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Podcast Notes: The Rest Is Entertainment - Episode: "Is Richard A Psychopath?"
Episode Overview In this episode of "The Rest Is Entertainment," hosts Richard Osman and Marina Hyde dive into a variety of topics revolving around the entertainment industry, including the quirks of arranging bookshelves, the nature of copyright in comedy, and an engaging new quiz format introduced by a listener. The episode also touches on the upcoming live show at the Royal Albert Hall.
Key Discussion Points
- Bookshelf Arrangement Debate
- Marina's Discovery: The discussion begins with Marina's surprise at Richard’s method of organizing his books, sparking a lively debate about how people display their books.
- Arranging by Aesthetics vs. Function:
- Marina criticizes the idea of color-coding books, calling it "psychopathic."
- Richard insists that aesthetics play a role in how books are organized in homes.
- Copyright in Comedy
- The Commonality of Jokes: Richard discusses how similar jokes can emerge independently among comedians, emphasizing that comedy lacks strict regulation.
- Impact of Social Media: The prevalence of joke-sharing on platforms like Twitter makes it challenging for comedians to claim originality.
- Examples of Overlapping Jokes: Richard shares personal anecdotes about similar jokes he and other comedians have written, demonstrating how easily comedic material can overlap unintentionally.
- Journalism and Quick Reporting
- Richard and Marina touch on how journalists prepare for major events, explaining the need for rapid response and the pressure of live reporting.
- They discuss the dynamics of writing under pressure during unexpected moments in politics and sports events.
- Quiz Format Introduction
- Listener Engagement: A new quiz format called "Cast, Co-Star, Cancel" is introduced, allowing listeners to pick actors to classify into categories.
- Example Game: Richard and Marina play the quiz with suggestions from a listener, discussing the actors Glenn Powell, Sydney Sweeney, and Steven Seagal.
- Cultural Trends in Books
- Books as Decor: The conversation shifts to the trend of using books for interior decoration and how some authors may feel about their books being used for aesthetic purposes rather than for reading.
- The Influence of Social Media: Influencers are noted to purchase certain trendy books that serve as decor, sparking a discussion on the value of books beyond their content.
Audience Engagement
- Call for Feedback: The hosts encourage listeners to submit their book organization styles and thoughts on the debate over aesthetics and utility in book displays.
- Live Event Promotion: Final tickets for a live recording at the Royal Albert Hall are promoted, inviting listeners to join for an interactive experience.
Conclusion The episode offers a blend of light-hearted banter and insightful commentary on the intricacies of the entertainment world. Richard and Marina’s chemistry and humor keep the discussion engaging, while they skillfully cover a wide range of topics relevant to both pop culture and the media landscape.
Key Takeaways
- Book Organization: Personal preferences can lead to humorous debates on aesthetics vs. functionality.
- Comedy Copyright: Similar jokes often emerge within the comedic community, highlighting the collaborative and unregulated nature of humor.
- Journalistic Pressure: Quick writing and the ability to adapt are essential skills for journalists.
- Cultural Commentary: The use of books as decorative items reflects broader cultural trends influenced by social media.
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For fans of entertainment, this episode encapsulates the charm of Richard Osman and Marina Hyde's insights, making it both entertaining and thought-provoking.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
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1:25Hello and welcome to this episode of the Restors Entertainment, questions and answers edition. I'm Marina Hyde. And I'm Richard Osman. Hello, Marina. Hello, Richard. How are you? I'm all right, thank you. Lots of fun questions this week. I'm going to start with some many other business. We talked last week about BBC News, you know, the backgrounds of people walking around and you were pointing out that essentially it's footage on a loop. Dave writes in to say there is actually one BBC News studio, Studio E, where it's not on a loop And on that one, there are signs everywhere saying, please don't wear high-vis jackets.
