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Geek Culture / The IT Crowd

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PowerSoft
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 10:23 Edited at: 18th Feb 2006 10:29
Hi guys,

Anyone been watching 'The IT Crowd' on Channel4?

I think its really quite funny and a really good idea that you can download it off the Channel4 site for it.

What do you guys think to it?

I thought last nights episode wasn't the funniest one but next weeks is just hilarious.

Rich

Fallout
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 10:29 Edited at: 18th Feb 2006 10:30
Makes me laugh my ass off. A nice combination between real world geek references, over the top madness (the flippin goth last night living in the cupboard behind the red door), real kinda things that men think (ala women always go for bastards, so when they make up their lonely hearts ad, it starts with "SHUT UP!!!!", although Moss's starts with "I am a murderer and I'm going to kill you" or something like that.

Definitely a bit out there, but still down to earth. Top comedy. I didn't rate it from the trailers, but as you get into it, it's good stuff.

PowerSoft
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 10:31
Moss is one of the better characters. Took me a while to warm up to him but he's just soo geeky.

Roy ->"We don't need no education"
Moss ->"Yes you do because you just used a double negative!"

LOL

Fallout
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 10:41
lol - yeah. And where the new relations rep (can't remember her name) asks them "How do you two live like this?" (refering to the mess) and Moss is straight onto google. Roy - "Don't google the questions Moss!!!".

Scraggle
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 11:02
What really annoys me is the voice over people introduce the show as 'The it crowd' and not 'The I.T. Crowd'.

Is it annoying or is it just me?


SirFire
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 11:19 Edited at: 18th Feb 2006 11:19
Someone didn't breif the voice-over people about what exactly "IT" is, so they assumed it was just a regular exagurated "it".

Fallout
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 11:19
Yeah. I suppose it's a play on words. Kinda suggesting they're cool when in fact they're I.T. technicians. I found that odd too.

Benjamin
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 11:19
Quote: "Is it annoying or is it just me?"

Yes, it is just you who is annoying.

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Killswitch
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 11:35
I don't like the camera shots they use on that show. Nearly every British sitcom is guilty of using this style which just doesn't quite look right too me.

I saw the one with the 'poo' and I thought it was fairly funny

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Fallout
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 11:43
It's filmed in front of a live audience, so they have a limited number of angles I think.

himynameisali
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 12:28
Personally I think The IT crowd isn't funny, well some bits are a little bit funny but apart from that crap .

Cheers,
Ali M
PowerSoft
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 12:37
Quote: "Roy - "Don't google the questions Moss!!!"."


Made me ROFL.

I think it is annoying how they refer to it as 'the it crowd'. If I hear anyone say 'it crowd' I point out hows its 'I.T' grrr

Anyone downloaded next weeks yet?

Dazzag
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 12:55
Same bloke who did Father Ted isn't it? That was a fantastic show.

As to IT crowd, I thought the first couple of episodes (esp. because of that bloke from Brass Eye) were really good, and the last couple not so good. Although that Goth bloke was very funny.

Funniest thing so far was when the boss went to war on stress. The line when he basically said anyone who was stressed after the course would be fired was absolutely classic. And the unplugged computer/ phone were classic father Ted type situations (although the 50/50 episode may as well have been written for father Ted with the way it played - ah so, that is why you were wanting to know answers to musical questions).

And of course anything related to Darkplace has to be awesome...

Cheers

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Fallout
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 13:14 Edited at: 18th Feb 2006 13:14
Ahhh. That explains the madness in the latter episodes. I didn't realise it was the writer of Father Ted. I still think one of the funniest moments on tele was in Father Ted - when the new Chinese people thought he was a racist, but decided to go and visit him to clear the air. As they approach the house, Father Ted waves at them through the window, and that bit of black masking tape stuck to the window is as perfect top lip height, making it look like he's doing an impression of Hitler.

Makes me chuckle just to think about it. That dude is a good writer. I expect more magic from the IT crowd.

PowerSoft
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 13:51
"You think this is a picture of my family? Not its the A-Team"....


