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DO YOU REMEMBER THIS: DO YOU REMEMBER THIS? - BY MR BIFFO

23/11/2017

17 Comments

 
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It's unlikely to have escaped your attention that I spent much of the last year and a half making a series of silly videos, which grew into something a little more complex. To say I'm proud of Mr Biffo's Found Footage would be an understatement.

I'm proud that it isn't easy. I'm proud that it's a very honest expression of something I'd want to watch. I'm proud that it sort of needs work and time and effort to really get what's going on. 

I love writing kids TV - I feel lucky that I get to do it as my main source of income - but there are certain things that my "day job" doesn't afford me, and Found Footage was meant to be a massive splurge of everything I'd had bottled up inside my weird brain.

I've mentioned a few times on Twitter that I see Mr Biffo's Found Footage as the comedy equivalent of prog rock. It's the complex concept album to, say, Michael McIntyre's new Taylor Swift record. That's not meant as a criticism of McIntyre or Swift, but their work is designed to grab you immediately. I mean, I love a good pop song. I'm no music snob.

But the fact is... most of my favourite albums of all time are at the proggier end of the Spectrum. I love Marillion, Talk Talk, Kate Bush, Genesis before they turned into an unlikely pop group, Steven Wilson, Pink Floyd...

I love music that takes you on a journey, that tells a story, and is as much about atmosphere as it is about melody. I love music that mixes genres, and can change in a heartbeat. I get that it's not for everyone; I mean, you probably have to be a little bit mad to want to "work" at "getting" a record, but I find that a lot of music of this type stays with me longer, whereas a pop song won't speak to me on as profound a level.

That feeling is part of what I wanted to capture with Found Footage, even though it has proven a barrier for many people who just wanted some quick and easy funnies.

I've not really mentioned it until now because, well, I didn't want people calling me pretentious. The thing is... most of the great prog bands have also produced great pop songs. Of the artists mentioned above, Marillion have their Kayleigh, Talk Talk had Life's What You make it, Kate Bush had more hit singles than you can mention, and Pink Floyd got to number one with Another Brick In The Wall.

I was pretty sure that within Found Footage there were "pop singles". Several of the comedy sketches at least have the rhythm of something more mainstream, even if they do end up subverting that, because I can't help myself. However, the point of all this is to say that the series has finally had a "hit", and I never saw it coming...
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JOG YOUR MEMORY
You might be aware that earlier this month I started a new Twitter account called Do You Remember This? (@memoryassistant). It spun out of a sequence in Mr Biffo's Found Footage, which was borne from my frustration at what I saw as the "laziness" of the countless nostalgia accounts and websites that are out there.

Indeed, the inspiration for Do You Remember This? came from having a rant about it on Twitter, and subsequently being blocked by the guy who runs @IL0veThe80s - who boasts an impressive 124,000 followers, and a bunch of similarly popular spin-off accounts. I was just moaning, like a whinger, about the fact he could get tons of coverage for simply posting pictures of things that people might remember, whereas I was struggling to get views for Found Footage. It was envy stemming from frustration.

At a loose end a few weekends ago, I decided - just on a whim - to Photoshop a few silly spoof "nostalgia" images and put them online, mostly for my own enjoyment, and for those who'd followed the daft spat I had with @IL0veThe80s.

It took three days for the account to go madly viral, The Poke to cover it, and for @IL0veThe80s to extend an olive branch. In fact, Ian who runs @IL0veThe80s has been generous enough to offer me advice on how best to present the posts on Do You Remember This?, in order to maximise their share-ability. Funny old world.

Do You Remember This has gained as many followers in less than a month as I have in three years. The likes of Ross Noble and Dara O'Briain are following it, and I'm scheduled to be doing an interview with The Guardian about its sudden success.

It's just weird; I would've killed for this sort of coverage and response to Found Footage, but instead I'm getting it for something which feels - by comparison - sort of throwaway.
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BIG THING
I never intended or expected Do You Remember This to become some big thing. Of course, it's nice that it's on the way to becoming really popular... but it's not a personal, passion project in the way that Found Footage was.

The posts don't take that long to do, so while it's great that they get retweeted... it also kind of doesn't mean much to me. Due to the nature of Memory Assistant, the posts aren't personal to me as Found Footage was. And yet, it's proving more popular than either Digitiser2000 or Found Footage have ever been.

Don't get me wrong; I'm enjoying doing Memory Assistant. I can't say it's a passion, but I like that it continues to scratch what remains of the same creative itch which led to Found Footage. I like the challenge of thinking about what might go viral (I can usually tell which posts are going to prove popular), and at some point I hope it might lead to Found Footage getting some more attention (I'm not holding my breath though).

I can't guarantee I'll be doing it forever, but for the time being Do You Remember This is a nice little antidote to the all-consuming enormity of what I'd spent much of the last 18 months doing.

So, in short, this time next year: please buy Do You Remember This - The Book!
17 Comments
Chinnyhill
23/11/2017 09:30:47 am

You may find success with mini episodes of "Do you remember" featuring some of the stars of Found Footage. Kenny and Yuri Masters remember the time Bully gored a man to death on Bullseye. Etc.

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Mr Biffo
23/11/2017 09:33:16 am

I've thought about it... but videos just don't get the same sort of engagement sadly. I think people want that quick fix of funny which a simple image can provide.

