CITYSPEAK A L’ANGLAISE.

March 17, 2003 by 4 Comments

Desbladet reminisces about a comedy sketch program called The Fast Show, on which one of the running gags was Channel Nine, presented “in a made-up language based mostly on the sound of Italian, with bits of Spanish” (“Republicca presente… totalla bien cantesta… C-h-a-n-e-l N-i-n-e!”). He quotes a very funny weather report and links to a complete script. Don’t miss it.

Comments

  1. Marcela says
    March 18, 2003 at 3:52 am

    Hi Language Hat,

    I just launched a website with information about studying abroad. I was wondering if you might consider posting this on your site as a useful resource? The URL is :
    http://www.learn-languages-abroad.co.uk and the site title is: Learn Languages Abroad

  2. qB says
    March 18, 2003 at 7:12 am

    re 1 above: invasion of the adspots!

    re Fast Show – another wonderful satire on the news employing twisted linguistics was The Day Today. Satire so vicious and accurate that it was often difficult to distinguish the spoof from the oh-so-serious “Newsnight” which came after it in the schedule. My favourite was the business news presenter, Collaterly Sisters, whose report was a long string of incomprehensible but plausible-sounding eco-jargon, and her “currency cat”, which was a visual equivalent of the graphics accompanying tv economics reports. The writer/performer, Chris Morris, became a contraversial figure when some of his later projects publicly shafted establishment figures.

  3. Greg says
    March 18, 2003 at 11:27 pm

    The Fast Show did a marvellous Channel Nine Eurotrash musical version of the nativity…
    Scorchio!

  4. Phil says
    March 24, 2003 at 6:15 am

    The scripts of The Day Today are also available online: http://www.koekie.org.uk/funnel/tdt/index.html They should be read an over-important loud news anchorman’s voice.

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