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

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 :(

Extremely unpopular opinion: I think Badults is often pretty clever and has some great one-liners.

I was bewildered at how terrible Badults was, to the point of wondering if I was missing the point, like someone watching Monty Python in 1968 or whenever and being all 'this is garbage! the sketches don't even end properly!', you know, like I just didn't GET IT. I would be interested to hear someone try to explain why it's not dreadful.

the bald badult reminds me a little of a young Jimmy Edwards, potential lead if BBC4 ever make one of those light-entertainment-star docudramas about him

I think most people are with you on that - just the Twitter rage alone when a new episode goes out is something to behold.

I don't think I could craft a particularly *impassioned* defense, but I do think I'd say that the key to the show is that the writer/stars know how stupid it is, but are smart at crafting the stupid. There's an episode I saw where the aforementioned bald badult starts to write a play about his flatmates which starts to become a sort of Synecdoche, New York that folds in on itself and it was very well done.

It's very old fashioned, and daft, and uncynical, and all of that is intentional. But I understand why it's not for everyone.

the bald badult reminds me a little of a young Jimmy Edwards, potential lead if BBC4 ever make one of those light-entertainment-star docudramas about him

This is such a horrific idea it's almost certain to be commissioned by some chinless wonder at the Beeb.

they got the guy from the BT adverts to play Eric Morecambe, I'm not sure there are any depths these people couldn't sink to

(NB I didn't watch that Eric and Ernie thing, Simon from the BT adverts may have given a transcendent performance for all I know) (he won a BAFTA for it, apparently?)

just the Twitter rage alone when a new episode goes out is something to behold

ha, this is part of the reason I thought I might be missing something, if it was some elaborate scheme to troll Twitter it was very well done- people didn't just dislike the show, they were genuinely incredulous and offended that it was being broadcast

I'll take a thousand and one series of Badults over a single second of the new comedy show commissioned by ITV for fucking DAPPER LAUGHS

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/30/youtube-dapper-laughs-lands-itv2-dating-show

Could someone more eloquent than me eviscerate Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy? Grimmest shit I've sat through in years.

From the Facebook page of award-winning stand-up comedian, Andrew Lawrence:

Can't help but notice increasingly, a lot 'political' comedians cracking cheap and easy gags about UKIP, to the extent that it's got hack, boring and lazy very quickly.

Particularly too much moronic, liberal back-slapping on panel shows like Mock The Week where aging, balding, fat men, ethnic comedians and women-posing-as-comedians, sit congratulating themselves on how enlightened they are about the fact that UKIP are ridiculous and pathetic.

Yet the Clacton by-election victory and what looks to be a likely victory in the Rochester by-election goes to show that UKIP have their supporters.

Out of touch, smug, superannuated, overpaid TV comics with their cosy lives in their west-London ivory towers taking a supercilious, moralising tone, pandering to the ever-creeping militant political correctness of the BBC with their frankly surreal diversity targets.

The reason UKIP have resonated with voters is because all the other parties are too spineless to tackle the issue of immigration.

Our elected representatives seeded control of the borders of this country to the EU and it's been catastrophic for us all, an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works. Public transport infrastructure is dysfunctional. Hospitals and Schools are dysfunctional. The housing crisis continues to blight our economic potential and destroy the hopes and dreams of a generation. The benefits system is totally out of control. All because there are far,far too many people living here.

For every wonderful, welcome skilled worker our open borders bring into this country, there are also benefit tourists and criminals. For every person that comes here and contributes richly to our culture, there are those that refuse to assimilate, which breeds distrust and has led to a fractured, broken society, where people have lost all sense of community.

Can't say that I'm a UKIP supporter, but I can see why other people are, and I don't disrespect them for it.

What I don't respect is lazy comedians, who market themselves as 'political' but rather than having the courage of their own convictions jump on the militant liberal bandwagon- which has been the source of so much shit stand-up over the years- so that they can get TV work and line their own pockets.

There is a deeply ingrained militant liberal politics at every level of the BBC, despite the fact that it's tax-payer funded and supposed to be neutral. It's a biased organisation and the only sorts of political comedians that are welcome within its corridors are those that reflect it's values.

Essentially when we're watching these 'political' comedians cracking their piss-poor UKIP gags on the BBC, I think we need to be aware they are neither engaged nor passionate about their subject- but money-grubbing charlatans, toadying up to the militant liberals that pay their wages, mirroring their own beliefs back at them in an act of false flattery so that they'll feel smug and validated and keep them on the BBC tax-payer funded gravy-train.

I'm not a political comic, my only ambition for my comedy is to make a room full of people laugh. But there are those that disingenuously market themselves as political comics, not out of any genuine conviction, but in an effort to line their own pockets, and I don't like their hypocrisy.

https://www.facebook.com/andrewlawrencecomedy?

'seeded control'

Lawrence's act exploits his range of voices, includes references to his ginger hair and songs performed on an acoustic guitar.

Can't say that I'm a UKIP supporter

Ah now, you might as well.

he lost me at "women-posing-as-comedians"

Who hell he?

to be fair maybe it's because he's very very very white

http://www.andrewlawrencecomedy.co.uk/images/Andrew-Lawrence.jpg

Someone's butthurt at not making the R4 -> BBC2 jump clearly

I don't know what crazy shit went down for Diwali yesterday, but I've been phoning for a taxi for an hour now, and no-one's answering.

Erm

For every wonderful, welcome skilled worker our open borders bring into this country, there are also benefit tourists and criminals

EU study on migrants rebuffs 'benefit tourism' claims or

Someone's butthurt at not making the R4 -> BBC2 jump clearly

This is so obviously what this is about and how shite would you have to be not to make the jump?

https://twitter.com/andrewlawrence/status/512927692480868352

‏@andrewlawrence

That Partizan Belgrade 'Only Jews And Pussies' banner was an absolute disgrace last night, how dare they steal the BBC's recruitment slogan.

Alan didn't get his second series then

That shushh! gesture meaning hey I am outrageous and so very controversial, irrepressible etc... . Yeah whatever you little fucking prick.

With just one episode to go, Detectorists has been the best BBC sitcom in some time.

Yeah it's brilliant

I'll third that. What a pleasant surprise

Only watched the first episode and was fairly underwhelmed, but will perhaps soldier on if folk rate it.

it's highly rateable imo

should i bother with scot squad?

That Andrew Lawrence must have been doing a 'bit', right? No one's talked in those kinds of cliches since Alf Garnett.