The English Class (1 Viewer)

[Corey]

This is a bad, bad show.

For many, many reasons.

 

[Cormcolash]

I like it when the students are taking the piss out of yer man and wrestling him and shit, but apart from that it is crap.

 

[tim]

I really want to see a few minutes of it now. curious to know how bad it is. Is it anywhere online?

 

[Umfufu]

I really hope it's not online anywhere.
It should be contained like Foot & Mouth.

 

[cephalopod]

I cried for our people after watching this...

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Upwardly Mobile and The Cassidys had pretty good ratings.

 

[Mariusz]

Hi, everybody.
I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in an opinion about the show from so called foreign national.

 

[bloopitybloop]

Hi, everybody.
I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in an opinion about the show from so called foreign national.

Go ahead!

 

[bloopitybloop]

People.

RTE's only gonna get worse (duh).

I was in the audience for the first 2 episodes of 'I Dare Ya!' tonight. It stars possibly the worst double act in world history (one's a horrifically annoying Ozzie). People dare them to do *maaaaad* things (so the only thing that separates this from any of the other million similar shows is that they don't even devise the jokes themselves). Please note that these *maaaaad* things are things like...

-waxing your chest
-waxing your bum
-getting your nipples pierced
-getting your belly button pierced
-lol


There were even some extras goons planted there being paid to laugh, with a 'crowd cam' pointed straight at them. I shit you not. I could barely keep a straight face at their exaggerated laughter and rehearsed "lolz did you catch that joke lolz?" nudging of each other. But I DID keep a straight face. And my arms folded. And I was right beside them, so look out for me KEEPING IT REAL in the background.

No, don't. Obviously.

 

[Mariusz]

First of all, it is very interesting to watch how we are perceived in Ireland. And frankly the image in the show is somewhat irrelevant. The scriptwriter obviously didnt meet anyone from central Europe or if he/she (i'm not sure, never bothered myself to check) did, then didnt learn anything. First of all, in the City like Dublin, with all the pubs, cinemas, people and thousands of things to do who would be desperate enaugh to attend lessons like those? All the folks in the class look to me completely different from what I would expect. The redhead Polish girl seems to be not nice, her remarks about the Spanish girl and sentences like "I wish you die" look like her mental problems arent much different from the teachers problems. Anyway she would have problems with making friends with other people in real life. And then in Poland you dont say "I wish you die". Maybe if someone got to really rural areas in Poland one could hear something like that however I was living in Poland for 32 years and never heard anyone saying something like that. Spaniards and Poles get on very well with each other anyway. Nadia is a very sad story however the story however one could think of Byelorus that its God forsaken shithole which is not exactly true. Its a bit poorer country comparing to the rest of Europe, the journalists cannot write whatever they like, nearly everybody in there is pissed of because of their president but apart of that its quite normal country and most certainly you wont find there (or anywhere in Europe) open ditches with foul as it is a serious epidemic hazard.

 

[classic seanc]

People.

RTE's only gonna get worse (duh).

I was in the audience for the first 2 episodes of 'I Dare Ya!' tonight. It stars possibly the worst double act in world history (one's a horrifically annoying Ozzie). People dare them to do *maaaaad* things (so the only thing that separates this from any of the other million similar shows is that they don't even devise the jokes themselves). Please note that these *maaaaad* things are things like...

-waxing your chest
-waxing your bum
-getting your nipples pierced
-getting your belly button pierced
-lol


There were even some extras goons planted there being paid to laugh, with a 'crowd cam' pointed straight at them. I shit you not. I could barely keep a straight face at their exaggerated laughter and rehearsed "lolz did you catch that joke lolz?" nudging of each other. But I DID keep a straight face. And my arms folded. And I was right beside them, so look out for me KEEPING IT REAL in the background.

No, don't. Obviously.

You should have dared them to post on Thumped for a week.

 

[rettucs]

The redhead Polish girl seems to be not nice

I've never seen this program so don't really know what yisser on about. But any redheaded Polish girls I've met are always nice. So to hell with that program say I. To hell or to Connacht.

 

[Mariusz]

I've never seen this program so don't really know what yisser on about. But any redheaded Polish girls I've met are always nice. So to hell with that program say I. To hell or to Connacht.

Well, most certainly it has to be preserved somewhere in the archive so that anyone would know how to not make a comedy. But it's interesting in some ways.

 

[jane]

Well, most certainly it has to be preserved somewhere in the archive so that anyone would know how to not make a comedy. But it's interesting in some ways.

Unfortunately, a lot of the archive is already full of 'how not to' programmes. They don't seem to be learning!

The problem is twofold. One: RTE keep throwing money at shows that aren't funny, that use a format that was sucessful in other countries because it's perceived to somehow be guaranteed to work here. The thing is, there really is a different sense of humour here, and the stuff that works is the stuff that brings that out, doesn't try to fit it into another format.

