Annoying Things Commentators Say

coops · Post by **coops** » 14 Oct 2010, 06:52

And I dont mean "Good afternoon my name is Jonathan Legard".

Im talking about the trite cliches that get trotted out every season. If anybody wants to join in I'll start the ball rolling with this one.

When Driver A wins his first F1 race you will always, always hear...

"Now he's won and he knows how to win he'll find the weight on his shoulders lifted and many more will follow"

Yeah? Tell that to Jean Alesi, Olivier Panis and Jarno Trulli.

fjackdaw · Post by **fjackdaw** » 14 Oct 2010, 08:12

Nigel Mansell's old quote about the home crowd support being worth a couple of tenths per lap.

madmark1974 · Post by **madmark1974** » 14 Oct 2010, 08:53

Someone is keeping Someone honest ...

Anything James Hunt would say about Riccardo Patrese.

Anytime James Allen would say Such-and-Such-a-driver WWWWIIIIIIIINNNNNNSSSSS!

I'm not going to list all of the Legardisms or Charlie Coxisms, there must be a character limit on posts ....

coops · Post by **coops** » 14 Oct 2010, 09:33

"Hes all over the gear box of the car in front!" - Do you mean hes crashed into him?

Jordan192 · Post by **Jordan192** » 14 Oct 2010, 10:43

madmark1974 wrote:Charlie Coxisms

I was going to leave it, but if you're mentioning Charlie Cox, "x has got the magnets on" really stands out for me, Mainly because by and large I actually quite enjoy his commentary, and I really liked the expression the first time I heard it. But that was in the late '90s and it's SO VERY TIRED NOW.

fjackdaw · Post by **fjackdaw** » 14 Oct 2010, 11:00

There a Martin Brundle-isms that are not necessarily annoying, but they are tropes. "Line astern", "the car's on rails", "standing up in the car", "clear ear" (all right, that's just his Norfolk accent).

But, for sure, at least the commentators don't say, "for sure" in every sentence, unlike all the drivers and team personnel

jackanderton · Post by **jackanderton** » 14 Oct 2010, 11:57

Legard's use of the phrase 'HUGE FRUSTRATION' leaves me with HUGE FRUSTRATION.

He's just awful. Awful, boring droning man with no sense of drama.

Warren Hughes · Post by **Warren Hughes** » 14 Oct 2010, 13:44

Most of the Legardisms have been done before on this forum. However Murray Walker's not immune from this discussion: "Bitter gall for insert name here"

coops · Post by **coops** » 14 Oct 2010, 15:03

"Monaco - the jewel in the crown of Formula One"

Gaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

Marco · Post by **Marco** » 14 Oct 2010, 15:30

"Thematisieren" (German for "to broach the issue of something" - The (useless) RTL commentator uses this about 15 times per race... )

tc3j3r · Post by **tc3j3r** » 14 Oct 2010, 15:40

(At Monaco, Hungary, etc) "Qualifying is ESPECIALLY important here..." :roll:

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 14 Oct 2010, 15:46

coops wrote:"Monaco - the jewel in the crown of Formula One"

Gaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

"Singapore - the Monaco of the East".

Kobacrashi · Post by **Kobacrashi** » 14 Oct 2010, 15:53

what really annoys me is when a commentator, usually brundle, whome i am a massive fan of refers to a line of cars as 'the crocodile of cars' or 'so and so is catching the crocodile'. No need.
I am no genius but pretty sure it should be a snake or a train.

Rocks with Salt · Post by **Rocks with Salt** » 14 Oct 2010, 16:03

Maybe it's a British thing, but I'm getting pretty sick of Hobbs and Matchett always screaming "Steady now boys!" or "Staggering!" or "Brilliant!" Can't you British people use any other synonyms? Or better yet, can't you British people speak English?[/stupidjoke]

fjackdaw · Post by **fjackdaw** » 14 Oct 2010, 16:15

Murray used the word SUPERLATIVE a lot. A superlative effort or a superlative drive.

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 14 Oct 2010, 16:19

Rocks with Salt wrote:Maybe it's a British thing, but I'm getting pretty sick of Hobbs and Matchett always screaming "Steady now boys!" or "Staggering!" or "Brilliant!" Can't you British people use any other synonyms? Or better yet, can't you British people speak English?[/stupidjoke]

G'WON SON! G'WON SON!

