Thursday, May 15, 2008

Gift Horse in the Mouth


After digesting Rangers' defeat (which proved to be a surprisingly underwhelming experience), I listened alternately to John Phillips (he of the Mamas and the Papas), rain falling outside, which, if you strain your ear, sounds slightly tropical, and the latest batch of Gift Grub sketches, including Bertie's resignation. No sign yet of a Gift Brian Cowen - maybe Mario Rosenstock doesn't want to repeat the backfiring effect that the Gift Bertie had on Ahern's popularity. Has Biffo been on Gift Grub before? Does anyone know?

Another character who I'm surprised doesn't feature on the show is RTÉ football stalwart George Hamilton, the man of ripe metaphors, recondite references to the popular culture of the 1970s Federal Republic of Germany, and absurdly accurate pronunciations of Johnny Foreigner names. And he does all the same on Lyric FM too, I'm told. Surely this is a man that needs to be cloned and cast in amber for future generations. Mind you, there's never been a Jimmy Magee either though, has there? It would be hard indeed to beat Magee's real-life comment at the opening ceremony of the 1982 World Cup finals in Barcelona: 'and there it is - the international symbol of peace - the pigeon!'

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't heard Gift in a while so I can't say if they've done Biffo or not. Have you listened to TJ & TJ from The Last Word? You'll get the back-catalogue on the site too.

George was 'an expert' panellist on German TV during the European Cup (88?). I was sitting in a pub after we beat England watching the screen through the bottom of a glass wondering why the 'excitable' fella looked familiar.