Uncle Gaybo gets a taste of his own medicine
There's one word that I reserve for a certain group of "entertainers" that dominate Irish television and that is "unctuous". This description was recently used in an entry about Eddie Hobbs and I thought it fitted the bill at the time. Other elite members of my unctuous group include Pat Kenny, Derek Mooney and Tony Fenton. But the doyen of this group has to be Gay Byrne.
For years Gaybo was lauded as the father of chat show presenting the Late Late Show over four decades and is still the longest running programme of its kind in the world. There's no doubting that he excelled at being the host that steered debate, squeezed intimate details from his guests and gave a platform for many an emerging band. Unfortunately, it was on the Late Late that Boyzone got their big break, but that's another day's sob story.
His outer facade can tempt the innocent, the naive and the kind-hearted. Putting guests at ease was his forte. Regaling audiences with simple talk was his bread and butter. But for the cynical, the twinkle in his eyes belied a sinister being. And there have been occasions when he let his guard drop to reveal this persona I speak of: think back to his banning of the turkey called Dustin (or was this Pat K as suggested in the comments below?); his gobsmackingly horrible attempt to demonise Annie Murphy; the "fuck off" retort to Mike Murphy at Trinity College; and the patronising interviews with his television-adopted daughter Sinead O'Connor. The prominent line that connects his nose and mouth twitches when he's under fire and when he wishes to openly display his contempt for an interviewee.
It was with great glee therefore that I witnessed his dressing down as dished out by Terry Wogan on the ESB awards show last Sunday night. Byrne looked to be thoroughly peeved at not being chosen as the greatest living Irish entertainer and started to dismantle Wogan's legend by making all sorts of smart alec remarks. Wogan stood firm and returned fire with some unbelievably cutting ripostes. Cue the twitch under his nose. The audience loved it. I loved. Finally, a come uppance of sorts for the comeback kid.
Published by Colm.
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