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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Big Brother 2004

  
  

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Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
20:23 / 16.07.04
Tonights show.

Uncomfortable action GO!
 
 
Tryphena Absent
23:05 / 16.07.04
Does an attempt to reinforce your superheterosexuality have to imply a fear of misidentification?

I think Victor's obsessed with his masculinity, not his heterosexuality. I don't think it's entirely sexual in nature, I think it's his status as a man that he's weird about and the homophobia is a small by-product of that... it's his association with Jason that makes it come across as so intently het-based.
 
 
Ganesh
01:23 / 17.07.04
I kind of agree with Anna. I think it's about his masculinity - and, having discussed this with various Afro-Caribbean colleagues, I'm re-e-easonably confident in saying this - and his masculinity, culturally, hinges upon rigidly defining that which he is not ie. queer, a batty-boy, someone who is the passive recipient, sex-wise and power-wise, a universal 'taker', an almost-female, an individual totally lacking in het-potency. Victor, in his everyday life, has probably managed to avoid ever coming in contact with anyone openly gay, so the Big Brother house represents something of a challenge to his accepted definition of what's 'gay' and what's not.

So... I think his masculinity is inextricably tied up with sexuality. I think being a man is, for Victor, incompatible with being a battyman.
 
 
electricinca
12:17 / 17.07.04
I have just watched last night's eviction show and there is so much to write.

I loved Nadia's mini-task to make everyone laugh in order to win a choclate cake, "What even Jason?". She managed to get a smile and a little chcukle out of the humourless bastard. Shit, that's a bit harsh but he hasn't been filled with much mirth these past few weeks has he.

Ciao Ahmed. We say farewell to Ahmania and good riddance I say. 461 000 more votes than anyone else! My god that is amazing I wonder what the total number of votes for each person was.

Victor gets booed by the crowd as Davina reads out the names of those up for eviction this week and reacts badly. What the fuck? What did he expect? He'd already mentioned earlier in the week that he reckoned he would get booed when he leaves.

Also Victor looked very uneasy giving Ahmed a hug when he was leaving far more so than Stu or Dan. This was supposed to be his close friend in the house and yet Dan who Ahmed considered an enemy was far more natural in his hug of him.

Victor does seem very hung up on his erroneous view of what constitutes masculinity. He criticises Stu behind his back for being so submissive in regard to Michelle saying "girl's just don't find that attractive" and yet it seems to be working quite well for Stu. This is really a topic for a whole other discussion but in my experience women are attracted initially to a dominant guy but then when they are in a relationship they want a guy they can manipulate and push around a bit.

I'm glad to see the eviction interview was held inside following last weeks debacle. I was disappointed to see Davina refer to him as 'Ahmed the Legend' and go on about the phenomenon of Ahmania, way to go to further build the false impression of himself started by Victor and Jason.

Unless I out of touch Ahmania was merely confined to the house, Ahmed is not a man that will find fame and fortune based upon his antics inside the BB house. He will fade away to obscurity, be interesting to be proved wrong but I don't think it will happen.

Where were Ahmed's friends and family? And who is the mysterious H.C. the friend of Ahmed who we hear on the phone but never see in person? Do I really care? probably not. Interesting to note that the 'Straight Talker' was not talking so straight out of the house. He didn't think he was being manipulated by Victor and Jason! That surprises me and has lowered my opinion of him. It was so obvious to me that I assumed it was obvious to him also. I felt he was just going along with it as he had nothing to lose and something to gain from an alliance with the 'Jungle Cats'.

He had little to say about the other housemates, odd when he had so much to say about them in the house. I think that it just goes to confirm my thought that he was playing a character in the house, a rather more extreme version of the real him. He definitely chose to start arguments with Marco so as to appear more interesting I think, initiated following a conversation with Jason. Then I think the new character he'd created of himself got out of control and it became boring after weeks of it.
 
 
Spaniel
14:01 / 17.07.04
What makes you think his reactions to Marco were played up?

