tao_: Funography

Graham (

tao_) wrote,
@ 2007-04-29 22:12:00

Funography
I tried to persuade Charlie Brooker to help me popularise the word 'funography' as a catch-all title for polluting television, but his heart wasn't in it. He did put it in an article once, but I think repetition is key. Maybe this is the place for me to start my campaign to get the word into the Oxford English Dictionary.

Funography is any form of entertainment (primarily television) that relies entirely on shock, celebrity or drunk people in their early twenties to exist. It is characterised by shocking titles (The Man Who Farted Himself a Pair of Tits ), pseudo-educational 'medical' content, usually in regard to sex (The Sex Inspectors) and situations that are designed to be horribly stressful in the hope of catching a few rows on camera. (Charlie calls them 'Red Ant and Black Ant programs'. "You know the kind of thing...a person who hates mops is sent to live with someone who collects them.")

Do keep sending in examples of the genre, along with any clarifications, additions to the definition you may have.

(Post a new comment)

	joepublic 2007-04-29 10:04 pm UTC (link)
	Dr Pepper Band in a Bubble. Why did they bother with the rest of the title when they could have mentioned Dr Pepper again in that space? Perhaps another element of funography could be shows that sound like they'd be on Troy McClure's CV. (Reply to this)

	monkeybumface 2007-04-29 10:10 pm UTC (link)
	What about "Superstorm"? It's hard to take Tom Sizemore seriously after watching him flounce about with a bunch of hookers. It followed along the same lines of "Supervolcano" so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that "SuperMOBILEPHONECANCER" is just around the corner. (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2007-04-29 10:35 pm UTC (link)
	These programs frequently have a title reminiscent of American cold war-era B-movies (The Man Who Sweats Too Much), or when focussing on the case of a family or individual suffering from a vaguely funny medical condition, defeat the apparently sympathetic tone of the presenters by naming the show something like 'I Gave Birth To The Elephant Man.' or so i've noticed. (Reply to this)

	reincheque 2007-04-29 10:38 pm UTC (link)
	Seeing as how all the programmes you've cited in your definition are from Channel 4, how about changing the word to "C4nography"? Well, if we are making up words, why not allow ourselves to make up words with numbers in them. That would be a b9 thing to do, eh? l8r, djp (Reply to this)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2007-04-30 12:43 am UTC (link)
	I think that's a better word than funography, which sounds more like a children's edutainment (hnnng!) genre. C4 aren't the sole culprit of course - BBC3's "Help, My Dog's As Fat As Me," is another. The BBC announcer can't seem to say it without sounding like he's breaking his back cringing. (Reply to this)(Parent)

fr0mthepast
2007-04-30 08:13 am UTC (link)

I think if you get enough people together in maybe a crowd, or just generally people saying the word (100+) maybe, the word can get into the dictionary…… I think.

So with ‘funography’ the shock factor is purely based on something stupid (drunk idiots, silly sex stuff margining on porn)? Or would it be applied to something like say a cutting edge documentary on channel 4? Some of those documentaries have pretty stupid titles to rely on people to watch them as reincheque pointed out. Would Cutting Edge be a slightly more up class ’funography’?

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	tao_ 2007-04-30 09:11 am UTC (link)
	I don't think Cutting Edge has gone to the dark side yet. Do you have any examples of titles that show it's on the slide? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	fr0mthepast 2007-04-30 08:44 pm UTC (link)
	Not off the top of my head to be honest. It’s possible I may be thinking of other channel 4 documentaries rather than Cutting Edge ones, the late night ones. I was wondering more about clarifying to myself what ‘funography’ meant rather than offering an example with Cutting Edge, though I understand what you mean now. :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	pete_the_lion 2007-04-30 09:17 am UTC (link)
	'Honey I suckled the kids" was an informative evening about 4 months ago. scary as hell mothers shoving their tits down screaming five year olds mouths shouting BOOBY at them was kinda creepy. maybe not as creepy as the 11 year old lads saying "mums milk is best." it was a program on mothers breastfeeding to 15... (Reply to this)(Thread)

	nearside 2007-04-30 12:13 pm UTC (link)
	Please tell me that this was a nightmare you had, or a weird porno or something, and not actually a real tv show. The world is ending. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pete_the_lion 2007-04-30 01:30 pm UTC (link)
	fraid not... i think it was on some time in august... saw it listed in radio times and it seemed far too bizarre to be fake. teenagers sucking boob before school for breakfast was a first for me... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	pete_the_lion 2007-04-30 01:34 pm UTC (link)
	in fact heres a website talking about it http://www.five.tv/programmes/hiddenlives/honeyisuckle/ heres a great line from that synopsis, and something i dont remember seeing when i watched it: "She has two little knitted uteruses" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nearside 2007-04-30 02:37 pm UTC (link)
	Gah, my mental eyes! Now my teeth hurt. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	reincheque 2007-04-30 10:59 pm UTC (link)
	"She describes breastfeeding as 'liquid love'. I thought "liquid love" was something else entirely... regards, djp (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Anonymous)
2007-04-30 01:06 pm UTC (link)

Sorry, but I don't think "funography" belongs in the OED...

