I've been listening to Witchazel by Matt Berry. It's clearly taking the piss out of something, and I have a feeling that I'm very familiar indeed with what it's taking the piss out of, but I can't really name that thing. I had in my mind two terms, 'folk' and 'prog rock'. Well, that seems to be the general idea, but I can't be more specific at the moment. I can say there's a kind of wistfulness about the music that is soothing. Berry, however, is not being sincere. "There's a ghost in my house/So I had to move out." This made me laugh. It's largely about delivery, I think.
Berry has clearly enjoyed the kind of music he's taking the piss out of. It occurred to me that 'guilty pleasures' have become part of the culture of irony. One way to enjoy our 'guilty pleasures' is to do so ironically. What Berry has done with Witchazel therefore, is take music that some people would not admit to liking, and packaged it with irony, to remove for them the trouble of summoning and applying their own irony to a guilty pleasure. It is a service that may well be appreciated by many.
However, what if? What if you listen to Witchazel ironically? Do two ironies add up to sincerity? Or what?
PS. Matt Berry apparently says:
I’m not taking the p*** though, honestly.
Does that mean we should be listening to Witchazel ironically?
I watched Peter Capaldi’s Cricklewood Greats earlier this year. I didn’t begin to suspect that it was a spoof until it had nearly finished (and had to confirm this online), because I wasn’t familiar with its coterie of actors, and because it was very similar to genuine B-movie documentaries of the sort Jonathan Ross used to make.I did wonder at the time what the point of it was, and decided it must be something to do with the trend of presenting camp things as irony.
I haven’t seen that one. It sounds like the kind of thing I might enjoy. Sometimes I get a complicated, pleasurable feeling from being underwhelmed.
It was enjoyable enough; but it’s parodying an industry that’s grotesquely funny in its own right. So I suppose it’s a kind of strange, double-ironic homage.
This is all I can find related to it on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr_HUn1Vc78That there’s very little YouTube presence for it seems like a good sign.I’ve also just skimmed this:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9060262/Cricklewood-Greats-BBC-Four-review.htmlFlorrie’s story was, of course, terribly sad – she was beaten by her husband (“he threw her down the stairs. He threw her up the stairs once!” her “elderly sister” confided) but adored by the nation, until she cosied up with Goebbels, dyed her hair Aryan-blonde and became the culotte-wearing darling of Nazi cinema instead.Ann Miller’s husband threw her down the stairs, I believe. Maybe it was a common thing for actresses.
Originally posted by quentinscrisp:Ann Miller’s husband threw her down the stairs, I believe. Maybe it was a common thing for actresses.Yeah, this is the confusing thing about the programme – the fact that all of these ostensibly implausible events, or events very much like them, actually happened.Florrie is clearly based on Zarah Leander. There’s another fictional actress in there that seems to be a composite of Barbara Windsor and Maria Schneider. There’s also a silent comedy actor who is killed on set, and must have been influenced by Buster Keaton – I was reminded of Margaret Hamilton’s accident on The Wizard of Oz, and Keaton’s falling house stunt in Steamboat Bill, Jr..