Who's in which chair these days?

[perrykneeham]

There was a time when certain celebrities were known as the go-to example of a particular characteristic e.g. Bobby Carlton was the definitive comb-over man.

I think Benjamin Netanyahu sits in the comb-over chair these days.

There no longer seems to be a public fatty in the manner of Cyril Smith, who was succeeded by Eric Pickles.

Prince Andrew is in the creepy bloke chair, but not yet in the famous nonce chair, which I think is still occupied by Gary Glitter.

What about the most beautiful woman in the World? That was Bo Derek.

Any other examples?

[mids]

There's the camp gay chair. It's probably being shared by Alan Carr and Graham Norton these days, although I'm not really up to date. Growing up it was Mr Humphries, then Larry Grayson, then Julian Clary, Graham Norton and Alan Carr. I'm not sure if Paul O'Grady counts as he never seemed especially camp. It's an odd thing that British light entertainment always seemed to tolerate one openly gay entertainer over the years. There are probably loads now so the phenomenon has died off.

[perrykneeham]

It's a interesting (but tedious) phenomenon, the national camp bloke. It's certainly a thing. Most of them are plain creepy, but I quite like Graham Norton.

Is it a vehicle for sage bawdiness and inuendo? Dunno, but I guess it's always been around. I was listening to Julian Clarey on the radio the other day and he came across as a nice chap. His act was pretty nauseating, but it was different times, I suppose.

[perrykneeham]

Public pisshead? Mike Yarwood, Dennis Thatcher, Princess Margeret, Gazza, Pete Docherty,

[perrykneeham]

Oliver Reid, of course.

[perrykneeham]

Public luvvy?

Larry Olivier, John Gielguid ....

[mids]

I'm really not up terrestrial telly these days but there was always the tart with a heart of gold, usually in a soap. Barbara Windsor is an obvious one. I think the phenomenon might have faded a bit with the rise of streaming services. There's a bit less of a national shared experience now.

[perrykneeham]

That's probably it. I don't watch terrestrial these days. I guess it's a challenge for the tabloids for whom the popular series were meat and drink.

[perrykneeham]

Public enemy - Yorkshire Ripper, Abu Hamza, OBL, Sadiq Khan.

[flatandy]

It's interesting (to me) that Britain no longer allows a public fatty - you have all kinds of other, much more preventable, odious traits like being muslim, or christian, or Tory, or racist, or sex pest - who remain very visibly in the public eye, yet despite the nation definitely getting fatter over the years it is now something that the media tries to hide and which the voters no longer allow.

Winnie Churchill would probably still be electable despite his racism, his incompetence at the admiralty, his gassing of the kurds, his alcoholism and so on, but would probably not get into power because he was too chubby.

[Repat Van]

But BJ was PM and he is fat.

[perrykneeham]

Dunno. We seem to allow public thickness. I think it's fair to say that Abbo sits in that chair.

[perrykneeham]

May 10, 2024 15:00:13 GMT Repat Van said:

But BJ was PM and he is fat.

Nah not comedy fat. Again, Diane's a contender.

[flatandy]

I do think that, on the whole, a lot of these have faded now peoples' cultural touchstones are separated. You choose your sports now rather than just getting whatever Grandstand or World of Sport threw at you. Your music is carefully segmented and curated so you know everything about, say, EDM without knowing anything about country music apart from the existence of Willie Nelson. Your TV has 700 channels of sh*t and nobody watches the same episode of The Bill or Spitting Image every week. Almost nobody reads a newspaper any more and the online Mail - the main source of trash gossip - seems to be 90% American celebs nobody's heard of.

So your National Pisshead, who was once George Best, is no longer obvious.

Your lovable fighty rogue, whether it was Reggie Kray or Liam Gallagher, is no longer obvious.

[mids]

We need a hideously obese peeedo in the public eye.

[perrykneeham]

I suppose we've had Stacey Soloman in the fick chair. I'm sure she's not as dim as she sounds (she certainly seems to have done well enough out of it). She reminds me of Bernie Winters.

[perrykneeham]

May 10, 2024 15:10:41 GMT mids said:

We need a hideously obese peeedo in the public eye.

Cyril Smith would have been ideal.

[mids]

I don't think I can name a single children's TV presenter. I know it's partly because I don't watch children's TV but I'm sure my parents knew who Tony Hart or John Noakes were. Well, my mum would have.

[flatandy]

Well, your mum had a kid. You don't. I think that would itself probably be a reasonable explanation. Even if the media landscape hadn't fragmented.

[flatandy]

It's interesting that your off-the-rails wild-child bimbo in the US is Britney and in the UK is KPrice. Both of whom are now well into their forties and who entered the public eye when we still had someone filtering our content for us.

There are very few properly universal figures. Not even footballers - there's no modern Beckham in Britain. Harry Maguire or Phil Foden do not have the same profile. The closest would be perhaps Marcus Rashford, and coming soon might be Jude Bellingham. The internationalisation of it all means a lot of the kids are wearing Messi shirts. But he's dull as dishwater, just really famous as a footballer. If Bellingham does succeed at an international tournament, I think it would probably basically be the same thing.