1:55Please don't carry any branded goods. Please don't eat anything branded. You know, and please don't do anything ridiculous. You are the news. You are the news, exactly. Unfortunately, it's not the one they use for the 6 o 'clock news or the 10 o 'clock news. But, you know, see if you can spot it. The actual real people in the background. But unfortunately, most of it is still on a loop. But thank you very much, Dave. Marina, I wonder if I could ask you this question. It feels like it would be up your street. Jess Reid asks, The speed at which well-written, sometimes even analytical articles about how Trump's win was always going to happen were released, which shocked me.
2:24Do journalists prepare two versions of the same opinion about the same event so they can publish as soon as the event is concluded? The only person I know who has ever done the actual two articles is the Boris Johnson. Yeah, Brexit one. The Brexit one. But in general, no. And there's all sorts of different arenas of journalism where this happens. I remember actually speaking of Boris Johnson when he did his speech just after Brexit and everyone thought he was going to announce his Tory leadership bid. and he got to the very end and you're expected to file almost on, I'm going to say final whistle because I'm going to talk about the football version of this in a minute.
2:53You're expected to file right at the very end and then in the last paragraph of his speech, he said, I've decided it can't be me. And then it was like, okay, just delete the whole thing and write again. So journalists were watching that. They typed up a thing saying he's about to announce. Nothing in the speech gave him any reason to think he wouldn't. You're typing while he's doing it. So they're literally about to press send and then he says that. and in the nature of what I was writing in particular, which is supposed to be like it's got some jokes in and blah, blah, blah. I really like writing under that real pressure.
3:23And funnily enough, you come up with things and you think, oh my gosh, I've just done a joke and I didn't even realise. So you do that sort of thing, do you? Sometimes you sit at press conferences and have to file immediate stuff. Yeah, and a television debate during an election, something like that. You have, because of the timings of it, they're always in the evening. In football, this is a real issue because they've got print editions. And this was a huge issue was because you've got the print edition. Before everything was going online, You have print editions, different editions for parts of the country.
3:48And so they went what's called off stone, meaning that that was the last time you could change copy at different times. Because if you had to get them to Scotland, they had to. So for football matches, this was often really, really difficult. And if you talk to anyone who worked, almost anyone who worked as a football journalist, biggest nightmare ever was 1999, the Champions League final. You have to file on final whistle, your first thing. You can change it a bit later, but there'll be not a very great version that might be in the paper that's sold in, say, Scotland because it's further away.
4:16I remember talking to Oli Holt about this and he, who's always brilliant, he said, that's the one time I thought, my brain has just been fried by that. You've got really late goals. Everything has completely changed. So that's the Bayern Munich, Manchester United won it in injury time. Yeah. Alex Ferguson used to taunt the journalists when they would write this saying, ah, I've seen all your runners. I saw your runners from that night because, of course, the original version of that story that they would be filing was Alex Ferguson's European dream letter laying tatters last night after, you know, he made X, Y, Z mistake.
4:46Lots of these things, awful things. I mean, there were terrible columns about Princess Diana that people opened their newspaper to on the morning that she died the night before. People were slagging her off about something else. Yes. Yeah. Back to your question, though, Jess, you do have data that you didn't have before. You're able to write quite an informed piece. if you suddenly think oh my gosh that's so interesting like one in three minority ethnic voters have come out for trump then you're aware that something different has happened but there are certain journalists who will write long after the event well i always thought this thing and then he says well you should have written it at the time then shouldn't you but in general uh you have to be quick and you have to do it some people prepare everything beforehand and then try and just sprinkle in a bit of what happened because they don't respond well to have to write quickly under pressure i have to say i personally quite like it but also that's the reason why lots of people do go into that form of journalism is they are good at it the first thing they write is usually the best thing they're going to write and so actually it's a it's it's a fun place for them to be that's why they are not novelists they are uh you know reactive journalists because they just happen to be great at it and so it might seem like witchcraft that someone can knock up you know some of the football reports you see are so brilliant and they clearly come just after the final whistle but it's just that's just some people have the overview of the game which you're having to write while the game is happening and to write it in in many ways in sort of you know They're really fun.
