Tom, Desperate, Eventually Invites Ellis To His House; Ellis Can't Leave.

[rionaleonhart]

I have discovered what is possibly my favourite Mitchell and Webb sketch ever! Unfortunately, it is spread in four segments across an episode of The Mitchell and Webb Situation, and I lack both the knowledge and the tools necessary for video editing.

Ooh, hang on, I've just remembered that it's possible to link to a specific time in a YouTube video! Still a bit fiddly, but here we go:

one (7.20-7.54)
two, three (same video, 2.00-2.33 and 4.50-5.30)
four (1.40-2.17)

I love it not only because Mitchell is oddly beautiful in it (it's not just me, right?), but because it encapsulates my fear of interacting with people I barely know rather wonderfully. Half the reason I love David Mitchell so much is the fact that he and the shows he's involved in are always pulling things out of my psyche, displaying them on the screen and saying look, Riona, you're not alone.


...er, don't tell anyone, but I actually wrote the below before realising that I was writing fanfiction for a single sketch in a forgotten sketch show and therefore completely mad:


"I was going the other way," Ellis says. "I can't turn my back on you."

"Then we both go in the directions we're facing," Tom says. "That way, we're just passing each other."

"We've already stopped. We can't be 'just passing each other'."

"We can at least try, can't we?" Tom asks, desperately.

There is a pause. Ellis lets out a slow breath. "I suppose."

Another pause.

"So, er – " Tom begins.

"Just – don't think about it. Just do it."

"Nice – nice to see you."

"You, too."

They both move at the same time and on the same plane, find themselves blocking each other's path. Hesitate. Tom steps right as Ellis steps left. Tom steps left as Ellis steps right. Hesitate again.

"Almost," Tom says. "We almost managed it that time."

"We'll never manage it," Ellis says.


Had I not come to my senses, it would probably have resulted in incredibly awkward Ellis/Tom. (I've had the urge to write fanfiction for some fairly odd things in the decade (my goodness) I've spent in fandom, but this is quite possibly the oddest. Have you ever been tempted to write fanfiction for a sketch or an advertisement or, I don't know, Tetris: something that barely counts as a fandom, if at all? Do tell.)

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

Hello, self! I know having no comments on an entry sort of freaks you out, although I cannot fathom why, so I am posting this comment to settle your irrational soul. Honestly, I don't know what you were expecting. This entry consists of an unfinished fic for a single sketch in a decade-old sketch show; you have to admit that its appeal is not exactly mainstream.

(Even though it clearly should be. Tom/Ellis fanfiction should be all over the Internet.)

[rionaleonhart]

Awww, I'm glad you enjoyed the awkwardness! (And that would have been an entirely welcome first comment! There's no particular standard first comments have to meet, so long as they don't just say 'first!' or 'lol u smell', and even the latter is acceptable if I do, in fact, smell.)

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm a little bit in love with you for this.

[rionaleonhart]

I am glad my awkwardness and weird neuroses are apparently endearing! (♥!)

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

*grins*
♥

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Right, so you commented on a comment I left on fandomsecrets regarding Messrs. Mitchell and Brooker, and I came over here to check it out because, fic. And then I realized that not only are you friends with pinkfinity and sarahtales but you are also freaked out by having no comments on an entry, and my fate was sealed.

[rionaleonhart]

Hooray! It's very nice to meet you. (Especially as I just had a poke around your journal and discovered that you are a fan of Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell: a pairing for which, I have to confess, I have had a secret shameful fondness for years.)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

How funny that you like the Ryan/Simon because I was thinking of saying "pay no attention to that thing haha" because you never know how people feel about Simon, or Ryan, or certainly the two together! But yes, I adore them, so there will be much Idol'ing in my near future!

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

I've just remembered that it's possible to link to a specific time in a YouTube video

[rionaleonhart]

I only discovered this a couple of weeks ago! It was quite exciting! You just add #t=1m26s (or whatever) onto the end of the video URL.

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

My life has been changed forever.

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

amazing!