I hate how Varsha constantly refers to Michael as THE SEVEN TIME WORLD CHAMPION. Enough, we bathplug get it Bob, he won a bunch of races.

Most of all, I'm sick of Sam Posey pretending he's some kind of beatnik poet every other race.

pablo_h · Post by **pablo_h** » 14 Oct 2010, 16:25

fjackdaw wrote:Murray used the word SUPERLATIVE a lot. A superlative effort or a superlative drive.

Yes he did, But really, does that annoy you more than anything JA or JL says? Back in the JA days I was trawling the internet to find a speed stream rather than listen to him

coops · Post by **coops** » 14 Oct 2010, 16:54

tc3j3r wrote:(At Monaco, Hungary, etc) "Qualifying is ESPECIALLY important here..."

Equally "Its like riding a bicycle round your living room". Unless anybody has actually tried that how the heck do they know?! Besides, that quote was originally attributed to Nelson Piquet Snr and I would imagine his living room is pretty bathplugging big (What? I used 'bathplugging'. You dont own that).

P_Friesacher · Post by **P_Friesacher** » 14 Oct 2010, 17:13

coops wrote:Equally "Its like riding a bicycle round your living room". Unless anybody has actually tried that how the heck do they know?! Besides, that quote was originally attributed to Nelson Piquet Snr and I would imagine his living room is pretty bathplugging big (What? I used 'bathplugging'. You dont own that).

In German and Austrian TV it is always presented as "like flying a helicopter in your living room". For which, I guess, even Piquet's living room might be a bit small.

fjackdaw · Post by **fjackdaw** » 14 Oct 2010, 17:50

pablo_h wrote:
fjackdaw wrote:Murray used the word SUPERLATIVE a lot. A superlative effort or a superlative drive.

Yes he did, But really, does that annoy you more than anything JA or JL says? Back in the JA days I was trawling the internet to find a speed stream rather than listen to him

James Allen never really annoyed me, and it's Jonathan Legard's whole manner which really bothers me. If he was a better commentator, I'd forgive him his quirks and repetitions.

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 14 Oct 2010, 18:44

fjackdaw wrote:
pablo_h wrote:
fjackdaw wrote:Murray used the word SUPERLATIVE a lot. A superlative effort or a superlative drive.

Yes he did, But really, does that annoy you more than anything JA or JL says? Back in the JA days I was trawling the internet to find a speed stream rather than listen to him

James Allen never really annoyed me, and it's Jonathan Legard's whole manner which really bothers me. If he was a better commentator, I'd forgive him his quirks and repetitions.

James Allen annoyed be because he never shut up about Lewis Hamilton.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 14 Oct 2010, 20:42

From a former Spanish commentator, in the early days of Alonsomania: "Come on, Fernando, put the bait in the fishing rod, today we go fishing!" (more or less :lol:

)

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 14 Oct 2010, 21:54

redbulljack14 wrote:
fjackdaw wrote:James Allen never really annoyed me, and it's Jonathan Legard's whole manner which really bothers me. If he was a better commentator, I'd forgive him his quirks and repetitions.

James Allen annoyed be because he never shut up about Lewis Hamilton.

It's surprising how easy we forgot how terrible James Allen was when he was replaced with someone really terrible. Say what you like about the guy, but at least you could see he was enthusiastic about the sport.

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 14 Oct 2010, 22:28

Phoenix wrote:From a former Spanish commentator, in the early days of Alonsomania: "Come on, Fernando, put the bait in the fishing rod, today we go fishing!" (more or less )

That was the great Jesús Fraile. :lol:

He was the lead commentator before Antonio Lobato, a bald guy that some of you will probably know. But what you probably don't know is that Heinz-Harald Frentzen's mother is Spanish; we, the old Spanish F1 fans, know it very well because Fraile would repeat it like 10 times every race. "Here we see the Hispano-German Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the Jordan...", "Frentzen who told us that he likes a lot the Spanish omelette that his mother does..."

Another classics from him were:

-"Hasta el rabo todo es toro", a Spanish idiom that aproximately means "It's not over until it's over", although the Spanish is more poetic, maybe "It's not over until the fat lady sings" catches it better.
-"Carrera estabilizada", literally "stabilized race"; he would always say it after the first 5 laps or so.

