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Still Game Book 1: He Who Hingeth Aboot Getteth HeeHaw!
Jack and Victor are no ordinary oldies. They’re seniors wi’ sass, pensioners wi’ punch and stars of their very own award-winning show, Still Game.
178 pages, Hardcover
Published September 16, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 16, 2025
Generally, I'm not really a fan of comics or graphic novels, with Asterix Books being about the only exception to that rule. However, if I particularly like something, in this case, the Scottish sitcom, 'Still Game', I will give any new format of the given subject, the benefit of the doubt, and fire on in and have a gander.
I do seem to remember, quite enjoying the James Connolly and The Communist Manifesto graphic novel projects, although, I only skimmed through the latter, as it was a gift to someone else, but my point about better than average levels of toleration for a genre I don't particularly adhere to much, unless it's on a subject I'm already interested in, is more than brought home by those two examples. But, I'm afraid to say, I didn't think much of Jack and Victor's comic strip debut. No, indeedee, it was pretty much, honkin', mingin', pish, gash........"That's plenty Jack......"
It’s almost the first series of Still Game in its entirety, more or less verbatim, and if it was just word for word, that would have probably been fine, but the cartoonists have packed it full of their own little 'in jokes' and snidey comments, that I presume are meant to be funny, but really, they aren't, at all.
The book really does seem to think it's soooo funny, but I'm afraid the improvised humour is about as funny as a fire in an orphanage (That’s a Winston line from the show, see what I did there?), and just like in the episode, ’Cauld’, it falls completely flat on its face! However, to be quite honest, I really would have brushed all this seemingly trivial rubbish off to the side with Isa’s broom, and not mentioned it, if it were not for an anti-Irish, racist/xenophobic gag that they pulled into the storyline, that would have made Bernard Manning or Jim Davidson very proud!
They had mentioned, 'potato', just before Jack and Victor had entered an Irish themed pub, with the word panel stating, "Turns out potato wisnae that far off the mark!"
Just going to show how far anti-Irish/Catholic hatred is ingrained into Scottish popular culture. Unacceptable!
Another annoyance, was the fact that the caricatures of the shows main characters, looked absolutely nothing like them haha! Especially Jack and Victor themselves, and Tam was so off the mark it was breathtaking.
The use of Scots dialogue was, besides being correct, also extremely haphazard.
Either use it, or don’t! For it just comes across as bizarre if it’s half and half!? For instance, the book would sometimes apply the colloquial, ’deid’, but it would also refer back to the English word, ’dead’! Fair enough if it was said by an Englishman, but certainly not, when spoken by a Scot, whom had already pronounced it, ’deid’.
Another example was the characters repeatedly saying, ‘brown’. If the characters are already speaking in Scots, then no self respecting speaker, would EVER say, ‘brown’, they would most definitely say the word, ’broon’! Just ask ex Celtic captain and leg-end, Scott ‘Broony’ Brown.
But again, none of my petty nit picking would have really mattered a single jot, had it not been for that shockingly egregious and highly offensive racist slur masquerading as humour.
I mean c’mon, you wouldn’t get off with making jokes about the gas chambers and The Holocaust, or the slave trade and lynching?! Or indeed, why would you even want to make gags about those subjects? Unless you’re some sort of ’alt-right’ unfunny windbag complaining about ’cancel culture’, whilst ignorantly spewing forth some bullsh*t about how ’all lives matter’! So, why oh why do the ’joke’ writers here, think it’s appropriate to jest about millions of people dying and displaced in a genocidally induced famine? Sick, institutionalized racism which at best, is inappropriate and downright crass, enough is enough.
Now, I know that nearly all the actors on the show are dyed in the wool Celtic fans, and rightly so, but as I said, it was the improvised, snidey comments from the cartoonists, which spoiled the book. If they had just stuck to 'Chewin' The Fat' (they repeated the same one, 'gonnae no dae that', over, and over, and over again!) and 'Still Game' ‘in jokes', it would have probably came up with five stars and smelling of Irn Bru, and not, as it turned out, three stars and reekin' of deep fried racism!
Gonnae no dae that!
