Saturday, October 08, 2005

People Always Think He's British, But It's Just Because He's Gay.


We normally hate people who use the phrase "The BBC version was just so much better," but if you didn't happen to catch comedian Graham Norton's talk show "So Graham Norton" before he came across the pond to Comedy Central, it's really too bad.

But now his show has come live to a theater near you (well, if you live in New York somewhere between Off and Off-Off Broadway), and the Associated Press sent an intrepid reporter to give us an advance preview.

"He is known for making fun of eccentric Web sites on his British talk shows — even phoning the authors on the air" writes the author, correcting a common misconception, which is that Norton is actually best known for meeting innappropriately young men at Duvet on Thursdays and then taking them to red carpet premieres.

But these days, he's got a whole new batch of tricks up his sleeve (Ha! Tricks! We're dying!):

Graham Norton is calling a gay sex hot line from the stage of his off-Broadway stand-up comedy show, talking to men in a breathless voice over speaker phone as the audience tries not to snicker too loudly. One after one, the guys hang up as Norton says — with a completely straight face — that he's gained weight recently and was horribly maimed during a circumcision.

Wait...just...a...damn...minute! Is the AP attempting a humorous lede paragraph? With cultural relevance? And, no, it can't be... is that some edginess, we detect?? Are you karate kidding us? One of the last bastions of serious, bland and boring journalism crumbles to the dust, following in the heels of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

At least we still have The Advocate.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

GROW IT YOURSELF!

Adrian said...

But he's Irish. One of his early stand-up routines (in a less permissive time) involved him flouncing onto the stage, flapping about campily for a while and then stopping with, "I know, I know what you're thinking. You're right... I'm Irish."