Des Bishop (1 Viewer)

[STABMASTERARSON]

he shoulda tryed working there when they only paid £2.50 an hour...that would have made it a real fucking struggle!!! if money was down, it was made up out of our wages....if it was over, we were accused of being thieves....clean up was unpaid and one time we got robbed with a needle...the staff were questioned by the gardai as accomplices(sp?)!!! we had no rights what so ever!!

ironically, we made that prog in ma work and it ain't a bad idea for a series, jus a bit late to save those of us who had to work thru real wage hell!!!
on the plus side the trading standards are well intrested in the practices of the company....bout fucking time!!!!

ANDY.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

ps - what's the deal with people that start rockin some superiority complex over tv!? it's fuckin TV! like duhhh.

like people who don't watch/own a TV?
and have the complex you refer to?

 

[egg_]

like people who don't watch/own a TV?
and have the complex you refer to?

Like me
Ha ha anytime I reveal to anyone that I don't have a tv they say "Well I don't really watch it all that much, just the news and [insert highbrow educational shit here] plus just the one [insert trashy American show here]." No need to make excuses dude, I'm just not really interested in television

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

i heard that next week he's going to work in a barbers or something

 

[snakybus]

About time someone called us for what we are, a country of drunken slobs with low self esteem. I think the guy was dead right

go to any Supermacs of a Friday or Saturday night in any town in the west or the midlands, it's like the end of civilisation or something
to think that we're running Europe, Brian Cowen represents us fairly accurately

 

[Yurn!]

Is it just me or does is Des Bishop 'humour' just begging to go international.

Canadians (eh?) rolling around the isles, chuckin up a load in Montreal whilst listening to the fucknut roaring 'Emmersion!!! Diddy's!!!! Taco Fries Please!!!'

 

[keithaburke]

Des Bishop comes out with some funny shite though.

- What is an American doing working here?

- I'm on an exchange program with another Kebab joint in New York


Pissed myself.

Keith

 

[jane]

About time someone called us for what we are, a country of drunken slobs with low self esteem. I think the guy was dead right

go to any Supermacs of a Friday or Saturday night in any town in the west or the midlands, it's like the end of civilisation or something
to think that we're running Europe, Brian Cowen represents us fairly accurately

Yeah, it is somewhat apocalyptic late at night on a weekend.
Ireland: The green green grass of home is now 'Where the streets are paved with barf'.

I have to say, though, that while I admire the intentions of the sorts of programs/books/articles that have to do with being 'down in the trenches with the working man', it's a rather delicate matter. I mean, if you want to expose working for the minimum wage for the shit life that it really is, why not use any one of the many funny, creative and intelligent people who get stuck working in crap jobs for no money? It's a touchy subject, I think, and I know the program was also focused on the crapness of dealing with childish drunks, but still, I think it kind of turns 'minimum wage workers' into a curiosity.

I know it's probably unrealistic of me to say that, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who spent a few years of my young life being one paycheck (or lack of) away from ending up homeless. Even then, I knew I couldn't REALLY get a sense of what it meant to live on no money because I knew that my situation would probably be temporary.

Anyway, I watched about half of it, since now Network 2 is the only channel I get, and while it was a refreshing change from typical RTE fare (made-for-TV movies, homophobia, and jokes about Limerick), I think it could have been a bit better. Des obviously feels great empathy for the people who work in these jobs, and he sees how easy he has it, but still, it might have been good if there were more attention paid to 1. facts and figures, research about how people live on the minimum wage, and 2. actually giving the other minimum wage workers more of a voice.

 

[jane]

- What is an American doing working here?

- I'm on an exchange program with another Kebab joint in New York


Pissed myself.

Keith

Okay, yeah, that was pretty funny.

I also sympathised with his comment that after so many years here, he's pretty sure he knows he's American. God, don't I know it. Don't remind me.

Yes, of course I know your cousin in Boston.

