Better Than Life Podcast

[Spare Hand One]

Probably not right or fair for the main G&T gang to write about this on the blog, but we can talk about it in the forum, right?

Anyway, it’s pretty good. I like the hosts and the general concept: two hosts (one who loves RD actively and another who just remembers it fondly from back in the day) interviews a different comedian about RD each week. Great theme tune. There’s a “recast the cast” segment I’m not generally fond of but it does sometimes result in interesting takes on what exactly makes our characters who they are.

Stuart Goldsmith and Gemma Arrowsmith were particularly good guests: knowledgeable and keen. RD clearly means a lot to Stuart. Gemma works as a screenwriting teacher and she cites RD as examples/exercises in her class; her insight/analysis in this capacity was really interesting as well as her general fan voice being keen and delightful.

Bec Hill, Tom Price, Will Duggan were quite shit.

Anyway, it’s episode-by-episode and in order. They just did Bodyswap. New episodes drop on Fridays.

Very few guests seem to like VII-VIII so I’m looking forward to hitting those episodes to see what happens.

Anyone else listening to this?

Topic

[Dave]

[Warbodog]

[Unrumble]

[Dave]

[Nick R]

[Technopeasant]

And I mean, it would reduce how funny it was that the script was considered too expensive to film… after they already shot it in Laredo.

[Technopeasant]

[Dave]

[Technopeasant]

But will this cost-saving suggestion get Dave to commision another special?

[clem]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Man you can behaving a really shit day and then you guys go and be all hilariously creative

Thanks for laughs guys 

Somewhat ironically, what you’ve kinda gone and done is what would have been happening in BTL in the books 

[Moonlight]

[Moonlight]

Dammit, I didn’t scroll up and there’s a very similar post above.

[Technopeasant]

Dammit, I didn’t scroll up and there’s a very similar post above.

I mean, your’s implies making out with the psiren IS the fantasy.

[Moonlight]

I’m aware they’re different jokes but I could produce an additional meme by calling myself out.

[Warbodog]

[Moonlight]

I’m gambling that this doesn’t exist already in another thread.

[Unrumble]

[Moonlight]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Warbodog]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

How have I never seen Mac’s face actually take the brunt of that explosion and … burn?

[Moonlight]

[Moonlight]

[Technopeasant]

Now we are even…

[Rudolph]

[Warbodog]

[Dave]

[Flap Jack]

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

[Warbodog]

[Dave]

[Unrumble]

[Dave]

[Meteo]

What’s Better than Life?!?

Laredo Lowtide’s Ulcer and and Martin Freemans butchered USA Dept of Bullshit Groupthink.

[Moonlight]

I went ahead and made a new thread for this GIF format called “Did somebody turn over two pages at once?!” because clearly there is much to be done.

[Flap Jack]

Oh goddamnit. The boys have mostly been keeping their noses clean in these Series VI podcasts, but in the most recent episode (Rimmerworld), John again repeats the misinformation that Series VII was on BBC 1. Come. On.

I know that “any BBC 2 sitcom which is sufficiently successful should be moved to BBC 1” is how the BBC operate nowadays, but that doesn’t mean they did it that way in the 90s.

[Warbodog]

If any of them watched it in the 90s, they should remember Red Dwarf as a BBC 2 Comedy Zone staple. You’d just put it on from 9:00-10:30pm for new comedy and repeats.

[Flap Jack]

They both did watch it in the 90s, in fact! But the memory cheats I guess.

[Dave]

I think Series VII getting the Radio Times cover for the launch was quite a big deal at the time and made it feel like it had gone mainstream in a way that often coincides with a BBC2>BBC1 move, so maybe that’s part of their minds playing tricks.

[Flap Jack]

I’ve just been listening to the recent “Series 1-6 Roundup and Quiz” episode, where they go through favourite episodes per series with Gemma Arrowsmith, and they casually drop this gem of an interaction while talking about Justice:

Fergus: [Rimmer] genuinely believes that he is a murderer of over a thousand people. That’s great, ’cause he’s not. And if that was true- we didn’t talk about this on Justice, this is a secret thing I’ve had for a while now, but maybe I haven’t said it out loud because I’m not sure it actually makes sense:

If Rimmer finds himself culpable for the death of all those people, surely in reporting Lister’s cat Frankenstein, he’s saved Lister’s life by having Lister imprisoned at the right time. This could work in Rimmer’s contorted logic, right? He actually saved Lister’s life, and therefore saved humanity.

John: Yes! Or at least gave it a slight reprieve.

Gemma: It’s a really good point.

Incredible. I know that every time I share something like this from the podcast, it just reaffirms people’s choices to stop listening or to never even start, but you’ve got it all wrong. This is high art you’re missing out on.

[Warbodog]

That Fergus has Derren Brown level skills.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Nick R]

That chain of logic would be an amusing way for Rimmer to talk himself out of blaming himself for the accident.

Except for two minor flaws: one, Rimmer didn’t report Frankenstein; and two, Rimmer didn’t report Frankenstein. 

Now I realise that technically speaking that’s only one flaw but etc etc.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Flap Jack]

The fact that to think this Fergus isn’t just filling in a blank, but actively ignoring the multiple points where it’s unambiguously confirmed to not be the case, and the fact that neither of the other 2 correct him. New frontiers in false memory crafting.

It could be an idea for a future twist though – Rimmer secretly knew about Frankenstein, and gave Hollister a tip to scrutinise the photos in the lab. I mean I’d hate it, but it has some dramatic potential.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Huh, the last picture won’t attach to that post

[Moonlight]

Rimmer reporting Frankenstein would be an interesting plot point but if that was the intention it would’ve been a central focus of at least one scene and then talked about later instead of never hinted at in any way.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Technopeasant]

I mean, maybe that’s what Rimmer would have done in Doug’s cancelled special.

[Author]

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