Love and Content

The worst people on Twitter are quick to declare ‘You couldn’t make a movie like Blazing Saddles today.’ I’m not interested in getting into that; we all know that if Mel Brooks were dead today, he’d be turning in his grave to see the way ‘free thinking’ libertarian dickheads use his explicit critique of racism to justify what amounts to modern day racism barely covered by a thin sheen of irreverence. What I’m interested in is the other side of this coin. Assuming you couldn’t make Blazing Saddles today, imagine making Lady Bird back then. It’s undeniable that the face of comedy is changing. It’s getting more personal, more sincere. A comedian in Mel Brooks’ time wouldn’t mind inventing a whole life story to get to a punchline; now, a comedian will pepper in some jokes to keep you interested as they tell you whole their life story, tragedy and all. So much of comedy, be it in stand-up, film or TV, seems as interested in making people feel as it is in making them laugh. Is this a good thing? How has it come about? I speak to comedian, writer and producer Imogen Trusselle about her experiences with stand-up and the strong need for empathy in comedy as we get the bottom of her love for Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird. Along with Pravanya Pillay, Imogen runs Party, a comedy night in Bristol. Follow them on instagram and twitter to find out about shows @partyatcube Imogen also runs Wendy’s House with Ted Milligan, a monthly queer comedy night in London. They can be found on Twitter and Instagram @wendyshouse2n Instagram @loveandcontentpod Twitter @lovecontentpod

The great lie about art is that it’s original. When a work is called ‘original’ or ‘innovative’, what we’re looking at is an original way of ordering familiar elements. Whenever I go about trying to understand an artist or a body of work for this show, I start with their influences, with what has been rearranged. With clipping. (punctuation intentional), this is easy. The very texture of this experimental rap group is influence. Their horrifying, conceptual, noise music-inspired work is a tapestry of sounds, of samples, of movie references, conscious aping of other styles. They don’t pretend to be unprecedented. Their Spotify bio will tell you all about the musical roots of their latest album; it’ll show you half a dozen playlists full of their favourite songs, one is called ‘precedent’. James Charalambides loves clipping. He loves the things that clipping. loves, too. It’s possible they’re reordering the same elements. For James, they come out as films, horror films mostly. We talk influence and exploitation to try and get to the bottom of his love. James is on instagram @charalambides.james Instagram @loveandcontentpod Twitter @lovecontentpod

'You seem like you've been doing this for years'. Soup Emporium's comment sections are filled with this sentiment. In February of this year he seemed to materialise, fully-formed, on the trending page of YouTube with a steady stream of video essays. His increasingly massive following speculates in the comment section about how someone with so much mastery over the form could simply appear; one who defies categorisation with an eclectic range of topics, whose frenetic wit is grounded by a deep humanity, and whose appetite for research is caught somewhere between doctoral candidate and man 4AM-deep in a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Wherever he came from, he's clearly not going anywhere. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith really have been doing this for years. The writer-actors behind Inside No. 9, Psychoville, and The League of Gentlemen have been making twisted comedy for over two decades, moving through formats –sketch, serial, anthology– to match their tastes. Flesh-creepingly funny and fiercely independent from the trends of British television, unintentional monoliths of the TV landscape. The video essayist is brand new, but seems as old as the titans of the medium. The old showrunners hold onto a creativity that keeps them young. Soup Emporium and I talk authorship, audience relationships and independence to try and get to the bottom of his love. Soup Emporium's Youtube channel can be found here Instagram @loveandcontentpod Twitter @lovecontentpod