Damo and Ivor was a

comedy duo A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases fo ...

act from Ireland, composed of two contrasting

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

stereotypes In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

, both portrayed by Andrew Quirke. The characters first appeared on bebo and YouTube - most notably in 'Skanger Me Banger(sic)'in late 2007/early 2008 and first on television in RTE's, ''

Republic of Telly ''Republic of Telly'' is a TV review and magazine programme on Irish public broadcaster, RTÉ Two. Presented by comedian Kevin McGahern, the programme is intended as a satirical examination of television, mocking various Irish and British TV chan ...

'' in 2011. Their

musical parody Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or copying existing (usually well known) musical ideas, and/or lyrics, or copying the particular style of a composer or performer, or even a music genre, general style of music. In music, parody ...

, "Everybody's Drinkin'" debuted at sixth position in the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

in April 2011 after the music video was shown on the programme. On 16 September 2013 their television show, ''Damo and Ivor'' debuted on

RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

Description

Damo Whelan and Ivor Itchdaddy are

caricatures A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

played by Andrew 'Andy' Quirke who takes on the twin

personas A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatri ...

of skanger Damo and D4 Ivor. The characters represent the

northside Northside or North Side may refer to: Music * Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, England * NorthSide, an American record label * NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark * "Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vinc ...

southside Southside or South Side may refer to: Places Australia * Southside, Queensland, a semi-rural locality in the Gympie Region Canada * South Side, Newfoundland and Labrador, a community in the St. George's Bay area on the southwest coast of New ...

Dublin divide. The character of Damo, a

colloquialism Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...

of the names Damon,

Damian Damian ( la, links=no, Damianus) may refer to: *Damian (given name) *Damian (surname) *Damian Subdistrict, in Longquanyi District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China See also *Damiani, an Italian surname *Damiano (disambiguation) *Damien (disambiguation) *Dam ...

, or

Damien Damien is a given name and less frequently a surname. The name is a variation of Damian (given name), Damian which comes from the Greek ''Damianos''. This form originates from the Greek derived from the Greek word δαμάζω (damazō), "(I) con ...

originated in a

Bebo Bebo ( ) was an American Social networking service, social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunched in February 2021. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number ...

video called ''Skanger me Banger'', a satire of the MTV show ''

Pimp My Ride ''Pimp My Ride'' is an American television series produced by MTV and hosted by rapper Xzibit, which ran for six seasons on MTV from 2004 to 2007. In each episode, a car in poor condition is both restored and customized. The work on the show w ...

'', set in inner city Dublin.

Cast

Andy Quirke Andy Quirke is an Irish actor and producer best known for his dual performance in Damo and Ivor. Biography Andy's father is businessman Richard Quirk. He has a brother, model Wesley Quirke, the husband of 2003 Miss World, Rosanna Davison Rosa ...

as Damo Whelan, Ivor Itchdaddy *

Ruth McCabe Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Ar ...

as Grano *

Lewis Magee Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

as Spuddy * Alan Ford as Edward Itchdaddy *

Norma Sheahan Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Astronomy *Norma (constellation) *555 Norma, a minor asteroid *Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy Geography *Norma, Lazio ...

as Victoria Itchdaddy *

Rik Mayall Richard Michael Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English actor, stand-up comedian and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University and was a pioneer of alternative ...

as Alister Itchdaddy *

Eimear Morrissey Emer (), in modern Irish Eimhear or Éimhear (with variations including Eimer, Eimear and Éimear) and in Scottish Gaelic Eimhir, is the name of the daughter of Forgall Monach and the wife of the hero Cú Chulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish m ...

as Tracey Rooney *

Hannah Crowley Hannah or Hanna may refer to: People, biblical figures, and fictional characters * Hannah (name), a female given name of Hebrew origin * Hanna (Arabic name), a family and a male given name of Christian Arab origin * Hanna (Irish surname), a fa ...

as Sarah-Jane *

Paul Roe Paul Roe (born 21 November 1959 - 5 October 2019) was a Canadian soccer player who spent five years in the North American Soccer League and one in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He also played in Canada's National Soccer League, the American ...

as Flemo *

Enda Oates Enda Oates (born 1962), occasionally credited as Enda Oats, is an Irish stage, film, and television actor. He has received attention for his stagework, but is best known to Irish television audiences as the Reverend George Black in the long-ru ...

as Garda PJ *

Rory Fleck Byrne Rory Fleck Byrne (born 1988) is an Irish actor and composer, known for ''Vampire Academy'', ''Harlots'', '' The Foreigner'' and '' This Is Going to Hurt''. Early life Rory Fleck Byrne was born in England but moved to Ireland when he was nine y ...

