Channel Hopping

MEETING Colin Murphy in Lucas’ after a gig in Glór one night, I was struck at just how ordinary the man is. That is not a criticism but rather a compliment. I have always enjoyed his comedy and I remember thinking, wow, maybe one should meet people they like off the telly a bit more often as it keeps you liking them.
Since then, my admiration of Mr Murphy has not diminished despite a sometimes poor run on The Panel, mainly because whenever I get annoyed by him I remember…he’s an ordinary guy in real life.
See, I remember thinking that The Blizzard of Odd was one of the best things on television. In many ways, it was the precursor to the way in which we live our lives today. Basically, Colin’s programme centred on funny and bizarre clips that he had found on the Internet and various television channels. It was youtube for a generation that only had dial-up and a strict limit on the amount of time your parents let you play with the Internet. Mainly because, if memory serves (and I may have it wrong), it was 50p a minute and it could take up to five minutes to download a page, let alone a video. Ahh, dial-up, how I loathed you.
Nowadays, we all share information like penny sweets and a show like The Blizzard of Odd is no longer quirky and a bit surreal but a legitimate way in which the content of the Internet is brought to a country’s audience. Rude Tube being a current example of this.
In fact, there has been a switch in recent years away from the Rudetube type programming and back to a trade in knowledge.
In many ways, this is being lead by the BBC, but all of the main channels in both Ireland and Britain are dealing in it in some form. Stephen Fry’s QI is of course one of the best examples. This programme manages to quench our thirst for comedy, witty banter, factoids and, curiously enough, Alan Davies.
So where does our own Mr Murphy fit in? Well quite interestingly, he has joined the Stephen Fry knowledge train and has a new programme of his own on BBC.
Colin Murphy is tackling the great what if questions. Such as: what if you tunnelled from Ireland through the world’s core, where would you end up? You know, the important stuff.
Well actually, I think it is fascinating and I must say that the show is a great blend of knowledge and laughs.
The first show of the series, called Great Unanswered Questions, started last weekend. Murphy is joined each week by a resident boffin and a Internet whiz, the two serving as the straight men to Colin and his comedy guest. They, Dr David Booth, professor of evolutionary genetics at Queen’s University and Matthew Collins, a PhD student in computer science, provide the proof to prove or disprove theories and Colin and his guest provide the laughs.
What is most likable about this programme is the people. Colin is funny and his first guest, an Australian comedian, was also a good laugh.
Dr Booth, who is more Temperance Brennan than Seely Booth from Bones, is wonderful on the television. The way he gently but brilliantly pours a healthy dose of reality and science over Colin’s ridiculous comedic ideas is hilarious to watch. He very quietly and assuredly picks apart all the nonsense and grounds it in science. All the while, the bearded computer student sits quietly in his wicker chair furiously searching the Internet for video clips to illustrate ideas.
Now I am a knowledge monster. I love shows like QI, University Challenge and well all quiz shows really, except The Weakest Link, but that has more to do with my dislike of the host and my inability to bank any money than it does with the show itself.
I am a happy mixture of nerd and geek. A neek, if you will, and this kind of comedy with a learning aspect sits perfectly with me.
I enjoy a good pun and I have been known to inform (if you were on the receiving end of it though, you may substitute inform with bore) many of the origins of various phrases and words so if you are like me and enjoy this kind of lark immensely then Great Unanswered Questions is the programme for you. Check it out on Friday nights on BBC One.
While the Concert for Haiti has been grabbing all the headlines. RTÉ made an excellent choice last Friday night. If you had been under any illusion that the devastation in Haiti had not been as severe as is being reported then one look at this programme would show that it is probably worse than the picture we are getting.
One Hundred Dead Bodies in My Truck is a programme that was shown before. It dealt with a missionary priest and two Irish humanitarians who were working in Haiti in 2008. The documentary showed the complete poverty and hardship, which the people of Haiti were enduring in the years before the earthquake. It showed the horrible situation that young ­people found themselves in as well as the real threat to life in the capital of Port-au-Prince because of gangs, poverty, lack of sanitation and unstable accommodation. This was a community that thought it had reached rock bottom following the severe hurricanes. It is a country that thought it was on its knees only to be smacked face-down into the unrelenting ground.
The documentary also showed the way in which people were trying to help each other and trying to eke out an existence. However, after watching the programme, one couldn’t help but think that we were now most likely hearing the voices of the dead as many of the Haitians interviewed lived in the worst affected areas of Port-au-Prince. Emotional and apt, an excellent decision by RTÉ to show it again.