Unpopular Opinions Thread

[ThornDavis]

I dunno - I think the football itself makes some difference to how people behave. Back in the 16th century all the illiterate peasants used spend their Saturday afternoons getting hammered and watching Shakespeare at the local flea pit. That seemed to work quite well. No-one ever starts a fight after 4 hours of King Lear. Just for one Saturday, they should get everybody into all the football grounds, then just as they're expecting all the players to come out stage a full-text version of Coriolanus instead. I guarantee that you'll see a big difference in people's reactions.

[mrpaul]

I think in Glasgow it actually genuinely would make a difference - but I can't speak for the rest of the UK. Obviously the issue goes far beyond football but the game itself is what is helping to keep the stupid rivalry going and making it seem acceptable to certain people to raise their kids in a way to think someone who supports another team is essentially scum.

The receptionist at work is a Liverpool supporter, and her daughter was sent home from school for slapping and spitting in the face of a boy, all because he said he's a Man U fan. Her little girl is about 7. Dafuq?

The worst thing is she said that when she was called in to speak to the teachers about it, they told her what happened, and she feigned shock and told her daughter off, then said she congratulated her once they'd left. Woo go parenting!

[kazz]

i don't mind football but i kinda stick to the local leagues anyways. so it is more a bit of fun with the fans rather than a horrendous rivalry.



i disagree with the whole... if we are rich we will buy all the best players abroad sort of thing. i think that about four players of every team should be local. i don't think that a team can be linked to a particular town if not one of their players come from that area.

i don't mean local as in the same town but like maybe a fifty mile radius or something. but that is just me really.

[kipper64]

I think in Glasgow it actually genuinely would make a difference - but I can't speak for the rest of the UK. Obviously the issue goes far beyond football but the game itself is what is helping to keep the stupid rivalry going and making it seem acceptable to certain people to raise their kids in a way to think someone who supports another team is essentially scum.

The receptionist at work is a Liverpool supporter, and her daughter was sent home from school for slapping and spitting in the face of a boy, all because he said he's a Man U fan. Her little girl is about 7. Dafuq?

The worst thing is she said that when she was called in to speak to the teachers about it, they told her what happened, and she feigned shock and told her daughter off, then said she congratulated her once they'd left. Woo go parenting!

Yeah stuff like that is just disgusting. I've heard plenty of stories of parents like that, I guess it's an issue that goes back though, their parents taught them to be like that and they've passed that on to their kids, it's just become a sort of acceptable attitude to have. It's astonishing people can have such a mindset about people based purely on football rivalry, I really can't get my head around it

[Phate]

i don't mind football but i kinda stick to the local leagues anyways. so it is more a bit of fun with the fans rather than a horrendous rivalry.



i disagree with the whole... if we are rich we will buy all the best players abroad sort of thing. i think that about four players of every team should be local. i don't think that a team can be linked to a particular town if not one of their players come from that area.

i don't mean local as in the same town but like maybe a fifty mile radius or something. but that is just me really.

There are restrictions coming in for clubs playing in European competition where clubs need to have x no of players from their own country , x number of players (regardless of nationality) that have come through that clubs youth academy and x number of players that have come through a youth academy in that country!

This will limit the number of big money buys teams can have in their team!

Although your point about being able to being able to identify with the local club because they have local players is pretty much a mute point in football nowadays, yes it is great and a bit of a bonus if you have a local hero type player in your team but all football fans really care about is a winning team and if that winning team consists of 11 albanians (for example) then so be it!

[hybrid theorist]

I think its better if you have local players though, look at the hero worship carragher and Gerrard get at Liverpool, or the hero worship local lads got at Leeds (before we sold them all). Howson, Smith, Lennon were all big fan favourites. I'm sure they would have been anyway if they'd been Albanian like you say, but not to the same extent.

[ThornDavis]

I think its better if you have local players though.

