Be Excellent To Each Other

Vic and Bob are back, as they always are, and love them or hate them, or through sheer ambivalence, I thought I’d ask who you thought was best. See, I had a favourite, then when I got older that changed, and I wonder if that’s the same for everyone, like liking Lennon to realising how hateful he was but thinking you could have a good chat with Harrison.

There’s no ‘neither’ or ‘both’ as that wouldn’t show anything, and if you don’t know who they are then there’s no point putting an option just to say that, either

Definitely Harrison over both Lennon or McCartney.

All three over Ringo though.

Batman over spider man and both over superman. I recommend the Stilton

Annie over Britta

Eazy-E over Dre.

Holly over Phil. Obviously.

Eggs over easy over Eazy-E.

You filthy beast.

This thread may not have gone how Mimi intended.

Are you sad because you started it and feel bad about it now? Are you?

But no, I’m completely un-worried and definitely not upset that Grim Limes Holly more than Phil(?), because it was more for the poll that I started the thread (which, it turns out, is mostly correct ) but you can’t post a poll without accompanying post, I think, so thought I’d explain why I was asking

I can't remember which is which, perhaps some pictures?

Vic Reeves looks like Eric Morecambe.

Hold on, will find a pic.

Vic (l) and Bob (r).

Actually Vic & Bob. Vic is on the left.

There you go, vote cast. Hope Vic doesn't stumble across this thread.

Vic and bib

Eff you then

Uncle Peter.

no idea.

Still actually no idea, if I’m honest. I don’t know if you’re joking, angry, trying to cause upset, just being funny, taking part in a joke I don’t get, trolling or something entirely different.

Don't worry about it. It's not worth explaining. I just thought it was a good bit of back and forth but obviously we weren't on the same wavelength.

No, sorry. I’m not sure what you’re doing. :|

Bob is best.

I can’t choose between Vic and Bob, I love them both equally. I’ll never forget the night I channel hopped and landed on Big Night Out and thought it was a load of crap ... for about five minutes, and then I GOT IT. So bad, that it’s good, in fact great.

Re. Hollly and Phil, I love them too. Not for the banal crap that gets pumped out on a lot of that programme, but the times when a little double-entendre will cause uproar, and there are LOTS of these, e.g.

Indeed.

I fucking love Holly.

Phil hasn't visibly aged in two decades. He must have sold his soul. I mean, he gets to work with Holly too.

I remember him deciding not to dye his hair any more and just accept that he’d gone grey at a very early age, and I loved him a little for that.

As someone who's going to go bald pretty soon, I can get behind that.

Has he achieved National Treasure status yet?

Would you feel personally gutted if he turned out to be an Operation Yewtree type person? I think that’s a pretty good measure of a national treasure.

Really? You look like you’ve got a great head of hair, to me, unless either you’re balding on top and too tall for people my height to see, or have lost hair significantly in a short amount of time. Anyway, you’re a handsome chap and will carry off whatever tricks nature plays. Philip Schofield was an early adopter silver fox.

I had a dream about Holly Willoughby this morning. Perhaps because I looked at my phone and then went back to sleep. I don’t know anything about her and don’t know if I’ve ever seen her on TV. I think I’m only aware of her because of Grim...s obsession. She dropped an 18” gateaux on my wall, which is actually something that somebody else did in real life. Anyway, she was kind of sweet and funny in my dream snippet.

A policeman?

I kind of would, actually, because he’s so much part of my childhood memories. Fun without being crude or stupid. Him, Emma, Andi. They were all just ‘nice’.

And I think Phil is pretty into his computer games as well so he’s an all round good egg

Aww bless you. My genetic destiny is to be fairly thin on top - and I can definitely see more of my scalp than I used to be able to... that's life though, and fighting this stuff is pointless. You hear me Donald?


That's a good question. It's not like people getting personally upset when John Peel or Amy Winehouse died; I certainly don't have any personal connection with him. It's just always a bit sad to when you find out there's a bit more evil in the world than you thought.

Just for reference exactly how upset are we allowed to be when someone we really like but didn't know personally dies? I mean I know some people can go overboard but some people are just very emotional generally but I think it's possible to genuinely miss someone you enjoyed listening to or seeing often even if they had no clue who you even were. Perhaps you might miss them even more than someone you did know personally but never really saw.