Lol.

Didn't watch Father Ted, did I miss a good show?

IanG
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 14:02
i think it is actually supposed to be the 'it crowd' instead of the 'i.t. crowd' as it is basically saying how they stick out

the red door episode was funny, the bit where richmond said about cradle of filth and jen says something like 'i gather that is a band' is so much more funny where you known someone who does listen to them

and ofcourse when jen said "goths are people too" lol

i also found the whole ecosystem funny in the red door episode, where moss was standing behind roy doing funny actions

next weeks episode is funny - i just watched it - but not as funny as some of the others

as a show, the it crowd goes out to a limited number of people, as i sat and watched it with my parents last night in stitches, my dad laughed once perhaps twice and my mom went off to make a cup of coffee, so im very surprised it got aired, but it is a good thing that it did / is


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SirFire
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 14:07
I've only watched ep5 so far, the part where he was pretending to be on the phone and then it rang was uber funny, b/c I've done that before and it nearly blew out my eardrum!

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 14:49
Download cool. The new one's quite good.

Toby Quan
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 15:41


I can't watch it over the internet! It tells me:

We're sorry, but users outside the UK cannot access The IT Crowd.

Oh well, I'll just assume it's really funny.
Fallout
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 15:45
Quote: "Didn't watch Father Ted, did I miss a good show?"


Awesome show. One of the true gems. 3 Irish vicars on a fairly desolate island and their religious antics. Would be too blasphemous for an American audience I think, but perfect for us!

Chris K
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 15:48
I think Ep 2 was probably the best what with the phone number and the whole scene with Moss and the fire.

SirFire
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 15:53
Fallout
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 16:42
Not the best episode that one, but still amusing.

Benjamin
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 16:43
Ummm ok.

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soapyfish
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 18:35
Only seen one episode (the 'poo on head' one) but it was still good for a chuckle. To be honest I prefer peep show. The ep from last Friday is repeated tonight, maybe I just need to watch it more to really get into it.

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PowerSoft
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 19:24
Do you think they will consider a second series if the viewing levels are high enough?

Jeku
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 20:46
Thanks for the link, but I thought it was pretty lame (closed it half-ways through).

I absolutely can't stand shows with laugh tracks, so that pretty much rules out 99% of television comedies

Fallout
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 20:53
It's a live audience Jeku. They'd need to gag them all to keep out the laugh track.

Benjamin
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 21:00
Quote: " Thanks for the link, but I thought it was pretty lame"

You're not the only one.

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 21:48
I watched the first 2 episodes, but it wasn't a patch on Father Ted and I didn't bother watching any more. Just don't like that sort of comedy. Can't stand 'Little Britain' either, for similar reasons.

Bite my shiny metal ass
Jeku
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 23:02
Quote: "It's a live audience Jeku. They'd need to gag them all to keep out the laugh track."


I'm sure it is, but most of the sitcoms are "filmed" in front of an audience. They still add in canned laughter, and everyone knows it :-P

himynameisali
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Posted: 18th Feb 2006 23:06
You've gotta watch Bottom and The Young Ones - Now that's top notch quality comedy Whadda you guys think?

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Dazzag
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 00:52 Edited at: 19th Feb 2006 00:54
Quote: "Didn't watch Father Ted, did I miss a good show?"
Makes IT crowd look like Newsround basically. Awesome show. On now infact. The one with the car in the raffle. All good.


Quote: "I'm sure it is, but most of the sitcoms are "filmed" in front of an audience"
I read an article the other day with the writer of father ted and IT crowd. He basically said that it was now unfashionable to do it in front of an audience, and hardly anyone in the UK does it anymore (even though Father Ted was Irish - close enough). He wanted to go back to what he liked.

Heh, reminds me of the US original version of MASH. Basically in the UK we didn't get any audience laughter whatsoever. Still was very popular over here. A few years ago they put it on one of the satallite channels (probably Paramount), but it was the US version. Totally totally weird hearing laughter on it. Ruined it for me. Also cheapened it somehow. As if before it was somehow superior and more intelligent because you didn't have a stupid laughter track. On the other hand a lot of weaker comedies can be improved with one. Weird eh?

