h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone think this is the right time for Spitting Image to return? I certainly do.Fingers crossed that it happens.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49865406?fbclid=IwAR23XK3eGRzic-qGACGKTkGajAxsDx91Mnd_jaLc2gQNLL76JfpZx8aEzRQ

Absolutely! - heck, I may have to get a TV again, for the first time.... err... since the 90's

I disagree.

Although this is only possible to see in retrospect, I believe that the original Spitting Image may have inadvertently extended the reign of Tory government in this country by at least five years.

"Boris" Johnson is already practically a Spitting Image puppet as it is - a buffoonish confected creation of its operator, Alexander Johnson, who in reality is a staggeringly bright narcissist. We don't need him being made even more trivial and popular. Many Tory politicians were humanised and made to seem harmless or more competent by their portrayal on SI.

It's interesting how ridicule actually benefits populists, Tories, fascists, whatever, while it damages lefties and centrists.

That’s a very good point. It also creates an intellectually enemy which they can rally against (cf their current attacks on the BBC)

I disagree also though perhaps not for the same reasons

(Spitting Image arguably damaged Gerald Kaufmann and John Major to an equal event. It made the career of Steve Davis almost as much as snooker did - so it's swings and roundabouts for me).

It was always actually very hit and miss - often very average, but occasionally brilliant and the brilliant bits are all that gets remembered in retrospect.
It's had its day and since when has reviving any of these old comedies or revue programmes ever actually worked? (I can't think of a single example).

What can Spitting Image now do that the Mash Report does not do already and in a contemporary way? Or things like Mock the Week (which has also really had its day to be fair).

I'd say MtW has had its dayS - it's a very different show now than what it used to be, and both versions were/are good in their own way.

I'm fond of saying this but I don't think I've said it here yet, so here goes: I used to love MtW in the old days when it was an unvarnished bear pit. It was NOT a friendly place for female comedians, or even vaguely timid male ones - even to a watching civilian like myself, it was visibly aggressive, everyone leaning forward, not really listening to the person who was talking but just barely waiting until the noise had stopped before trying to leap in with their own gag and get a bigger laugh. That works well for personas like Frankie Boyle or that bald geezer whose name escapes me, or Ed Byrne or whoever. It was harsh, fast, raucous, loud, and I can see why some comedians vowed never to go on there, or never again after having a shit time. The one exception was Milton Jones. Into the competitive environment was dropped this absurdist punslinger who didn't seem to care or participate in the oneupmanship, but every now and then he'd pipe up in the middle of something... and here's the thing: the other comedians would VISIBLY relax, sit back, and let him finish. And they'd almost never try to top him. I assume this was for a couple of reasons:
1. you'd fail, because he'd KILL, every time. He's one of the finest gagsmiths working.
2. even aside from that, he'd give you nothing to follow - more often than not his interjections were such non-sequiturs that nothing you could say could possibly follow them. Time and again MJ's contributions were what signalled "OK, we need to move on now, because it's NOT getting any funnier or weirder than THAT".

Yup

(Very) Early MtW could have lost Rory Bremner - but it did did so all good.

(I may be biased there, don't like impressionists very much generally)

Oh god yeah, I'd blotted that out - I always pushed off and made a cuppa while he was on, those bits were just tedious. Like you say though - as with Dara's opening monologue, the show was allowed the time and space to go "that's not working, bin it".