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

so he really did that trampette jump over the painting of the pygmy?

House of Fools is 100% filmed in front of a live studio audience. And since there are no VT cutaways, all of the laughter you hear is the audience laughing in the room.

And applauding the entrance of characters they've never seen before? For example.

I know the dude who did audience warm-up for this programme. Maybe he's just brilliant at his job!

studio audiences are encouraged to clap does this surprise you

In sitcoms though? In general entertainment shows, yes. Obviously you applaud at the end of the show but 5 or 6 times during the show? I'm obviously totally out of the loop concerning sitcoms.

... thank fuck

The more I think about this, the better I think it was. Top use of Throbbing Gristle too.

Eh? What where?!??!?!

A pretty uneven hit/miss rate, but the good bits were proper, hearty lols. Vic is so weird though - a pretty dreadful performer compared to Mortimer and Berry, but I don't think the show would work without him. Emo brother upstairs was good in small doses.

Hamburger Lady was used behind one of the puppet sequences, the first one I think.

Wow, I missed that!

And applauding the entrance of characters they've never seen before? For example.

This happens in literally every single sitcom pilot. Hank Kingsley wasn't warming up a sitcom audience, but his wise words still apply:

You folks see that flashing sign up there? Now, that sign says: "Applesauce." No, no, I'm kidding. It says "applause." Ray, do me a favor. Could you flick that once? [crowd applauds] All right. Now remember. You're all a big part of the show, so the better you are, the better Larry is. You see this gentleman? He's giving me this sign and it says, "We're on in ten seconds." So get ready to have a good time. All right, here we go. This is exciting, isn't it?

As for there are no VT cutaways and so he really did that trampette jump over the painting of the pygmy?

I just meant there were no Alan Partridge shouting Dan in the parking lot sequences - but even if there were scenes along those lines they'd be played out live on monitors, generally in sequence with the rest of the recording.

Rolling UK Comedy Into The Shitbin Thread

― mile.y (wins), Wednesday, January 15, 2014 8:23 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A+

Inside No 9 is tops so far.

Also just watched The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, which was dreadful. Pity, as I generally like Simon Day.

oh, i enjoyed Brian Pern.

I've come to the conclusion that funniest thing on UK television at the moment = repeats of Wogan era Blankety Blank on Challenge

Best thing about Brian Pern was the triumphant return of Mulligan and O'Hare. I laughed quite a bit but it did feel kind of lazy in places, and certainly underdeveloped (like the sequence where Brian is against green screen with genre names he is putting together).

I wasn't completely convinced by the first Inside Number 9 but the silent episode was brilliant. Called the Kayvan Novak plot the second I saw him.

Ship of Fools continues to plod along being utterly shit and utterly brilliant, often at the same time. The pie episode had me on the floor at times, and the beaver/rat thing in the wig episode was a gold mine.

the vic and bob flashbacks to 70s and then 50s was great. the norwegian son is the funniest.

pern is applying spinal tap treatment to different targets, mainly peter gabriel. (although he seems ok with it - he's in one of the episodes)

I laughed like a drain when Vic was in Julie's house looking for the beaver/rat, even though the jokes were telegraphed miles in advance. I'm not so keen on the Norwegian son, and I had had an idea that Vic was going to turn out to be the dad, but this week's plot put the kibosh on that. I think secretly the best joke might be that the opening titles and interstitials have film/a photo of a block of flats, whereas they clearly live in a semi or an end terrace.

Peter Gabriel was the most obvious target in Pern, yes. Loved the way they deflected the D0n Ard3n parody by calling the real D0n Ard3n a cnut in the build-up. And all Queen's instruments being built from fireplaces.

"Ferne Cotton" made me laugh too

Yes, that was probably the best bit.

"Ferne Cotton" made me laugh too

― koogs

The only bit that raised an actual chuckle from me. Was looking forward to Mulligan and O'Hare too, but they didn't get any good jokes.

just watching Inside Number 9 #2 now and it reminds me of Tati.

anyone watch Babylon?

it was shit

and so long

yeah, might've been better as 3 episodes.

apres-ski is painful to watch. 'looking at the olympics like no-one else does'. except Last Leg which is on at the same time (and which itself seems pointless since the paralympics has finished)

The Last Leg gang still seem to care about what they do and have fun while doing it, and they do get right wired in about the politics surrounding the Olympics and that. Last week's Apres-Ski might be the worst thing I've ever seen on telly.

Babylon was trying to be too many things and didn't succeed in being any of them, I thought.

This week's Apres-Ski not much better. Alan Davies isn't funny, and neither is whoever writes the stuff on the autocue that he's really bad at reading off. I assume they wanted to do something that was equivalent to what The Last Leg did for the Paralympics, but they've got it really really spectacularly wrong in terms of host, format, writing, the lot.

yes, terrible, and I'm glad there's only one more to suffer through 8) not sure where the fault is - he's done standup before so is it that the structure is too rigid? has he lost it after years of being the patsy on qi? is it the dad jokes they've been writing for him?

last leg seems to now be based on internet fads. is often cringe worthy.

both were saved by their guests last night (barely)

has he lost it after years of being the patsy on qi?

