my brother works in post-production at the BBC. he often gets asked to find stills or archived footage, and forwarded me this email that he’d received the other day:
Hi All
Urgently looking for a still of Richard E Grant, naked, clutching a fish.
If anyone can help please could they email me asap.
Thanks
L*****
although I don't have a clue what picture the poor girl was searching for, I did find this shocker of actress Greta Scacchi molesting a fish. I hope she finished with it before it suffocated
what I love about this is its outstanding lack of irony in the face of absolute and complete obscurity.
the girl is clearly panicking, she’s probably had an intimidating producer airily fire at her, “oh, and darling, get me that still of Richard E…you know, the one where he’s holding a fish…”, and, not wanting to appear moronic, has nodded like this was the most natural request in the world, sat back at her desk, hyperventilated, then wept, then banged out a terse email to similar lowlifes who will understand the predicament she’s in and preserve her job for another day by finding the wretched thing.
the choice of the word “clutching” is the icing on the cake.
the producer experiment 