{"id":1562,"date":"2016-03-05T14:22:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-05T19:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/?p=1562"},"modified":"2016-03-09T13:08:58","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:08:58","slug":"bad-news-worse-timing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bandsiusetalike.com\/biul\/bad-news-worse-timing\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad News, Worse Timing"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Great minds think alike.”<\/p>\n

That and coincidence are the reasons why in 1984, This Is Spinal Tap<\/em> had a counterpart from the UK,\u00a0Bad News.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The runner-up in the pants-stuffing joke competition of 1980s mockumentaries.<\/p><\/div>\n

This Is Spinal Tap<\/em> did a better job with the concept, but Bad News had an advantage; whereas Tap was an impersonation, Bad News was the real British deal. They had a scrappy authenticity that Christopher Guest and company, brilliant though they are, had to simulate.<\/p>\n

But where Spinal Tap songs are carefully constructed pastiches of 70s Brit steel, Bad News’ music is simply… bad. You can bang your head to Spinal Tap. Bad News makes you want to bang your head in.<\/em><\/p>\n

It all started in the 1980s, with a British comedy brigade called The Comic Strip. Their pedigree would prove indomitable: Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Robbie Coltrane and Alexei Sayle all started out there. They had their own weirdo anthology TV show,\u00a0Comic Strip Presents…,<\/em> beginning in 1982. How funny are these Brits? Well…<\/p>\n

For as long as I can remember, Jennifer Saunders has played one of the funniest television characters of all time, on\u00a0Absolutely Fabulous.\u00a0<\/em>Alongside the equally hilarious Joanna Lumley, Saunders has crafted a lampoon of fashion divas that contains innumerable uproarious moments. Lumley’s Patsy Stone trying to claw her way out of an open grave she’s stumbled into. Saunders’ Edina Monsoon berating her imbecile assistant for bringing a lapdog<\/em> instead of a laptop<\/em>. Patsy screaming at Edina’s daughter Saffron that when her mother was pregnant with her, Patsy screamed at her to “ABORT! ABORT ABORT ABORT!”<\/p>\n