NTNOCN: James Bloody Burke (1980)

Back in the old days, you used to get brainy people to befuddle your bonces on peak time telly. One the giants of this genre was James Burke ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_%28science_historian%29 ) who had just done "Connections" and "The Real Thing" by the time Not the Nine O'Clock News did this sketch. I think it's telling that although they make fun of him, there's an element of sneaking admiration at Burke's twists and turns.

This sketch is preceded by exactly the sort of shouty bloke that's basically taken over since then...

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• ntnocn
• james
• burke

[kirintokyo]

James Burke is a REAL hero who makes us see without coercion, the error of our ways more so than any technology, religion, doctrines, dogmas and false beliefs due to humanity's blind faith. His contributions are small yet the impact can be deep, meaningful, and powerful.

[ketmaniac]

Oh, he's on the payroll. He was also part of the "Canada" hoax, a 300-year-old conspiracy involving a large territory in North America where there's no crime and people ride around in snow-plows. Of course there's no such place, but to stop anyone finding out the truth they pay people to go round calling themselves "Canadian" and talking about ice-hockey. There are thousands of these "maple-leafers" on YouTube, and they're very plausible impostors, but I'm not fooled.

[ion010101]

Funny. For some reason I've never heard of ntnon. One of those vastly superior things that ends up forgotten and unnoticed.

[mongex25]

a great show making fun of another great one.... greatness squared

[Concreteowl]

@robinoi or should I? Consider connections, a series of televisual essays about the apparently causal and chance connections between technological innovations and random events which begins at the World Trade Center and discusses how NY and flight 911 was plunged into chaos by one tiny unexpected event and then shows the twin towers blotted out by a tabulation card with the words falling down. He also dwells on the leap from plough to pyramid and a terrorist scenario in London, or does he?

[TheLastBrainLeft]

@marktrade88 If you watch the beginning of the "Day the Universe Changed" episode Point Of View, as the camera pans over an American warship, his head magically appears out of nowhere from behind a structure when a missile launcher makes a sharp turn. The look he sports is eerily like that of our good friend Troll Face.

[scarletharlot69]

James Bloody Burke yayay!

[mikkrack]

@epsteinsmutha1 lol

[marktrade88]

I thought that was great. I'm a fan of Burke, having watched "The Day the Universe Changed" in high school and then all the Connections series later on. I remember how one student took so much delight in watching Burke walk out from behind something in an historical scene. "He's everywhere!"

[epsteinsmutha1]

@Glenn1967ful Or did he?

[Glenn1967ful]

This is just what James Burke was like a berk who made very expensive programmes on location to show how clever he was at our expense. Unfortunately he was no David Attenborough and acted like a pretentious prat.

[siflrock]

good god that looked dangerous