To think Stephen Fry is NOT a national treasure

[SnowWide]

Just listening to his English Delight on Radio4. Dire.

I've never understood all the adulation around him. He is accomplished, well-spoken, prolific. But so are many other actors and authors.

His TV documentaries, especially are really meh.. Dont get me wrong, they are very well made (the one where he travels America, another one on languages), but what exactly is the Stephen Fry touch? Any other knowledgeable presenter could fill his shoes and no one would know the difference...Only liked him as Melchett. Lost all respect for him when he started wittering away posting on Twitter, to be honest.

YANBU.

He oozes that "packaged, over exposed, stuffed down your throat, version of what Englishness SHOULD be".

I think he's evolved into a caricature of himself - the trouble is the marketing bods probably love the whole "yah, I'm a bit eccentric and a bit like this" image and encourage him. Needs to go away for three years and find his own personality I think, for his own sake.

Reminds me of the type at university who DEFINED themselves by the fact that they listened to Radio 4, wore horn rimmed glasses and watched cult obscure TV shows and walked round with an old copy of a Latin text but had absolutely no originality or substance to them - "oh, I'm a bit zanily eccentric, me, whoopsy daisy".

They'd gone to great effort to create this "stereotyped intellectual image". But funnily enough, they weren't actually the brightest in class and weren't leaving with the top firsts or the best job offers .

catgirl 2012 quote'The MP expenses scandal wasn't that important.

The amount of money involved was tiny if looked at in context.'

are you avin a larf?
Or are you an MP?
Or worse....a disgraced MP?

or worser worser worst........an ACCOUNTANT?

Recipe for English ecccentric Cliche..
leather elbow patches
swears in a posh and engaging way, eg, 'oh f*kety f*k! Bolleaux!
trots out Latin unasked and smiles in forgiving way while hoping like mad you went to a comp not a grammar school
talks about nanny and it isn't your grandma
waits for you to pour the tea to see if you are Milk in First (pleb).....
any more?

"...I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting brilliance that may not really be there."

Guess who said that??!

yes but my DIL is American and she says my IQ rating shoots through the roof every time I open my mouth when I'm over the pond (great innit)
I must be the exception that proves the rule
(smirks unctiously in sly way as goes home to Noitt Hall...

was it No.73? @ freddos.

My mistake Badger. Apols.

OP a quick google of "Stephen Fry fraud" gives mentions in the Daily Fail, The Guardian, Wiki, The Humanist Society, the Irish Independent, The Telegraph. The London Evening Standard, and plenty more. And thats just the first two pages out of 500k results.
Not what I'd call airbrushed.

YES! No 73!! That was it!

thank you SoleSource.

On the roller skayes, loved it and Rentaghost.

He's a dick.

My friend met him once and he was apparently really rude to her and others. Plus he's always flouncing from Twitter only to reappear hours later full of his self satisfied bollocks.

Cannot stand the man.

"The MP expenses scandal wasn't that important.

The amount of money involved was tiny if looked at in context."

Some rather spectacular point-missing going on there...

I vacillate between loving him and loathing him. Annoying, as I'd like to love him, but occassionally he opens his trap to pontificate and you can't help but boggle slightly at what comes out.

Loathe him. Liked him in the Footlights Revue and the early days, but not for many years now.

Basically, what all the others said - he comes across as smug, self-satisfied and clever-clever, pompous. His digs at the evils of religion are tedious and impolite (for such a twee condescending fluffy fellow) - yes, Stephen, we get the point that you think along the lines of Hitchens and Dawkins.

He thinks he is Oscar Wilde (actually was passable in the biopic) but doesn't come near. He dispenses his "wisdom" to lesser mortals as if they are golden facts and not simply opinions or research nuggets hunted out by others. (And some are actually wrong.) He attention-seeks constantly on Twitter, flouncing on and off when he gets the hump about something.

Most of all, I think he actually believes in all the puffery about him being a national treasure. A mediocre actor and quiz show host and awards ceremony host is not a national treasure.

YADDDNBU. National treasure status should be conferred upon someone but SF seems to have seized upon it all by himself

He was good in Blackadder playing a pompous old windbag, but was he good because he's really like that? I think so

I always think of Sandi T, Clare balding and Lady Di as having a certain family resemblance!

Nit Tis the hair, surely .

I think the only person who really deserves the status of National Treasure and seems to be beloved of just about everybody is David Attenborough.

I dunno, I think it's the chins too!

A few people have mentioned this now, so sorry to shout but SF NEVER SAID WOMEN DON'T LIKE SEX. JOURNALISTS MADE IT UP. See here

Journalists said "SF claims women don't like sex." He didn't. A character in one of his books said women aren't quite as desperate for sex as men, and hook ups are therefore easier for gay men. Note this was a character, not his personal opinion, and meant as an in-joke at a time when things were pretty crappy for the gay community.

can everyone please stop using big words?? Or i will have to get my dictionary. 'erudite', 'avuncular' 'unctiously' - wtf stop it now!!

Ps. i don't have any opinion on Stephen Fry right now; sorry...

David Attenborough for National Treasure Premier. Or Judi Dench. Or Maggie Smith. Or Honour Blackman

Riaovethrrainbow Stephen Fry claims he didn't didn't say women didn't like sex, the journalist claims he did.

There is no such thing as a human national treasure, people are just people - never understood this wierd obsession with celebrity

journalists are always totally honest about their interviews and quotes, I find.

not.

And celebrities never tell little fibs to get themselves out of a sticky situation.

Not.