Mrs Brown's Boys

[Diable Rouge]

Personally, I find Brendan O'Carroll about as funny as a dose of swine flu, but over 700,000 in this country obviously disagree with me, wouldn't have thought it was an obvious programme to "cross the water", but will be interesting to see what you make of it all.

[Gangster Octopus]

Mrs Brown's Boys

It's so spectacularly unfunny it hurts.

[Ray de Galles]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Execrable.

[Nigelwyn]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Here in Wales, we too have 'local' humour that seems popular but is actually shite. BBC Wales' St David's day highlight this week was an hour long Max Boyce 'Live in Treorchy' special. He didn't have any new material in case you're wondering.

[Sean of the Shed]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Fucking hell, is he still alive?

[Ray de Galles]

Mrs Brown's Boys

He's had quite a resurgence since around '99. I've seen him sing before at least two rugby internationals in that time. Bits of the old albums are still fantastic and quite moving in a hiraeth fashion.

[Bored Of Education]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Execrable.

I am mildly shocked that you even gave it a go, Harry. Even the trailers made it look like an even worse Rab C Nesbitt

[Ray de Galles]

Mrs Brown's Boys

I knew absolutely nothing about it and had seen no pre-broadcast publicity but was watching what preceded it. How on earth did it get on to BBC1?

[Diable Rouge]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Apparently, it's an RTE/BBC co-production, so your licence fee is funding a Dub dressing up in drag.

[Borracho]

Mrs Brown's Boys

O'Carroll is essentially an Irish Roy Chubby Brown. He made his name on the working-class pub circuit in the early 1990s. He endlessly gigged in places like the Jolly Beggarman in Finglas and the Four Roads in Crumlin, and his entire routine consisted of little more than him saying "tits", "gee" (Irish slang for vagina), "bollix" et al.

We have given the world a lot of abysmal comedians down the years, and he's as bad as any of them. I can't believe this thing has actually turned up on the BBC.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Mrs Brown's Boys

After reading this thread I decided to watch a bit of the programme last night.

Unforgettable comedy.

And unforgiveable.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Mrs Brown's Boys

come on, there is a huge proportion of the english, and irish population that just think that men dressing up as women is hilariously funny.

I'm not one of them admittedly.

[ursus arctos]

Mrs Brown's Boys

"gee" (Irish slang for vagina)

There must be a lot of uncomfortable silences in South Asian restaurants in Dublin.

Or is it a soft "g"?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Mrs Brown's Boys

hard. I think it's used in england as well.

[Sean of the Shed]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Nope, never heard it.

[ian.64]

Mrs Brown's Boys

wouldn't have thought it was an obvious programme to "cross the water"

I think it's one weird show that confounds the normality of this world by ending up in it. It seems to have come from another era that's a bit 1970's-ish, but it's so brashly childish (not good childish - it happens - but crap childish) that it seems to have sprung from kids' television, albeit with swear words.

It's certainly not funny, though. Can you have a genre simply entitled 'What The Fuck Was That?'

[Sean of the Shed]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Sadly I've had to sit through most of the episodes of this series, as the wife and my mother absolutely love it. One episode in particular made me squirm and cringe, which revolved around her/his son being gay. They had a book that listed the signs to look for, like there are rules and stereotypical behaviour that only homosexuals observe, and at one point he/she referred to it as an illness. Maybe it's easier to get away with such things when you wrap it in (questionable) humour.
I imagine the BBC were keen to take the show on because of the cheap production costs. It's just three sets in a studio (kitchen, sitting room, pub) and no outside broadcast.

[Duncan Gardner]

Mrs Brown's Boys

I watched one episode. It made Give my Head Peace look like Anna Karenina.

[Ray de Galles]

Mrs Brown's Boys

I was shocked (and slightly driven to thoughts of suicide) to see a Mrs Brown's Boys UK arena tour announced last week.

Does this mean the show is actually successful?

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

Mrs Brown's Boys

My mum and my auntie both like it.

[hobbes]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Never trust your Mum's sense of humour. Mine thinks the bloke who does that dead terrorist thing is hilarious.

[hobbes]

Mrs Brown's Boys

So good it posted twice...

[Borracho]

Mrs Brown's Boys

Please don't tell me this fucking thing is actually taking off in Britain.

The mere mention of O'Carroll reminds me that he once wrote, staged and performed a comedic play which had probably the clunkiest title in the entire history of theatre. It was called Grandad's Sure Lily's Still Alive.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Mrs Brown's Boys

I had the misfortune to be too slow with the remote a few nights ago and I caught a couple of minutes.

As funny as sinusitis.

[Diable Rouge]

Mrs Brown's Boys

The BBC have already commisioned a second series, and for some reason, the Grauniad have given it the thumbs up.