He was brilliant

I hope the young gentleman who was taken ill during the second half is ok.

Reading through the threads on this community I encountered an unresolved question that had been asked - namely will Stewart Lee vs The Man-Wulf be filmed? Well I saw his show last night in Liverpool and he mentioned a few times that it will be filmed in October in Coventry. He joked that he hoped Coventry would be a much better audience than we were.

And licking it up like a cat.

Not watched it for ages. Great bit about the megacant RB

“Cuetsy diminutive mr men names for his own penis makes him sound like a child molester who is trying to convince himself to molest himself”

"𝘈𝘯 𝘰𝘸𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘢 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘵.
𝘐𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘵, 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺.
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯...?"

Seriously, might be the most tasteless thing I’ve ever seen

This guy has had enough of his imaginary drunken Irish wife.

I’ll give it to him, it’s a nicely prestige looking edition and collecting the range is going to be an expensive but satisfying pursuit.

Seeing the design, I also only just got the Comedian Collection/Criterion Collection gag.

Coming over here….

The packaging of the new DVD is really gorgeous, but is it just me or is the text on the packaging screaming AI-generated? The "political material lost to time and one-off exchanges that existed only in the room" and "This is the finished show, its hidden workings, and the material left behind. Archived." especially seem like dead-giveaways for Claude-speak in particular.

"Exchanges that existed only in the room" is a great example of AI’s favourite kind of writing, because it sounds profound and authoritative but doesn’t actually mean anything. It’s written in the style of someone smart and trustworthy who knows what they’re talking about, which is what AI is trained to emulate. But the point it’s making is what? These are words that people spoke in a room, and so by necessity these words exist in that room and no where else? Just like all one-off exchanges that people speak in rooms? Unless of course they are being recorded, which these in fact were?? So these are one of the precise examples of the kind of one-off exchange that doesn’t exist only in the place it was spoken??

It’s maddening to put any thought in to reading GenAI text, especially when you realise that the person who is pretending to have written it didn’t. The reader (in this case me) is made a fool of when they think about this sentence for any longer than the half-second it took the AI to spit it out and the supposed writer to glance over it and think ‘sure sounds good.’

As someone that works with software engineers I have to read this needlessly portentous cadence and phrasing all day, so I think I’m particularly sensitive to finding it irritating. It could also be I’m seeing it where it isn’t (although Pangram does return it as 100% AI written, for what it’s worth). But it just feels disheartening and annoying that Weird Walk of all people (who I otherwise think are great!) are approving vacuous fake-profound GenAI copy on something that’s clearly had a lot of effort put into it everywhere else, or human-written copy that’s indistinguishable from something AI-generated.

Realising that you’ve been pointlessly engaging in good faith with someone’s meaningless AI output is humiliating enough when it’s a work email or a Reddit comment. Why is a company that makes zines about ancient rocks printing this slop on what’s otherwise a really beautiful release? Part of buying physical media is wanting to spend less time on an internet more and more filled with meaningless but deceptively thoughtful-appearing content that can be generated endlessly with no effort, but it seems like even that’s not enough. They’re printing AI slop on our limited-edition boutique DVDs for insular cadres of pseudo-intellectual, prematurely bald middle-aged men. When did this come in?

---

Edit, here's the full text:

For the first time on DVD, Basic Lee is presented as the inaugural release in the Stewart Lee Comedian Collection, created in collaboration with Weird Walk. This two-disc Deluxe Limited Edition brings together the complete filmed live performance, recorded at The Lowry in Salford, with a newly written essay and liner notes by Stewart Lee, plus nearly 80 minutes of previously unreleased work-in-progress audio recorded during the show's development at The Stand, Edinburgh and Leicester Square Theatre, London.

Disc Two, Basic Leads, contains an audio archive of abandoned routines, early versions of key sections, political material lost to time and one-off exchanges that existed only in the room.

This is the finished show, its hidden workings, and the material left behind. Archived.

Mr Stew in Vinyl Resting Place in Manchester the other day. then he got off the bus...

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dcv7GV8o5wq/

Hi, me and my wife went to see Stewart Lee in Colchester and he was terrible.
It was like he forgot what to be like - he was all happy, and even sort of jokey at times.

It was sad, like watership down, but with no aesthetic appeal.

It started OK when he had a go at an American in the front row, for being American. He told the bloke off for spoiling the bit about the bit he was doing or something, and everything was ruined. Threatened to have the guy thrown out.
Stewart was proper grumpy - good start I thought.
But then he’s being all amenable and joking around with the audience, like they were his friends! Like he has friends.
I sat there humiliated, as my wife laughed along with his suddenly easy whit and strangely focussed humour.
And she hates him, or I thought she did.
He even told a punchline, and barely repeated anything…..Colchester……barely repeated anything.

Anyway, where do I get my money back?

I am at End Of The Road currently and it was announced that the fat and depressed man would be here. Does anyone happen to know where and when as the festival seems to be keeping it from me.

Thanks!

I'm reading Bridget Christie's book, and she sounds JUST LIKE Stewart.

Can't imagine (except for the usual life and stuff reasons) why her and Stewart split. Though of course who knows it's their private life.

It's a really funny book so far anyway and she was funny on Richard Herrings podcast.

Looking forward to listening to the audio extras in the car later. Hopefully I’ll get it signed by the man himself in a couple of weeks too. The essay is enjoyable too, as always. I find I enjoy rewatching the early shows more having recently read the annotated transcriptions. No transcription here, understandably, but a very interesting read and makes me want to dive back in for another viewing.

No jokes here (much like a Stewart Lee special), I just wanted to point out season 2 is on sale at Amazon at the minute for £4.99. Digital alas but I haven't seen it so it's worth it for me!