Marco's comments were genuinely offensive - particularly offensive, I should imagine, to someone who has actually sought asylum.
 
 
electricinca
19:41 / 17.07.04
There was a conversation early on between Jason and Ahmed, Jason told Ahmed to interact with the group a bit more, I can't remember his exact words but he basically suggested Ahmed start some arguments in order to seem more interesting to the viewers.

Because Marco had offended Ahmed he became the initial focal point for the developing new character of Ahmed the straight talker who argues with people. Ahmed's anger was genuine but over the top, that's all I'm suggesting.
 
 
Ganesh
20:11 / 17.07.04
I'm not convinced that Ahmed, even with Victor and Jason's 'helpful' prompting, consciously thought, 'I'll play a more extreme version of myself'; I suspect it's more to do with the power of the house dynamic, which tends to magnify the importance of everyday minutiae. Pretty much every Big Brother contestant has, on leaving and being interviewed by Davina, seemed less extreme than they did when they were inside. They may be more measured in terms of bet-hedging because they're acutely aware of not knowing the public mood.

In any case, I think Ahmed was being Ahmed. I don't think he's a terribly sophisticated organism, psychologically speaking.

This evening's show provided more glimpses of Vic the Prick. Thanking Big Brother for providing an eviction outfit, he remarked that he'd have cried if he were "one of the girls... or Dan". Because, obviously, crying is one of the things that separates men from women and poofs.

Amused by the footage of Gay, I mean Jay, shaving Victor. Given that Vic also claims never to masturbate, one wonders whether the Spamster might fellate him too.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
23:11 / 17.07.04
Amused by the footage of Gay, I mean Jay, shaving Victor.

Not me. I think it's killed slash for me, for ever.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
23:22 / 17.07.04
I don't believe that for a second.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
00:00 / 18.07.04
well, alright, maybe not. But for a moment, my entire slash life flashed before me. And I'm going to have to scrub Sirius and Severus.

*brr*
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
00:28 / 18.07.04
argh:

Vic on Dan: "I like him, but I don't respect him"

Jay: "Well, I'm not gonna make any personal attacks"

  
 
Tryphena Absent
02:12 / 18.07.04
About as straight talking as a drunk troll and a tapdancing snowball can get.
 
 
Rawk'n'Roll
10:00 / 18.07.04
Loved the eviction, Ahmed was totally oblivious to most of what he was doing in the house and how others were reacting to him.
The montage of him discussing nominations after he vehemently denied it was a classic.
Davina's conversation was definitely set up to make Ahmed a more sympathetic character, the montage of him being alone in the house was obviously meant to play on our emotions. He was "lonely" and "mad". If there's one person who went a bit loopy in the house it's definitely Ahmed.
His leaving words were "Whatever has happened in the house I leave it here" (or something similar anyway) paving the way for him to become "Ahmed" again now he's outside of the house.
Good on him for Boo-ing the audience back though. The man has cajones.
Not suprised it was held inside though, if there's one theme to the evictions atm it's the boo-ing. Only Marco avoided a Boo.

The cracks are already forming between Vic and Jay, backstabbing on tuesday, no doubt about it.
 
 
Rawk'n'Roll
10:02 / 18.07.04
Oh and Vic's assertation the only people he wouldn't mind losing against were Jay or Nadia.
"You gotta tip your hat when your enemy just steps up and shows some character."
Vic's healthy respect for his opponent left Jay decidedly silent afterwards. That was a beautiful sight last night. And gave me more respect for Victor again (dammit!).
 
 
Ganesh
11:47 / 18.07.04
Good on him for Boo-ing the audience back though. The man has cajones.

You reckoned he was booing? Watching the eviction again on video, it seemed he was just shouting 'OHHH!' - y'know, in a 'this is attention which I am choosing to interpret as positive' kinda way.

"I never had any allegiance; I was always free," says the man who promised Victor and Jason early on that he'd never nominate them, and indeed never did so. The Davina interview is always a humanising process, leaving one more sympathetic toward the evictee - but Ahmed just came across as stupid as fuck. Thick as a shit sandwich.

Getting a bit pissed off with all this 'ahmania sweeping the nation' stuff. I can't think of anyone mentioning it, even when I've brought it up. The term seems, largely, to have been confined to the house. Everyone I know who watches Big Brother just reckons the man's a pile of arse, and his 'opinions' pitiful. It definitely seems as if, when a question's too complex for him (which happens a lot), he simply accuses the questioner of hating him, and asks if they want a fight. Jokingly, since his eviction, but a less ho-ho version while he was in the house.

And I think Victor's sudden respect for Nadia stems more from hearing the booing after his own name: if he starts to realise he cannot himself win a race, he then likes to claim he was backing the winning horse all along. He did this with Michelle. In the first week, he reckoned she was attracted to him, and he could 'ave her; when she linked up with Stuart, he then began claiming he'd been the one who'd magnanimously got them together, and their relationship was his doing.

He hates to concede that something's outwith his control. If Nadia goes on to win, I bet he'll now claim it's because he was backing her. Because, y'know, he's a player...
 
 
Ganesh
12:11 / 18.07.04
And, naturally, Victor's opinion becomes Jason's: in the Diary Room, the Cuprinol-coated Spamster reckons he wouldn't mind losing to Nadia, who he now respects. One wonders what, exactly, she's done to evolve beyond his earlier "like watching paint dry"...
 
 
Spaniel
12:56 / 18.07.04
The cracks had to form between Vick (as shit) and Joy for soooo many reasons. Foremost amongst them being the fact that they've both finally noticed how exposed they are.

Honestly, for all Vic's talk of game-playing, it took the prat this long to suss that bitching, moaning and ostracising oneself do not a good game plan make.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
12:57 / 18.07.04
Little brother...

Ahmed (paraphrasing): "I'm not crazy blah blah it is bad for people to believe everything in the papers blah blah at school children saying to my kids "your dad is crazy"."

Then he decides to hit all the bakewell tarts in to crumbs that were laid out on the desk while doing a feature about animals that look like Victor and Jason ("None of them, because they are my friends! etc").

GOOD GOING!

It's like everyone in the world is humouring him, and he is accepting it unknowing of people giving him dirty looks behind his back and saying "God, he is annoying/weird/trying so hard to be weird" except surely he does know, and is just an idiot.
 
 
Ganesh
12:58 / 18.07.04
Watching Ahmed on BBLB with fascinated disgust. He's clearly registered that threatening people and smashing things up = hilariously entertaining. At one point (after he's jokingly-grabbed a fellow guest's hair), Dermot distracts him with a Bakewell tart. Which he promptly hammers into the tabletop with his fist. At that point, I have to look away to direct the side-suturing nurse, who's repairing my ribcage.

He and his female Superfan got to smash plates together. Which was, all things considered, probably a better option than attempting to recreate the 'stoving the statue's head in' moment.
 
 
Spaniel
13:19 / 18.07.04
Christ, he's such a fucking social-oaf.

Pulling people's hair? Fuck's sake.
 
 
Ganesh
14:05 / 18.07.04
Well, it was difficult to tell whether he'd gone for the follicles because this guy was dissing his friends (by maintaining that a photo of a jowly black labrador really did look like Victor and a ginger hamster Spamster) or for more obscure, disturbingly quasi-fetishistic reasons. Earlier, when asked by Lovely Dermot, what he planned to do next, Ahmed muttered some near-incoherent stuff about wanting to put his hands in Jonathan Ross's hair. I'm sure he was JOKING!!! but you could sense the entire studio go 'nuh?' and take a collective step back.

Bizarro.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
14:16 / 18.07.04
It's so sad that everybody else's insincere "Ha..ha... ok/Get him away from me" looks just don't register with him, and you see his brain thinking "I am funny! Give me Jonathan Ross's hair! DAVINA! Yes! It's working! They love me, they really do..."