as Liam Delaney *

Francis Magee Francis Magee (born 7 June 1959) is an Irish actor. He portrayed Liam Tyler in British soap opera ''EastEnders'' from 1993 to 1995. He has also appeared in numerous television shows and feature films, including ''Sahara'' (2005), ''Layer Cake'' ...

as Bricko * Jules Coll as DJ Deirdre * Graeme Singleton as Lockjaw Jason * Tom O'Mahony as Tarquin * David Crowley as Oisin * Damien Kearney as Garda Fergal

Production

Development

The song and video, "Everybody's Drinkin'" debuted on ''

'', a TV review and magazine programme on Irish public broadcaster,

. This was aided by the video, which cost €2,470 to make, going

viral Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). Viral may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...

on YouTube and gaining over 70,000 hits in under a week. The song which is a double-pronged attack on Dublin drinking culture resembles

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

's "

Sexy Chick "Sexy Bitch" (also known as "Sexy Chick" in clean versions) is a song by French DJ David Guetta recorded for his fourth studio album ''One Love'' (2009). The song features vocals from Senegalese-American recording artist Akon. It was released a ...

" and tells the story of a raucous night out from characters on both sides of the social divide. It features two contrasting Dublin stereotypes, which ends in each " getting shitfaced". It debuted at number six in the Irish Charts in April 2011 and has been compared to

The Rubberbandits The Rubberbandits are an Irish comedy hip-hop duo from Limerick city. They consist of Blindboy Boatclub (real name Dave Chambers) and Mr Chrome (sometimes Bobby Chrome; real name Bob McGlynn). During performances and interviews, they conceal t ...

' "

Horse Outside "Horse Outside" is a song by Irish comedy group The Rubberbandits. It was released on 8 December 2010, after its accompanying music video was aired on RTÉ Television programme ''Republic of Telly''. The video gained almost 2.5 million views in ...

" which was also featured on ''Republic of Telly''. "

Big Box Little Box "Big Box Little Box" is a song by Irish comedy duo Damo and Ivor Damo and Ivor was a comedy duo act from Ireland, composed of two contrasting Dublin stereotypes, both portrayed by Andrew Quirke. The characters first appeared on bebo and Yo ...

" is the second single released by Damo and Ivor, released on 24 October 2011.

Commissioning

After the positive reception of ''Damo and Ivor'' on

commissioned a television show based on the duo. It follows the story of the identical twin brothers who were separated after birth. Their mother, unable to look after both of them, sells Ivor to a wealthy family in

Foxrock Foxrock () is an affluent suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is within the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the postal district of Dublin 18 and in the Roman Catholic parish of Foxrock. History The suburb of Foxrock was developed by William a ...

, Dublin, while Damo is raised by his grandmother. ''Damo and Ivor'' began airing 16 September 2013 on

Lawsuit

Irish singer-songwriter Damien O'Regan tried to sue the national broadcaster and Andrew Quirke for alleged

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

over their use of the name "Damo" in the television show ''Damo and Ivor'' several days before it was set to air. He claimed he registered the name "Damo" with the Irish Patent Office several years beforehand and believed the infringement would damage the goodwill he had spent years building. He brought his case to the

Irish High Court The High Court ( ga, An Ard-Chúirt) of Ireland is a court which deals at first instance with the most serious and important civil and criminal cases. When sitting as a criminal court it is called the Central Criminal Court and sits with judg ...

and requested an

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

. The show aired as planned and the case was dropped with O'Regan agreeing to waive any entitlements or rights to the name "Damo" as part of the ''Damo and Ivor'' concept.

Reception

Criticism

"Everybody's Drinkin'" has attracted some criticism with Michael O'Doherty of the ''

Evening Herald ''The Herald'' is a nationwide mid-market tabloid newspaper headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and published by Independent News & Media who are a subsidiary of Mediahuis. It is published Monday–Saturday. The newspaper was known as the ''Ev ...

'' calling it an "expensively produced, booze-sodden, bikini model-infested video homage to binge-drinking." The Irish National Parents Council Post Primary said: "The implication of this behaviour is being trivialised and glamorised without any cognisance of the danger to the lives of our young people" while Fionnuala Sheehan, chief executive of Drink Aware is quoted as saying "We are concerned about trends such as these because, the more people are exposed to images of excessive drinking, the more they normalise such behaviour."

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

{{Reflist

External links

Damo & Ivor on Facebook

"Everybody's Drinkin'"
Irish comedy duos Irish comedy musicians Irish male comedians Fictional twins