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Rediscovering Phil Cool

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    Rediscovering Phil Cool

    As Rolf Harris is in the news at the moment, I’ve recently been thinking about Rolf Harris more than I had in the previous 25 years put together. And thinking about Rolf Harris made me think about Phil Cool.

    And that made me while away my lunchbreak digging out some of Phil Cool’s stuff on YouTube. He wasn’t good all the time, not by a long way. But when he was good ... By Jove.

    I just listened to him pretending he was Neil Kinnock reciting the advert for Cadbury’s Fudge and, for a few seconds, I completely lost control over my life. And I was at work at the time as well.

    #2
    Rediscovering Phil Cool

    The abiding memory I have of Mr Cool is him renaming the Cumbrian town of Egremont as 'Excremont'; a pseudo-malapropism so apt I still use it to this day.

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      #3
      Rediscovering Phil Cool

      Going from memory, his debut BBC2 show, Cool It, was pretty good.

      Everything afterward got progressively worse.

      I liked his JR and Cliff Barnes myself.

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        #4
        Rediscovering Phil Cool

        Not having heard anything from Mr Cool in about a quarter of a century, I was surprised to learn via Wikipedia that he completed a 'farewell' tour just last year.

        I was never a big fan, mind.

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          #5
          Rediscovering Phil Cool

          I remember thinking 'he's not funny' at one of his shows before.
          Then he pulled a face.
          Man, I nearly died laughing.

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            #6
            Rediscovering Phil Cool

            Only, not really.

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              #7
              Rediscovering Phil Cool

              Only have vague memories of him, but some of those facial contortions remind me of nights out surrounded by pillheads, as they chew their own faces off.

              'Got any chewing gum?'

              You can make a killing selling chewing gum to pillheads. 2 Pound a packet. Sterling work.

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                #8
                Rediscovering Phil Cool

                Wow, that's really weird. I was thinking about him the other morning while I was having my breakfast - no idea why - and I swear I hadn't thought about him for donkey's years.

                Or "Rubber-Faced Comic Phil Cool", to give him his proper name.

                To be honest, I can't remember whether he was funny or not. I know I used to think he was hilarious, but I was about thirteen and haven't seen him since.

                I'll YouTube him and get back to you.

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                  #9
                  Rediscovering Phil Cool

                  Alemão Barnes wrote: Or "Rubber-Faced Comic Phil Cool", to give him his proper name.
                  "Rubber-Faced Irritant Phil Cool", according to HMHB.

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                    #10
                    Rediscovering Phil Cool

                    Well, I YouTubed him, and while his Rolf was indeed excellent, the rest of it was less so, and I am now disabused of yet another childhood notion. Except I realised it wasn't a childhood notion because I would have been nearly twenty at the time. It just seems so long ago.

                    And Treibeis can expect an invoice for my time at the usual hourly rates.

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                      #11
                      Rediscovering Phil Cool

                      It's still very strange, though, that two blokes in Germany were almost simultaneously thinking about a long-forgotten English comedian (it was Monday morning in my case). Maybe there's something in the German news at the moment that's subconsciously triggered an earworm, a bit like this terrible business in Nigeria has made me think of Procol Harum, or how Hate Preacher Abu Qatada has Let's All Go Down The Strand going through my head.

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                        #12
                        Rediscovering Phil Cool

                        Did the rise of Lee Evans kill off Phil Cool's career? Or is any similarity between them superficial?

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                          #13
                          Rediscovering Phil Cool

                          All right, before the literally thousands of people who are literally reading this thread waste hours of their life on YouTube watching Phil Cool and waiting for him to be funny, I’ll try to sift the wheat from the chaff in advance:

                          Good:
                          - Rolf Harris
                          - Arthur Scargill
                          - Neil Kinnock
                          - Billy Connolly
                          - J.R. Ewing and Cliff Barnes

                          Not all that good:
                          - Most of the rest of it.

                          Maybe there's something in the German news at the moment that's subconsciously triggered an earworm, a bit like this terrible business in Nigeria has made me think of Procol Harum, or how Hate Preacher Abu Qatada has Let's All Go Down The Strand going through my head.

                          Ever since the events in Crimea hit the headlines, I’ve been unable to shake off “Ba-Ba-Bankraub”, a semi-self-penned, semi-cover version by Kuno, The Singing Pub Landlord, who used to run the boozer round the corner. I hadn’t heard the song for about 20 years, but it was the first thing I thought of when I initially read about the trouble in Ukraine.

                          I’ve no idea why, although I’m sure there's been the odd bank robbery or two there in the last few weeks.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Rediscovering Phil Cool

                            - J.R. Ewing and Cliff Barnes
                            I initially read that as 'J K Rowling'. What a rogue impression that would have been, eh? Especially in 1986.

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                              #15
                              Rediscovering Phil Cool

                              As I recall it, Cool's career was on a gentle downward slide, before he came out in support of the Tories and sent himself over a cliff.
                              Not a good career move, especially when people are tiring if your act, and of impressionists in general.
                              He was always a bit too mainstream for me, and not especially funny.

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                                #16
                                Rediscovering Phil Cool

                                'I felt sorry for him
                                He'd only been locked up for public nuisance offences
                                One of which saw him beachcombing the Dee Estuary
                                Found a dead wading bird
                                Took it home, parcelled it up, and sent it off to the rubber-faced irritant Phil Cool
                                With a note inside which read: "Is this your Sanderling?"' - Half Man Half Biscuit

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                                  #17
                                  Rediscovering Phil Cool

                                  The only thing that I remember about Phil Cool is him morphing into one of the lizards from V, just by scrunching his face up.

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                                    #18
                                    Rediscovering Phil Cool

                                    I'm going to have to change my personal text now, aren't I?

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                                      #19
                                      Rediscovering Phil Cool

                                      National Shite Day for TrL.

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                                        #20
                                        Rediscovering Phil Cool

                                        Alemão Barnes wrote: ...I am now disabused of yet another childhood notion. Except I realised it wasn't a childhood notion because I would have been nearly twenty at the time. It just seems so long ago.
                                        You can never go back.

                                        Next someone will be forcing you, alright...me to confront the inevitable retrospective shitness of Kelly Monteith.

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                                          #21
                                          Rediscovering Phil Cool

                                          BenJô wrote: Next someone will be forcing you, alright...me to confront the inevitable retrospective shitness of Kelly Monteith.
                                          I expect the years have not been kind to Mr Monteith; then again, it was somewhat groundbreaking at the time — that kind of observational comedy was fairly new.

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