 

[Rimbaud]

...but still, it might have been good if there were more attention paid to 1. facts and figures, research about how people live on the minimum wage, and 2. actually giving the other minimum wage workers more of a voice.

That may have taken the comedy out of it i guess, therefore losing a few viewers...
It would have been more insightful, but they would have lost the reality T.V. fanatics(like Andy), who prolly make up 90% of Network 2 viewers anyway.

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

well i was watching "i'm a celebrity..." so i didn't watch it
i think des bishop is a painfully bad comedian and i doubt i'd watch his show ever
but you guys are right tv is sooooooo stupid
andrew

 

[jane]

That may have taken the comedy out of it i guess, therefore losing a few viewers...
It would have been more insightful, but they would have lost the reality T.V. fanatics(like Andy), who prolly make up 90% of Network 2 viewers anyway.

See, I think it would have made it more comical. I mean, these people must have a million stupid stories about working there. I haven't read it, but I've heard that Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed is a well-researched account of going around and trying to live on next to nothing. Having read some of her other stuff, she's so sarcastic and blackly comic that I can't imagine that it's not really funny.

 

[keithaburke]

...but still, it might have been good if there were more attention paid to 1. facts and figures, research about how people live on the minimum wage, and 2. actually giving the other minimum wage workers more of a voice.

Jane I don't agree. The program was aimed at the privilaged section of society. In order for them to identify with it, it was nessesary to have a member of that section immersed in the mimimum wage culture.

If it focussed more on the people who actually held minimum wage jobs... true it would reflect more the real situation.. but it also would have lost the upper middle class audience.

I wouldn't have minded seeing documentaries on foreigner's experiences in Dublin and Ireland. Europeans... Asians... Australasians, Eastern blockers, Americans, Hispano Americans, Arabs, Africans etc.

But if unfortunately if you put on something about the life of an Irish bin man... you'll get only his family and a couple of "enlightened" intellectuals watching.

Keith

 

[jane]

Jane I don't agree. The program was aimed at the privilaged section of society. In order for them to identify with it, it was nessesary to have a member of that section immersed in the mimimum wage culture.

If it focussed more on the people who actually held minimum wage jobs... true it would reflect more the real situation.. but it also would have lost the upper middle class audience.

I wouldn't have minded seeing documentaries on foreigner's experiences in Dublin and Ireland. Europeans... Asians... Australasians, Eastern blockers, Americans, Hispano Americans, Arabs, Africans etc.

But if unfortunately if you put on something about the life of an Irish bin man... you'll get only his family and a couple of "enlightened" intellectuals watching.

Keith

I know, but then it just made things worse. By leaving out other people's stories, and by turning the Chinese into an exoticised novelty, then, under the guise of 'revealing' what it's like to be on the minimum wage, it kind of glosses over the problem. I know it's television, and I know it's supposed to be entertainment for people who get excited at the prospect of being in the same room with Gavin Lambe-Murphy, but still, if it just wants to say, 'Dude, wouldn't it suck to work in Abrakebabra?' and 'Aren't those Chinese just a HOOT!?', then it should just present itself that way. But, it DOES seem like Des was really trying to find out how the 'other half' live, and I think he really wanted to get a point across, but both comedy and message were pretty much lost.

And why would it lose the upper classes to use 'real' minimum wage workers? That's just relying on assumptions that the 'real' workers conform to some stereotype. What about using minimum wage workers -- REAL ones -- who are educated, articulate and witty, who just ended up there by accident? Wouldn't it, then, really send the message that these jobs are not just filled by people who don't want to do anything better? Or, still sending someone from the upper classes to work there, highlight a broad range of the 'real' workers the person encounters? I'm not saying they shouldn't have done it, just that it could have been done differently without losing the viewers (and, given that it's RTE, are there really that many to lose?).

