P.S.
Did Mark E. Smith really list Bernard Manning as one of favourite comedians; I know that the article in question was probably done during the late Seventies and Pre-alternative comedy but you still had the Pythons, (Probably too upper class) Dave Allen, Billy Connelly (I know a lot of people despise him,but beggars can't be choosers),
you had Richard Pryor and Peter Cook. :D this was meant to follow on from the what films he liked 'Topic' sorry.

There is a video on youtube of an interview in the early-90's where he says something along the lines of "Give me Bernard Manning over Ben Elton any day."
So it must be true.

There was a long-ish thread on here somewhere when Manning passed away. Some defending him, some sticking the boot in....

Apparently, the foot & mouth joke off Pander! Panda! Panzer! was nicked off BM. I'm no fan, but he was better than Ben Elton

Changed my mind about this post, edited by me

More unsourced stuff, but Marc Riley once spoke about his secret shame of going to see Bernard Manning at The Embassy, of an occasion.
And MES does, too - there's a video on Youtube somewhere where MES is in his home winding up some Southerner journo, professing his comedy love for BM.
Hmmm...
Loved Mrs Merton taking Mr Manning on here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ESNN03YwE

Found it!
MES on BO.
Oh sorry, I meant BM.
Here ya go...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc0OO1euLiE

Cheers for the video clip, first time I've seen him in years, god I hate him, I had forgotten just how horriable he was, good riddence

Just look what trendy wendy lefty twatty Benji Elton ended up doing.... :finger:

Yeah. But at least he was good once. Which is more than you can say for BM.

Or maybe Elton was latching onto the populist anti Thatcher zeitgeist in order to progress his own career, and in fact had no integrity or sincerity?

geez that makes me embarrassed to luv The Fall.

Watch it again.
Brilliant MES wind up.
"What's a punk?"
"I'm a big softy. I'm a very ultra sensitive person."
"If you live in that part of Manchester, you've never even seen a woman..."
"Cause he don't fucking know any..."
Serial killers? "They're all morons from the fucking midlands, like, lower middle class idiots..."
"I don't know why you're asking me these questions."

And again; "Appalling? Is he? I haven't noticed."


xx

Fuck knows. But he used to make me laugh. With my mouth.

Thinking about it, I am not sure how populist the "anti Thatcher zeitgeist" was, given her electorial success.

I never really laughed at his stand-up routines, but anyone who wrote Blackadder deserves a little respect...

He is about as shit as it gets these days, though. :unsure:

Never heard of Manning until I came on this forum, but some research and a ton of youtube clips later, I find his jokes quite good. I don't mind the un-PCness - you should hear early Richard Pryor rants about "white folks".

Elton's Man From Auntie made me laugh too when I first saw it :unsure:

I wonder if Manning recorded any comedy albums?

I've just read that Paul Weller sends his kids to private school.

Red Wedge Solidarity Bruvvers !

Lest we forget that in the seventies it was excepted that laughing at spaz's and homo's was quite ok.

If you are offended by words like spaz and homo may I suggest that Mr Mannings comedy is not for you and you should go back and sit on the PC Fence and watch some Jethro.

He was very much of the time...

Being Noughties and bourgeois, I'm more offended by your bad spelling, Neal.
Accepted! Not excepeted.
And there are no apostrophes in "homos" or "spazs".
Any road up, I do find BM funny, and I feel really REALLY uneasy about it.
I'm a homo, a bit Jewish (as was BM, I think) and an anarchist, and I'd slap anyone who said anything racist, homophobic, sexist or whatever if they were down the pub.
But there's still a sense with BM, that he was sticking it to to the man.
I fink...
And I also fink that's what MES likes.
You could make a very long list of un-PC statements MES's made, but he's clearly not racist or homophobic.
Caitlan Moron vs MES?
Do you really have to ask?
Argh, I give up for now.
Am I talking tosh?

"How long is long now?"

x

yes, but your spelling and grammer is spot on :lol:

There are one L in "Speling", Neal!

I agree he was from his time, but I think the attraction of a character like BM lies in the fact that here's a guy who's been old, fat, ugly and underprivileged his entire life but he's not taking any shit from no one. He lays it into anyone, anywhere, like the classic underdog character he is.
I mean, i've seen clips where he singles out someone in the audience for being butt-ugly when clearly the ugliest person in the entire hall is the guy with the mic in his hands. The audience doesn't just let him get away with stuff like that, they expect it from him.
And of course, if you tell a character like that not to do any paki jokes, he'll cram his show full. I haven't the slightest how Manning was in real life but it seems to me his act was taken much too seriously.

