Written by Chris Magyar
Friday, 26 February 2010 04:56
CBS, in its infinite lack of wisdom, has yet to post official links to Craig Ferguson’s extraordinary experiment in televised intelligence on Tuesday night, in which he gave over his entire one-hour program to an audience-free conversation with Stephen Fry. Here’s the official excerpt:
Google the rest for YouTube clips while they last. In fact, the YouTube clips I found had something altogether unexpected: intelligent comments. YouTube comments have long been decried as the last refuge of completely illiterate braying on the internet, but Ferguson’s program shows that a thoughtful entertainment consumer can still self-select from the herd. I wouldn’t want Ferguson’s show to be like this every night — after all, he’s the king of giggles, and it takes a crowd of giddy laughs to inspire chuckles at such simple silliness as a snake mug and a funny face — but I love that he’s brilliant and daring enough to recognize that television can be more than just laughter. I’m already looking forward to his announced April 1 show with Clare Danes’ moral philosopher of a father-in-law.
At any rate, this pose struck me as similar to Australia’s fantastic (and now sadly defunct) interview series called “Enough Rope” hosted by Andrew Denton, who would, as the title promised, ask simple but pointed questions then the let the guests ramble themselves into redemption or obloquy. He famously contended that the title simply referred to a respectful audience and quiet interviewer who would finally give a person a chance to fully pontificate on the notoriously brief format of a television show, but the threat of the proverb always lie in wait, particularly for the politicians: “Give a man enough rope, and he will hang himself.”
Jon Stewart embodies this idea best right now. Here’s hoping Craig Ferguson can continue to explore the same, though perhaps more mild, friendly, entertaining side of the idea.
This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Commentary.
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26/10
Friday, 26 February 2010 04:56
CBS, in its infinite lack of wisdom, has yet to post official links to Craig Ferguson’s extraordinary experiment in televised intelligence on Tuesday night, in which he gave over his entire one-hour program to an audience-free conversation with Stephen Fry. Here’s the official excerpt:
UPDATE: A video of the full show now exists for whatever limited time they post shows for.
Google the rest for YouTube clips while they last. In fact, the YouTube clips I found had something altogether unexpected: intelligent comments. YouTube comments have long been decried as the last refuge of completely illiterate braying on the internet, but Ferguson’s program shows that a thoughtful entertainment consumer can still self-select from the herd. I wouldn’t want Ferguson’s show to be like this every night — after all, he’s the king of giggles, and it takes a crowd of giddy laughs to inspire chuckles at such simple silliness as a snake mug and a funny face — but I love that he’s brilliant and daring enough to recognize that television can be more than just laughter. I’m already looking forward to his announced April 1 show with Clare Danes’ moral philosopher of a father-in-law.
At any rate, this pose struck me as similar to Australia’s fantastic (and now sadly defunct) interview series called “Enough Rope” hosted by Andrew Denton, who would, as the title promised, ask simple but pointed questions then the let the guests ramble themselves into redemption or obloquy. He famously contended that the title simply referred to a respectful audience and quiet interviewer who would finally give a person a chance to fully pontificate on the notoriously brief format of a television show, but the threat of the proverb always lie in wait, particularly for the politicians: “Give a man enough rope, and he will hang himself.”
Jon Stewart embodies this idea best right now. Here’s hoping Craig Ferguson can continue to explore the same, though perhaps more mild, friendly, entertaining side of the idea.
UPDATE: Just for the hell of it.
This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.