If they must keep this football thing going, how about following this to its logical conclusion and have the supporters and players be one and the same? Like in medieval football:

"These archaic forms of football, typically classified as mob football, would be played between neighboring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig's bladder by any means possible to markers at each end of a town."

[hybrid theorist]

I don't understand how that has any relevance at all. You'll have to come down from your ivory tower and explain that one to us football loving simple minded proletariat.

[ThornDavis]

I don't know! My youngest was up at 3.30 this morning. I can't be expected to keep track of everything I post and what it was supposed to mean. Who do you think I am? Wonder Woman?

[houston404]

Football is way too popular to change drastically or ban.

[Phate]

Football is way too popular to change drastically or ban.

Indeed! There are nearly 5m registered footballers in the UK with anything upto 25m people in the UK watching football on a regular basis!

[PurpleDemon]

Two and a Half Men is great; Friends is gooseberry.

[kipper64]

Both are gooseberry. Come at me bros

[PurpleDemon]

Sorry, rewording: Two and a Half Men is tolerable and actually occasionally funny. Friends is neither.

Would be much more tolerable without canned laughter overload though. How is it British sitcoms like My Family and IT Crowd work with canned laughter, but American ones don't?

[ThornDavis]

I refute the assertion that 'My Family' works, with or without canned laughter.

[PurpleDemon]

I refute the assertion that 'My Family' works, with or without canned laughter.

Touché. The IT Crowd, though, is brilliant.

[Phate]

I really wouldn't know about any of the above programmes tbh, I never watch 'comedy' shows whether they be sitcoms or standup etc I just really don't find them funny!

[ThornDavis]

What do you find funny?

[kazz]

i don't like strippers. i don't actually find them attractive.

[Phate]

What do you find funny?

Some of the quiz based comedy shows like Buzzcocks, Qi, Have I got News for You etc

Sitcoms are way too formulaic and modern day stand up loses it's edge because as soon as a half decent comedien is discovered they end up on tv nearly every night of the week for two years when they only have about 2 hours of material!

[mrpaul]

Sitcoms are way too formulaic and modern day stand up loses it's edge because as soon as a half decent comedien is discovered they end up on tv nearly every night of the week for two years when they only have about 2 hours of material!

Agreed, I love Bill Bailey but now I find myself not revisiting his dvd's as I've seen a lot of his jokes reused in interviews/on panel shows/on Black Books. The good comedians get ruined by being everywhere at once.

[ThornDavis]

What do you find funny?

Some of the quiz based comedy shows like Buzzcocks, Qi, Have I got News for You etc

Sitcoms are way too formulaic and modern day stand up loses it's edge because as soon as a half decent comedien is discovered they end up on tv nearly every night of the week for two years when they only have about 2 hours of material!

Did you ever see Jam? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpn7C6r-WEM It was a sketch show rather than a sitcom or whatever, but it's the opposite of formulaic. It's freakin' messed up, as you'll gather from the first sketch in that first episode, but it might appeal. It's dark as hell, but pretty awesome in its own way.

[Phate]

Yeah comedians used to appear twice a year, they would do a summer tour ending up at the Edinburgh Fringe then a winter/xmas tour to promote a xmas dvd and both would be totally different material.

With the digital switchover forcing everyone to go down the route of freeview/cable/sky it will hit the dvd sales, then the live shows as people just won't pay to see the same jokes for a 3rd or 4th time!

[hybrid theorist]

Yeah, I saw one of the Mock The Week comedians (think it was Russell Howard) do their stand up routine, and in the hour, think there was two jokes I'd not already heard on MTW.

[mrpaul]

Yeah, I saw one of the Mock The Week comedians (think it was Russell Howard) do their stand up routine, and in the hour, think there was two jokes I'd not already heard on MTW.

It also shows how scripted the shows are, knowing that the only reason someone got to make a funny comment was because they all got together before the show and fed each other lines to say to set them up kinda takes the funny out of it.