I’d say ‘allowed’ isn’t at all the right word and you should and will feel exactly how you will. I still feel it difficuktvto watch Robin Williams movies without feeling a little sinking sadness, because behind his genius and warmth was such a struggle. I know that if David Attenborough is ever proven to not be immortal as I hope that I will get very upset. So many memories and thoughts of my grandfather are associated with David Attenborough that it will feel like a bit of his personality that I hold on to as being Still about this Earth will be lost to me, but that’s a difficult thing to explain to people who didn’t know my grandfather and form those links between him and that public figure.

I'm not sure I explained myself well then - I meant for me, with Phil Schofield, it wouldn't be like that. People are certainly genuinely upset by people they didn't know who die, but nonetheless they have some sort of personal connection with them, such as Mimi's example. And that's perfectly normal. My brother in law cried when John Peel died, for example, as he'd grown up with his radio shows and he's had a profound impact on his life with regard to music.

Yes, I get that. Some people you’ve never met DO have a profound effect on you. But, for example, I found the nation’s wailing when Princess Di died to be just a kind of mass hysteria, or a band wagon that people maybe thought they should jump on to avoid appearing to be unpatriotic. Yes, it was a terrible thing, and her life had been spiralling downwards in some ways, but the public outpouring of grief seemed way over the top to me.

Oh god yes. I'd originally finished my post with "people crying over Diana can fuck off though" but thought that was bit harsh. That sort of bandwagon grief is just repulsive.

Before I write this I just want to say that I did not mourn Diana and don’t know a whole lot about her, so I’m not writing this as a self-defence against that stance, but I think I partially understand it.

I saw it up close. The funeral car (a flower mountain in wheels) passed only feet away from my house, right out the front window, heading to Staples Corner and the M1. The buzz outside was eerie. Expectant and heavy but also very quiet. A few people were talking but many weren’t but they were exciteable. It was an unpleasant atmosphere for a bystander to the grief.

What I half sensed at the time and half came to believe later was that it was just an excuse to feel a great unifying event. I don’t even know if it mattered what it was, but this was ‘perfect’ (in a brutal use of the word) for so many reasons.

Firstly Diana was hailed as ‘the people’s princess’ and I’m sure something like the first ‘commoner’ to marry in to the royal family. She was publicly demure, her act was shy and unassuming, and yet she was also glamorous. The media gave the impression that she was badly treated by the royals, especially by her cheating husband and trapped in a loveless life. She had two gorgeous children and did good things, very publicly, like the land mine campaign. So, though a million miles away from that lifestyle, people (mostly women, I think) identified with her.

Pushed down by higher powers all their life, badly treated by society’s men, working hard. The hope that we all have that other glamorous side and that those ours is kept hidden hers shone for those who didn’t have that. Despite everything she had MADE it. She had been badly treated, and then in daring to find love had been hounded and eventually killed (and I think many believed murdered) and, above it all, she left behind those two chocolate box perfect children.

What mother could see their tiny faces and know that they’d be walking the funeral procession and not transform herself into that body in the car and just imagine those HER children?

Diana Spencer’s life was a million miles away from most people’s, but the media and PR made it seem to many tabloid readers in particular that she was reachable and had the same battles as many ordinary people, and I think that fairytale dream ending with two orphaned children shook people up and one think that pretty much everyone could agree with was that those hound lives had a sudden devastation that nobody could bear to think of happening to young children in their own family.

Yes, the media fed us with all sorts of stuff to keep us buying newspapers and magazines and watching anything and everything that Diana did. All that controversy about how she was treated by the royal family? Kerchingggggg!!!! So many more papers sold. Speculation that she was having an affair with James Hewitt? Cash drawer meltdown. And so on.

But the ‘peoples’ princess’ was another part of the myth, promoted by the media. But she wasn’t a commoner, But we were encouraged to think she had a common touch, and she did a lot of charity work, all of which is laudable, but I think you’re probably right that after all the media circus that preceded it her funeral was a unifying event for a lot of people. After all, we do need our bread and circuses.

Why does everyone (else) hate Vic Reeves?

Don't. Just love Bob. Boro fan, y'see

I voted Vic, but not because of the Vic & Bob stuff (I was never a fan), but for his appearances on QI.

I don't think anyone hates Vic, but Bob is just best.

Bob seems more charming.

Pretty much
Just look at him laugh and tell ridiculous yet apparently true tales of his youth...

I was thinking of Bob's appearances on that show when I posted. Now, I'm watching that video while I'm at work trying not to laugh (I am also working a bit)

That’s why I love Bob, too. I reckon he’d be a lovely person to have found your house at Christmas.