6:04There are lots of great jokes in there. They're really sort of funny reflections. They're really, it's so thoughtful. I definitely think that in the case of the most recent election, everyone thought that it was so, that the polls were so sort of finely balanced and going into the kind of final days that a lot of people might have thought, well, I could be in the situation. If you, it looks like, I mean, like this time round, nobody wrote there, you know, Rishi Sunak's pulled off a surprise victory in our election. and no one bothered doing that. But when you've got polls that finally balanced, if you're not stupid, you will be thinking, by the way, it could go either way.
6:38Yeah, and also you spent the last six months covering the race. So you have phrases in your mind. You have thought about the prospect of Kamala Harris winning and why it might be. So you have ideas already. You've thought about Trump winning and why that might be. So you've got those ideas as well. So it's all swimming around there. It's not like someone's just thrown you in there and said, oh, there's this election tonight. Yeah, you've been saturated with it and you actually kind of need to get it out. So in lots of ways. okay here's one for you Richard quizzes on podcasts Toby asks with quizzes being so popular on TV and on the radio why do you think there aren't that many that have taken off as podcasts yeah that is a that's a it's a really interesting because I've always felt that podcasts tend to be quite discursive and people like getting involved in the world of it but I've always been a format guy so I always thought there must be a market for a great podcast because I briefly did the birthday game as a podcast which I really really enjoyed doing which is just I think how old is Bruce Willis and you know three people have to have to guess because it's great fun but you talk about celebrities and what have you there's a few good ones Guestimators which is Andy Bush that's a good one Lateral I think is really good which Tom Scott hosts and Tom is really really understands social media and he understands the way that people consume things and so so that is absolutely finely tooled for podcast listeners and David Bodicum who is one of the brains behind Only Connect and lots of of our great quizzes does lots of the questions on that so there's a really interesting involved thing but really really understanding what the podcast is oh i'm gonna listen to that as a medium uh and you know they do stuff on youtube they've done live stuff as well i think they've got a book coming out and so i i think it's absolutely doable i mean there's a lot of hard work putting a quiz together especially putting a quiz like lateral together there's a huge amount of work that goes into it a huge amount of intelligence that goes into it as well and so the the combination of having the uh left-brained people who are very good at coming up with ridiculous quiz questions and the right-brained people who really understand how to connect with an audience that that vendor diagram is is quite narrow but when you when it does work like on something like lateral it's it's it's absolutely worth doing i'm i'm i'm all for quizzes on uh on podcast i've got funnily enough one of our one of our listeners has come up with a little quiz which i'm going to try and you uh at the end of today's show as well smart little format is it easier than a top three it is similar to a top three i'm not going to say you're not going to struggle but you never know because i see i see how you've been hurt before i see how you grow week by week i get it and now you've been exposed to dendrick sandbrick and rory and alistair then it's just you know you've seen how the pros do it it's podcast is a personal growth medium richard it is a personal growth medium i think i said that at about 359 a.m in america i don't know So yeah, I would say that there are ones, I think there's definitely room for more.
9:18But yeah, you have to really understand the medium, you have to understand the medium of quiz and the medium of podcast. And certainly Tom Scott and David Boddy can do exactly that on lateral. A question for you, Marina, from Eve Flaherty. I was wondering how much of an industry aesthetic books has become. Those ones that people buy to go on their coffee table. I see influencers buying them to enhance their aesthetic. Are there now authors catering for this? And how do authors feel about their book used simply for aesthetic purposes? This is a very good question and interesting one, because I think you're probably talking about those kind of monograph books about, I don't know, Ibiza and Monte Carlo or maybe Brooklyn Beckham's book of photography.
9:54What I see. That you always find at an art market Airbnb. Or, yeah, you know, like the world's 100 most important infinity pools, that sort of stupid stuff like that. Oh, my God, I would read that. Yeah, of course. I mean, to some extent, this has always existed. And that thing where people do, you know, put the books in the colours, I think that is psychopathic. Really? Yeah, you knew I would have this view about this particular thing. Do you know what? It could go either way. Either you would absolutely put all of your books in colour order or you would think it's psychopathic. I'm appalled that you would think I'll put my books in colour.
10:23There used to be a joke, though, that people used to say about, it was a sort of snooty joke saying, oh, yes, he bought his books by the yard, which was sort of people buying a big old house in the country. And sometimes, I mean, I've went to one once and you could slide the books out. They were just the spines, you know. Yeah. Anyway, but that's sort of in the vein of Michael Jopping saying about Michael has the time that, you know, he looking down upon him because he had to buy his own furniture. You know, one inherits furniture, et cetera, et cetera, whatever. But it's interesting. They make a lot of money, these books.
10:53There are companies like Tashin, you know, who make, and some of them, my God, some of them have sailed for such huge amounts of money. They say, this is limited edition. It's a book about Manchester United, they can even be, and it's going to cost you five or six grand. And they were only doing this many of them. They sell really well. The fashion houses produce them all the time. And that, again, is that slight sort of thing that, you know, you might buy the scent of a fact. You might buy a Dior scent, a Dior perfume, because it's really expensive buying Dior clothes. Like, it's mega, mega, mega expensive.
11:21but you can have that lower end thing and it's a little, you know, or you might have a Ferrari baseball hat. You know, I don't have the car but I have the cap of the car. But Tessian do incredible art books as well. Oh, they do. They're just absolutely beautiful and they pay such attention to detail. They're not sort of cheap knock-offs. They are genuinely, I mean, they're insanely expensive but you can sort of see why when you look at them. Absolutely. I mean, you know, books are always like such a, you know, if you go into a house and there are no books and especially now when lots of people, well, I don't, but lots of people read on a Kindle.
11:49Maybe it's not that odd but a lot of people think I'm unsettled what is unsettling about this house and it's that there are I can't see any books anywhere or something like that in the pandemic because there was so little to do we all became completely obsessed with sort of freeze-framing people on shows and looking at the books that they'd put themselves you know that they put behind it and clearly people were curating a certain image of themselves by the way when I was thinking about this there's this absolutely wonderful clip that I'm we're going to put in the newsletter because it's brilliant and it's umberto echo looking for one book in his library and when you see his library and how he's arranged it and how he goes back and back into these other rooms and it's also like well okay i sometimes take a long time to find a book in my house but this is insane it's absolutely brilliant it's it's it's mesmerizing and beautiful see it's so easy to find a book if you color code that's the thing you tell me what color's the spine yellow how do you know what color the spine is um that's the one flaw in your plan isn't it move on move on you make a key code menu yeah you It would have been the blue section.
12:46You make a key code menu. Okay. I noticed that books in interior decoration, which is perhaps one of the things you're talking about, those are one of the things that Nicky Haslam has put this year on his drying up cloth about things that people find common, things that are common. And I think he's put books on decoration on this year's. Books on decoration. Do you mean books that you use as decoration or books about? No, I think he means books on interior design. But that's a lot of what Eva's, I think, is talking about, those kind of books that people put down and say, I'm into, I don't know.
13:13Yes, but I was wondering as well if she's talking about influencers who do have curated bookshelves, either A, to look clever or B, to look beautiful. And she's saying to authors' mind, and obviously no one minds, I couldn't care less why you buy a book. Well, you like to see your book on somebody else's shelf. I know, that's terrible. No, I don't think it's bad at all, it's lovely. If there ever is a picture of a bookshelf or anything, you know, even on Rightmove or something, just have a little zoom in just to make sure it's there. One lovely gift my publishers buy me for each book is they buy me a proper old-fashioned leather-bound version of the book.
13:46So I've got all five books. They're in a kind of 18th century library. No, that's so fun. Which is really, really beautiful. But I like it, you know, I like buying old kind of crime books from the 1930s with those incredible kind of front covers and, you know, Golang's books that sort of look beautiful. Yeah, I love all that stuff. I think it's sort of a fairly cheap way of making a house look great books. Yes. Because you can buy these amazing books for the shelf, and everyone just looks at that wall because there's all this incredible stuff, all these stories there, all these amazing things.