Cheers

Ps. Just watched IT crowd again. Goth bloke is growing on me. Think he is that bloke from the mighty boosh(sp?). Saw an episode the other day when he was a 70's english rock god (with a sometimes mexican accent) dressed up as a psycodelic monk with a door in his massive hair. Was in the desert looking for a new type of music. Think he bumped into a few other stars who were also looking for the new sound. Eventually him and his mate defeated the outdated evil bandit Betamax (really was video tape with a hat) by using guitar rifts and eventually a remote control (rewind the tape) that appeared out his hair door (a hand came out with it). Bloody hell that was weird....

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SirFire
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 01:05 Edited at: 19th Feb 2006 01:05
Quote: "Heh, reminds me of the US original version of MASH. Basically in the UK we didn't get any audience laughter whatsoever. Still was very popular over here. A few years ago they put it on one of the satallite channels (probably Paramount), but it was the US version. Totally totally weird hearing laughter on it. Ruined it for me. Also cheapened it somehow. As if before it was somehow superior and more intelligent because you didn't have a stupid laughter track. On the other hand a lot of weaker comedies can be improved with one. Weird eh?"


As the IQ of the general public drops, they have to enhance our viewing experience by telling us what is funny and what is not. Thank goodness for that service, I don't know what I would do if I couldn't laugh. I'll be glad when they put more animated advertisements on top of my shows too, it seems I'm not spending as much as a good little consumer should.

FINN MAN
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 01:36 Edited at: 19th Feb 2006 01:37
I am sad, I can watch the show because I from the US. In fact when I tried to watch episode five it told me
Quote: "We're sorry, but users outside the UK cannot access The IT Crowd."


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Wiggett
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 01:39
lol, my brother showed me part of an episode on the laptop. damn funny stuff. I'm gonna download it and chuck it on my ipod soon.

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PowerSoft
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 09:07
I suppose that's what makes us different, we all like different things

IanG
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 11:18
Quote: "Can't stand 'Little Britain' either, for similar reasons."

i can't stand little britain cause it is all the same gags done with the people in slightly different costumes, this might work to do it once or twice, but every show is just too far. Plus the jokes aren't funny, its a sketch show which has no real base on life, the reason why good comedians get rated so highly is by relating stuff to real life - lets all remember the two ronnies and the fork handles sketch, that still makes me laugh now, even though i've seen it hundreds of times


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Benjamin
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 11:38 Edited at: 19th Feb 2006 11:40
Quote: "i can't stand little britain cause it is all the same gags done with the people in slightly different costumes"

Same here. I think another reason I don't find it that funny is because they aren't particularly good at acting. Understandably it's not about acting, but they don't deliver the jokes very well because they are too over the top(the actors are, not the jokes..). Similar to laughter tracks really in the way that the jokes are overstated.

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PowerSoft
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 12:37
Little Britain is awful PERIOD

Chris K
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 13:13
Quote: "I'm sure it is, but most of the sitcoms are "filmed" in front of an audience. They still add in canned laughter, and everyone knows it :-P"


Don't mean to be a poo but that is DEFINITELY not true.

Most of the time they have to cut the laughter down because it goes on to the actor's next line.

They had to do this with The IT Crowd.

Manticore Night
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 17:25
Quote: "Awesome show. One of the true gems. 3 Irish vicars on a fairly desolate island and their religious antics. Would be too blasphemous for an American audience I think, but perfect for us! "
Maybe for americans but I loved it. The best one was were they go to the city and the old vicar goes around town looking for a beer and ends up in the an AA metting. "DRINK!"

I get the "have to be british" message aswell.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 18:25
Do a google. My Sky+ lost the last 2 minutes of the dating episode. Online version had moved onto the next episode, so I just googled it and found the episode online somewhere. Annoying Sky+....

