YT Video Topic – Richard Ayoade (updated)
Richard Ayoade is a TV comedy personality. He became popular with his sitcom The IT Crowd, and now he appears on many TV game shows, where his talent is to add quick-thinking wit to any situation. He has made several non-fiction TV shows such as “Gadget Man” and this one, “Travel Man”. it is a travel show but he doesn’t do the usual travel reviews; he tends to go to less common destinations and is typically British in his sarcasm. In each episode he is accompanied by a different TV personality. This time he is with Johnny Vegas (from the sitcom “Benidorm”), which itself is funny because he is the image of the true working class BBrit, and this vacation resort doesn’t match him at all.
Please try to find examples of his sarcasm and comment on them below.
0:56 – “Oil; the fuel that brings only joy”
1:40 – “the world’s biggest man-made palm-shaped island” (well, there is only one man-made palm-shaped island, so of course it is the biggest.
1:43 – “I mean, how late were those doors? I’m furious” (perhaps he is being sarcastic about the attitude of such wealthy people that could be customers here)
2:20 “24-hour butlers… who had previously pretended to care about Kylie (Minougue), De Niro…”
2:32 – “If the ceilings were a pinch higher it would be perfect”
What two things did Johnny say when he saw the lobby decoration?
Johnny said that “a younger, drunker me” would want to climb that. The expression “a younger me” is an interesting concept meaning that when I was young I was a different person than now, so it’s like two or more Johnny’s existed in the world. We use this pattern to say how something/somebody has changed a lot. For example, “the London of 30 years ago was so different to the London of today”. Johnny Vegas is well-known for his crazy lifestyle in his younger days. His live stage performances (which are available on YouTube) were shockingly wild and uncomfortable to see. He said that after having a child he felt the need to change his life completely, for his child’s sake.
He also said that as a sculptor he was impressed. I didn’t know that he was a sculptor; perhaps he is not famous for being such.