Chloe Mashiter, 15 January 2017

The impulse behind calling this session came from various places:

- Realising the tone of my humour when talking to friends/playing games/watching

films/etc is very different to the humour I see onstage at theatres

- Wanting to have a more bolshy and jokey conversation with people in general

- Desperately wanting to figure out how to use obnoxiousness and sarcasm (in the

best senses of the words) in a narrative piece of theatre

- Wanting to see more sarcastic humour and bombastic attitude in advertising and

suchlike for theatre

- The conversations I have about theatre and with theatremakers (typically on Twitter)

being much more sarcastic and obnoxious and jokey than the work we end up


I failed to record names. We were too busy talking really.

The group listed a lot of companies or individuals they think somehow match up with

sarcasm/obnoxiousness onstage:

Red Bastard

Caroline Horton's Islands

Ship of Fools

(All of the above three are examples of Bouffon, which was referenced as a tradition

that uses sarcasm/obnoxiousness a lot. “The definition of Bouffon is: make the

audience laugh all the way through until they get home, then they realise ‘this is about

me’ and they kill themselves”)

Selina Thompson and her tumbleweave

A young man dressed as an old man dressed as a gorilla sits rocking in a rocking

chair (doing a sudoku? reading a newspaper?) for 45 minutes then leaves. (Quite

possibly paraphrased)

Ontroerend Goed

(Initially mentioned for Once And For All We're Going To Tell You Who You Are So

Shut Up And Listen. There was a bit of a tangent - but a very enjoyable one - where

we got into describing Ontroerend Goed's ‘Internal’ and how that actually worked.

OG's work is often so different one show to the next, but there's definitely an

obnoxious or sarcastic slant at times - but always implemented for a specific point)

Looking For Paul by Wonderbaum (noted that a lot of people left during the first hour

as the company were just reading their emails to each other - but those who stayed

found it so funny)

Kim Noble

ACMS/Alternative Comedy Memorial Society (their joke seats, presenting comedy that

wouldn't work elsewhere)

(Not because of Kim Noble, but related: scat tangent to conversation at some point)

Pirate Clown


Frankie Boyle

Simon Munnery

Neil Hamburger

Nick Helm (so obnoxious and yet very likeable/you don't take against him in


Doug Stanhope

Improv Everywhere


Guerrilla Girl

Trajal Harell (show ‘Immersive’ mentioned - name possibly misspelt)

Pantos in general

Terry Alderton


Al Murray (it was mentioned there's an lecture online with him talking about creating

FUKUP(?), and it was discussed about the line between his character and himself and

how this was misinterpreted/simply not seen by some)

Bryony Kimmings (obnoxious in sense of unapologetic)

Enda Walsh (we discovered a lot of interesting Enda Walsh facts, like how he wrote

Once. Very unexpected)

Sarah Kane (specific mentions for Blasted and Cleansed, and for how funny some of

us find her work - that feeling when you're laughing whilst others look like they're going

to be sick)

Doctor Brown

Adam Riches

Simon Stephen (for twitter moreso than scripts?)

Daniel Kitson (remembered story from one member of group: he once threw out a

heckler early on in a show ('It's a work in progress'/'Well it still better be funny!'),

actually giving the heckler £10 - twice what he paid to be there - to fuck off. But then

mentioned to the audience ‘that’s all you'll remember about tonight now'. Possible

problem of a big - obnoxious - moment overshadowing rest of something)

Sh!t Theatre

High Rise Theatre

(Not theatre/performance but she was mentioned as an example of the positive

definition of obnoxiousness early on: Mhairi Black. (supplemented by ‘she knows her


Something in ‘obnoxiousness’ is directness, bluntness - being straight with people and

therefore audiences.

Is there something in the absence of obnoxiousness or sarcasm that's to do with the

presence of fear? We back out of bolder decisions for safer ones because of fear?

It was noted that a lot of the examples we could think of lay in comedy, or in

crossovers between theatre/live art/comedy/etc (cabaret?).

The idea of polite behaviour and polite spaces came up - we don't think of

theatres/theatre buildings as sarcastic or obnoxious places especially, and there's a lot

of learned behaviour that results in a more polite attitude/atmosphere within them.

Following question of whether you feel like the work you make isn't polite, yet ends up

in contexts/in front of audiences who are.

A story was shared about a Forced Entertainment show where an ‘arts terrorist’, not

involved, defecated/took a shit onstage. The company struggled to convince people it

wasn't a part of the show - possibly something that can be problematic when you have

a certain identity as a company? (And maybe true if that identity were as


Attempts to list *female* comedians/performers, after it was noted that obnoxiousness

in particularly feels like a stereotypically ‘male’ realm:

Adrienne Truscott

Samantha Bee

Amy Schumer

Sarah Silverman

Caitlin Moran

Rachael Clarke (Cuncrete)


The conversation then touched upon ‘female’ obnoxiousness as a very conscious and

somewhat political act, but also the issue of whether female obnoxiousness is often

linked to sex, and whether that inadvertently becomes a selling point (that, regardless

of how it's being talked about/the obnoxiousness/the sarcasm, you're still viewing a

woman primarily as a sexual agent/what you're interested in is sex).


Closer Each Day (sometimes in this area - an improvised sitcom/soap opera based in

Bristol, going for 5 years)

Book of Mormon (obnoxious/sarcastic both in advertising and content of the show -

also mention for South Park and other American animation like Family Guy)

One group member's show involving a ‘Birthday Buzzard’ (someone dressed as an

anthro buzzard who knocks on your door on your birthday to essentially give you a

Roast) was raised - also mentioned how it was a show about sarcasm which then was

presented in a sarcastic/antagonistic way which ended up being ‘like putting butter on

a croissant’ - aka too much

If you're not in on the sarcastic joke, then it can feel needlessly confrontational, which

is to be avoided.

The question was raised of whether obnoxiousness is to do with confidence and also

possibly more of an American trait - or at least that confidence is something we

associate more with American-ness than British-ness.

The session also reminded me of a joke company (LEIUKARN - Literally Everyone In

UK Arts Right Now), based a lot on sarcasm and obnoxiousness, that myself and a

friend imagined. A lot of thoughts about how I have such sarcastic and jokey

conversations about theatre but these haven't translated into actual things - but the

thoughts and seed ideas *are there*.

(Things I wrote down to myself largely as questions/random thoughts:

Gob Squad?

Sarcasm within Filter ('I'm invisible') and Middle Child ('bark bark fucking bark') shows?

Rob Drummond? (Sarcasm in In Fidelity?)

Youtube videos (impromptu lightsaber street fights?)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

BADAC - bad obnoxious?

Action Hero?


Personal note: laughed more in this session than any other this weekend. Really

grateful to those who came as it felt so brilliantly lively and full of great

suggestions/ideas of what to look at and also what to think about.

We finished the session by telling each other to fuck off. But sarcastically.


Theatre, sarcasm, obnoxiousness, comedy, THEATRE, theatre

Comments: 1

Chris Grady, 15 January 2017

what an amazing shopping list of shows and artists to see - thanks for that.