Charlie Brooker

[Gigantor]

Satirist, pessimist, pioneer, self-confessed 'paedophile walrus' lookalike: Charlie Brooker is bloody great. Those of you not familiar with him should go to Youtube and watch every piece of Screenwipe available. Hopefully it will leave you jaded, amused, and rather more enlightened about how TV works and how little it thinks of you.

Those of us living in Britain can read his columns in the Guardian, keeping an eye for his ever hilarious page in the Guide. His style- vicious, acidic, self deprecating and unapologetic humour- was cited as an influence by Yahtzee, and the world is a much better place for it. Brooker has been involved in lots of great things, but, hey! You know how Google works, right? He's well worth a look, and the news that he's written a horror thriller thing for E4 excites me to an embarrassing degree.

So, let us all gush about how much we love the man who brought us "Wanking for Coins". Or feel free to say that you hate him, because I could quite understand that too. S'all good.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Inspired by my post are we?
I enjoy his humour and show, but not significantly so that it deserves his own thread.
Meh. Whatever happens happens.

 

[sammyfreak]

A true hero, if he and Yahtzee teamed up and created a TV show it would be so great the Pythons would reform out of envy!

 

[Gigantor]

Heh, no. I've been enthusiastic about the guy slightly longer than twelve minutes, certainly. Your post did suggest that other people like him, though, and he's certainly been an influence on me over the years. Goodness knows it's not the least significant thing going around Off-Topic Discussion at the moment.

Like yow said: whatever happens. Happens.

 

[IpcressFiles]

I think one of the most refreshing parts of Charlie Brooker's work is he is not afraid to say he likes or dislikes something, but also justifies it in an intelligent way. I do feel his criticism benefits from not patronising the viewer, talking about programmes rather than explaining them in a high-handed manner to his readers and viewers.

Personally, i think his Screenwipe reviews on the telly are better than his columns in 'Screenburn'. With the former, he gets to properly talk about the programmes, rather than trying to make the reader laugh.

In addition to the previous post, if you're interested watch 'Nathan Barley'. It was a TV series Brooker wrote documenting the rise of the Dazed and Confused, scooter-riding idiots working in telly. I still feel it was one of the most intelligent TV programmes i've ever seen. Shame it wasn't funny though.

And by the way, it's good to have someone on telly who actually likes video games.

 

[Gigantor]

And by the way, it's good to have someone on telly who actually likes video games.

He started off at PC Zone, so I guess it could only be uphill from there. He's often said that game reviewing isn't the stunningly glamorous vocation it first appears, which is a bit worrying for anyone wanting to pursue it as a career...

As for Nathan Barley, I tried to get into it, but never really convinced myself. My housemate swears by it, though. And, ya know...Julian Barratt. Yays!

 

[sammyfreak]

If The Escapist started featuring him i would explode with joy. Seriously, we want Brooker!

 

[Gigantor]

This would be good, indeed. I kind of got the impression he quite likes not having to write about computer games any more, because the other journalists laugh at you and throw stuff at your face if you're a games journalist.

Kids can be so cruel...

 

[sammyfreak]

Well, most of the articles on the Escapist are only 50% about games. Besides, in Screenwipe he strongly endorses gaming and often comments about it in his column.

 

[Gigantor]

Maybe an e-petition? Joe freaking loves them.

 

[sammyfreak]

Lets make giant quote stacks and rickroll until they get Charlio Brooker on the site.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Have you noticed how whenever he's on his couch watching TV with his laptop in front of him, somewhere on the table will be either a Mouse, Xbox 360 controller, PS3 controller or a Wiimote?