Big Brother 2006

08:34 / 06.08.06

Echoes of last year, and Craig The Gimp throwing a strop about being likened to La Hindley in his Bill Clinton wig.

Mourne Kransky

08:38 / 06.08.06

As someone pointed out on DS, BB has jumped the shark.

The Falcon

12:39 / 06.08.06

Even more bizzare was his mention of panto villain Anne Robinson in the same breath.

In Wales, she and Hindley are on a par.

15:58 / 06.08.06

Ah, I've only just now remembered what she put into room 101.

19:26 / 06.08.06

They shouldn't have made the "guaranteed place in the final" ticket non-transferrable. That way they could have all had to fight for it. And I don't mean verbally.

19:39 / 06.08.06

I am SO easily manipulated by television. I've been getting so fucking cynical about Pete. And this letter from his mum is really making me melt.

Jesus, I'm a cock.

19:55 / 06.08.06

Aww. Yes, that was a nice letter. I'm waiting a while before logging into Digital Spy and reading the inevitable OMG How Manipulative Is Pete's Mum??? discussions...

Interesting comment from Imogen on how she and Glyn are the only remaining members of "the original gang" (by which I suspect she means Golden Age Team Smughet). What does that tell her?

The Falcon

20:00 / 06.08.06

I thought it was odd, discovering that at least four (Imogen, Pete, Jennie and Aisleyne) of the final six have had absent fathers for much of their lives. I think this may be the case with Richard also?

20:22 / 06.08.06

Big Brother = substitute Father Figure?

Olulabelle

20:33 / 06.08.06

Indeed. Of course. I am lacking in a father figure, and weirdly I can see the attraction. But I can't think of anything worse that being on BB, no books, no music, no painting, no anything other than constant conversation with your housemates, most of whom are dull idiots.

21:07 / 06.08.06

I have just heard Spoiral's magnificent "Let off some steam/Know what I mean/'leyne" rap advertised as a ringtone on BBLB and had to be picked up off the floor I was laughing so much.

I cannot imagine who in the world, ever, apart from possibly Spoiral's Mum, and probably not even her, would want to listen to that as a ringtone. Are they after the same demographic who drinks Coke Zero, or what?

21:18 / 06.08.06

Big Brother doesn't just work specifically as a father figure, though. Parental overtones, yes, but equally distributed paternally and maternally via the diary room voice?

The Spiral ringtone is an unquantifiable idea of genius. My sides may actually split or I'll at least fall over in suprise too if I hear that one unexpectedly in public.

21:26 / 06.08.06

Big Brother doesn't just work specifically as a father figure, though. Parental overtones, yes, but equally distributed paternally and maternally via the diary room voice?

Well, yes, not a perfect analogy by any means. There's also the not-having-an-actual-physical-presence thing, too. I was thinking more along the lines of a generalised authority figure (authoritarianism traditionally being viewed, in a very broad sense, as a masculine trait) and it may be the case that a certain subset of those applying to be Housemates are motivated by their feelings around authority figures. Kitten, for example, in 2004, had an ambivalent attitude to authority, as exemplified by her 'rebellion'. Those missing an actual father may have more idealised conceptions of a father figure.

22:14 / 06.08.06

Hmm, ok, that does indeed make sense. Of course, there's the veritable cocoon of trust, complicity and solitude that the diary room offers but apart from that (although given the situation it's probably enough) it doesn't have to do much to encourage a real attatchment to it. See Richard, Aiseleyne and Glynn's barely cod disappointment that Big Brother has gone on holiday without them and then again as each one gleefully runs to the phone to speak with hir. When Aiseleyne actually sulked because Mikey got there first it immediately made me think of adoring children jostling each other so they can ask how father's business trip is.... (or something vaguely similar).

Maybe Big Brother's actual absence of physical presence aids in this fantastical projection? Over-reaching more than a little but even the fact that it is in of itself almost an absentee parent anyway?

09:12 / 07.08.06

I think it's more like Stockholm Syndrome, with BB is as the kidnapper and the housemates as (complicit/willing) abductees. Even when BB sends them to jail and/or punishes them with no hot water, food, budget etc. they still love and trust him/her, far more than most of their fellow housemates.

It really is quite pleasingly similar to 1984 in some ways.

09:28 / 07.08.06

I think it's more like Stockholm Syndrome, with BB is as the kidnapper and the housemates a s(complicit/willing) abductees.

That was exactly what I thought when Aisleyne was doing her "no, Big Brother, you can't go away and leave us here" thing.

penitentvandal

21:08 / 07.08.06

Surely BB is God...an evil God who fucks about with you, and maipulates you...a vile demiurge who keeps up an impenetrable barrier between you and the outside world...

OMG BB is teh 6n05t1c w15d0m!

h1ppychick

10:40 / 08.08.06

Does anyone on this forum have any opinion about the 'old housemate to go back in and be eligible to win' twist currently rampaging all over the red tops and DS? I'm a bit surprised that no-one has really raised this here.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:09 / 08.08.06

Isn't that what Xoc's refering to when he says the show has jumped the shark?

The new twist does annoy me a little, since I wish no ill to any of the remaining housemates (bothered about Imogen, but the rest all have their merits), and I wish no good to any of the potential returners. However long this has been planned, it certainly feels like a capitulation to the "we need to put 'big characters' back in!" / "they should never have got rid of Nikki" brigade, and irritates me as much as does that whole mindset. If it were up to me, I'd say the least worst scenario would be Mikey or Michael back in... and if we have to have conflict, let's put Grace back in, since there's no way in hell she'd get near the money. Keep Nikki out.

