#source: philomena cunk

[battersweet]

Arthur: "Jesus was killed because people didn't like what he was saying, so could you call him the first celebrity victim of cancel culture?"

Aristotle: "..."

Aristotle: "Dear is the middle of the night, please go back to sleep..."

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Theta Sigma Interviewing People for his Earth Project at the Academy Part 1

Theta Sigma: King Arthur came a lot, didn't he?

Poor human: I think you mean he's associated with the court of Camelot.

Theta: No, it definitely says here. 'King Arthur came a lot.' Do we know if he came a lot? Or like, just the same as the average man?

Human: ....The only evidence I have in that regard is that he's said to have one child.

----

Theta: The Victorians had horse-drawn buses, but you never see horses drawing anything these days.

Theta: When did they lose their ability to draw?

Human: When we talk about horse-drawn buses, we're not really talking about horses drawing buses.

----

Theta: Ancient people invented money to make life on Earth easier, but in doing so, they inadvertently invented capitalism, which is going to kill everyone.

----

Theta: Social media has been polarizing people, hasn't it? Like what's already happened to the bears.

Human: What bears?

Theta: Polar bears.

----

Theta: Which was more culturally significant: the Renaissance or 'Single Ladies' by Beyonce?

----

Theta: This is the famous Greenwich Marillion Line. I can be in the past and in the future with the present running right up through my middle bits.

----

Theta: But what was so great about Henry VIII? He had six wives, all called Catherine. He was a Catherineaholic. Or a Catholic, for short.

[guardianreadersofthegalaxy]

Ruby: Doctor what's a black hole? Ruby: Sorry, I mean a 'hole of colour' [from Cunk On Life]

[manorinthewoods]

[gammacousin]

Lucile Jameson: “Uncle B? I need you to explain weather.” *lifting her phone to film*

Bruce Banner: “Uhhh. That’s a complicated question. What about the weather? What specifically?”

Lucile Jameson: “I need you to be quick, this is going on Tik Tok.”

Bruce Banner: “Well. The atmosphere is constantly in motion. This motion means-.”

Lucile Jameson: “Quicker. Let’s try one word? Describe weather in one word.”

[profeminist]

Source: "Cunk on Earth is a British mockumentary television series produced by Charlie Brooker. The series stars Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunk_on_Earth

[issela-santina]

apathy

disruption

curiosity

assimilation

aggrandisation/aggrandisement

delineation

perversion

resentment

separation

degradation

annihilation

desolation

there's actual genius in how @mothercain arranged all of these when you fold this „Pulldrone“ list in half, i.e.

apathy // desolation

being-nothingness, a personal limbo, the great dark. depression. Jobu Tupaki's everything bagel where nothing matters. LCL from End of Evangelion. the world feels grey with no contrast

disruption // annihilation

sound like they should be synonyms and yet used as opposites. annihilation brings a loss of value alongside the loss of materiality while disruption means something suddenly becomes of more value to you than the rest of your situation. the One Ring from the Tolkien legendarium. the life cycle of the universe itself. the theory of innovation diffusion

curiosity // degradation

the respective yang (1-6) and yin (7-12) of Ethel's pillars start to really show. valuation and devaluation, attendance and neglect, activity and passivity. sparks and embers, books eaten by termites, circus freak shows like what PT Barnum spearheaded in real life (The Greatest Showman sanitized the narrative so it seems), anything Philomena Cunk but especially the looks on interviewees' faces when she curiously breaks apart the language of what she's supposed to be discussing and creates absurd questions of it

assimilation // separation

somehow opposites and somehow not. assimilation doesn't require togetherness; in fact some forms of assimilation do intend to separate you — including your sense of self. suburban neighborhoods, nuclear families, religion/cults, cisgenderist segregation, adopting foreign children in a racist country. becoming one with a diaspora after coming from a culturally plural homeland. masking and unmasking, both literally and in the context of autistics feeling like they have to perform all the time. consequence of audience indeed

aggrandisement // resentment

the most blatant of the oppositions. the zones of the yang half and the yin half of the list where the black and white begin to recombine as both of these points entail intense emotions/sentiment/reactions alongside the shift in values one way or another. think the usual response to resenting God is to aggrandise a designated adversary like Satan, Iblis — your shift in values is trapped in the language of the faith you were sworn into

also different effect between the labels of erotic thriller (where abuse is easily understood to be a source of emotional jolt in the narrative) vs dark romance, where abuse, packaged and marketed as the romance a reader would love to aggrandise and worship, is the presented as to warm the heart of the reader who then projectively resents the writer, themself a reader far more meticulous than that reader-aggrandiser would know, for simply having a bias in their documentation of abuse

delineation // perversion

this is the singularity in which all values seem to end up all the same. anarchy destroys prescriptivism, and everything is up for grabs, so grab what you can. I see this in e.g. the false dichotomy of desire and contempt, the intertwinement of which forms the spine of entitlement and rape culture shoved into our throats. the way we define fan fiction.

