http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/features/story/0,,1937615,00.html

Wicked! hope we get to see it in Europe...

Cussing to be clever

Fuelled by anger and unashamedly crass, foul-mouthed Mike Strutter is
MTV's newest signing. His creator, Paul Kaye thinks he's 'part Joe
Pesci, part Sid Vicious'. Johnny Sharp swears by him

Saturday November 4, 2006
The Guardian

If Dennis Pennis was the result of my rage at turning 30, then
Strutter is the result of me turning 40 and only ever getting offered
walk-on parts on Holby City."

On the phone from Cornwall, where he's on holiday with his family,
Paul Kaye sounds like a perfectly reasonable man. But he is full of
very bad thoughts. His latest foul mouthpiece for them is Mike
Strutter, a seethingly intolerant, cocaine-snorting New Yorker who
looks likely to become as much of an iconoclastic TV antihero as his
previous alter-ego, Dennis Pennis.

Article continues
In Pennis, Kaye created a celeb-stalking monster that became so
infamous he could not set foot within 100 yards of a red carpet
without being wrestled to the ground by security guards. Strutter
prefers expletive-strewn abuse, often accompanied by physical
violence. The character has been in Kaye's locker for several years
now, but after numerous TV pilots he never found a home until MTV
hired Mike to front a clip show.

His targets include some of Britain's drippiest bands, extreme sports
("Sadly, this mountain biker later made a full recovery"). And then
there's Kaye's perennial favourite, red carpet celebrity interviews
("If you've never heard Chris Moyles, he does Breakfast from six 'til
nine. Then he immediately starts lunch, then stuffs his fat fuckin'
face on supper").

"He's part Joe Pesci," says Kaye, "part Rodney Dangerfield, part
Jackie Mason, part Sid Vicious. He's the bastard we all suppress."

At which point, Kaye steps away from the phone and, following a short
pause and a loud unidentified sniffing sound, the aforementioned
bastard comes to the phone. Here's how our conversation unfolded in full:

Hello Mike.

"Fuck you."

Thanks. What do you say to the criticism that you are merely
reinforcing the crude stereotype of Americans as arrogant morons?

"What, are you bustin' my balls? Jonathan Ross is British."

Your resemblance to the psychotic lawyer played by Sean Penn in
Carlito's Way has not gone unnoticed. Are you related?

"My lawyers are in touch with Sean Penn's lawyers so it's best not to
say too much. What I will say is that I believe it's possible to
settle this thing amicably. I've generously offered to turn a blind
eye to these similarities, for a go on his wife's ass."

On your new clip show you're rude about Maximo Park. Is there no place
for comb-overs in rock?

"The only thing that should've been combed over was the master tape of
their first album - with a fucking wire brush. Look, that Maximo guy -
if you look like a cocksucker, you dance like a cocksucker and you
dress like a cocksucker ... you're a cocksucker, you know?"

Snow Patrol were recently top five in your homeland. So what's your
problem with them?

"It just goes to prove that too many of my fellow countrymen are not
only willing to shovel shit in their mouths but into their fucking
ears too. Their songs sound like someone's put a drumbeat to a fuckin'
yawn."

What would be your advice to Sir Paul McCartney in his divorce battle
with Heather Mills?

"A very wise man once said that you will reap what you sow. Well if
you decide to 'sow' a one-legged psycho, you gotta be prepared to reap
all kinds of shit when it goes tits up. My advice would be to stump up
the cash... and cash up the stump."

Will this programme be better than You've Been Framed? Or even Jackass?

"Yeah, cos I'm in it, fuckface. There ain't no fat chick doin' the
honours or a bunch o' West Coast wasters getting high eatin' each
other's turds, you know what I'm saying? No sir - Strutter is the
Hiroshima of clips shows. This is the real fucking deal. If clip shows
were an Olympic sport, my show would win the fucking gold. And then
test positive for drugs. I'm rock bottom and I'm lovin' it."

Your presenting style involves a lot of swearing. Do you have nothing
intelligent to say?

"What are you? My fuckin' mother? No, no, but, you're right, I've got
nothing intelligent to say - which might explain why I'm being
interviewed for this flimsy fucking rag."

One of your home town's most famous venues, CBGB's, closed down
recently. Do you have fond memories of the place?

"I used to manage the Dead Boys, Cheetah Chrome was my fuckin' cousin.
They was good times. People said clubs like CBGB's were fucking
shitholes, but a lot of great acts start their careers by playing in
toilets - apart from George Michael, who fucking ended his in one."

Aren't clip shows just a cheap way of providing programme content?

"The only thing cheap here, my friend, is the jibe you make at MTV's
expense. Shame on you. These are the people who brought you Totally
Scott Lee and The Virgin Diaries."

Have you ever considered anger management?

"I do have anger management. I got a fella who literally manages my
anger, he takes 20% and then books me into some seriously fucked up
bar fights."

At the end of the first episode you are seen weeping. Are you nursing
inner pain?

"Look, real tough guys aren't afraid to cry, there's no shame in that.
People say I'm in touch with my feminine side, but that's bullshit -
if I had a feminine side, I'd be taking it out for a steak, then
fuckin' it up the ass."

And with that enduring image, Mike announces he has to visit "the
bathroom" and we're back with Mr Kaye. If you were at all offended by
any of that interview, we apologise. Unlike Mike, who suggests you
should "kiss his ass". Paul, though, is more circumspect. "Once you
get over the swearing I think he's refreshingly honest. I went to the
premiere of the Borat movie the other day and it's nothing that he
wouldn't come out with, but it's done in a far more aggressive fashion."

Still, Kaye may yet find himself in trouble, as he's cast his own son
in the show. "I played it to my 15 year-old and his mates and they
loved it, so I got him in as Strutter junior for one of the shows. I
had to hide the scripts from his mum because of the swearing. When she
sees it I'm in big trouble ..."

· Strutter, Thursday, 10.30pm, MTV
--- In specialkaye@yahoogroups.com, "matt o'donoghue" <toast.88@...>
wrote:
>
> ive been a strutter fan for a long while and ive just heard he's
doing a mtv programme on thurs! just wondring if its real!!???
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>