14:18And you get to read them as well. So I would never buy anything because books have the side effect of they make a wall of your house look amazing. But I love a monograph of an artist I love. I was looking at one the weekend, and I've got one of Giorgio Di Chirico. if I go I can go and look up his pictures online but it's nothing compared to you know quite it probably costs it's definitely second hand and I got it on ebay and it still probably costs quite a lot of money giorgio de chirico oh I love I love his things um anyway I'm not sure of his work like an Italian surrealist it's really yeah an Italian surrealist tell me more but you it's much better than looking at you know if you just think oh I love that picture it's much better than looking online and unless you're going to it happens to be in the gallery and you're maybe not going to go to the gallery i like those sort of things i am probably against the sliding in slots yeah vintage spines but also the interesting thing is but you know books by and large if you've got a series of books as well they do try and publish them in a way that they look good next to each other with the thursday murder club if the first one you bought was a paperback you're going to buy all the paperbacks because you can put them next to each other the spines are different colors deliberately but on similar designs so they'll look nice next to each other but if you bought the first one in hardback you sort of you've got to go for the hardbacks and publishers and designers take that incredibly seriously when they when when they're publishing you know uh the same author's books will that will they look good next to each other on a bookshelf is something they they think about a lot so how so how do you lay out your books oh my god my husband i mean i don't like to break glass on the phrase gaslighting too often what my husband's done with arranging our books there are sometimes different authors in different rooms for like really i mean reasons that i can't possibly penetrate so is he doing it by theme what's he trying to do to me is the the larger question here is are you trying to send me insane because a it's working yeah i yeah there's some sort of theme idea when we move house again which we might do soon i am going to take back control so but i'm going to have to i'm going to have to bother to get into some form of you know version of the dewey decimal but so you wouldn't do them alphabetically you've got so alphabet but he's done them within genres and i'm like why are these hollywood books in a completely separate room to these and why are the tv books and like basically if it's on a screen it should be i mean i can't get too deeply into this because we could have a type four hours on this it should be in one area right and this is very very obvious tv and film yeah yeah and maybe music to get you know that but your husband is saying no tv and film are different mediums it's so unclear to me what he's saying it's so unclear and i think what he's trying to say is i can control you via the mean by me just being less lazy than you and i'm the one who's put these books here and that's why i've done it in this order and if you want to do it differently marina by all means have a go but what about the fiction stuff alphabetical pre-1945 is alphabetical and post-1945 is alphabetical but it's divided like that so you're not mixing up so who's looking at the who's looking at the date on the book in an area and plays this sounds very philosophy wow reference I mean there's a lot of sections here I do mine you can tell there's no mind body spirit I do we don't have anything we don't have anything in the act department I do mine absolutely by size big books I like books that are the same size as each other well like so you've got hardbacks because they're the same size so it's they're the same height oh my god I want to apologise to my husband there are much madder people than you out there how is that mad what?
17:43you do it on size? of course you do it on size why don't they do it like that in the libraries then Richard? why don't the professionals do it like that? yeah I don't know but because I'll tell you why because I'm not a library I don't have people coming in and looking at my I don't need people coming and borrowing stuff next time round at yours I'm 100 % looking and I'm not going to try and borrow but I'm going to look at exactly what you've done but in some paperbacks for a certain size you put them together some certain paperbacks for various reasons are smaller you put them together and so you do you do it how why would that's a war crime because okay so are you so if i were to look at your bookshelf i'm looking like the alps essentially that's like we were up and down there's like a tiny little paperback next to an enormous heart like thick hardback is that how you're doing it yes i mean i'm not measuring i'm not doing my surface area of pages this is so insane i can't believe you can't near yourself but how could write in let's have a vote so you so you could have winston churchill's history of the western worlds like a kind of 15 volume massive thing and next to it would be by sapiens or something like that and next to each other even though it looked tiny it looked dwarfed and i'm like all i can see is the winston churchill thing and i'm trying to look at your other books but it's impossible because they are not regulated they are not of regular size like if you look along my books you are not should i tell you what you're doing when you get a headache it's like watching tennis but up and down whereas you look on like here's how you watch here's how people Watch tennis is quite popular as a thing to watch.