how Ethel Cain and Autechre insist on calling their respective Perverts and quaristice.quadrange.ep.ae “extended plays” due to the subdued cultural value given to the extended play (15-30 minute recordings) as opposed to the more valued full-length album (30-60 minutes per disc) when by definition both recordings span the length of at least two album discs

[monalisameisjemetdeparel]

Source: Philomena Cunk Fanpage, Facebook July 2024.

[squigglyoctosquigglez]

philomena cunk doodles that i shared with tiktok (except for one) that i haven't shared here for some reason and i will force you to see

milgram prisoner

i believe in transfem agender bisexual asexual philomena cunk idk about you

you know what this is

i am so sorry for making maid dress philomena cunk

this took 64 layers me thinks

TRANS PHILOMENA CUNK REAL (not clickbait) (source: just trust me bro im the ceo of philomena cunk just trust me)

[natromi]

https://www.tumblr.com/natromi/773626003902889984/stares-with-my-lesbian-eyes-manifesting-asks?source=share

Which was more culturally significant, the Renaissance or "single lady" by Beyonce?

(pls have the ref lmao)

PHILOMENA CUNK?? I love her so much.

[hellishunicorn]

Incorrect OFMD, part 20

Lucius is a supportive friend

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Theta Sigma Interviewing People for his Earth Project at the Academy Part 2

Theta: I don't understand bread sauce.

Human: It's a really great way of making a really savory sauce.

Theta: Bread and sauce are two completely different things, aren't they?

Human: Well they are. But you can grind the bread down and cook it in milk to make a really good, a really good sauce.

Theta: It just looks like, sort of....jizz.

----

Theta: Maybe one day, human beings won't need buildings anymore. Although for that to happen they'd probably need to evolve skins made of bricks. And that might take at least another 30 years.

----

Theta: You know when you read a book and you sort of hear that word in your head--how do they get the sounds in the ink to make it play in your head?

Human: ....Well....

----

Theta: Why did they fire shells at each other? Cause shells wouldn't really hurt, would they? Unless they were those razor clam shells, cause they're quite sharp, aren't they?

Human: Well these weren't seashells.

----

Theta: She wrote in a book 'The world to an end will come in 1881.' A claim which has recently been debunked by experts through a careful process of looking around and seeing the world's still here.

----

Theta: Queen Elizabeth I got her crown screwed on here, in Westminster Abbey. *trips while walking inside*

[guardianreadersofthegalaxy]

Twelve: Don't get me wrong, being grumpy is good fun but it's knackering after a while. All my frowning muscles are worn out and my throat's raw from shouting... I think I need a break, maybe spend the weekend just slightly resenting things. Twelve: I need to recharge my batteries, because in my next regeneration I'm hoping to hate fucking shit out of everything that moves. [from Cunk & Other Humans]

[littlehungrywarrior]

I can’t find the specific video to source it but this is from a series by Philomena Cunk whose work you should check out!

[erlendbv]

21 Tips for Producing Funny “Man on the Street” Videos

Browsing the web, doing some research on web series formats, I came across this rather elaborate and interesting list of bullet points for making an entertaining “Man on the Street”-montage:

Keep it short, unless…

You have to get a lot of footage

You must have a strong premise

Ask the most inappropriate question

Let the interviewee reflect on a personal story/opinion/advice

Challenge the interviewee with a question only they could answer

The question in itself should solicit a laugh

Shoot when your audience is loose

Make sense of scattered “man on the street” responses

Be ready to adapt in the moment

Timing, timing, timing

Escalate the responses

Put opposite responses back to back

Reset the question occasionally

Group thought pieces together

Let the people being interviewed have the punchline

Let the video prove a point about what we really know

Above all, be professional

Let the interviewer be a non-participant

Let the interviewer be a character

Focus on the subject

Conclusion: Practice, practice, practice

via http://www.sparkmediasolutions.com/21-tips-for-producing-funny-man-on-the-street-videos/

So... let’s explore these ideas a little further.

