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, often highlighting differences in their characters' ...

act from Ireland, composed of two contrasting

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

stereotypes In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, 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 ...

, 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, RTÉ2. Presented by comedian Kevin McGahern, the programme is intended as a satirical examination of television, mocking various Irish and British TV channe ...

'' 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 general style of music. In music, parody has been us ...

, "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 ...

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 (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Republic of Ireland, Irish Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, television, RT� ...

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, ...

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

personas A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional character. It is also considered "an intermediary between the indiv ...

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, EngIand * NorthSide, an American record label * NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark * "Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vince ...

- southside Dublin divide. The character of Damo, a

colloquialism Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...

of the names Damon,

Damian Damian () 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) *Damon (disambiguation) *Da ...

, or

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

originated in a

Bebo Bebo ( ) was an American social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number of short-lived offerings, including instant messaging and ...

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

Pimp My Ride ''Pimp My Ride'' is a staged 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 th ...

'', 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. Personal life Andy Quirke's father is the late businessman Richard Quirke - owner of the Dr. Quirkey's Good Time Emporium chain of casinos in Dubl ...

as Damo Whelan, Ivor Itchdaddy *

Ruth McCabe Ruth McCabe is an Irish stage, screen and voice actress known from Clones, County Monaghan. She is known for starring as Kay Curley in Stephen Frears ''The Snapper (film), The Snapper'', Christy Brown's paramour Mary in ''My Left Foot'', and Wyn ...

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) ** Norma Lizbeth Ramos, a Mexican bullying victim Astronomy *Norma (constellation) *555 Norma, a minor asteroid *Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral ar ...

as Victoria Itchdaddy *

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

as Alister Itchdaddy *

Eimear Morrissey Emer (), in modern Irish or (with variations including , and ) and in Scottish Gaelic , is the name of the daughter of Forgall Monach and the wife of the hero Cú Chulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. Legend ''Tochmarc Emire'' ...

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) (inclu ...

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 In ...

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-r ...

as Garda PJ *

Rory Fleck Byrne Rory Fleck Byrne (born 1988) is an Irish actor and composer, known for ''Vampire Academy'' (2014), '' Harlots'', '' The Foreigner'' (both 2017) and '' This Is Going to Hurt'' (2022). Early life Rory Fleck Byrne was born in England. He moved to ...

as Liam Delaney *

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

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 The word ''Viral'' means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). It 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 spre ...

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 record producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 30 billion streams on Spotify. Guetta was voted the number one DJ in the DJ Mag ...

'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 singer Akon. It was released as the second singl ...

" 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. 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 their i ...

' "

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 t ...

" which was also featured on ''Republic of Telly''. "Big Box Little Box" is the second single released by Damo and Ivor, released on 24 October 2011. It's the second released by the duo, from their album ''Epic Choons''. A music video for the song was released on 23 October 2011, gaining over 1.7 million views.

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 on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. It is within the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the postal district of Dublin 18 and in the Catholic parish of Foxrock. History The suburb of Foxrock was developed ...

, 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 Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

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 A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether the applicati ...

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 () 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 judge and jury. It also ...

and requested an

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

. 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

"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