The other problem is that you get these programmes made by a company of 99% Irish people about the 'new' Ireland ,where it's Irish people describing what *they* think of foreigners. If they really wanted to have it reflect the new Ireland, or be self-depracating about how awkward a newly-diverse society is for some people, then they could have included more of those people in the process.

The Irish person is the goofball and the 'foreigners' are the 'straight' characters, which just makes the whole thing come out kinda patronising for everyone involved, especially the viewer.

In addition to all of this,there is also a long history of shite comedy that is absolutely staggeringly in total contrast with the fact that Ireland probably has more witty, funny people per capita than almost anywhere else.

The key problem is probably that, like many Irish sitcoms, it's just plain shite and doesn't work. It may have seemed funny on paper, but it doesn't translate to the screen.

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

made by a company of 99% Irish people

that's not fair, aren't you forgetting:
Oleg Jitov .... on-line editor (unknown episodes)

(and maybe Alba Valles Novella .... lighting operator (unknown episodes))

 

[jane]

that's not fair, aren't you forgetting:
Oleg Jitov .... on-line editor (unknown episodes)

(and maybe Alba Valles Novella .... lighting operator (unknown episodes))

I knew that lighting looked like an exotic visitor from another land.

I couldn't put my fingers on which episodes, though.

 

[Monkey]

Aren't the cast actually from the places their characters are from? The Polish characters speak Polish so there is obviously someone Polish involved somewhere. I did think it was a little bit funny that Nadia thinks she's terrible at English because she can't understand what her bogger husband is saying.

Shit show though. Almost as bad as Upwardly Mobile.

 

[Mariusz]

Aren't the cast actually from the places their characters are from? The Polish characters speak Polish so there is obviously someone Polish involved somewhere. I did think it was a little bit funny that Nadia thinks she's terrible at English because she can't understand what her bogger husband is saying.

Shit show though. Almost as bad as Upwardly Mobile.

Nadia and redhair girl are actresses from Poland, the blond hair lad speaks Polish like a foreigner (he doesn't make any gramatic errors but words just don't sound perfectly Polish). I'm not sure about the rest but I think the russian fellow is someone usually using English as primary language. I have no idea about the rest.
Anyway, don't ye think Miles seems to be so on the edge he'll eventually commit suicide?

 

[evil bandit]

People.

RTE's only gonna get worse (duh).

I was in the audience for the first 2 episodes of 'I Dare Ya!' tonight. It stars possibly the worst double act in world history (one's a horrifically annoying Ozzie). People dare them to do *maaaaad* things (so the only thing that separates this from any of the other million similar shows is that they don't even devise the jokes themselves). Please note that these *maaaaad* things are things like...

-waxing your chest
-waxing your bum
-getting your nipples pierced
-getting your belly button pierced
-lol


There were even some extras goons planted there being paid to laugh, with a 'crowd cam' pointed straight at them. I shit you not. I could barely keep a straight face at their exaggerated laughter and rehearsed "lolz did you catch that joke lolz?" nudging of each other. But I DID keep a straight face. And my arms folded. And I was right beside them, so look out for me KEEPING IT REAL in the background.

No, don't. Obviously.

Andrew Stanley has something to do with that doesn't he????

He's painfully unfunny...

 

[jane]

Nadia and redhair girl are actresses from Poland, the blond hair lad speaks Polish like a foreigner (he doesn't make any gramatic errors but words just don't sound perfectly Polish). I'm not sure about the rest but I think the russian fellow is someone usually using English as primary language. I have no idea about the rest.
Anyway, don't ye think Miles seems to be so on the edge he'll eventually commit suicide?

This is interesting. It kind of goes along with the whole idea that while there's a sense that people are trying to make an effort to acknowledge the 'new' Ireland, that effort is still being developed for an audience of 'old' Irish people. They're trying to include the 'new' Ireland in productions, but they're assuming there are no foreigners in the audience.

In other words,

"Yes, let's make a show that pokes fun at ourselves and celebrates diversity in a humorous fashion! And it will acknowledge the tens of thousands of Polish people living here!" says development person 1.

"That sounds amazing! Where will we get the actors? Will we order some in from Poland?" says development person 2.

[awkward silence]

"God, I don't know."

[awkward silence]

Development person 2 saves the day: "Ah, sher, fuck it, we'll just use whoever we can get. Sher, Irish people won't know the difference -- it's all Polish to us!"

"HA HA HA HA WE ARE GENIUSES!" laugh development persons 1 and 2.

Another bugbear is when they use people with BAD fake New York accents to do a VO. I mean, there are thousands of us here, and there are even well-regarded American voiceover artists on the books of VO agencies who are from those very places! They do the same thing in the States. Get a fucking American to do a bad Irish VO for a Guinness ad, despite there being more Irish people in the US than there are in Ireland.

UGH. Ok, it's not a factor only of RTE. It's just...stupid.