[mythtaken.livejournal.com]

I adore that sketch! I think of it often. It is so tragic and beautiful and horribly relevant to my own social interactions.

Half the reason I love David Mitchell so much is the fact that he and the shows he's involved in are always pulling things out of my psyche, displaying them on the screen and saying look, Riona, you're not alone.
This is exactly how it is for me too. This is why I find Peep Show strangely soothing at times (although very occasionally Mark's thoughts are so similar to my own I've been genuinely weirded out).

They both move at the same time and on the same plane, find themselves blocking each other's path. Hesitate. Tom steps right as Ellis steps left. Tom steps left as Ellis steps right. Hesitate again.
♥

[rionaleonhart]

It really is a lovely sketch. I find it bizarrely touching, which isn't something I'd generally expect of a sketch show.

Mark Corrigan terrifies me. The inside of this man's head looks horrifyingly like my own! I identify with him more than I do with any other fictional character, and that cannot be a good thing. It's quite reassuring that you have experienced the same 'oh help I'm Mark Corrigan' realisation.

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

Mark Corrigan terrifies me. The inside of this man's head looks horrifyingly like my own! I identify with him more than I do with any other fictional character, and that cannot be a good thing. It's quite reassuring that you have experienced the same 'oh help I'm Mark Corrigan' realisation.

I suspect there's a fair number. In fandoms, I've noticed a tendency for fans (particularly intelligent young women in their early twenties who strike me as perfectly charming and socially competent over the internet) to identify with intelligent and insecure characters; often there's a degree of projection (see the number of Top Gear fans who write James May as if he were just like them), but it tends to be a consistent pattern. So if you find more people who get fannish about Peep Show, you'll probably get a decent number.

[mythtaken.livejournal.com]

Yes, touching! They are both so distressed and trapped. Also I like the minimalist quality to it and the pretty light.

Another sketch I love is Queen Victoria and the Linden tree (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHze0SqB5Zg). It doesn't have the pathos of Tom and Ellis, but it has a similar theme of not deviating from social expectations to your detriment. And it contains some truly glorious sarcasm.

Mitchell & Webb sketches seem perenially interested in examining social awkwardness. The way we get tangled up in self-imposed rules. As someone who has walked to the next bus stop rather than risk a Tom-Ellis encounter with a neighbour, I appreciate that a lot.

I identify with him more than I do with any other fictional character, and that cannot be a good thing.
Yes! God, yes. *facepalm*

'oh help I'm Mark Corrigan'
I need an icon of this. A badge even. THERE SHOULD BE A CLUB.

[rionaleonhart]

Oh, dear, yes, I've gone ridiculously out of my way to avoid awkward encounters as well. Social interaction bewilders and frightens me in many ways. It's good to see its many pitfalls explored on television.

Can you imagine how awkward meetings of the People Who Are Mark Corrigan club would be? I love the idea of a badge, though.

[mythtaken.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! I hadn't thought of that! I suppose it would have to be a club that never met, or that held meetings in theory that everyone was just too shy to go to. The extent of club activities would be occasionally spotting someone else wearing the badge in the street and feeling that warm glow of kinship even as you both studiously avoided eye-contact.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

That Mitchell and Webb Situation! I love it, and most of the world seems to have forgotten it ever existed, so yay. Especially for the fic. And I know what you mean about finding yourself identifying with David Mitchell and/or Mark. There's one Peep Show quote from the second series about which I've always found myself thinking yes, that's exactly what it's like - when Mark makes friends with Darryl the Racist and finds himself thinking, "I've got a friend! I've made a friend! Maybe there's nothing wrong with me and I'm actually a normal human being!". I think that so often.

[rionaleonhart]

I've only seen a couple of episodes of Situation, but I enjoyed those quite a lot, so I'll have to watch the rest at some point.

In one sense, it's reassuring to have a character like Mark Corrigan showing you that other people share your thoughts; on the other, it's quite clear that he is not a normal human being, which isn't terribly comforting. Oh, dear.

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

As you probably know, I keep wanting to write really dark Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas slashfic. I suspect there is no fandom.

