Although I have always found him immensely likeable and talented, I would have found it very hard to believe 10 or 15 years ago that Hugh Laurie would one day be among the highest paid actors on US TV.Back in those days he was well-known in the UK for his portrayal as an amiable thicko in the third and fourth series of Blackadder, along with the sketch show A Bit Of Fry & Laurie, in which he starred with his long-time comedy partner Stephen Fry.
In the sketch show Laurie would often employ highly suspect foreign accents. The clip below showcases his 'Australian', but his American characters were usually even less convincing. This mattered not a jot, as it was comedy: often exaggerated and grandiose, nearly always hilarious.
The irony for me is that when I see his performance in House, the accent sounds just as inauthentic to my English ears. You could argue that I am not qualified to comment, that it is good enough for folks in America: end of story. I have no real comeback for that, I just can't help chuckling. Similarly, when seeing him on TV performing songs from his 'Blues' album. I am immediately reminded of when his genuine musical abilities were only displayed on parodies like this. Some time ago I posted my lovely wife's unusually profound reaction to a commercial for the aforementioned album.
Stephen Fry had to plough his own furrow while his old pal became the darling of Hollywood. Nowadays he is best known in the UK for two things: Hosting the smug-fest quiz show QI, and for being one of the first celebrities to embrace Twitter.
QI is unique for me amongst TV shows in that it almost exclusively features guests who I like and whose other work I admire, yet I hate the resulting programme. I am not averse to smart-arse banter, in fact it is a pretty essential ingredient in any comedy panel show. With QI, however, it just is somehow cranked up to an unbearable level, and Fry as host can barely contain himself from displaying his fabulous education and expert knowledge on almost every possible subject.
There seems to be a misconception common in the UK that if you are on Twitter you must follow Fry. This could unfortunately put people off what for me is a vibrant, fascinating, and often uproariously amusing forum. I find his tweets rather dull, but as he (at the time of writing) has 4,440,632 more followers than I have, what do I know?
I do know that he is, or at least was, an amazing comedy talent. He, like Laurie, was a leading light in Blackadder, but this post was inspired by catching the excerpt below on TV late last night. It's Fry & Laurie doing a superb parody of It's A Wonderful Life, where Aussie Media Tycoon Rupert Murdoch is shown how the world would be if he had never been born. A lovely thought anyway, but it's superbly done.
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I don't know how I came upon this article,but it represents all that is bad and boorish about the internet. Hugh Laurie's best work was in Blackadder and Jeeves ans Wooster, but life and careers move on . A balding, pasty middle aged English bloke has been able to become the most watched tv star in the world, the highest paid, and win many awards in the US, but your response is that he has a bad accent - I suspect you think that all americans are backward and that they can't recognise there own accent, but maybe some british people are at fault because all you can remember is Hugh's posh accent - people have to move on. Maybe, you should too, if you don't like his current work, don't watch, if he has been nominated 6 times for an Emmy for House then maybe others have a higher opinion of his talents than you. A bit of growing up would be appreciated, and a recognition of a long career would be appreciated, instead of the normal boorish British whining ( I recognise how ironical it is that I am whinging about you ! )
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments Alan. Unfortunately they have resulted in me now being worried I will get irate emails from child pornographers, extremist groups and Nigerian scam artists, upset that in just a few short months my writing has usurped their best efforts, and now "..represents all that is bad" about the internet.
ReplyDeleteYou unfortunately seem to have taken a light-hearted observation within an article on what is a (for the most part) humour-based website, as a personal attack on Hugh Laurie, his very successful show 'House', and the United States of America in general. I think if you read it through again you might see that this is absolutely not the case. In fact I give no opinion on House at all as I have not seen enough to form one, but given its success and awards I've no doubt it must be pretty good, as are so many other US drama series which I enjoy.
As for me "growing up", I'm afraid it's too late for that. You see, one of the things I think is great about the internet is the fact that anyone (who lives in a democracy) can have a platform, whether it is to share apparently deeply held, serious (and perhaps slightly nationalistic)opinions like your own, or to make fun of someone's voice, whilst simultaneously recommending a superb piece of his (and lest we forget, Stephen Fry's)work, of which many may be unaware.
Finally I see you offer no defence of Hugh's recent foray into the Blues idiom. Presumably we both agree this is indefensible?
Hi Blinkered,
ReplyDeleteI am making no attack on your democratic right to diagree at all - less amateur dramatics please !, I just find the tone very tabloidy. Re the album, I am not a huge fan, but I believe it has some merit - if you look at reviews on both Itunes and Amazon, then there are several thousand reviews from around the world with an average star of between 4.3 to 4.5 stars out of between the various countries, that normally denotes that buyers believe that they have not not been short changed - and they can't all be hard core nutter fans that will love anything he does. It may a different outlook to yours, but I admire his pluck - why not have a go and succeed or fail, it seems that many in Britain will dislike him for it ( many will see him forever as Bertie Wooster) - but why not have a go - you only live once. Also, the critics have not been universally hating the album, some have liked the album, others less so, the normal reponse is ' decent but not amazing' - the best reponse that could be expected to a 'vanity' project from an actor.
He has had a 30 year career, from being the national rowing champion 1977, appearing in the boat race, winning the first Perrier, re-inventing himself in the US in his mid 40s, when he was a pasty middle aged balding english bloke - all I am saying is indulge him, or cut him slack, he has had a career thet you or I could only dream of.