Bush), but when he parodied Kraftwerk, one of my favourite bands, I almost fell out of my seat laughing. Why have I never heard of this man before? What has he done previously? Am I the only one laughing? Am I hopelessly nine years behind everybody else because I live in the wrong part of the world? Or is he just plain funny?
Samples:
"I'm English, and as such I crave disappointment."
"Hitler was a vegetarian. Just goes to show, vegetarianism, not always a good thing. Can in some extreme cases lead to genocide."
"Three blind mice walk into a pub. But they are all unaware of their surroundings, so to derive humour from it would be exploitative."
Scots Taffer on 10/2/2007 at 08:02
Beethoven and the Lost Penny? I don't think so, not in Part Troll - maybe that was Bewilderness? Or maybe I'm getting them confused. In any case, both are solid gold - I love what he does with the musical improvisation, the British anthem by Portishead is particularly memorable, but the stand alone songs are also excellent, such as 'Love Song'. He's probably my favourite British comedian, I love his delightfully oddball look and his approach to stand-up.
He's exceptionally self-deprecating too: "Yes, Meatloaf Stars In Their Eyes Winner..."
DarkForge on 10/2/2007 at 09:16
Bill Bailey's performance in Black Books is brilliant. That show is definitely something you should check out if you're looking for stuff he's been in.
Oh and as for his stand-up songs, I'd personally recommend "Human Slaves In An Insect Nation". :thumb:
Fingernail on 10/2/2007 at 11:19
He is great, and curiously enough my Indonesian friend, guitarist colleague and drummer happens to know him through a friend. There's talk of free tickets and shit :cool:
And if it weren't for my useless brother having a birthday I would've gone to a party at his house.
I'm so fucking cool. :(
Gray on 10/2/2007 at 13:10
Beethoven was not featured in 'Part Troll'.
The Kraftwerk parody in 'Part Troll' he claimed was one of their "lesser-known, lesser-performed" tracks, but was really just a German translation of 'The Hokey Cokey' performed in the style of Kraftwerk. Fortunately, I taped the show, and after having watched it for about a dozen times, I transcribed the lyrics (straight from the subtitles). Now, my German is very rusty, so I probably got several details wrong, but I nontheless decided to put it on Wikipedia since I thought it was so hilarious. Germans speakers, feel free to correct me:
Man streckt die linke Arm ein, die linke Arm aus
Eis, aus, ein, aus
Man schütteln alles rund
Man macht das Hokey-Kokey und man dreht sich herum
Das ist die ganze Sache
Ja, das Hokey-Kokey
Knien gebeugen, Armen gestreckt
Ra, ra, ra
(All this performed by four men in black suits, red ties, dancing robotically and singing monotonously to Kraftwerkian backing.)
[Edit]
Uploaded a (
http://www.ludd.ltu.se/users/h-son/data/kokey.rar) sample.
[Edit]
OooooooOOOOOooooh, 'Black Books'! So
that's where I've seen him before! (Coincidently, Dylan Moran is next week's featured comedian, last week was Eddie Izzard.)
Scots Taffer on 10/2/2007 at 13:22
Glad I didn't mention that the only sketch of his I even mildly dislike is the Kraftwek tribute. ;)
OnionBob on 10/2/2007 at 13:39
Quote Posted by Gray
Beethoven was not featured in 'Part Troll'.
The Kraftwerk parody in 'Part Troll' he claimed was one of their "lesser-known, lesser-performed" tracks, but was really just a German translation of 'The Hokey Cokey' performed in the style of Kraftwerk. Fortunately, I taped the show, and after having watched it for about a dozen times, I transcribed the lyrics (straight from the subtitles). Now, my German is very rusty, so I probably got several details wrong, but I nontheless decided to put it on Wikipedia since I thought it was so hilarious. Germans speakers, feel free to correct me:
Man streckt die linke Arm ein, die linke Arm aus
Eis, aus, ein, aus
Man schütteln alles rund
Man macht das Hokey-Kokey und man dreht sich herum
Das ist die ganze Sache
Ja, das Hokey-Kokey
Knien gebeugen, Armen gestreckt
Ra, ra, ra
(All this performed by four men in black suits, red ties, dancing robotically and singing monotonously to Kraftwerkian backing.)
I like Bill Bailey, but the trouble with this is that as with all "funny songs", you get the joke in the first ten seconds, laugh, and then have an awkward four and a half minutes not really knowing where to look as it is pitifully drawn out to fill time.