Something I'll never forget is how he managed to screw the podium ceremony after Alonso's first win. It was a historical moment for Spain, the first Spaniard ever to win a Formula One GP, and the guy kept talking with the supporting commentator (who was as bad as him) as the Spanish anthem was being played. AWFUL!!! When they finally stopped talking, the French anthem was already being played, and he said: "after La Marseillaise finishes, we'll hear the Spanish anthem". He hadn't learn that the driver's national anthem ALWAYS goes before the constructor's national anthem, after four years of commentating...

And so on, and so on... I'll tell you some more another day.

Phoenix, un día de estos tenemos que hablar tú y yo por privado.

Warren Hughes · Post by **Warren Hughes** » 14 Oct 2010, 23:12

So would some Spaniards claim Nurburgring (I think) 1997 as the historic moment that a Spaniard first won a Grand Prix?

Also the podium gaffe is genuinely incompetent. Has the standard improved now that F1 has a rather higher profile in Spain?

fjackdaw · Post by **fjackdaw** » 14 Oct 2010, 23:34

The phrase "a coming together" seems unique to motorsport, and may be a Murrayism. It sounds rather like a blind date.

Lord Fiddlebottom · Post by **Lord Fiddlebottom** » 15 Oct 2010, 01:14

I gave up watching the Flemish commentary on Belgian Television. Sammy Neyrinck is the king of stating the obvious. So if you know just a bit of F1, you don't learn anything.

"He can't get close enough to driver name so he has to wait until driver name makes a mistake."
"Remeber that drivers must use both tyre compounds."
"And here is Michael Schumacher."

Sounds boring? It is. When BBC is unavailable I switch to Austrian RTL by default.

Frentzen127 · Post by **Frentzen127** » 15 Oct 2010, 01:52

Colombia's very own German Mejia never seemed to acknowledge there were other drivers on the track other than Montoya, and whomever he was chasing/being chased with.
And what my dad said about Ricardo Soler sums him up perfectly: "He makes such an effort when he speaks its almost as if he's always sitting on the putty while he's narrating."

Europeans won't know either, and I failed to gather evidence from the latter's antics.
I'll crawl back to my hole now.

Waris · Post by **Waris** » 15 Oct 2010, 02:01

Ferrim wrote:Phoenix, un día de estos tenemos que hablar tú y yo por privado.

That sounded quite creepy. XD

coops · Post by **coops** » 15 Oct 2010, 07:39

"WAIT FOR THE RED LIGHTS TO GO OUT!!!"

Just in case you thought they'd already started.

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 15 Oct 2010, 08:15

Nobody can get the "Sandwich" right at all...
If the Order is Ferrari-McLaren-Ferrari its NOT a Ferrari Sandwich!!! Nor is the McLaren the filling in the Ferrari Sandwich, its a McLaren Sandwich...
Nobody has Bread Sandwiches.

I'm also sick of the word Crucial, its been said enough.

coops · Post by **coops** » 15 Oct 2010, 08:33

Particulary during Hakkinens years I would grind my teeth each year as Hungary was described as 'like a home race for the Finnish fans'.

Do you know how far apart these two great nations are? Over 1000 miles. I checked years ago which only added to the teeth grinding.

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 15 Oct 2010, 09:32

Any reference to Ferrari fans as 'the tiffosi'. 'Tifoso' or the plural 'tifosi' in Italian simply means 'fan' or 'supporter'.

bighaydo · Post by **bighaydo** » 15 Oct 2010, 09:36

The things I never liked about some commentators was making their biases clear by making excuses for them... I'll always remember Murray insisting Damon Hill having a problem at Estoril in 1996 - he sure did -- his teammate destroyed him!!

Admittedly there will always be a touch of parochialism in any commentary, but Allen (Lewis HAAAARMMALTAAARN!!!) and Legard (Jenson BBHUTTON - but not Rubens BBHARRICHELLO) get on my goat every now and then. Surely they must know that their commentary is a little more global?

Gotta love when they hype everything up when the race is a damp squib - like when they say Driver B is catching Driver A at a second a lap... but they are 20sec ahead with 3 laps to go and it would make absolutely no difference because Driver A has got it completely under control...