19:01Here's how you look along my bookshelves, like Robocop. Easy. It's so easy to look. Oh, believe me, I will be looking at him like Robocop when I next come round. 100%. That's crazy. But also, I'm not like Umberto Eco. I've got like a thousand books or something. So I know where stuff is. I'm going to pull out of this. There's a lot for me to unpack there. There's a lot for me to take in. And I will retrospectively apologise to my husband because I had no idea the way other people, perhaps you, did it. I would be interested to hear what our listeners do, how they organise their books. Okay, send us your maddest ways that you genuinely organise your books.
19:38I would be fascinated to find out. Because I think it's a big deal. We don't like to throw around the term gaslighting. We don't like to do it. But certainly I feel attacked for doing something that I think is utterly rational and works as an interior design statement as well, which is important. Literature is important, but so is interior design. Shall we go to a break and let the air clear a bit? We have to. There's no choice. Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EBCLIS. After an initial dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking EBCLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks.
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22:00Welcome back, everybody. During that break, one of our producers, Joey, tells Marina that he has his books in color-coded order. So Marina's whole world has literally collapsed. It's like everyone who does it wrong apart from Marina. That's how it's looking, isn't it? Yeah, no, listen, I'll take the lesson. But I would like to hear from listeners, as I said. before I fully commit to the mea culpa and the on-air apology. One on copyright in comedy from Tim Rook. Okay, he says, Richard, it must happen regularly that comedians develop the same joke. So how does copyright work in comedy? If that's the case, how do you prove it's yours?
22:35Yes, it happens all the time, I say. By the way, my chair is quite squeaky today, so if you're hearing squeaky noises, that's me. All the time, there's a lot of comedians around. A certain amount of things happen in the world. There are a certain number of joke constructions in the world as well. So often people will stumble upon the same version of the same joke. It happens probably less with stage comedians because they tend to have different personas. So they tend to go to things at slightly different angles. But certainly in writers' rooms, the same joke will come up time and time and time again because you're looking at every different version of stuff that's happened.
23:03By and large, it is sort of a slightly unregulated industry. I think comedians understand that jokes are similar. And so if two people have the same joke and they're high profile and they're both touring or they're doing the same show, you know, they might sit down and say, how do we get through this one? But by and large, jokes are usually different enough or slightly different versions of the same thing. You see it on Twitter all the time. Very funny people on Twitter would do jokes and then someone would go, that's so-and-so's joke. And they're going... It doesn't work like that. Yeah, I'm saying, I did this joke.
23:34And you think, yeah, with the best one in the world, you have 43 followers and they probably didn't see your tweet because it didn't get... If it's been a tweet that has been viewed a million times, then you probably got more of a claim. But in general, it's like, I'm so sorry they probably didn't notice. And there are certain sites, certain banter sites who will just take someone's tweet and pass it off as their answer. That's definite theft. But by and large, I used to do a joke. I had a joke that I love, which was, I went on a really good date last night with a woman who works at the zoo. I think she's a keeper.
24:00Which I always loved it. And then I think the joke of the fringe, I think it was Alan Cochran did, my girlfriend, my girlfriend wears a green top and massive gloves. She's a keeper. And I was like, oh, but you know, it's the same gag. And then, God, who got in touch with me? Someone said, oh, I did that joke. kind of two years before you it's a you know once you think of the phrase she's a keeper there's lots of different versions of that i also did the joke i went on a date with a dentist last night it went so well she doesn't need to see me again for six months that happens absolutely all the time especially on twitter where you don't even particularly need a context for a joke you can just take any phrase from the english language and you do a joke about it so copyright is absolutely unregulated you will find certain acts who will steal material they get a reputation for doing that and yeah by and large they are asked to cease and desist there have always been those people on the circuit who other people were bad and it's by the way this is like one of the most bitchy and gossipy circuits you can possibly imagine for anything yeah for sure yeah yeah it's got a lot better the comedy circuit this generation are much more collegiate my generation oh my god i mean that was grim wow also if you want to have fun go and talk to a comic of my generation and ask them about another comic of my generation you will be there for a long time In the 60s, 70s, the real tradition in music hall and in the working men's clubs was you do use other people's material.