Stop it Ahmed, really. Come and google yourself... unless you're just going to point and shout at the computer and tell us we haven't done any national service while simultaneously trying to perform a military coup on your own while sniffling and complaining you're ill.
 
 
Ganesh
14:22 / 18.07.04
On BBLB, he seemed to split his account of himself in the Big Brother house between "it was entertainment" and "I was being myself". I don't think he's capable of intentionally 'playing a character'; I don't think he's particularly capable of consistently being himself, either. The world must puzzle him; I suspect he resolves any and all uncertainties by simply dropping people into 'Love' and 'Hate' categories.

Elsewhere, Michelle is reverting to pathologically jealous/insecure type. Which is a pity, since I much prefer the empowered, baps-oot shouty version.
 
 
Spaniel
14:23 / 18.07.04
Whatever Ahmed's reasons for hair pulling, he quite clearly doesn't understand what is and isn't appropriate behaviour.

Oh I forgot, pulling the hair of strangers is appropriate when you're whacky Ahmed. In fact, it's down right hilarious.
 
 
Ganesh
14:30 / 18.07.04
And never requires any sort of apology - because being Wackaday Ahmed means never having to say you're sorry. Whatever you've done, it's inevitably the fault of the other person, who clearly hates you. Remember: you're the victim.

I suspect the combination of shoutypointy black/white dichotomy and inflexibility in terms of never, ever acknowledging oneself as mistaken or at fault (because one is always the injured party) is what makes one, in BB terms, a "straight talker".

It's also something of a shared Jungle Twat trait.
 
 
Spaniel
14:41 / 18.07.04
Nesh, whilst I largely agree that Ahmed is incapable of adopting a persona, I can't help but feel his behaviour since leaving the house has been informed by Ahmed-as-media-object, i.e whackycrazyguy.
 
 
Rawk'n'Roll
15:11 / 18.07.04
He's started believing his own hype?

How tragic.
 
 
Spaniel
15:27 / 18.07.04
Well, his hype certainly goes some way to legitimise what under other circumstances would be called inappropriate, inarticulate, awkward, potentially unstable behaviour.

The thing is, I'm not sure that Ahmed wouldn't behave like a bit of berk without the hype. IMHO, he finds it difficult to behave otherwise.
 
 
Warewullf
16:12 / 18.07.04
"I know, but you might look at them pretty girls!" cried Michelle. "Will you only look at me?" she demanded, smiling at Stuart's speedy agreement.

NO, you fucking eejit, he won't. Don't be so damn naive.
 
 
Ganesh
16:16 / 18.07.04
I can't help but feel his behaviour since leaving the house has been informed by Ahmed-as-media-object, i.e whackycrazyguy.

I think that's happening because his socially-bizarre behaviour is being applauded (albeit uneasily) by those in his immediate vicinity - so he's doing it more. I don't think he's 'playing a role' any more than the badly behaved kids on Supernanny are 'playing a role' in response to Mummy misguidedly buying them a new toy to stop their tantrums.
 
 
Spaniel
17:14 / 18.07.04
Oh, I agree. I wish they'd bloody stop.

Note I only suggested his behaviour was *informed* by his media image, not that he was deliberately acting out a fictional persona.
 
 
Mourne Kransky
19:25 / 18.07.04
How evil were those fish guts? My gorge filled just watching...
 
 
Spaniel
19:35 / 18.07.04
Fucking horrible.

And I wish they'd stop taking their money away.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
19:47 / 18.07.04
That's the thing this year, though - they've tried to shoehorn actual game elements into the forumla for the first time. Christ knows what they're going to do to try and keep viewing figures up if it comes back next year.
 
 
Spaniel
19:53 / 18.07.04
JESUS THE FUCK CHRIST.

That was sooo bloody nasty.

Can you imagine the hilarity when the Endemese are brainstorming the challenges...

... and then, right, we'll make it into a milkshake...
 
  

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