At least Murray had a solid control of the English language and came up with some pearlers every now and then

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 15 Oct 2010, 12:37

Warren Hughes wrote:So would some Spaniards claim Nurburgring (I think) 1997 as the historic moment that a Spaniard first won a Grand Prix?

Also the podium gaffe is genuinely incompetent. Has the standard improved now that F1 has a rather higher profile in Spain?

San Marino actually (I think). But no, no one would ever claim such a thing. That was in the pre-2003 days, when Spanish drivers where never at the front. It was actually nice that he would comment on Frentzen's half-Spanish roots; the problem was that he kept repeating it all the time. Most people in Spain don't even know who Frentzen is, given that he retired back in 2003 and very few people bothered watching before Alonso.

And yes, the standards have improved, because they just couldn't get worse. We didn't get national coverage until 1999, and TVE always delayed the issue of buying the rights until it was too late. In 2000 we didn't get to see the first 4 races. In 2002 we didn't had coverage (TV3, the Catalonian broadcaster, has been doing F1 since the mid-90s, but that only covers Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands). In 2003 TVE still refused to buy the rights, in spite of Alonso getting a Renault drive: we missed the Australian GP and reportedly it was Renault itself that payed for it to be broadcasted (in exchange for a bit of free publicity; they also got a nice return because of Alonso's good performances on track).

Usual features of TVE's F1 coverage were: beginning the broadcast really late, usually when the cars were about to start the formation lap; not showing qualifying at all, or showing it delayed; and finishing the broadcast as soon as the cars crossed the final line. In their final season (2003) they always (save the Australian GP of course) showed qualifying, and usually waited for the podium (never the press conference), but they still began the races very late, 10 minutes before the start at most.

In 2004 everything changed, Tele5 bought again the rights and they started doing a proper coverage of the sport, with a nice preview for every race and so on, and it has remained more or less the same at La Sexta. Commentary has also improved, partially because now they can rely on former drivers like Gené or De la Rosa. Gené is not a great commentator, but he uses to be very informative (and he has Ferrari insight, so this season he's very handy as the commentary is logically centered on Alonso), while De la Rosa is the other way around, but they are both good. This year they had Andy Soucek for a couple of races (as Gené was doing other things, like Le Mans, and of course De la Rosa was racing) and the guy is GREAT, better than both Gené and DLR. He really surprised me: for the first time, there was a guy in the TV that understood what was going on BEFORE I did :lol:

Lobato is a very partisan commentator, but at least you can see that he does a very serious job and is actually passionate about the sport (or does a great job at looking like it). He's of the "James Allen" kind of commentator, only that Allen has been doing F1 for 20 years and is a lot more experienced and knowleadgeable. Lobato can really exasperate you at times, but you can't negate the guy's passion; that's what most people say about Allen as well.

Waris wrote:
Ferrim wrote:Phoenix, un día de estos tenemos que hablar tú y yo por privado.

That sounded quite creepy. XD

It's Spanish for "Phoenix, we should talk by PM one of these days" as we are both Spaniards but have never done so :mrgreen:

bighaydo wrote:At least Murray had a solid control of the English language and came up with some pearlers every now and then

Murray is great for non-English speakers, as he has a very neutral and clear way of speaking. When I started watching old races I instantly found out that I could understood most of what he said, and what I couldn't were usually words whose meaning I didn't know. Walker-Brundle commentaries were the best because Brundle is not too hard to understand. But it took months until I began to understand at least a few of Hunt's interventions! :mrgreen:

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 15 Oct 2010, 12:58

Ferrim wrote:But it took months until I began to understand at least a few of Hunt's interventions!

And the only English you can learn from listening to James Hunt is "Alliot is driving like an idiot" or something along those lines.

coops · Post by **coops** » 15 Oct 2010, 13:00

And "Patrese should be BANNED!"

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 15 Oct 2010, 13:01

coops wrote:And "Patrese should be BANNED!"

Forgot about that, he spent pretty much his entire commentating career slagging off either Patrese, Alliot and De Cesaris.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 15 Oct 2010, 13:20

Ferrim wrote:
Warren Hughes wrote:So would some Spaniards claim Nurburgring (I think) 1997 as the historic moment that a Spaniard first won a Grand Prix?