Also, while I'm not particularly inclined to write fic, I saw Ice Age 3 on a plane (it had Simon Pegg playing a demented weasel!), and I'm now slightly shipping a tyrannosaurus rex with a tree sloth.

[rionaleonhart]

I am unfamiliar with Fear and Loathing, but might there be a demand for slashfic somewhere? You could be the one to create the fandom!

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

The inventor of Hunter S. Thompson semi-RPF!

[rhosyndu.livejournal.com]

If you're interested in shows with David Mitchell in that people seem determined to forget about, have you tried Bruiser (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21d2y59ApqQ)? Odd little sketch show, it has its moments.

Um, weird slash I have wanted to write.
Does Bill Bailey/Phill Jupitus count? Had the urge back when they were still both on Buzzcocks. It would mostly be their shared love of random bands and biscuits and still taking interesting chemicals despite being old enough to know better. Possibly there would be some belly rubbing, but I don't really know why.

[rionaleonhart]

Thank you for the link; I'll have to check that out! (I just glanced at the first few seconds, and they involved Mitchell and Webb dancing together in ridiculous outfits, which I enjoyed.)

I imagine that counts (there's probably not much Buzzcocks fanfiction, is there?). Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with the two of them to come up with scenarios myself.

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

I think seeing Mitchell in drag has ruined me forever. He was strangely beautiful but I feel like it was because of seeing him dressed as a girl instead of him just being strangely beautiful in this clip. It's quite weird. (His eyes! THEY ARE SO BIG.)

Ellis is so angry and desperate in this, it's just the sort of thing I would want slash about. RIONA, WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME

I have been tempted to write slash about a song I heard? I mean, I even sort of developed an entire world about it. Does that count?

[rionaleonhart]

Evidently Mitchell needs to be in drag more often. (His eyes are so striking! I cannot work out why. Is it just their size?)

RIONA, WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME

I CAN'T HELP IT. The desire for fanfiction that nobody is ever going to write loves company!

Ooh, which song? I am unlikely ever to have heard of it, given my horrendous ignorance of music, but I am curious regardless.

[shark-hat.livejournal.com]

I have the Mitchell and Webb Situation, clearly I should rewatch it because OMG WHEN DAVID SAYS "FUCK", SO HOT, um, I mean, it's a very interesting look at being unable to deny social conventions. (It reminds me of stuff The Cowards do, actually.)

[rionaleonhart]

OMG WHEN DAVID SAYS "FUCK", SO HOT

Oh, thank goodness I'm not the only one.

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

hee! i like your ficlet! i am watching mitchell and webb to cheer myself up.

[rionaleonhart]

Awww, I'm sorry you need cheering up. Glad you like the ficlet, though!

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

consider this proper thanks for the ficlet! (http://nixwilliams.livejournal.com/415441.html)

Now that I've actually watched the clips...

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

...theoretically, the whole 'Tom inviting Ellis over' thing could end with a tense and awkward domestic partnership, as they progress from "Awkward visit" to "Awkward house guest" to "Apparently we've moved in together", on to "If we've been living with each other for this long, the done thing is to make a formal commitment."

It would be the most awkward proposal in history.

Re: Now that I've actually watched the clips...

[rionaleonhart]

Ahahaha, I love this idea! That is exactly what would happen to them. Poor Tom and Ellis.

Re: Now that I've actually watched the clips...

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

You know you want to write that proposal scene.

[tamsin-m.livejournal.com]

Have you ever been tempted to write fanfiction for a sketch or an advertisement
Three words: Compare the Meerkat (http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/).

They could meet up with the Direct Line telephone and computer mouse! Or fight the Go Compare tenor! Or something.

[rionaleonhart]

Aleksandr Orlov fighting the Go Compare tenor is a rather wonderful mental image. The 'Compare the Meerkat' jingle is now firmly and frustratingly lodged in my head, though.

[cryforthemoon.livejournal.com]

I now have a burning desire to write Iago/Othello hate!sex. ALAS.

[rionaleonhart]

Shakespearian slash is always awesome.