It's not entymologically accurate, since it translates as "writing about fun" and is a mixture of Greek and, I suspect, Anglo-Saxon.

It's also not quite clear, it doesn't suggest "ponography of fun" in an unambiguous way: it could equally mean "biography of fun" or similar.

Pornografun would be slightly clearer, and has the advantage of being an even uglier word...

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	tao_ 2007-04-30 01:32 pm UTC (link)
	Uglier is not better in this case. It must 'punch through' in some way, and 'funography' still does that better than 'Pornografun'. Happy to change it if I do hear something better, though. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nearside 2007-04-30 02:40 pm UTC (link)
	Pornfungraphy. Though that could just be lewd pictures of mushrooms. (Reply to this)(Parent)

FART, TITS, ETC
(Anonymous)
2007-04-30 08:15 pm UTC (link)

Can I just say that I'd give up any weekday evening to watch the 'The Man Who Farted Himself A Pair of Tits'. First, I'd watch it on Channel4, then catch the repeat on More4, then watch it an hour later on More4+1. If there was a 'Making of The Man Who Farted Himself A Pair Of Tits' special on E4, I'd also have a look at that, switching to E4+1 afterwards to catch the bits I missed while blinking. Curse you for inventing it.

Regarding the semantics: 'funography' is OK, but wrong. As someone has already mentioned, it sounds like some kind of childrens' entertainment.

Pornografun is good, but too clunky.

The best suggestion by far is '4-nography'. Accurate, apt, trips off the tongue. A clear winner.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: FART, TITS, ETC reincheque 2007-04-30 11:04 pm UTC (link)
	"The best suggestion by far is '4-nography'. Accurate, apt, trips off the tongue. A clear winner." Thanks, Anne, but I'd hate to think what the prize would be... Regards, djp (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: FART, TITS, ETC (Anonymous) 2007-04-30 11:35 pm UTC (link)
	Tits. Or farts. Your choice, I'd assume. Graham? (Reply to this)(Parent)

3 layers of entertainment

blacktack.wordpress.com
2007-05-02 02:37 pm UTC (link)

Hi Graham
Long time reader - first time commenter

Thank you for attempting to classify a layer of entertainment - I work in tv, and seem to be alone in thinking there are 3 layers of entertainment.

At the top is the 'good stuff' - This is characterised by a production team (writers, performers, 'team') just going out there, on a wing, and seeing if anyone comes along for the ride.

Then, the sinking feeling, when you realise you're working on a show one layer down
- This layer is dependent on crawling up someone else's arse to persuade them to be a contributor in order to get the programme made
Funography seems to be a good description of this layer.
It relies on other people 'being booked' - whether they be celebs or MOTP members of the public.

Curiously, if you follow this theory, the next layer down is the absolute bottom of the pond - entertainment which is *totally* dependent on its contributors.
IE in the ‘funography’ layer - if someone drops out, you can book someone else, or continue production of the programme with some form of replacement. Whereas this layer only exists when it revolves around its contributor.
I don’t have a name for this.
But it would include Awards Ceremonies, 1 hour Channel 4 / T4 ‘specials’ and, curiously, 24 Hour News Channels.

I feel I’m not expressing this “3 Layers Theory” particularly well here - but its served me well as a gauge.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: 3 layers of entertainment

tao_
2007-05-02 07:56 pm UTC (link)

I do see what you mean. But perhaps 'funography' should be isolated further because some shows that depend entirely on their contributors are good (like, say, Michael Palin's travel programs...or 'Parkinson'), wheras others are merely...well, let's put it this way, if your contributor is slightly mentally ill (a lot of people on those cleaning programs, for instance, were OBVIOUSLY SUFFERING FROM DEPRESSION), then you're not in telly, you're in funography.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: 3 layers of entertainment (Anonymous) 2007-05-03 11:22 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, Richard Madeley doing Ali G. Now I get it...:-) Regards, djp (Reply to this)(Parent)

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