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Dr. Budd Buttocks, MD
23/11/2017 11:15:02 am

Very short tweetable gifs/clips seem to be all that today's attention spans can handle.

DEAN
23/11/2017 11:21:16 am

Yeah, the pics work better, I reckon. It's like sometimes I want popcorn chicken instead of the on-the-bone goodness. Instant gratification!

Dr. Budd Buttocks, MD
23/11/2017 11:48:08 am

Also I'm sure plenty other creative people will relate: https://twitter.com/cyriakharris/status/933082261758636038
http://webcomicname.com/image/167270719254

Favus
23/11/2017 08:15:03 pm

I will happily keep contributing as long as you keep it going

MENTAL1ST
23/11/2017 09:45:29 am

I wouldn't be surprised if you got offered a TV project based on it. The concept is basically an inversion of Time Trumpet, and if it's good enough for multiple Bafta and Emmy award winner Armando Ianucci...

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Morden Crock
23/11/2017 03:46:59 pm

Indeed. I can see the Twitter version remain8ng like this but getting a kind of TV Go Home-style TV version on Channel 4.

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Chris
23/11/2017 10:09:32 am

I remember that!

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DEAN
23/11/2017 11:15:34 am

They're just easy to enjoy - like Maltesers and they're your sense of humour but now in bite-sized format. I think it's great that they're going well for you and yeah, I like them!

Book? Yeah, why not! I'd buy it and if you kickstart the bastard then you can count me in!

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Spiney O'Sullivan
23/11/2017 11:34:55 am

Throwing out the prog comparisons, it's a bit like you're The Cure, and this is your Friday I'm In Love.

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Mr Biffo
23/11/2017 11:41:23 am

See, I think The Cure have some major proggy tendencies. Disintegration is - in my book - definitely prog.

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Biscuits
23/11/2017 02:39:34 pm

You gotta be kidding!

Biffman, @memoryassistant is frequently very, very hilarious and you should be proud of it.

The bigger, proggier things in life are NEVER gonna be as popular as the minipops, so it's great you have a successful minipops vehicle out there to draw in those with a taste for the denser things in life...exposure-wise it's actually a very desirable place to be. Plus, MA is not only successful, but on brand, true to its origins and totally in your voice, which is super rare for a 'successful' component of anything.

If I didn't know of you and read memoryassistant I would immediately be checking out your Twitter and googling your name and stuff to find more Biffculture to consume, but that's because I'm a big greedy pop culture-swollen pig, and when something interests me or or I find it inexplicably entertaining, I'll obsess over it for months and delve into every part of it trying to get to the route of its charms. My unquenchable thirst for forgotten pop detritus has led to me being pretty good at contextualising and compartmentalising it: this leads to things feeling familiar, whcih in turn has led to my enjoying proggy stuff and big weird things that stretch in all directions and have currents running underneath and challenge my preconceptions. So I LOVE FF.

Tommy Football probably isn't as bothered, but he liked the @MA Rainbow tweet all the same, and hey, his mate Jeffy Sheds is into all that weird stuff, maybe he'll tag him in it, and now Jeffy Sheds is following you (on Twitter) and he is the type to seek out FF and actually he has mates with similar tastes etcetc

Hey, Sid - most of us here know you from Digi for crying out loud, I was 10-12 when I was reading that and it stuck with me to such an extent I sought out this site a couple of years ago having remembered The Man.

MA is the momentum and FF is the foundation: you're doing it! Keep it up! Please, I want more Biffo stuff

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James Walker link
24/11/2017 12:06:49 am

Loved Found Footage immensely but this had the power to make me do repeated lolz in bed much to the annoyance of the missus.
Bravo sir, by the way, do you think Sir Iain Lee might cheekily plug FF now he's in the Jungle on the proper telly?

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Keith
24/11/2017 04:26:16 pm

Drawings I spent 100 hours on have been seen by 12 people. A Facebook post I wrote on a bus trip, after Margaret Thatcher’s death that half arsedly compared reductive appraisals of her as a sweet old lady to the idea you could describe Emperor Palpatine as a lovely old man went so viral (without attribution) that Googling “Thatcher Palpatine” Will link to countless instances of it being posted by others, with no attribution.

It’s hloody annoying. Probably a million have seen that.

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Carlos Nightman link
27/11/2017 11:29:40 am

I've been 'away' for a while and missed all of these recent developments, so I'm following the new twitbit as of today. Everyone else has already said what I wanted to say better than I could have. I'd just like to add - you always get the best ideas, Mr Biffo. Ripping the arse out of nostalgia is great fun, and your pictures are gold, great for a quick laugh and I'm curious to see if any of them induce a Mandela effect - all it takes is one person to claim they had a Hitler Tamagotchi and we'll be on our way.

If these end up getting you exposure then you turn it to your advantage, as I'm sure you're aware. I remember various A List actors, directors, writers saying that they make the blockbusters so that they earn enough money/freedom to complete their passion projects. I assume one of the greatest struggles in the mind then is - do we genuinely believe the passion project is 'good', or is it just egotistical nonsense we've been afforded the opportunity to create? Who knows.... most likely everything occurs in degrees of grey - blockbusters and passion projects can be wonderful or terrible, and everything in between. These pics are wonderful though, as is Found Footage.

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VendingMachine
27/11/2017 04:20:14 pm

Unfortunately Found Footage was mostly just not funny.

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