Jennie to win.

Triplets

11:14 / 08.08.06

Well, Ms. Weaving has brought up something that looks like an opinion at the least.

I reckon it's a big pile of bollocks. In a year of bait and switching, false evictions and secret houses next door this "unevict an evicted housemate" twist really rubs the wrong way. I think, because, 1. it goes against the stated premise of the show - to vote out housemates until left with a certain number of winners, 2. it's reversing a decision of the GBP, devaluing The Vote and any other The Votes in the immeadiate future

I've all but stopped watching lately, apart from the evictions. Delicious evictions.

Alex's Grandma

11:33 / 08.08.06

The return of Nikki (and after all, that's what this is all about) seems like a last ditch effort to up the tension, and votes, on the final night. Prior to the latest twist, Pete seemed such a dead cert to win that it was hardly worth bothering, whereas now the 'new Princess Diana' as Russell Brand put it, might conceivably provide the plucky little battler with a bit of competition.

Incidentally, did anyone else see Nikki's rant about buses on BBLB the week after she was evicted? Apparently, she hates buses, she calls them peasant wagons, because all the people on them smell! I like to think that out there somewhere, Margaret Thatcher wept a quiet tear of pride

12:36 / 08.08.06

I got told off by various people on DS for being "too PC" during an argument about that particular comment...

Alex's Grandma

13:06 / 08.08.06

Having briefly had a look at DS, it seems as if being on there for any length of time must be a little depressing, like having a head full of angry, disembodied voices that want you to kill Mum, rim the dog, chop up the postman and put him in the microwave, etc.

I haven't been the hugest fan of Aisleyne's behaviour in the house, but if the poor woman ever sees half of the mindless, repetitive bile that's been slung in her direction on DS, I think she could be forgiven for just curling up into a tiny little ball, and never ever moving again.

Lama glama

13:29 / 08.08.06

I'm fairly sure (although I haven't actually checked, but such regulations usually apply to gameshows, contests-anything with a big cash prize at the end) that allowing Nikki an employee of E4 (the woman has been offered and has accepted her own television program to be show in Autumn) to take part in the game again breaches the perennial "No employees, friends or family of employees" rule that always applies to these shows.

Like Triplets I'm finding myself growing disinterested with the show. Pete's victory now seems like a foregone conclusion and as a Dickie supporter the prospect of the gloved one losing out to Pete becomes more irritating daily.

15:17 / 08.08.06

There is basically no way, after last night's tearful hero of Mums the world over poured his heart out in the diary room, that Pete is not going to win.

"I just want WANKERS!! my Mum to be WANKERS!! y'know, all right WANKERS!! I never ... (wells up) I never really seen WANKERS!! never seen her happy. WANKERSWANKERSWANKERS!!!!!!!!
Y'knowhatImean? Innit. WANKERS!"

The menopausal vote alone will swing the deal.

Fist Fun

16:49 / 08.08.06

I enjoyed Glyn's dancing last night.

17:17 / 08.08.06

Was Pete's letter that moving? Did it not verge on the almost repulsively saccharrinely sweet for anyone else?

(Dickie's reading style probably didn't help matters with all that disjointed enunciation as if he was reading a fairytale to a five year old either)

There was a wonderful moment in in the bedroom later.
Richard (tone syrupy yet disengaged): Good things happen to good people.
(cue slight curl of lip and what I'd like to think of as Dickie overloading on sweetness and light, wondering what exactly the fuck he was even talking about at this stage).

Triplets

19:47 / 08.08.06

Pete show's his dorsal tonight.

"Can I vote, y'know, tactically?" Then proceeding to vote for Aisleyne before slamming on the breaks and nominating Glen as he wouldn't get evic-ted.

Also, I like Nikki's gold belt.

20:45 / 08.08.06

Was Pete's letter that moving?

Well, no, not if you're the sort of person who can't help laughing at Little Nell's death in Dickens - but not everyone's as flinty-hearted as me, as I well know.

Besides - dude - his estranged father is coming back! Pete hasn't seen him for ten years!!! It's like Real Life Eastenders!!11!23!

20:48 / 08.08.06

Also, Triplets, that gold belt - it's her skirt.

21:26 / 08.08.06

I really thought Michael would've gone back in. He did seem quite popular amongst the evictees what with Lea and Grace's hugging of him and general smiliness in his direction. I guess I was wrong...

Why Mikey, though? Above anyone else in that cue? Why?
I even would've preferred Sam (but just for her very irritant status and some kind of retribution for the emotional mincer she was put through by Grace) or Lisa (again for her irritant status) or bloody well anyone apart from Spiral.

miss wonderstarr

06:44 / 09.08.06

Mikey went in because people want to see him with Grace, I think.

Johnny Nobody

10:34 / 09.08.06

Why the hell did Grace go in? She must be one of the most unpopular BB contestants of all time, yet somehow she managed to get voted into the house again buy the GBP. It does not make sense, the GBP never vote for keeping the most annoying housemates in... This must be manipulation of some sort. Grace's family phone bills must have made BT a small fortune over the course of last week. I just don't understand.