Blanche Hunt may have won our recent blog poll for funniest character and Maggie Jones may have won an Inside Soap award for Funniest Performance, but Maggie told Inside Soap that she doesn't think Blanche is funny at all.Says Maggie: "Blanche genuinely believes that what she's saying is right, and doesn't say things for comedic effect. If I started trying to play the lines for laughs, they wouldn't come out right and the performance would suffer."
I think she's got a point. I think if Blanche were played for laughs, she'd be another run of the mill buffoon. Most of the funniest characters on Corrie are played seriously, like a straight man/woman. The characters don't even think they're funny. Having said that, some of the characters that are comic characters a lot of the time, like Steve McDonald, are clearly being played for laughs, I think. The actor always knows their character best and how best to put the performance out there so it's believable. With a few exceptions, naming no names, it's why most of the characters on Corrie are so well accepted. Their portrayers have the talent to make us love or hate their alter-egos as we are meant to. It's one of the things that makes Coronation Street so fab!
She's so right! She plays the grumpy, exaggerated Blanche character straight and it's funny. But in real life, if someone said half of some of those hurtful (albeit truthful and clever) things at someone like Peter (struggling alcoholic), Dierdre(sometimes unhappy wife), etc -- she'd be thrown out of home, betting house, and the pub (maybe even the neighborhood!) not just temporarily -- but for good!
ReplyDeleteOh, but she is a funny character...always appreciates a pint especially if it's free (who doesn't?)....wants to know if there will be food so she can decide if a function is worth a visit...Long live Blanche and to many more of her observations and insults.
Oh, absolutely.
ReplyDeleteBlanche isn't funny because you're laughing WITH her, she's funny because you're laughing AT her.
She's more ironic if anything.
To me, Blanche is one of the best things on Corrie. Her straight faced one liners have yet to be beaten, and there is often blunt truth is what she says as well. Typical forthright "grumpy old woman", but she has a softer side as well, she seems fond of Peter even though he is no relation and Simon.
ReplyDeleteThere's no gem like an old gem. Blanche sparkles and surprises...loved her as fortune-teller during the street party or 'fete'. Managed to raise some cash for charity and also put away a little beer money for herself. And if that wasn't enough, she got little Simon to schill for her "psychotic" services. Then before that, her airing out the family dirty laundry at Peter's AA group as well as delivering a few insults to the other AA members has got to rank up there with the top comedic moments in Corrie history.
ReplyDeleteThis is great Tvor and I fully agree.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right. Comedy is rarely funny unless it contains truth, and that means playing it straight. Steve works with broader comic brush-strokes because his very character is a bit of a buffoon. Similarly Graham shines because of his surreal approach to live, but both Simon Gregson and Craig Gazely play their roles with sincerity.
ReplyDeleteAnd that, dear reader, is why Umed isn't funny.