The book "Manning" by Jonathan Margolis, that is what you want.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bernard-Manning-Bi...s/dp/0752809059

"you've got to take the piss out of everybody or else you're prejudiced"

:applaud:

--------------------------------

I don't really understand why Manning is tarred and feathered when "comedy" acts like 'Little Britain' are seen to be brilliantly "anti-PC". LB is so smug and knowing, that it loses any edge it might have (besides the fact it isn't very funny). It's sign-posted, "It's okay to laugh, we're trying to be anti-PC" :zzzz:

A joke's a joke, you either find it funny or you don't.
Most comedy now is so middle-class, and when it touches on the same stuff BM did it does it without any teeth whatsoever.

I haven't seen enough of Manning (mainly because he was completely erased from TV for decades) to know whether his routines were any good, but the pious way the media turn their noses up at him whilst lauding the more recent (very dull) middle-class shock comedy is fucking depressing.

"Classic Bernard Manning" (4 x 10 minutes youtube clips)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIHN1UkcSGo

a psychiatrist gag: a fella walks in, says "can you help me out", psychiatrist says "why, which way you come in?"

With all due respect, you can't reassess Bernard Manning's career on the basis of YouTube clips. He was the enemy. He was a fascist who made money reaffirming the grotesque prejudices of his pig-thick, BNP-supporting audience.

I dont' really want to assess anyone - but these clips make me laugh, which seems to me to be a good way to evaluate a comedian. I don't know the first thing about Manning - i'm not even British - but i'll take your word for him being the enemy. How many times have you been to his shows then?

Speak to me brother, speak to me :applaud:

Manning as public enemy number one - don't add up somehow.
He was a comedian, not an enemy of the state.
Nobody heard of free speech.

Funnily enough, I haven't been to a Bernard Manning show, no. Never been to a Combat 18 rally either. I just hand these rash and uninformed generalisations down from my ivory tower. Goodness only knows where I get them from.

That's all very well, in an ideal world, but he was a FASCIST, Neal.
We can't have Free Speech when there are fascists roaming the streets telling tasteless gags...

Is that an admission or are you invoking the "You don't have to see a pigsty to know that it stinks"-defense? ;)

He wasn't a fascist- that is entirely what the Margolis book is about.

Henning Wehn (sp?) supported Manning once. O to have been a fly on the wall.

If Manning's audience had their way they'd be telling them with the aid of baseball bats -- plus great comic timing.

But that is a massive generalisation, isn't it.
I'm not defending the jackboot brigade, who are as thick as pigshit (and humourless), but Mannings audience (and the audiences of comedians like him) wasn't entirely made up of BNP supporters.

There seems to be this idea of his gigs being full of knuckle-dragging Nazi's laughing hysterically at an endless tirade of paki and queer jokes - I think his audience was largely made up of old, white working-class - and it sounds like he did take the piss out of everyone and everything. The humour is from a different time, but to equate them all with fascists is a bit much.

What i don't get is why people come down on Mr Manning like a tonne of bricks, just because he is tasteless. I suggest he is an easy target.
Seems odd that these self same people will laugh along with say Brass Eye or some far more tastless "comedy" vehicle and yet have Manning hung, drawn and indeed quartered for the slight suggestion of a "jewish" gag or similar.
I have simple tastes anyway... Terry and June is far better.

That'd make MES, Mark Riley and Mopiranger certified BNP bootboys. Of course in MES' case, it's not really surprising. He did sign a message to the forum with "mein comrades", he wore a german army uniform in a twenty-year old promo vid and we all know he snips up squirrels in half in his spare time. My whole cred is built around my pair o' black leather pants. :unsure:

He did at least one video. Dunno if it's been reissued on DVD.

I strongly doubt Ben Elton ever visited the Embassy Club in all his 3 years as a student in Manchester, but I expect MES has been there at least once.

I don't need to go to a 'Take That' concert to know there shit, you hear enough of em' on the radio :P

Good man. That shameful 1978 Blackpool summer season aside, Terry and June have almost never told jokes about pakis and wogs.

Sorry - I meant Terry does June.
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