I do seem to remember, quite enjoying the James Connolly and The Communist Manifesto graphic novel projects, although, I only skimmed through the latter, as it was a gift to someone else, but my point about better than average levels of toleration for a genre I don't particularly adhere to much, unless it's on a subject I'm already interested in, is more than brought home by those two examples. But, I'm afraid to say, I didn't think much of Jack and Victor's comic strip debut. No, indeedee, it was pretty much, honkin', mingin', pish, gash........"That's plenty Jack......"
It’s almost the first series of Still Game in its entirety, more or less verbatim, and if it was just word for word, that would have probably been fine, but the cartoonists have packed it full of their own little 'in jokes' and snidey comments, that I presume are meant to be funny, but really, they aren't, at all.
The book really does seem to think it's soooo funny, but I'm afraid the improvised humour is about as funny as a fire in an orphanage (That’s a Winston line from the show, see what I did there?), and just like in the episode, ’Cauld’, it falls completely flat on its face! However, to be quite honest, I really would have brushed all this seemingly trivial rubbish off to the side with Isa’s broom, and not mentioned it, if it were not for an anti-Irish, racist/xenophobic gag that they pulled into the storyline, that would have made Bernard Manning or Jim Davidson very proud!
They had mentioned, 'potato', just before Jack and Victor had entered an Irish themed pub, with the word panel stating, "Turns out potato wisnae that far off the mark!"
Just going to show how far anti-Irish/Catholic hatred is ingrained into Scottish popular culture. Unacceptable!
Another annoyance, was the fact that the caricatures of the shows main characters, looked absolutely nothing like them haha! Especially Jack and Victor themselves, and Tam was so off the mark it was breathtaking.
The use of Scots dialogue was, besides being correct, also extremely haphazard.
Either use it, or don’t! For it just comes across as bizarre if it’s half and half!? For instance, the book would sometimes apply the colloquial, ’deid’, but it would also refer back to the English word, ’dead’! Fair enough if it was said by an Englishman, but certainly not, when spoken by a Scot, whom had already pronounced it, ’deid’.
Another example was the characters repeatedly saying, ‘brown’. If the characters are already speaking in Scots, then no self respecting speaker, would EVER say, ‘brown’, they would most definitely say the word, ’broon’! Just ask ex Celtic captain and leg-end, Scott ‘Broony’ Brown.
But again, none of my petty nit picking would have really mattered a single jot, had it not been for that shockingly egregious and highly offensive racist slur masquerading as humour.
I mean c’mon, you wouldn’t get off with making jokes about the gas chambers and The Holocaust, or the slave trade and lynching?! Or indeed, why would you even want to make gags about those subjects? Unless you’re some sort of ’alt-right’ unfunny windbag complaining about ’cancel culture’, whilst ignorantly spewing forth some bullsh*t about how ’all lives matter’! So, why oh why do the ’joke’ writers here, think it’s appropriate to jest about millions of people dying and displaced in a genocidally induced famine? Sick, institutionalized racism which at best, is inappropriate and downright crass, enough is enough.
Now, I know that nearly all the actors on the show are dyed in the wool Celtic fans, and rightly so, but as I said, it was the improvised, snidey comments from the cartoonists, which spoiled the book. If they had just stuck to 'Chewin' The Fat' (they repeated the same one, 'gonnae no dae that', over, and over, and over again!) and 'Still Game' ‘in jokes', it would have probably came up with five stars and smelling of Irn Bru, and not, as it turned out, three stars and reekin' of deep fried racism!
Gonnae no dae that!
May 25, 2025
Very funny! Reading this brought back all the memories of watching the TV series 😅
January 13, 2025
It was a lovely trip back to the Craiglang with Jack & Victor - however I did think initially these were going to be new stories & they are in fact a comic version of the 1st season of the show itself.
Regardless of this it was fun to come across all the characters again!
Regardless of this it was fun to come across all the characters again!
December 29, 2024
I absolutely loved this. It's made me want to rewatch Still Game. I love that it's written in Scots. Can't wait for book 2, I hope to see Methadone Mick in it too.
January 3, 2025
Rating is based mostly off the strength of the source material but there's some really great additions here that make good use of the comics format
February 13, 2025
SCOTLAND FOREVER🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews