Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number

caught the last ten minutes of a thing called Damned on channel 4 last night with a half decent comedy cast (Kevin Eldon, Isy Suttie, er Alan Davis) which I think was supposed to be comedy but contained zero jokes as far as I could tell.

Isy, much as I <3 her, is particularly terrible in the above.

It seems like a continuation of Jo Brands previous thing about a hospital, but it's just a shambles.

Taskmaster was solid, nothing really stood out though. Morse code needs delimiters between letters though and I'm not sure I saw any.

Would maybe have been worth a quick google by Murray to see if there was anything in it? It's not like it would have wasted time.

I enjoyed the escape room task (watching with my husband - we'd recently done similar, both of us in different teams of friends, each time doing the same room at the same time, so the hilarity of seeing everyone miss what seemed obvious was bringing extra personal lolz), and every single cutaway to Dave Gorman's face throughout the whole show as he realised there were clearly way better ways of approaching everything than whatever direct route he had chosen.

Paul Chowdhry does appear to have stumbled into the wrong show though.

what's taskmaster and is it worth watching?

It's on Dave. Five comedians are given some tasks to do (some daft, some creative, some puzzles, a lot of lateral thinking which most of them fail to spot to much hilarity), and judged on how well they do by Greg Davis and Alex Horne. It's gloriously daft, and a lot better than it sounds on paper.

Series 1: Tim Key, Frank Skinner, Romesh Ranganathan, Roisin Conaty, Josh Widdicombe
Series 2: Richard Osman, Katherine Ryan, Joe Wilkinson, Doc Brown, Jon Richardson
Series 3: Al Murray, Rob Beckett, Sara Pascoe, Dave Gorman, Paul Chowdhry

Probably worth the entire thing alone for the "make a video for a nursery rhyme" task in series 2.

Ach, I can't get Dave.

It's also available online via UK TV Play (but I thought everyone could get Dave?)

i thought no one was allowed not to get dave

It's probably my aerial but there's a bunch of free channels I can't seem to pick up, never have in this house. Not too bothered generally tbh but quite like Dave every so often. Thanks for UK TV Play tip, will try it!

Still loving Richard Herring's interview show. Armando Iannucci's story about Jeffrey Archer is pretty funny.
Hans Teeuwen was interesting. He's a popular Dutch comedian but translates all his jokes and songs for English audiences.

Ayoade on 8/10 cats.

An watching on catch-up but I hope he uses the "I'm here to drink milk and kick ass" line

Watched qi after harry hills new cookery show on sky and it made it seem like the tamest middle class shizzle.

But (ailsa's mate) Sandi did OK, I thought.

wait what made what seem middle class?

When was the last time Mark Lamarr did comedy? Haven't seen him on tv in ages. Did he completely disappear into music?

gawd, 17 series

Lamarr was host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks when the show launched in 1996 and continued in this role for 17 series until 2005. Under Lamarr, the show grew a reputation as a scathing, almost rebellion like stand against the boy bands and pop music that had dominated the music scene since the early '90s, a theme that was kept by his successor.

it's weird because he co-wrote 15 Storeys High, which was great, but aside from Shooting Stars everything else he has been involved in was terrible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER_3XR4HHtY

this is what he's up to these days apparently

https://twitter.com/joe_christmas/status/452794536813953025

he has an infrequently updated parody twitter account: https://twitter.com/Mark_Lamarr

It says I'm not authorized to view that tweet.

I loved 15 Storeys High. Could have swore I seen some Lamarr standup which was brilliant, there's some on youtube so I'll have to try that.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks grew really tiresome regardless of who was presenting, I often found it a bit too cruel but there were definitely great moments from the main presenters and captains.
Lamarr describing someone as having "a face that only a fist could love"; when someone said Blue weren't as bad as other boy bands, he said "that's like saying they're the least smelly dog poo"; that series which he did really long absurd descriptions of things he hated every episode; all that was classic.

I see the tweet now.

I saw Mark Lamarr doing standup once, in the early 90s. He was dreadful.

I forgot to watch my bezzie mate Sandi doing QI. Ta for the reminder.

Taskmaster still bringing the goods. The most I've laughed at the telly this week after Jimmy Carr covering his face with elastic bands on Catsdown (OK, that was last week, but was watching it on catch up). Dave Gormans' little polythene grief cave nearly ended me. That and the random bottle of champagne.

I'm in love with this Simon Munnery aphorism

"Once bitten, twice shy, three times a lady"

stand up to cancer's Humans sketch was fun, i thought.

was a bit on taskmaster this week when the subject of the whispering task just laughed out loud at the contestant, which was great. as was the bouncy castle task. and the zooming in.

seems odd to me that 8/10 cats proper has moved to more4 with new captains (rob beckett, aisling bea). i guess catsdown is now the main show.

new Modern Life is Goodish this week.

Aisling Bea is not funny, a major failing in a comedian. I died a little inside watching her Live at the Apollo stint.

Looking forward to Modern Life is Goodish, despite Gorman being mostly rubbish on Taskmaster.

Next Taskmaster cast announced: Hugh Dennis, Mel Giedroyc, Lolly Adefope, Joe Lycett (who I love) and Noel Fielding (who I also love).

Aisling Bea is not funny, a major failing in a comedian.

A failing that is very much the rule rather than the exception. She is terrible though, from what little I've seen her. I hate all of these people though.

love Lycett, generally not a fan of Dennis or Fielding (Fielding especially)(though there are other folks I'm not usually keen on who I've warmed to when they were on Taskmaster, so I guess I'll give them a chance), indifferent to Giedroyc, never heard of Adefope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPghiz9Nlpk

Lolly Adefope was on The Last Leg doing shit voxpops once. She wasn't very good.

Love Fielding when he's not doing Boosh stuff. He could be genuinely great value on Taskmaster. Taskmaster is great at making you warm to people you don't normally like though - Doc Brown and Rob Beckett in particular for me. And Al Murray, a bit.

Taskmaster was the first thing I'd seen Murray in for maybe ten years or so where I didn't find him unbearable (but then I spoiled it by looking at his twitter feed and now I hate him again). Fielding can be amusing I guess, but he seems so hatefully self-satisfied and smirky whenever I see him on panel shows and the like that I usually can't stand to watch. Dennis is just a black hole of unfunnyness, though I generally don't find him obnoxious or aggravating.

EXCLUSIVE:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3908770/The-comedy-club-s-BANNED-irony-stops-acts-bantering-audience-preserve-safe-space-s-OK-say-Tories-f-ing-monsters.html

A London comedy club has banned ironic comments and ‘banter’ with the audience to create a ‘safe space’ for stand-up.

But just make sure you are not a Conservative, as then you risk being called a ‘racist bigot’ a ‘f****** monster’ or even a ‘f****** c***bag of a t***’.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/05/18/3A18571A00000578-3908770-Theresa_May_who_Chris_Coltrane_calls_a_bigoted_racist_pictured_h-a-55_1478371918668.jpg

Theresa May, who Chris Coltrane calls a 'bigoted racist' pictured here at a service to commemorate William Wilberforce, who helped abolish the slave trade

a fucking cuntbag of a twat?

to be clear, the Lolitics comedy club does sound completely awful and unfunny, aside from having successfully trolled the Mail Online comments section (if that was its primary/sole purpose, then congratulations, I suppose)

catsdown grew on me to the point that normal cats feels stale by comparison. maybe i'm not alone (despite being very late to the table), and that's why normal cats has been shunted to more4.

sean lock looks less and less interested in the games over the years, so i'm not sure why he's stayed on unless he just wants the cash.

it's probably a copout to respond to plummeting funding with a load of panel shows, but the uk is now so good at them that i wish australia would do them properly. we should be exceedingly good at making them but our recent stuff has been terrible.

e.g. we apparently had no idea what to do with adam hills, but channel 4 is letting him do his best tv work ever imo.

New taskmaster lineup looks good, am consistently surprised at who they attract given it's a little known show on a minor channel.

But they've got to tighten up the rules to stop obvious loopholes, like getting ben fogle to shout for you.

The Ben Fogle thing was funny though. Exploiting loopholes is part of the fun - particularly enjoyed everyone's shocked reactions every time Al Murray started throwing money at stuff.

we apparently had no idea what to do with adam hills

let him conceive, design, and present his own talk show iirc

it's probably a copout to respond to plummeting funding with a load of panel shows, but the uk is now so good at them

... that you couldn't pay me to watch any of them.

Just to go back up I watched all six EPs of Fleabag last night in a sitting. Can't remember the last time I'd done that w/anything - it was compulsive to see someone giving expression to a partic set of frustrations. As it was shown this was created by the mistake the main character made. Had a very Girls-like quality but the humour wasn't dark so much as barely there, a kind of place where a scornful laughter at everything is your default position and you can only laugh along because you relate to it at some level, even though much of it comes out of an experience related to gender.

otoh I figured out her mistake as soon as it became apparent, and it wasn't that big of a reveal. The ending left the door open for a second series but I'm not sure I'd want one, it doesn't have any places left to go. You know she will find her way back to something that she can live out, the scars will never heal but that particular experience has been processed. Its a time and a place and a POV that has been captured.

sean lock looks less and less interested in the games over the years, so i'm not sure why he's stayed on unless he just wants the cash.

ha, I distinctly remember listening to an interview with Lock (probably around ten years ago now) where he was surprisingly upfront about not finding panel shows especially enjoyable or artistically satisfying, but it was a regular paycheck.

Close to a decade ago I heard him saying he was excited enough to count the days until next series but he probably got bored. On the Countdown version he said he hated it like he meant it but it's difficult to tell.

HIGNFY on friday left me a little pissed off at how Ian seems to genuinely think Hillary barely a better candidate than Trump, and also that Tory was about as charmless as Archer - relished the silence that followed his "jokes". The show feels dead though, and has for a long time now, especially as it relies more and more on apolitical viral content its researchers seem to have lifted off Facebook. Also, some of the guest presenters are really bad. I think they should get Jo Brand in as permanent host - she's funny, sharp, and that means there's the chance that occasionally there'll be more than one woman on the show (HIGNFY is an appalling sausage party).

Is HIGNFY the only major panel show aside from Mock The Week that Sean Lock hasn't appeared on?

Actually he's been on 4 episodes.

Mostly the early 00s

> Exploiting loopholes is part of the fun

yeah, but the same 'i can't do this but YOU can' loophole every show? nadir was him paying alex to carry a bucket of water (although alex stopping 2 ft away was kinda funny)

(that task also made me wonder about the filming of this given that there was clearly a frost when one of the people were doing their task, rain during another. given that series 2 was shown one-a-day not long ago and the frost suggests at least 8 months since they filmed series 3, how many more are already shot?)

Alex giving in in the face of Al's wallet and carrying the bucket was worth it for the look on Greg and Sara's faces at the blatant treachery though. It is, after all, a comedy show and not a serious competition, and things like that (and people bringing their A game to treat it so seriously) bring the lolz.