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

yeah

Saw Sarah Kendall at the Fringe and was very impressed, great storyteller.

The woman as "the clever one" on panel shows already ties into some pretty bad tropes - part of me loves seeing Ellie Gibson as the expert on Go 8 Bit just because of how much it'll piss off idiots worried about fake gamer girls but it also places her as the sensible, educated adult while the boys get to be fun and play, a variation on the patient sitcom wife. Fair do's to the show tho they have mostly always had a female guest on as well - too bad it's just not a good viewing experience.

No Such Thing As The News is entertaining in a news-picked-apart-by-the-QI-elves way (because that's exactly what it is). i missed the first series completely. and it looks like they spent probably £50 on the set (and got change) but...

part of me loves seeing Ellie Gibson as the expert on Go 8 Bit just because of how much it'll piss off idiots worried about fake gamer girls but it also places her as the sensible, educated adult while the boys get to be fun and play, a variation on the patient sitcom wife.

this. it's like the decision makers are (sub?)consciously terrified of women mucking in or being funny, even though (as you said) most episodes have had one woman playing games. gibson's the only person on the whole show i'd want to have a pint with.

too bad it's just not a good viewing experience.

they've gone to some trouble to make it interesting with the lazy-susan set and such, but i think the core problem is it's just not fun to watch other people play games. twitch works because it's not such a chore to sit through two hours of something you're playing or want to revisit, but 90 seconds of split-screen nokia snake is eh.

and it looks like they spent probably £50 on the set (and got change) but...

― koogs, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 06:20 (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

their infectious enthusiasm alone compensates for this imo. if they were even slightly bored it wouldn't hang together at all.

I think they should make it all fighting games. One of the dumbest genres to play for me, but the most entertaining from a spectator pov.

What do you mean dumbest to play?

I lack the dedication to memorize the specials moves that make those games interesting and have found that with the vast majority of them I usually do fine just button mashing, rendering the overall experience kinda braindead for me.

That's definitely true for a lot of the Namco and Dead Or Alive games but Virtua Fighter and Samurai Shodown are not button mashable at all.

unlikely entry into the women on comedy debate:

Frankie Boyle's American Autopsy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083s663

Writer Frankie Boyle
Participant Katherine Ryan
Participant Sara Pascoe
Participant Michelle Wolf

(Participant Richard Osman turns up half way through)

Desiree Burch was on it too.

yeah, was good, but not listed in the credits for some reason (and i posted the above before she appeared)

nobody's mentioned david walliams' new show yet...

is that because it barely registers as comedy?

(i caught 5 minutes of the jack whitehall one. felt like i'd fallen into a timewarp)

What was that all about in that Frankie Boyle show when he ended by putting his bunnet on and saying he had better things to do than entertain strangers?

okay the reference to pat butcher being david bowie persona known as ziggy fag ash made me laugh a lot. philomena cunk/barry shitpeas always a pleasure as well.

incidently is barry shitpeas the taxi driver in the 'go compare' tv ad?

taxi driver in the 'go compare' tv ad is played by Howard Devoto iirc

I've enjoyed a lot of the Christmas specials perhaps more than I was expecting. Mock the week springs to mind as a pleasant surprise.

it was funny but mostly depressing. not brooker's fault. I just wasn't ready to revisit that shitrag of a year yet, nor to confront the fact things are probably going to get worse.

Susan Calman was on Richard Herring's show for the second time, it was really funny.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2017/02/01/26765/philomena_cunk_set_to_return

She said her ideas for 2017 include Cunk on punk, Cunk on modern art and Cunk on Jane Austen, saying with Cunk-like imprecision: ‘Apparently there’s an anniversary coming up this year of her birth or death or something or the day she had her first… I don’t know.’

Aww yes that's nice

Simon Munnery was brilliant on Richard Herring's youtube show. Good stories, quite drunk.

Catastrophe back on tuesday. i find it slightly too mean-spirited for my tastes (like fleabag) but...

As Yet Untitled back on the same night on Dave. and Bob Mortimer is always good value.

(oh, AYU started last week by all accounts)

Yeah, Alan Davies was on the Last Leg on Friday talking about AYU. Agree about Bob Mortimer, he's always a treat on those sort of things.

Ugh, Alan Davies.

Watched the first episode of BBC3 mockumentary series This Country, about life in a very Real England village - and it's not too bad, surprisingly. Worth checking out, anyway.

I keep seeing clips of that, looks like if Gareth from the Office got his own sitcom?

Ah, that must be the thing that we saw the trailer for and thought someone had put Mackenzie Crook in a time machine then. Might give it a bash.

That looks a bit too close to home, literally.

The comparisons of This Country to The Office are understandable, especially when the lead character resembles and sounds like Gareth. Unlike The Office, though, it doesn't rely on comedy of excruciating embarrassment; it's kind of lighter, sillier. It's daft. I've only watched the first episode, so who knows, but I think the brother and sister team who write and star in it appear to have talent, anyway.

I live very near where This Country is set.
its incredibly close.
first episode didn't really do much for me, but episodes 2 and 3 i seriously laughed a lot ..

I saw the tin of sweets clip on youtube, it seemed both funny and sweet (and not at all slumming, though I'm no great judge of that).

Really wish that Spine Chillers came out on dvd. Only seen the first episode and it was very funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KznmiLqltA

Do we talk about stand-up in here too?

My gf's sister was in town and wanted to see some comedy, so we took her to the Union Chapel. I knew it was gonna be a bit more normcore than my usual faves, but wasn't aware of how TERRIBLE Ardal O'Hanlon's stand-up is - like being lectured at by the most generic man possible for half an hour. Trump is bad, holding doors isn't sexist, restaurants should put stuff on plates, baristas shouldn't draw in your coffee. I know his post "Father Ted" career has been pretty dire, but at least there I could think "oh well, bad choices, actors gotta eat".

Never known what Stewart Lee sees in his stand-up

ardal o'hanlon used to be the compere on some bbc stand up show on saturday nights after motd in the 90s, even as a child easily amused by any sort of comedy i found him a bit bad and boring.

Stewart Lee's a fan? That's insane, the set I saw almost seemed like a strawman of what Lee would rage against.

that is quite bizarre if true

So my girlfriend and I watched Fleabag, steadily but slowly over the past few weeks, and just finished tonight. It wasn't comedy as was noted above, but it was something quite good indeed.

Thought this was going to be a comment on the last Catastrophe, complete with Carrie Fisher generally stealing the show.

I meant to resurrect this thread to talk about how perfect the ending was, and how great Carrie Fisher was.

Ned, season 2 of Fleabag is coming as well :)

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/fleabag-season-2-confirmed-release-air-date-phoebe-waller-bridge-a7639251.html

So I noticed, but right now first on the to-do list will be a watch of the new season of Chewing Gum when we can.

As yet Untitled was v enjoyable last night.

Taskmaster starts again soon too.

"Lolly Adefope, Hugh Dennis, Noel Fielding, Mel Giedroyc and Joe Lycett are in Taskmaster Series 4"

Picard surprisingly bad as HIGNFY host.

new Taskmaster is on tuesday nights.

apart from misreading half his cards, i didn't think he was terrible

I can't stand the fucker generally, and this strengthened that position.

he sounds more like brian blessed than ever