Eurovision 2015

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
I had the misfortune of catching some of the Eurovision Song Contest last night, my wife and daughter were watching it honest!.
I have been in a similar position for so long now that i have come to love it, well 'love it' may be a bit strong, but 'rather enjoy it' is perhaps a bit too British - so let's say i 'sort of love it' in summary.
I love Eurovision....it's so bad it's good.
I don't subscribe to this stance on the whole - the music itself is for the most part genuinely awful - but you do get those moments (thinking of Poland last year) when it is certainly so. The key here, in the music part of it, is in the staging - especially so this year because it was the staging that so clearly won it.

BGT is a show that i also get roped into on occasion, and i thought that this years winner won in the same way that those Italian (?) shadow puppeteers did, whenever they did, simply by 'outstaging', if you will, the competition. In essence the winning song just looked better - which i think we can all agree is not really a fair way to judge the merits of a song. Most songs don't look like anything at all - unless you are a synesthete of course - though it was difficult not to notice a preponderance for HUGE dresses this year.

All of this is merely a warm up for the real event. Which is, of course, the allocation of points. This is far and away the most interesting part of the entire spectacle, tinged as it is with the shifting sands of local diplomacy, coupled with the delicate art of not wanting to appear to be out of step with the Euro-Joneses.

I thought there was a subtle, or perhaps not quite so, shift this year - a year, two years, ago, you'd have bet your very house that Serbia would give the old douze to Montenegro and vice versa for example - this year that sort of thing was still in evidence, but was a lot less so, making it a lot harder to call where the big points would go. One wonders whether this is the beginning of a thing - maybe even the kind of thing that will end the convivial circle-jerking malarkey that it has/had become?

If so, i don't think we should underestimate the effect of the Australians joining the party in this - an inspired idea which in itself skewed the voting part in a substantial way. If i cared as much as the length of this post suggests i do, i would canvas pretty hard to have them back next year for this very reason. TBF Australia is not particularly less European than Israel.
 
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Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Just as a codicil -
- i don't think it helped that ^she looked quite psychotic during that performance..

It's the eyes - her eyes scare me

She looks like she would be perfectly happy to personally walk into my house and murder my firstborn so that Putin could assume supreme power in our Homeland.

It is quite possible that i'm overreacting.
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
My head is now filled with @Withnail sitting on the sofa & clapping along to BGT !

Make it go away!

*one of the last people I expected to be watching BGT :strange:
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
My head is now filled with @Withnail sitting on the sofa & clapping along to BGT !

Make it go away!

*one of the last people I expected to be watching BGT :strange:
BGT is great....

And so much talent this year.
And some not so talented of course, but that's what makes the show brilliant...you never know what's coming next.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
*one of the last people I expected to be watching BGT :strange:
I take all sensible precautions available to avoid it, but sadly am surrounded by Philistines so cannot usually escape it entirely.

Mind you, i learned to stop worrying and love the Eurovision, so stranger things have happened.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
I take all sensible precautions available to avoid it, but sadly am surrounded by Philistines so cannot usually escape it entirely.
.

Is someone who enjoys watching a variety show a Philistine?

I know lots of intelligent people with highly demanding jobs who, when they come home, occasionally want to watch something light hearted.
Others I know can happily watch a historical drama, a political debate, a documentary about climate change and still enjoy "trashy" TV as well.

After all, who wants to be serious all the time?

Last nights BGT was brilliant. Out of the 9 contestants there was only one duff one...the others all really entertained me.
Perhaps I'm just easily pleased.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Is someone who enjoys watching a variety show a Philistine?
I can't really speak for the other 8 million people that watch it, only those in my immediate vicinity - i speak only as i find.
After all, who wants to be serious all the time?
Luckily for me i have managed to introduce one of them to the classics, so last night was spent on a marathon session of much loftier and earnest pursuits - as you are no doubt aware, there is nothing at all stupid about the Annual All-Priests Five-a-Side over 75s Indoor Football Challenge Match...

OOF!

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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Two examples from real life.

A friend of mine was selling some raffle tickets and decided to attempt to sell some to the rather fierce priest who was incumbent at the time.

Would you like a raffle ticket, Father, it's for a very good cause?
How much are they?
Two euros each.
(The priest pulls out a €10 note - and my friend lost his composure...)
Will you be having five then, Father?
No! Give me a ticket, eight euros and feck off!

Many years ago, another friend had an altercation with a priest who bore a strange physical resemblance to Father Ted, a great shock of white hair. This priest was actually a very pious man, except on the hurling field. My friend had the misfortune to accidentally scythe him down in a spectacular manner. He was picked up off the ground by his throat and was told "If you ever do that again, I'll break both your farking legs, you chuff!"

Note. The Forum may have Bowdlerised some of the spellings there.
 
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