Charlie Brooker - How To Watch Television (Part 1)

Part 1
The creator of BBC Four's Screenwipe, Charlie Brooker, did a special for Channel 4's The Art Show in which he presented a helpful and hilarious guide on how to watch TV. This was done with three quarters of the show being animated and was presented like a public information film.
Original Broadcast Date: 19/12/03
Copyright: Channel 4 and Zeppotron

[@amiablesnowman]

I remember seeing this on telly years ago. I only started watching Charlie Brooker quite recently, and his style reminded me of this show... lo and behold, I stumble across it by accident it was made by him. I'm glad I found it, so thanks for uploading!

[@PhimbleG-d]

This makes me think of Hitchhiker's guide.

[@JonathanNichollstechandsuch8]

Charlie would do a magnificent job voicing The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and this clip proves it.

[@KrisRamJ]

Awesome stuff, never seen this before, thanks for posting! Gotta love Charlie Brooker, looking forward to his new series next week...

[@kisbie]

Given that Brooker actually talks about it at one point, it's pretty obviously deliberate.

[@fritspas]

Ooh i remember the philips / rembrand tower situation, was rather hillarious.

[@jumblejohn1]

they ought to have this on all the tv's in the electronic store displays

[@Cloudlesssoul]

The constantly changing aspect ratio makes me laugh. :D This is brilliant.

[@D0S81]

its cuz it was filmed in 4:3 and most peeps back then had tvs that were square, so the only way to see what widescreen looked like on a square tv was basically by ''letterboxing'' as they call it. so when showing on tv something from the cinema, itd be letterboxd, i remember having a sony triniton portable tv that could letterbox anything in 4:3 by just sticking two black strips at the top n bottom essentially cutting half the pic away, which made me realise, that widescreen doesn't actually make you see more. a square image actually shows more than a rectangle. all you gotta do is zoom out a bit more if you wanna see whats at the sides....holy shit...its like black mirror, we've been lied to by mainstream media....they said id see more with a widescreen telly when in actuality all they had to do was zoom out more when making programs.....nnnNNNOOOOOO i want my sony triniton square box back!!! lol.

[@D0S81]

fuck, just noticed your comment is nine years old, for all i know, you dont even use youtube anymore. lol.

[@D0S81]

ok, i see what you mean now, i thought you were on about something they did intentionally in the program on different segments..looks more like this guy just kept hitting his ''letterbox'' button on his sony triniton..fuck..some lucky bastards still has a sony trinition...and i'm still commenting on a nine year old comment.

[@Cloudlesssoul]

@@D0S81 when I wrote that comment I think I still only had a 4:3 aspect ratio screen. Thanks for your comment, it brought me back from the future to check out some classic Charlie Brooker 👌

[@Cloudlesssoul]

@@D0S81 btw, I'd also like my childhood sony triniton back 😂

[@ErniePi]

i vaguely remember watching this, and thought it was hilarious. I then forgot about it, watched this hilarious show called "Screenwipe" then "Newswipe" as well as Nathan Barley and Dead Set. Now I learn that Brooker did this as well, which doesn't surprise me in the least cos this, like him and everything else he's done, is awesome

[@squonkynut]

Magic space mice! :D

[@DrWhoopPhD]

I know what you mean, but look around you is so under-rated, Glad someone still knows about it :D

[@ThatsMrMaxHeadroomToYou]

Fucking Genius!
Brooker is the dictionary definition of common sence...

[@AstraVex]

2:55 is all I hear when I put BBC news on.

[@TheRealDerfMan]

@pulseforce ....aaaaahhhhhh, thank you. A breath of fresh air this is for me... 'cause I'M usually the guy writing stuff like this. Good to be awake and aware........ Kudo's bro...!

[@Mysterious0Bob]

Ugh, why the hell does the video keep changing format? It wouldn't matter with any other video, but this shows you the effect of different format pictures.

[@D0S81]

this just made me realise a square image actually shows more than a rectangle. all you gotta do is zoom out a bit more if you wanna see whats at the sides....holy shit...its like a #BlackMirror episode where we've been lied to by mainstream media about technology truths....they said id see more with a widescreen telly when in actuality all they had to do was zoom out more, or stand further back with the camera when making programs.....nnnNNNOOOOOO i want my sony triniton square box back!!! lol.

[@KillerKingMusic]

it's supposed to be like that, it's supposed to piss off those who don't know how to change the aspect ratio

[@vaughanography]

It was actually done on purpose to show the problem of aspect ratios.

[@RH98]

This is all a bit postmodern. Messing with the aspect ratios within the program is one thing, but the permanent lines down the side of the screen due to putting a 4:3 broadcast into a widecreen youtube video make this even more confusing.

[@Mysterious0Bob]

Unless of course it was deliberately done by Brooker in the original broadcast but it's impossible to tell on TH-cam.

[@SentientMeatbag]

I think the guy that captured this really should have watched: How To Record Television.

[@squonkynut]

This show is meant to change format! Thats the whole point!

[@fluffyMike]

whoever does the animation can't spell flourescent or irrelevent
btw, love you Charlie

[@D0S81]

flourescent irrelivent, was just seeing how id spell without spellcheck, wrong on both, as are you as they are spelt fluorescent and irrelevant....that last word being exactly what this reply is because your comment is ten years old...maybe its a british/america thing with the way we spelt them being english, and the other being american, like demoralise and demoralize ? fuck knows eh.

[@D0S81]

12 people clearly don't have TV's