Some of this is very good advice, and some of it is less relevant – for me, at least. Also, I find the list a little too unstructured. For me, the advice can be seen in light of what you need to do in order to prepare, execute and edit a “man on the street”-segment. So, let’s summarize:

Pre-production

Have a strong premise, and prepare! Don’t “run and gun”. Know what you’re setting out to do. It takes preparation to seem spontaneous, and the more you know in advance, the more you can stay in the moment during the actual shoot. As mentioned in the list above, making the video prove a point about what we really “know to be true” will give it both direction (for planning) and relatability (for laughter).

Ask the most inappropriate questions Incongruity is a good source of laughter, and by not appearing to grasp the expectations of the interviewing context or subject matter, you can get both a good reaction and response from the interviewee.

Let the interviewee reflect on a personal story, opinion or advice The whole point about walking up to a person on the street is to get their perspective on the subject, so balance the questions and interactions in a way that engages them in the conversation. That way you, as an interviewer, can lean back, listen and prepare your witty follow-ups. Again, this is done ahead of walking into the field.

The question itself should solicit a laugh By their form (wording) or content (perspective), the questions provide a unique opportunity to set the tone of the of the interview. Think, for example, of the hilariously stupid Philomena Cunk – or the naive enthusiasm of Bassem Youssef. A question is never just a question.

Production

Get a lot of footage The idea that you should choose quality over quantity is a false dichotomy – you should choose both. In order to get the best answers, you must have a good sized pool to choose from. In scientific research they look for reliability and validity in their sample data. In entertainment, we simply look for the funny and surprising. But you still need a good number of successful interviews to choose from. The article above suggests collecting at least 4 times what you think you’ll need. So if you want to make a traditional enquete-segment, focusing on 5 interviewees, make sure you have at least 20 usable interactions before wrapping.

Get them with their guard down It is always important to catch the interviewee when she’s loose and approachable – i.e. not on the phone, running to to catch the bus, etc. See who catches your eye by instinct, and follow your gut. Don’t be too agressive in the approach, but walk up to them front-facing, smiling and with an open body language. Lowering your posture, crouching, and pitching up your voice can also make you less threatening. Start with quick and easy questions (the ladder-technique) and then escalate with more complex questions once they’re hooked into the conversation.

Adapt on the fly and stay busy! Keep a good pace, and don’t let the conversation die and allow the interviewee to slip away. At the same time, keeping the microphone pointed at the interviewee without withdrawing, forces them (through social etiquette) to come up with an answer on the spot – even when they don’t have one (which is quite often hilarious). Also, remember that people shun sales people on the street, as they seem too available and eager for contact – so stay in a conversation and move straight to the next one!

Focus on the subject Once you’re in a conversation, focus on this conversation! Don’t overthink, prepare the next step or look for other subjects. Fully engage, listen to what the interviewee says and look for ways to make her shine. Let the interviewee have the punchline, and don’t interrupt more than what is necessary (if the conversation is dragging). By being intensely engaged yourself, you’ll motivate the interviewee to mirror your emotions, and you’ll get a better performance from them.

Be their enthusiastic audience As a bonus-tip: Use The Daily Show-correspondents’ highly effective trick of agreeing with the most outrageous parts of an interviewee’s statements in order to bait them and get them to elaborate and dig themselves further into the hilarious/flawed/surprising reasoning. Don’t put words in their mouth. Don’t put them in a bad light. Don’t spin their answers beyond their purpose. Just be truly, enthusiastically engaged in their POV. They’ll be perfectly capable of digging their pit on their own. And that’s a million times more entertaining than a speculative interviewer, looking for easy punchlines. Remember: Punchlines are made in post, not in the field.

Post-production

Keep it short The clip or episode should preferably be less than 2 minutes, but no longer than 4 minutes. Also, it should hook the audience within the first 10 seconds – but let’s be real, if they’re not hooked by the first 3 seconds, you probably already lost them.

Make sense of scattered responses Even the most incoherent ramblings can be honed into something magical in the cutting room. And if you can’t make sense of a certain response, that in itself could serve a purpose – as comic relief or cut-aways from other responses.

Put opposite responses back to back Juxtapositioning and contradictions are a great source of laughter. It allows for a more clearly designed episode narrative, as the spectrum of responses are highlighted by showing the polemics of two opposing interviewees.

Group thought pieces together Just like you’ll be able to “find” a thru-line in incoherence, or surprising contrasts in different viewpoints, you may find exciting or surprising similarities between the different interviewees, allowing for good montage-segments, conclusions or comic relief.

Yup... so this post got waaaaay longer than I expected. But I got a decent framework for future use.

[sadiehaleheart]

Source: Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena, by Philomena Cunk, set to be published in September 2023.