25:19Actually, it's the act and you take jokes from over the years and you just put it together in a way that would make people laugh. And that wasn't looked down on particularly. And there would be your own jokes and stuff. But by and large, you could get away with just using other people's jokes. But since the rise of alternative comedy, the idea was you write your own material. And there are definitely issues with it. people tell the same jokes to my mind i think it's remarkable how in the same way that people keep bringing out songs and that aren't that many chords people keep doing these incredible comedy sets and it's jokes you haven't heard before it's the exact version of it you have not heard before the way they put it i think it's remarkable how few times jokes are repeated is the truth i remember thinking something quite odd there was a point you know um there was a john oliver episode really right at the very start of John Oliver.
26:09And I had written this column about FIFA. And I can't quite remember in the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, where they had these kind of FIFA approved courts. And I'd used some quote from Biz... There's a quote that's attributed to Bismarck. You know, those who like sausages and believe in justice should never see either being made. He did a big thing on FIFA and how awful they were. But it had this Bismarck quote in it. I remember thinking, hmm, that's quite... That is quite an odd place to have gone in that thing. but then you don't know and sometimes it's just that someone has said something to one of the people in the writer's room someone who'd read my column or something and had said it to someone and you never know it's like Chinese Whispers how things are being passed on not everything is kind of like citation given like Wikipedia so you can just click through and think oh hang on that friend of mine got that offer thing yeah sometimes you literally forget because you hear a lot if you read a lot of comedy or see a lot of comedy an idea would occur to you it's like when Paul McCartney wrote yesterday I'm not comparing what we do to that and for a while he just forgot it because he assumed he had stolen it and that's the thing sometimes stuff is just in your head and you will write a joke you will realise quite quickly that someone else wrote you go oh no I have heard that before and at that point you scratch it out but it's yeah Comedians do this all the time they literally can't remember and you know because I'm not by the way I wasn't saying they stole my stuff it would have been done unintentionally and comedians do this all the time and then are sort of horrified to watch.
27:35Sometimes people end up watching a sketch and thinking, oh my God, that's where I got the idea from I'd actually seen this. Like a show from like kind of 20 years ago you go, oh, I thought that was my joke and actually it's from an episode. And now I remember that I definitely have seen this episode. I have seen that episode of A Touch of Fry and Laurie. And I mean, it's awful when you sort of end up self-plagiarizing. I remember coming up, you know, in the mad years of just writing, sort of trying to write jokes constantly about the government when we were all in the kind of convulsions post-Brexit.
28:03And I remember thinking, oh, that's quite good. And then Googling it, I think I better check. And they think, oh no, you've actually already done that one before. Just, you know, you're just on the treadmill and you consume so much stuff, I suppose. All of these people who write jokes consume like everything. And it's quite hard to remember sometimes, you know, whether you thought it up or whether you had a dream about it or whether, no, you just literally watched something else. A hundred percent. If I've got a tweet that I'm thinking, I think, oh, that's a nice joke about that. Always search it.
28:30And a lot of the time, someone else has got there. When they haven't, you're like, oh my god I can't believe no one's thought of that and then then I'll put it up it's that witchcraft thing of people can't believe that people can think of jokes I think so they think the only thing they can possibly have done is stolen them because they can't imagine a mind that works in such a way that's able to formulate a joke in the way the same way that they can't believe unusual things happen which is why they have to constantly just say didn't happen yes it didn't happen at a year awards much accidental partridge much uh but yes if if you can write jokes you you you can write lots and lots and lots and lots of jokes okay talking of quizzes on podcasts uh i have a new format for you from reese durham thank you very much reese reese this belongs to you 100 i can say on behalf of goal hanger uh if you need to exploit this on any other media it is entirely yours uh but uh it is in the realm of snog marry avoid but it is cast co-star cancel so cast just work with someone as a one-off you cast them in one thing co-star you collaborate with someone on a long-term project or program cancel unfortunately you never ever want to work with them again so cast co-star cancel uh and reese says i'll start you off can we tell if reese listens to the podcast or not his three suggestions are glenn powell sydney sweeney steven seagal okay reese first of all thanks because i hadn't mentioned glenn powerful week and i need to um oh okay just give me the lot give me the rule of cancel is it that they get cancelled uh well actually recess unfortunately they can never work again so it's not just with you it is it is i guess like snog marry avoid actually it's really it's called snog marry kill but they couldn't call the tv series that so i think yeah cancel is they are they are never working on screen again okay um i'm gonna say cancel steven seagal i mean is he working on he's working on some form of pixel right but he's kind of already been cancelled and it means I don't have to lose him because he's post-cancel now.