Cheers

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Jeku
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 22:44
Quote: "Don't mean to be a poo but that is DEFINITELY not true."


And you know this for a fact? I know for SURE that they don't act the entire episode out, error-free, on their first try. Therefore, logically they would have to repeat each scene over and over again, dozens of times (I know this is true). There's NO way the stupid little gags are that funny after the 37th time.

Shows like That 70's Show are prime offenders--- Ashton Kutcher walks into the room and the canned laughter button is pressed. Niiiice.

And yes, I know for SURE that they still add in canned laughter to sitcoms.

Chris K
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 22:59
?

If the audience laughs at it then they've obviously done it right and they'll use that take.

If they muck it up then the audience won't have heard that bit yet.

They'd cut the scene together from the bits that they got right, that the audience laughed at.

But if you're suggesting that The IT Crowd added laughter that was precorded by actors of whatever, then you are wrong. I know from someone who worked on that show that they had to hold back the laughter.

Canned laughter is when programmes that aren't filmed in front of a live audience have a laughter track. It was done so they didn't stand out from other sitcoms which were filmed in front of an audience.

SirFire
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Posted: 19th Feb 2006 22:59
Saturday Night Live used to be great when it was actually live. It just isn't the same anymore :/

Jeku
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Posted: 20th Feb 2006 00:13
Quote: "If the audience laughs at it then they've obviously done it right and they'll use that take.

If they muck it up then the audience won't have heard that bit yet.

They'd cut the scene together from the bits that they got right, that the audience laughed at."


You're obviously not getting my point. If they film a scene and the audience laughs, yet a character steps off their marker, then they must reshoot the entire scene again. You think the audience will laugh after the 12th time the scene is reshot?

Or are you saying they record their real laughter the first time, then if by the 20th time when the laugh isn't as intense they play it back for the final version?

They're very finnicky about the scenes, as anyone who been in a movie or TV show would know.

the_winch
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Posted: 20th Feb 2006 00:38
Quote: "You're obviously not getting my point. If they film a scene and the audience laughs, yet a character steps off their marker, then they must reshoot the entire scene again. You think the audience will laugh after the 12th time the scene is reshot?"


You think the audience would sit there for 12 attempts at the same scene?

By way of demonstration, he emitted a batlike squeak that was indeed bothersome.
Jeku
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Posted: 20th Feb 2006 01:31 Edited at: 20th Feb 2006 01:32
Quote: "You think the audience would sit there for 12 attempts at the same scene?"


Why does that matter to me, or the relevance of this? If they want to sit in on one of those shows, I don't care :-P

The IT Crowd might be a different case, as Chris said he knows so-n-so who works on the show. All I'm saying is the laughter is canned on sitcoms, including those filmed before a live audience, and has been for what, 50 years?

Kangaroo2 BETA2
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Posted: 24th Feb 2006 20:07
Sorry to join the convo late, but I just had to post - the IT crowd. I want to like it, but I can't. Its just not funny.

I'm not sure why its not funny, I like Father Ted and I like the Offic, this has staff/writers from both. I think the reason I dn't like it is its been made for a mass market understanding so that people can laugh at the geekiness of these 2 guys who are in IT. BUT they don't know anything about IT - there's a lot more relevant and clever computer related humor on the internet written by people who understand their topic.

Mind you, I still watch it every week and there's still the occasional moment that makes me laugh. I think perhaps I'm being to hard on it and it will grow on me. I certainly though the guy getting his photo printed on the bottom of the mug so knbody could steal it was pretty funny (every character EXCEPT him drank from it) and I love their phone service machine ("hello I.T.? *pause* have you tried turning it off and on again? *pause* Have you tried plugging it in? *pause* ah, good, thank you! *hangsup*)

I guess in comparrission to "My Name Is EArl" which is shown directly afetr, it comes off especially badly in my opinion. However, as I have said many a time, Father Ted is sheer, unadulterated brilliance, so maybe my expectations were set too high for this one

PS Is it just me or is the girl they work with quite cute in a neurotic kinda way? Or am I just getting sicker in my old age...


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