Maybe this makes me one of the 'enlightened intellectuals', but I'm certainly one who has worked in crap jobs, been treated like shit (and there isn't a dole for a safety net in the US, so you take a hell of a lot more crap because getting sacked means losing the roof over your head), and I just think that if someone had come in to my work then and made a documentary, I would have felt insulted to be treated like some sort of silent part of the backdrop. Plus, they would have missed out on some of the hilarity that ensues when your boss is a junkie.

 

[Mark King]

About time someone called us for what we are, a country of drunken slobs with low self esteem. I think the guy was dead right

go to any Supermacs of a Friday or Saturday night in any town in the west or the midlands, it's like the end of civilisation or something
to think that we're running Europe, Brian Cowen represents us fairly accurately

Snaky there's a worrying amount of anti-midlands propaganda comin' out of your ring-piece mouth recently. Put a big fat cork in it or i'll put a big fat hole in you. Not literally of course. Midlands = Yay. Dublin = Gay.

 

[snakybus]

jez them midland boggers, fierce touchy

 

[keithaburke]

What about using minimum wage workers -- REAL ones -- who are educated, articulate and witty, who just ended up there by accident?

That is the left or right wing crux of it my friend.

Bit of work finding them... Irish ones... (not saying they don't exist)... or ones who speak English well enough to be witty in another language to make it interesting.

If someone had enough initiative to convince RTE to make a program about them... they would probably have gotten themselves out of the min wage job in the first place.

You could do the show in Chinese with a translator... but that's real "enlightened" intellectual stuff -> message lost due to no audience. The kind of thing you see on TnaG.

I think the message was good, not lost... at least on me... and I was surprised at how good the comedy was.

Keith

P.S. I like the dole....

better to have it and it be abused by a few than not to have it and have loads of people who really need it... really need it.

 

[jane]

That is the left or right wing crux of it my friend.

Bit of work finding them... Irish ones... (not saying they don't exist)... or ones who speak English well enough to be witty in another language to make it interesting.



P.S. I like the dole....

better to have it and it be abused by a few than not to have it and have loads of people who really need it... really need it.

I'm not arguing against the dole, by the way. I'm jealous of it, if anything. I agree with you: I'd rather see it abused by a few and help a lot of people than see the situation that is the economic climate of the US. It's shit. This whole attitude that 'if you work hard, you WILL make it, and if you don't, you just didn't work hard enough' is bullshit. It's a lot easier for people who were born into comfortable circumstances.

But the thing is, to assume that real minimum wage workers are not aware enough of their situation to articulate it, or even to be witty about it is really kind of unfair. Obviously, if the show centres on sending a middle class kid into a minimum wage job, there's one angle there, so why not add a few more? Who's to say the Chinese don't speak English? Or that people who work in Abrekebabra aren't worth filming?

I think he did manage to get some of his points across. Sweeping up uneaten food that cost more than he makes in an hour was pretty poignant.

 

[spectraljanitor]

Wouldn't it, then, really send the message that these jobs are not just filled by people who don't want to do anything better?.......but I'm certainly one who has worked in crap jobs, been treated like shit (and there isn't a dole for a safety net in the US, so you take a hell of a lot more crap because getting sacked means losing the roof over your head)

it seems to me that the only reason someone would work in a takeaway is for the cash and not because the "don't wanna do anything better"...d'ya reckon some people just settle for shit jobs cause they don't reckon they could find anything better?

sending 'upper class' people to work in a min wage job situation would just be like that paris hilton tv show, no?

and do ya reckon that its easier in this country for people to go on the dole instead of having to work a shit job? i do. then again i think the irish are a lazy nation. is it immoral to be on the dole while yr trying to find yr feet/find something to work at that yr suited to? as an american you probably have a much better 'work ethic' because as you said there's no safety net over there (which is both criminal and also keeps the kapitalist machine well oiled eh? - oops! there i go off on a bill hicksian diatribe again )

p.s. is your boss a junkie?

 

[snakybus]

in fairness to midlanders though, you get a fine turf stew in Mullingar