He never had it in the first place, his career is a mystery to me

when you start your career as the stand-up Nick Hornby it's hard to believe things could actually get worse but hey

saw 5 minutes of the Simon Day thing, this is why comedy is fucked, basically abuse of a budget to amuse yourself doing an impression of stuff with no point and no jokes, how the fuck self-indulgent shit like this gets thru and passes for comedy is an indictment of the whole BBC

anyone watch Babylon?

it was shit

― Number None

I actually switched it off after fifteen minutes, and I pride myself on having a high tolerance for bad comedy. Really boring.

I'm not so keen on the Norwegian son

I'm going to see him live on monday, he's supposed to be funny live. I have no idea, but it's only £3 so...

abuse of a budget to amuse yourself doing an impression of stuff with no point and no jokes, how the fuck self-indulgent shit like this gets thru and passes for comedy is an indictment of the whole BBC

Cut in the comedy budget is definitely in order at the BBC. Swingeing - now there's a word I haven't seem in a while.

Agree Brian pern is drivel, funniest thing about it is his name, and that's been done before.

Alexei Sayle interview: http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2014/02/19/19635/how_the_bland_and_the_posh_failed_alternative_comedy?rss

"One thing that surprised me was that I thought young comics would talk about politics - and they weren’t. In the clubs people will talks about the most intimate sexual things and the audience are very relaxed – but they become uncomfortable when anyone mentions politics."

Inside #9 - I hadnt' even realised this existed until yesterday and I'm a huge League / Psychoville fan. Needless to say this is excellent, really sharp, clever, witty storytelling. I love how the LoG guys have moved away from cheap gags and really the laughs now are felt implicitly.

Inside #9:

Thought the first episode was too characters by numbers - I felt like I'd seen both Reece and Steve's characters before, and Timothy West's character felt like an amalgam of several others; the "go out would you" doctor being the closest but bits of Edward for sure, with him thinking about the old days. Didn't he say "I was in the army" at one point? (Speaking of which, I have found an unacknowledged - as far as I know - source of a catchphrase. In the Doctor Who serial Frontios the character played by Peter Gilmore comes through the doorway and says "Hello! What's this?" in an exactly Edward way. It's impossible to believe Gatiss in particular was unaware.)

Loved the second episode. Funniest part I thought was opening the door to shoo out the small dog, only for the big dog to come in. I have no idea why they didn't just steal the painting though rather than go to all the effort of replacing it, since the duplicate would have been so easily spotted.

I wasn't all that keen on the third episode. I thought Tom's descent into being a tramp was all too predictable and didn't quite get who we were supposed to think was real by the end. My take is that the dead guy is Tom's social worker - it's him that makes the final breakthrough that gets Tom to turn his life round, not Gerri, and in rejecting what he's become he has killed (in effigy and, as it turns out, in reality) the projection model for whose fault the decline was. I think this is all flagged at the beginning when Migg comes into the flat and spins what seems to be a line in "I knew Bukowski". Tom says to him that he has the last book and Migg says he hasn't read it yet, but it's a brand new copy so crucially NEITHER HAS TOM. I think this is supposed to indicate that his romanticised view of Bukowski, but without so many of the harsh realities, is what allows him to start his decline and his fictionalised view of Migg proves you can live like that.

Or maybe I'm over-thinking it.

Reece certainly ran through a number of old voices in the final episode of House Of Fools, didn't he?

That's an interesting reading of the episode. I just figured the twist was that Migg had been real all along and Gerri was a projection of Tom's imagination, but I think I like yours better.

^ yeah I think that's just it. I loved how they were telegraphing the "obvious" twist of Migg and was waiting to see what they were going to do with that.
#2 was great. So was #1, tbf, just a bit more of what you'd expect I guess.

People Just Do Nothing seems smarter and more amusing than your typical BBC3 sitcom.

loved the pilot but e1 of the series proper seemed a bit more hammy & leaning towards the 2 pints lager type rot. not awful but not sure yet if to watch the rest of the series

anyone still watching friday night dinner? following a highly ropey opening episode, the third season was excellent - though I do prefer the episodes where nothing really happens and the boys just play juvenile tricks on each other.

Yeah, I've enjoyed this series a lot although some of it has felt a bit contrived - blind piano tuner, I'm looking at you - and I didn't like the ending at all, not least because it means no Mister Morris if there's a series 4.

the blind piano tuner episode was overstuffed with ideas - it really didn't need the whole "ooh, my carpet's just been cleaned" beat throughout. but there were some great moments this season, from mr morris's tirades about punk rockers and beau brummells, to the dad getting all pimpy in his tuxedo.

Favourite episode was the anniversary one, Jim and the sleeping pills was just superb. And Jim in the bath. And Jim having counselling. Just Jim in general really.

Oh yes. Jim has been very good value of late. Loved his shirt with the holes at the wedding. And Heap's panicky start whenever he gazes upon the ever-tranquil Wilson never fails to amuse.

the iPlayer "Comedy Feed" one-offs are fucking dire :(