Also the podium gaffe is genuinely incompetent. Has the standard improved now that F1 has a rather higher profile in Spain?

San Marino actually (I think). But no, no one would ever claim such a thing. That was in the pre-2003 days, when Spanish drivers where never at the front. It was actually nice that he would comment on Frentzen's half-Spanish roots; the problem was that he kept repeating it all the time. Most people in Spain don't even know who Frentzen is, given that he retired back in 2003 and very few people bothered watching before Alonso.

And yes, the standards have improved, because they just couldn't get worse. We didn't get national coverage until 1999, and TVE always delayed the issue of buying the rights until it was too late. In 2000 we didn't get to see the first 4 races. In 2002 we didn't had coverage (TV3, the Catalonian broadcaster, has been doing F1 since the mid-90s, but that only covers Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands). In 2003 TVE still refused to buy the rights, in spite of Alonso getting a Renault drive: we missed the Australian GP and reportedly it was Renault itself that payed for it to be broadcasted (in exchange for a bit of free publicity; they also got a nice return because of Alonso's good performances on track).

Usual features of TVE's F1 coverage were: beginning the broadcast really late, usually when the cars were about to start the formation lap; not showing qualifying at all, or showing it delayed; and finishing the broadcast as soon as the cars crossed the final line. In their final season (2003) they always (save the Australian GP of course) showed qualifying, and usually waited for the podium (never the press conference), but they still began the races very late, 10 minutes before the start at most.

In 2004 everything changed, Tele5 bought again the rights and they started doing a proper coverage of the sport, with a nice preview for every race and so on, and it has remained more or less the same at La Sexta. Commentary has also improved, partially because now they can rely on former drivers like Gené or De la Rosa. Gené is not a great commentator, but he uses to be very informative (and he has Ferrari insight, so this season he's very handy as the commentary is logically centered on Alonso), while De la Rosa is the other way around, but they are both good. This year they had Andy Soucek for a couple of races (as Gené was doing other things, like Le Mans, and of course De la Rosa was racing) and the guy is GREAT, better than both Gené and DLR. He really surprised me: for the first time, there was a guy in the TV that understood what was going on BEFORE I did

Lobato is a very partisan commentator, but at least you can see that he does a very serious job and is actually passionate about the sport (or does a great job at looking like it). He's of the "James Allen" kind of commentator, only that Allen has been doing F1 for 20 years and is a lot more experienced and knowleadgeable. Lobato can really exasperate you at times, but you can't negate the guy's passion; that's what most people say about Allen as well.
Jesús Fraile was absolutely pathetic. He had no idea about what was going on, and at times I recall he relied purely on what was seeing (often leading to asinine comments). When Telecirco kicked on, the coverage improved a lot, but the commentary was still a bit weak. Fortunately, it has improved a lot over the years, and today we have a pretty good commentary I think (at least bearable). Some of Jesús Fraile's pearls:
-"And David Coulthard is using his Stop&Go to refuel!"
-"Ralf Schumacher, 2000 World Champion!" (no comments...)
-"Oh, a car has crashed against the barriers! This could've been a pretty big accident! (a Sauber pitting in Malaysia)
-"Fernando Alonso is leading in Montecarlo!" (when racing in Montreal)
-"And we're in the Monza oval, where legend such as Fangio and Prost (yes, Prost) raced."
-"The driver is so annoyed by his mistake he's torn up the steering wheel!"
-"Fernando Alonso 4th with Williams-Renault!"
Enjoy.

Waris wrote:
Ferrim wrote:Phoenix, un día de estos tenemos que hablar tú y yo por privado.

That sounded quite creepy. XD

It's Spanish for "Phoenix, we should talk by PM one of these days" as we are both Spaniards but have never done so

Oh, ningún problema.

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 15 Oct 2010, 20:02

redbulljack14 wrote:
coops wrote:And "Patrese should be BANNED!"

Forgot about that, he spent pretty much his entire commentating career slagging off either Patrese, Alliot and De Cesaris.

He did repent over slagging off Patrese in his later years though, to be fair. And even over De Cesaris a little I think.
As for Alliot, I think it was entirely justified!