Ferguson was more "schticky" than Norton is (deconstructing schtick is still a schtick) but they both have a genuineness and ease with the guests that most other chat show hosts don't. Particularly in his later "Zero Fucks Given" years Ferguson would go off on tangents and if he had a guest that could keep up it could…

For whom, ironically, dental problems are immaterial !

Also, a few times Graham's made a comment that's a bit over the line and it'll be the celebrities or the audience that signal that. In other words pretty much everyone involved wants the person in the chair to do well.

Yeah, that's a bit odd then. Although I guess you could see why, if he's got a weird tick, a professional comedian might exaggerate it for effect, particularly when his set is often very close to the bone and his weird laugh could act to humanise him for the audience.

Yeah, the differences between American guests' first time and subsequent appearances on the show are usually really obvious, they're much more at ease second time around knowing they can be looser with their language and that it's not just about going through the rote steps of promoting a film.

Yeah, that's one of mine too. It highlights one of TGNS's strengths in that, whether it's just the booze or a combination of that and Norton himself, guests often come across as very at ease and natural on the show. Damon said of that episode that it was the most fun he'd ever had on a talk-show and you could well…

Everybody knows what they're doing in the Big Red Chair segment, it's not really about being cruel to the general public but actually more about celebrating them/us. Bear in mind the UK penchant for taking the piss, out of both ourselves and others - despite how it may sometimes appear it's actually about inclusion,…

If you watch his stand-up he'll usually spend a few comments lampshading his own laugh. It's very odd but he knows it.

In fairness, that's partly because he's not _the_ Doctor (_not_ the definite article. As it were).

I think your experience in this regard may be atypical.

"Brick" isn't a parody at all, that's why it works in my view (at most it's a pastiche but in fact i'd just say it's a neo-noir film set in a high school and leave it at that).

Aha, that makes way more sense, thanks !

I feel like i'm missing a joke here or something ? Because it's not crazy on its face anyway is it ? I mean we say the Mariana Trench is 7 miles deep even though miles are a unit of distance too - the seabed there is (about) 2.3 Leagues Under the Sea. Depth is just a distance downwards.

"You might believe that it's a natural inclination towards civil,
socially minded behavior which keeps you from acting on the impulse, but you'd be wrong."

Apologies but i'm finding what you're saying a bit muddled to be honest. What is the "… abstract, synthetic concept, independent of any direct consequences …" you're talking about ? And assuming it exists, why is it different in kind to a moral code or one of the building blocks of one like a sense of or instinct for…

Who knows, maybe ? It doesn't make much sense to me but if it works for you, go for it ;).

The aliens could even have worked IMO, they fit the 50s settings at least as well as Nazis fit the 40s but the film was screwed long before they showed up (the vines - oh god, the vines - and the waterfall killed it before then for me).

Agreed exclamation mark

I do enjoy M&S' offering but for my money there's just something about the E numbers in a Morrison's scotch egg which sets it apart. Particularly Es 11 to 13. I've been told it's to do with the plastic containers they keep them in but apparently no-one really knows.

For me, it's the bread-crumby taste of Morrison's scotch eggs which really evokes the auld country though some swear by the sheer boiled egg wrapped in a sort of sausage meat-ness of your more easily found Tesco stylings.