To wonder why Romesh Ranganathan…

[Rainymoondays]

Had so much exposure on TV? He’s really really unfunny, he’s a crap stilted presenter and just makes everything awkward.

I wonder if there is any comedian who is universally admired?

The existence of Mrs Brown's Boys tells us that humour is not universal.

oh yeah. He moved and then accused the schools of not accommodating him!

I love him

I think hes great. I love the dry sense of humour. whereas ive got friends who dont find him funny but love to watch the tv show FRIENDS and find it hilarious 🙄 thats totally not my cup of tea 🤣 different strokes for different folks

Again, that's part of his deliberately awkward act, though. He is saying that he's a vegan when it's obviously completely irrelevant to the question being discussed.

It may have something to do with his personal defence mechanism too - where he will often be the first to 'claim' relatively benign Asian stereotypes (as with the joke in Parents' Evening tonight about curry).

It's hard enough doing stand-up for anybody, whilst you're getting known, but if you're not a white man, it's potentially much harder with hecklers who may not appreciate the difference between what is at least intended as a good-natured tease and purely nasty racism, sexism or similar hatred or unpleasantness. If you get in there first, you diffuse and disarm the nasty idiots from the start and own the stage.

A lot of comedians base their act around this, especially before they're household names. Larry Dean mentions being gay; Lucy Porter mentions being very short (especially with also having a very tall DH); Maisie Adam and Miranda Hart mention being very tall; Hal Cruttenden highlights his naturally camp voice; Lee Mack strongly plays on being northern with associated stereotypes (and only ever mentions the fact that he's both vegan and Buddhist in interviews, never in his comedy routines); Russell Howard mentions his ADHD; Shaparak Khorsandi mentions being Iranian; Chris McCausland does a lot of jokes based on him being blind; before they got more TV exposure, Stephen K Amos and Omid Djalili both often used to come out on stage using (respectively) a very strong and exaggerated African or Middle Eastern accent based on their visually-obvious racial heritage for a few minutes, before switching back to their own actual 'standard' London accents.

I really like Romesh. Think he’s very funny and down to earth. Very much would fit in with mine and DHs friendship groups. (Similar ages/stages.)

This Parents Evening show however is definitely not his best work.

Much prefer his stand up/comedy show stuff. I’d not be much of a fan based on this show at all.

I watch the weakest link because it’s a good format, it doesn’t matter who presents it. Same as things like Masterchef, popular even though Greg Wallace was on it, the format is watchable. RR does seem like a prick, remember when he used his fame to complain about school admissions when his kid didn’t get the school of his choice? He seems entitled and arrogant, he is very well paid by the BBC for being relatively competent at reading questions from a card out loud.

If I remember correctly (from his autobiography) it was a hard slog for him and he was on the bones of his backside at one point, so not just down to luck.

I don't watch the weakest link or the parent quiz thing but I like him.

All of this. Can’t believe people think he’s misogynistic. He only does live shows in venues that allow women to breastfeed - doesn’t sound particularly misogynistic to me. Katherine Ryan has said that he’s the biggest champion of female comics that she knows.

He never stops talking about how much he adores Leesa and their kids. He’s literally the opposite of arrogant.

I really like him actually.

No worries, easily done!

I am aware of all of that.

What I dont buy is that he is doing it as an act when the situation is not a comedic one. As a PP said he is obnoxiously superior about his veganism and it shows it all of his media interactions.

He was doing a lot of writing for successful comedy shows IIRC. He became very 'in demand' at a time when UK networks were struggling for decent comedy and was able to swing a few big deals. There was competition for his services and networks thought he was the next big thing in terms of a comedian who could also act, present, write and produce.

As others have said, people get signed exclusively to write/produce/present/perform in shows. It's not just for a period time though, the contracts will stipulate X number of shows over that period.

He's obviously been able to negotiate a lot of projects, and networks will rush them out to capitalize on the popularity of one with another.

I agree that he's one of the most over-exposed talents on UK TV at the moment.

I've always wondered this. He's not funny or entertaining.

All venues have to allow breastfeeding, it’s not legal to ban it 🥴

I have never watched him on TV but find him very funny on R2.

Why does he say that? Women can breastfeed anywhere in public and in any venue, I’ve never heard of a venue where it is banned?! Sounds like one of those men that goes around telling people how nice he is :yawn:

So nice and so vegan…

I was at uni with him. Same circle of friends. He wasn’t known as a ‘funny’ guy, but his dry sense of humour and awkwardness was always…well, funny

Is he really? I'm sure he's never said...

It's just a type of humour you don't appreciate or find funny, OP. Plenty would feel similarly about comedians that you do like.

I mean this kind of sums him up. Talking about his child as someone who ‘didn’t know where his dick was’ and then his wife as ‘this woman’. He just seems full of spite to me

Ok my mistake, I misremembered.

It didn’t come from him, i heard it on Katherine’s podcast. I think she said that she had an email from someone who was told they couldn’t be accommodated and he went out of his way to make sure she was.

Another Vote for RR. I think he's great and watching his new show tonight Parents Evening...was brilliant. We don't all need to agree on what we find funny, that's what makes us humans 😁

Romesh is great! I love his dry, sarcastic and quick wit.