RUTLES v BAD NEWS v SPINAL TAP v STILL CRAZY

[Deebank]

ST is also more authentic. There's nothing worse or less funny than an actor pretending to play bass it just looks hammy.

So McKean, Shearer and Guest are all playing their basses live on "Big Bottom", then?

I suspect they're miming, but the point is they know what they're doing so they can mime authentically.

[Quaco]

I haven't seen the Rutles film in so long, I really should watch it again.

[pcqgod]

Hmm, somehow 'Still Crazy' has completely escaped my attention. I'll have to watch that one.

[bobzilla77]

ST is also more authentic. There's nothing worse or less funny than an actor pretending to play bass it just looks hammy.

So McKean, Shearer and Guest are all playing their basses live on "Big Bottom", then?

Well they ARE the band, they are the musicians that were in the studio making those records. That does, in a way, give them the edge.

ST and the Rutles are the only two fake bands I can think of who made music I would listen to outside of watching their comedy films. And of the two, I actually prefer Tap. The movie soundtrack is an absolutely serviceable hard rock album from the early 80s. Things like the classical quote in "Heavy Duty", or singing about "gettin' out my pitchfork, pokin' your hay, plowin' through your bean field, leavin' my spray." That's totally plausible, and as such not laugh out loud funny. But it's true satire. They bypass a lot of obvious dopey laughs to stay on point.

And if anyone has not watched the hour plus of outtakes on the DVD, you really should. They left nearly a whole other movie on the cutting room floor, almost as funny as the one they put out.

I have some affection for Bad News, when I was first flirting with my now-wife, she invited me over to her place to watch it. But somehow I have no memory of them or their music. Maybe we did something besides watch the movie the whole time? But we did watch some of it. It must not have made a big impression. And I loved the Young Ones so was expecting it to be pretty good.

Still Crazy, the best I can recall is that I did watch it, and there was some music in it. Were they even trying to be funny? It seemed like a thrown together story containing every rock and roll cliche in the book. "Oh the crazy stuff those bands do on the road really catches up to you in your old age, don't it? It was wrong, but at the time, it felt so right. How do you still play a young man's game when you're getting older? There are now all these new artists people prefer to us!" I didn't get into it at all. Am I on target here or am I remembering Hard Core Logo instead?

[toomanyhatz]

What I love about Spinal Tap is this - however hip you think you are, however in touch you are with your inner muse, and no matter how well and effortlessly you play, if you are in a band, at some point in your life you will realize you are in Spinal Tap.

In much the same way as every enlightened, secure, graceful, intelligent man still has a bit of Homer Simpson in him.

[Bent Fabric]

"The human condition" sounds lofty when I bring it up in connection with a straight-faced comedy about a has been rock band of buffoons.

And yet, here I am.

[bobzilla77]

What I love about Spinal Tap is this - however hip you think you are, however in touch you are with your inner muse, and no matter how well and effortlessly you play, if you are in a band, at some point in your life you will realize you are in Spinal Tap.

In much the same way as every enlightened, secure, graceful, intelligent man still has a bit of Homer Simpson in him.

Or as my friend Guy put it, after Spinal Tap, if you're a musician, it became completely impossible to take yourself seriously.

[Hugh]

The Rutles has some achingly funny lines - I love it.

Les Garçons de la Plage.

...any others? I don't recall that laugh out loud moments, TBH (haven't seen it all for 20 years).

'wearing swimming trunks in the bath 'cos he didn't want to look down on the unemployed' is the one I always remember.

I think that's one of the funniest lines in anything ever, actually.

Is that in The Rutles? I'm fairly certain it was in Ripping Yarns.

[Quaco]

Just now finally watching Bad News! It's amazing the similarities to Spinal Tap, since, one assumes, they were made without knowledge of the other. Bad News predated Tap, for the record.

It's not hilariously funny, but it's getting funnier the more I watch it.

[Belle Lettre]

No vote for Still Crazy? Here's one from me.

"Dutch curry"

Les, watching an interviewer (Zoe Ball) angrily: " Why do they always assume the lead singer is the voice of the band?"

[copehead]

While there isn't much between the musical quality of pastiches of The Rutles and Spinal Tap but you get the feeling that with the Rutles the songs came first and generated the idea and then the whole edifice was erect around them whereas with Spinal Tap if feels like the idea came first and the whole thing grew out of it organically.

There is no doubt that Spinal Tap is far better, the ensemble is unimpeachable and everything they do is genius, I.e. they put a huge amount of thought and effort into making a film they can say is improvised comedy. The Rutles has a few delightfully surreal moments - Leggy Mountbatten - but it is decent rather than brilliant.

Bad News is a funny sketch stretched out to a film and I haven't seen Still Crazy although it looks like the sort of film I'd a chance, like the one about Pirate DJs in the 60s and the Nighy bit of Love Actually.

[mission]

I rewatched Tap with my wife recently. She was bored and had all her suspicions about rock musicians confirmed. Oddly having all my suspicions about musicians confirmed is what made me laugh like a drain.

Whoever said it earlier said it best - if you have ever been in band that ventured further than the rehearsal room, at some point you were in Tap.

[Muskrat]

This is every sort-of contemporary music biopic in one easy serving. The whole thing's on YouTube.
Otherwise, Spinal Tap.

[sloopjohnc]

I saw Spinal Tap when they toured. They played the Stone on Broadway in San Francisco. The Stone is where bands like Foghat, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick were reduced to playing after the height of their arena rock days and new wave was the new thing. It was also one of the early homes of thrash metal.

It was a perfect choice.

I love the Rutles, but Spinal Tap is without peer.

[naughty boy]

Anyone seen The Rutles on this latest tour?

[Snarfyguy]

John is wrong (Tap must not be seen favourably by our sister site), Tap is the best of the four because of how it survives repeated viewings. I do think they are all great but lines like "May I start by saying how thrilled we are to have you here, we are such fans of your music, and all of your records. I am not speaking of yours personally, but the whole genre of the rock and roll," just slay me.

That bit of Fred Willard's is fantastic.

[Deebank]

I played a gig at the Prince Albert in Brighton. On the events board outside we were second on the bill after Sunday Lunch (food, not a band!)

The Tapness didn’t escape my mates who have never let me forget it.

Years later I played there again and this time we were above ‘free wi-fi’.

Progress of sorts.

[KeithPratt]

I played a gig at the Prince Albert in Brighton. On the events board outside we were second on the bill after Sunday Lunch (food, not a band!)

The Tapness didn’t escape my mates who have never let me forget it.

Years later I played there again and this time we were above ‘free wi-fi’.

Progress of sorts.

[George P. Smackers]

I would like to get the playing on
about 1900 hours, if that's satisfactory.

- When would that be?

- I make it now... it's about 1830 hours.

- So that's what? 50 hours?

- 120 hours?

That's actually about 30 minutes...
give or take a few minutes.