30:27So he's existing in this kind of liminal space. Yeah, Rhys has given you an absolute gimme there, I think, with Steven Seagal. And by the way, people who haven't signed up to our Restless Entertainment Club, which you're absolutely allowed not to, but the two Steven Seagal bonus episodes are an absolute treat. I very much enjoy listening to you going through this career. What I'm enjoying about the club is that we are getting to do things that are out of time, as it were. It's very much out of time. or is he perhaps a man greatly of his time Stephen Sagal Stephen Sagal we're about to do It's a Royal Knockout as well as probably two bonus episodes oh my god I can't believe we've got to go down to two but that is a fascinating story and we will cover that perhaps not as deep a dive as I was like but probably deep enough for you oh it'll be deep and okay so Stephen Sagal has cancelled so you've got cast you just work with them once or co-star you work with them like a podcast team essentially oh right okay that's easy cast I love her and I've got a huge amount outside for what she does and I'd love to see her sort of up close once is Sydney Sweeney.
Read the full transcript
31:26Okay, so that leaves, of course, as my long-term collaborator, Glenn Powell. Okay, what can't he do? Don't ask that question because I think the answer is actually longer than you think. But I think there's lots more to come out with Glenn Powell and I'm interested in where he goes and I'm interested with his idea to try and tunnel back to an era of movie stardom that no longer exists. But as I say, I'm definitely interested in the fact that he's not going to be one of those people making political statements. He's one of those people who wants to be... So you could tie your wagon to him for quite a long time and he'd be a real cash cow for you.
31:56I'd like to see where he took me with that wagon. You know, I think he contains multitudes, Richard. That's quite obvious. Otherwise, why would I be talking about him every week on the podcast? How do you think he organises his books? What books? Okay. I hear you. And what show would you come up with for him? How are we making money? Well, we're making money in the movies. Glenn Powell wants to be in theatrical release. So we're making money in theatrical release. He wants to be a sort of a thinking action man, doesn't he? So I think that, yes, I would have a number of franchises in that department.
32:27Yeah. Well, let's remake the Thomas Crown affair again. Rhys, thank you very much. Cast, co-star, cancel. Feel free to send us three people that you want us to put in one of those categories. That is a good game. I enjoyed that a lot. You love talking about Glenn Powell. You know that above all other things, I'm a professional. And I would not be doing my duty as an entertainment podcaster if I didn't talk about Glenn Powell every week. There you go. and that everybody is why quizzes don't really work on podcasts finally we found out uh marina thank you so thank you richard don't forget the rest of entertainment live on the 4th of december the royal albert hall i say those nice slightly cheaper choir tickets are available at the back and we are putting on a show we're gonna put we're gonna put a 360 degree show if you buy those tickets i promise we will we will turn and look we are putting on a few times but uh everything else sold out so we're really really looking forward to that and also looking forward to seeing everybody next tuesday for another episode see you next tuesday see you next tuesday
33:43your sausage mcmuffin with egg didn't change your receipt did the sausage mcmuffin with This egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just$5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Prices and participation may vary.
From the publisher
There is a storm brewing in the studio as Marina finds out how Richard arranges his bookshelves.
Copyright in comedy. How often do people think of the same joke and who, if anyone, owns it? We also all enjoy a brand new quiz thanks to listener Rhys Durham.
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