"The UL" - YouTube series

TheCosmicFrog

Okay, so this is a bit of an odd question. And I'll be very happily surprised if anyone knows what the hell I'm talking about!

Four-odd years ago when I was in Junior Cert, mad to get out of secondary school and "live my life", I wanted to go to UL to pursue an IT degree. I wanted to know a bit more about UL, so I searched for it on YouTube. Among all the usual videos of Rag Week, etc., I found a video series made by a group of friends called "The UL" - a pisstake on "The OC", complete with its own opening music to the theme of California Here We Come: "We've been on the beer, looking kinda queer, look - there's some women we can get near, Castletroy here we come...".

The first few episodes were just amateurish messing around with a camera, but eventually they seemed to develop their own little group of characters. Two seem to spring to mind, "The Business Student" and "Podge", the campus drug dealer. They also had some genuinely funny plots, like "Plassey Break" - a skit of Prison Break. I found myself following it religiously in the end. It was completely daft and everyone seemed to be having great craic while making them.

They seem to have been taken down from YouTube for no apparent reason. It's just a bit of nostalgia for me that no longer exists.

So! Back to my original question - does anyone else know about "The UL"? Does anyone know someone who took part in it? Or anything about the series, or where it's actors are now!

Cheers guys,
Aaron - NUI Galway student... four years later!

bazkennedy

"The UL" was made during the 06/07 college year by Eoin Kelly, president of the Laughing Soc- UL's comedy soc. "The UL" was a short lived idea of eoin to make a sitcom based in ul. Unfortunately it wasn't that funny and like most of Eoin's stand up material revolved mostly around the fact that he was a "business student". I believe Eoin is in the UK now. He popped up on the weakest link at some stage

TheCosmicFrog

bazkennedy wrote: »

"The UL" was made during the 06/07 college year by Eoin Kelly, president of the Laughing Soc- UL's comedy soc. "The UL" was a short lived idea of eoin to make a sitcom based in ul. Unfortunately it wasn't that funny and like most of Eoin's stand up material revolved mostly around the fact that he was a "business student". I believe Eoin is in the UK now. He popped up on the weakest link at some stage

Thanks for the info Baz. Sorry about the delayed response. I made this thread before my exams started and... well, you know what happens during exam season...

It's just a shame that they've been taken down from YouTube. Not sure if it was taken down by Eoin Kelly himself or for some other reason.

Jamie Starr

UL has/had a comedy soc? 'Tis news to me!

bazkennedy

It had

The Laughing Soc held a few gigs in the Johnathon Swift with members getting a discounted rate. While some of the comedians were good, the society was as much a showcase for Eoin, an aspiring stand up.

comedyguy

All,
I was alerted to this thread from a Laughing Soc member .

Yes we had to take the shows of youtube as many of the cast now have normal jobs and any such shambolic acting that might be seen by fellow workers would definitely be detrimental to their reputation in the workplace.
Most of my comedy wasn't about being a business student I'll have you know my "best" work involved my impressions of inadament objects(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTxFql03bcw). The I'm business student joke was a catchphrase that most sitcoms have, and the more rubbish the better.
yes I did pop up on the weakest link,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6olST3ICAcw also got a book published (it is rubbish beyond rubbish) and I am in the UK.
UL Laughing soc was entirely made up to make money to a certain extent that's why we never got any funds off clubs and socs. All members used to get a souvenir UL laughing sock for their membership. I wont deny it cheap and cheerful was the name of the game.
started off at €2 for gig, then €3 and then ended with €5 a gig. Sometimes €8 if we had to get 2 acts and it was a big comedian.
The Neil Delamare gigs we used to have used to fund our entire drinking for christmas days and all the other comedians fees. It also gave me the chance to get to know people. We had crowds of 500 (john Monnet full to brim) to 5 (my mates).
Its piss easy to set up a comedy club, the hardest part was to get people in the door for someone who wasn't on the tv. Sometimes the comedians who people didn't know were better than the ones people did know.
It also got me presenting rag week in 2007. Best rag week ever.
The UL
Series one had a loose structure to it, whatever the OC/Home and Away had on, we mirrored it.
Series two we ran out of Ideas and started to get 'celebrity appearances', joe rooney, karl spain, ardal ohanlon and Andrew Maxwell.One episode of the UL actually had me singing the theme song to the Band "Director". Needless to say they were unimpressed. It was a laugh, and to be honest I used to like the crappiness of it.
We also made a UL marketing ad, which i think had some decent stuff and one woman actually went to UL on the back of my ad, though that might have being flattery (it worked).
I also ran for president which didn't go down to well. I didn't really want the job, and was forced to take down my videos of 'I'm not a paedophile, Vote Eoin Kelly'. Which I still stand by as fact. Also people didnt get the other videos spelling out the works "tits, Ass and Penis" in my 12 points to success.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgBlKEVMNws
If I didn't run, St John would have being elected unopposed and then noone would have voted at all. I got 635 votes, to st Johns 1600. I presume most was for my name was first alphabetically. We had a campaign team of 2, as we only accepted campaigners who were named Eoin.

Sadly when It was time to leave, there was noone really to give the club justice. It had served its purpose and there were rumours of being swallowed in by the Student Union Ents group, which I hate to have done as we were anti establishment.


i still check in will ullaughingsoc@yahoo.co.uk if you want to lob on an email. i like nostalgia.




Gutted cosmic frog you didnt go to UL.

comedyguy

obviously Im Eoin, Bum of the Laughing soc

TheCosmicFrog

Haha, I got that alright!

Just a shame you didn't archive the videos at all. Would be good to watch them again

sceptre

I wasn't a fan of "The UL" series at all but lots of people seemed to like it - horses for courses and different tastes and all that. I'll happily say this though: production standards for "The UL" were definitely higher than that infamous official TV advert for UL that was broadcast one Christmas day:).

Treetirty

comedyguy wrote: »

I also ran for president which didn't go down to well. I didn't really want the job, and was forced to take down my videos of 'I'm not a paedophile, Vote Eoin Kelly'. Which I still stand by as fact. Also people didnt get the other videos spelling out the works "tits, Ass and Penis" in my 12 points to success.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgBlKEVMNws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qm0KUPeD8#t=13