LATEST FROM A&J

Shock Video Explained

posted by Joe on 14:46 8/3/2001

Dear forum hardcore,

Some of you may have spotted that Ad and me are connected with a new show starting on E4 next week called Shock Video. I thought I should post to explain exactly what it is.

World of Wonder, the company that produces The Adam and Joe Show, has an office in America and makes lots of shows for American Television. One of them is called Shock Video, and goes out on HBO, a US cable station. It's a sleazy clip-show that supposedly features the filthiest and most shocking bits from TV shows around the world. In reality it's a relentless parade of clips of German nudists and topless Italian gameshow bimbos. The sort of thing you see on Eurotrash or Tarrant on TV, but a bit stronger, dirtier and stranger.

When World of Wonder sold Shock Video to E4, they asked us if we'd like to have some fun and make some quick cash by doing the voiceovers. And that's what we've done. So if you have E4 and tune in next week, what you'll see is a parade of naked people with Adam and me half reading and half improvising a stupid voice-over. A bit like a DVD commentary, or Beavis and Butthead, or Mystery Science Theatre 3000, if anyone's ever heard of that. Don't expect a finely polished new series, this is just something we did quickly for a laugh. Hopefully some of it's quite funny, and when it's not you can just turn the sound off and watch the naked people jiggling around.

And thanks to everyone who still posts here, and to everyone who's posted nice messages about the new series. The fourth series of The Adam and Joe Show starts on Channel Four some time in late April, very possibly Saturday 21st at 11pm. We'll let you know when we have a definite date.

Love Joe

CYDERDELIC VS MEDIA CHAOS COLLECTIVE

posted by Adam on 00:56 4/2/2001

Hello lovers and haters,

Just thought I'd post to set the record straight on the whole ripping off Cyderdelic thing.

We were not aware of Cyderdelic when we started doing our characters which we first did on The Adam & Joe Show back in 1998 for the series that went out the following year. Joe saw Cyderdelic win the BBC award last year, by which time we had filmed all our bits for the new series and he told me they looked similar, so we watched the stuff they did on The 11 O'Clock Show. As far as we could tell their characters were a couple of anti capitalist crusties who did funny/inept revolutionary songs. The obvious similarities were the accents and the ineptitude but thereafter we didn't think they were the same at all.

Our guys, Martin (Joe) and Andy (me) are a couple of lame pranksters who love Trigger Happy TV and Chris Morris stuff (which we do anyway) but try and rip them off very very badly. They're just a vehicle for more TV spoofs, in this case we're spoofing the increasing trend for stunts executed in public, which from what I have seen of Cyderdelic is not their bag.

Obviously neither Cyderdelic or us are thrilled that we happen to have hit upon characters with superficially similar traits, but it was no more than an unfortunate coincidence. We really are not in the habit of seeing other people's work and thinking 'Oooh, that looks like something we could use' and pilfering it. People in TV are always going around suspecting other people of ripping off their ideas, but I'm happy to say, I really don't know anyone who does that. In fact if we think of an idea and air it, only to discover someone else has got there first we will abandon it. The fact is, because a lot of people do stuff about contemporary popular culture, they tend to hit the same targets. It's really no more sinister than that.

For the record, the genesis of our Media Chaos Collective was a character I used to do on a radio show I hosted when I was at college in Cheltenham back in '93 where I was surrounded by mad art school revolutionary crusties. The character was based on a guy I knew who was always going on about how 'mad' he was, and all the crazy things he'd done whilst pissed. It's something most people who've been to college will no doubt be able to relate to.

I absolutely see why Cyderdelic are upset, and they've written to us stating their grievance, but we had no intention of ripping them off and we absolutely did not do so. There's nothing worse than the feeling of rage and frustration that you get when you think someone is running around taking credit for something you worked hard at so I do hope they and their fans understand that there was no foul play here. I also hope they understand that we don't appreciate being accused of thievery when we worked hard and in good faith ourselves.

We really like the stuff we did with our characters in this series and plan to do more. Having seen more of Cyderlic's stuff, we'll make doubly sure we don't stray into their territory, but the accents, I guess, are just going to have to reamin similar and they don't have copyright on the West Country!

I wish them the best of luck for their new series though. I know people at the BBC are very excited about it, and I'm sure it'll be a smash. Though I hope when it is, we don't have to answer this same point again.

Defense rests! Long Live Cydercelic! Long Live The Media Chaos Collective! Long live people who actually care about any of it!

love Adam