A pedestrian explanation

It's a tribute to The Pogues

Did Jack Nicholson write that joke?

Lane Pryce = Moriaty

"As an windy old bag or an old bag in the wind?"
One is a thing so beautiful it makes you cry to look at it. The other is an annoying part of the movie American Beauty.

I thought he was a Welsh international rugby union player.

"I've always been dubious about that sort of "it's your fault for watching this" kind of thing."
Me too. I remember a reviewer urging the public to see the original "Funny Games", on the basis that it "Cleverly shows you how stupid you are to go and see films like that". Hey reviewer - YOU are the one telling me to see…

Your assumption is correct.

Michael Madsen is currently on the UK programme 'Celebrity Big Brother'. This seems a bit of a come-down considering the nonentities he's sharing the house with.

I pick bogie too. In the British sense of bogie, meaning booger.

The inflight movie was so bad I almost walked out! And what's with all this sex and violence in cinemas - it puts me off the film! Not to mention sex on the TV - I keep falling off!

Nah, Brand is the person lots of people think is really smart, when he never really says anything particularly original once you strip away the affected pseudo-sophisticated delivery.

This makes me think of Fur-Q shooting people on stage in The Day Today: "The controversy is absurd - obviously these killings were ironic". Regardless of whether you're doing something for a joke or just to be unpleasant, you're still doing it. Many bullies justify their behaviour by saying they were being funny.

It was a 'Disney Nasty'.

They probably didn't talk about it because Brand is sick of the subject. And the story doesn't fit the narrative he likes to create for himself. Plus, Americans might not be so interested in the back story of BBC vs other British media.

You let Brand off the hook. He rang Sachs, then 78, and made jokes about screwing the man's grand daughter. It's what put me off Brand as a person, regardless of any arguments about how The Mail exploited the situation. He came across as a guy happy to piss on anyone else.

And the episode was awful - the one with Shirley Henderson's face stuck on a paving slab at the end. I'm guessing it wasn't the school kid who came up with the gag about the slab/girl giving the boyfriend oral sex.

I guess that means she turned 18 last year.

Well he's been in lots of stuff SINCE the Beatles movie, I just mean he's 'culturally significant' not just some guy.

Quite. It's still The Fall, despite you being the only original member.