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

leave won - get over it!

'are you being served' was masterfully done as cover versions go. the script was beautifully constructed and paced, and it even reincorporated elements for comedy value. the performances were universally great, and the set and wardrobe were spot on. every element was seamlessly faithful to the original and as a whole it just. wasn't. good.

Yes - quite enjoyed that Goodnight Sweetheart reboot.

The Telegraph agonised over the moral implications:

The show encouraged us to view it as a tragedy that our hero had not been able to continue bounding between his two families....There had been some decent gags – the bit where the time traveller materialised in an occupied toilet cubicle was genuinely funny – and Lyndhurst’s underdog charm has aged not in the least. But the slightly bullying insistence that Gary ought to have been allowed have his romantic cake and eat it left an aftertaste.

Really loving the James Acaster's Classic Scrapes youtube channel. Some of those stories are brilliant, especially the one with him trying to find condoms. Part of the fun is Josh Widdicombe shrieking with laughter.

Watched all of Fleabag in 1/2 nights (the first one passively yesterday, then again today, followed by the rest). Very good finale, am absolutely spent. A few involuntary emotional reactions to seemingly innocuous bits. I never thought a story about a kid pencilfucking a hamster would end up making me cry before.

Motherland was really good, very very funny.

After all that I forgot about the acaster sitcom.

Still have to watch Motherland. It's hard to believe it failing with Sharon Horgan and Diane Morgan behind it (except see below).

Goodnight Sweetheart was like putting on a pair of socks for the fourth time. Already shaped vaguely like they should be, and you're not sure whether it's a pleasant experience or not. Played hard on the 'fish out of water' elements, but actually in a moderately believable way - 90s Gary is effectively as divorced from the present day as he was from the 40s when he first went there. The FLASH BANG answer to put him in the modern day is of course bollocks, but gives us where a series is undoubtedly going to focus; Gary and his relationship with the daughter he didn't know he had (plus opens the door for either his daughter or son to find the way through and give us an incest plot instead of/as well as bigamy). I did like that Gary stopped playing the piano because he was getting caught out too much with the songs he was using, but why didn't he just start playing 80s songs instead? It was enjoyable enough but I really didn't need to see it and I'm not sure a series would have the legs (incest notwithstanding) to justify it.

Young Hyacinth was excellent, with a tremendous cast BUT... as I've found from the repeats on Yesterday, KUA is ENDURINGLY UNFUNNY. As a result this feels like fake nostalgia for a show nobody could like. It provides detailed explanations for Hyacinth's classist tics and barrels along quite happily in and of itself, but accordingly the humour in it comes from Hyacinth's dogged refusal to accept the circumstances of her birth even when laid bare in front of her and to a degree that is mainly funny because we know that's what she's like in KUA; except in KUA she and Richard have progressed to middle (maybe upper middle?) class and so the contradiction is different - in KUA it's about trying to break the Middle Class ceiling and is defiantly 'ideas above her station' territory. Here it's about not wanting to accept the cards life has dealt her and is supposed to be about laughing with her and not at her as she certainly isn't the figure of fun in the prequel.

We The Jury was pretty awful. A dreadful hackneyed manchild as the lead with a typical Stupid Sitcom Mum (in fact, the biggest surprise was that she wasn't played by Janine Duvitski) supported by a cast of people playing the same parts they did in other sitcoms (Kenneth Collard essentially does Grant Out Of I Want My Wife Back, which was just a rehash of Steve Out Of Cuckoo; David Schall does a watered down version of Jay's Dad, which was a partial rework of Glynn in The Office; Sophie Thompson plays the exact same mousy primary school teacher she has since Four Weddings; Oliver Maltman plays a slimy, slightly seedy guy like he did in No Heroics, Crashing, Benidorm and Cuckoo; Alexander Kirk plays a principled guy who's good at his jobs so quits rather than let sitcom shenanigans happen round him...) and it just feels all so rote. The premise of how the jury get away with all kinds of shit because it's the judge's last trial so it's like at primary school when you were allowed to bring games in is clearly contrived even for the staged circumstances of a sitcom. Kerry Howard phones in a performance as yet another kinda sexy kinda wacky kinda stupid love interest and Diane Morgan is wasted as the singer in a metal? punk? goth? band who only gets a couple of lines about how alternative and rebellious she is. Throw in a couple of ethnic tropes - young black girl is a street poet, young Asian girl is obsessed with image and style icons - and you end up with a pot mess down there with the worst of BBC Three's output.

I think Kerry Howard might be a bit overexposed tbh.

i wish Morgana Robinson were

ooer

I liked Morgana's sketch show even though I didn't laugh much, it was unusual and I thought a lot of her impressions and characters were really impressive. Her Fearne Cotton and Russel Brand were bang on.
Yes she's completely gorgeous too.

I was never that bothered about Morgana until her wonderful turn as Julie in House of Fools.

She's great at Fearne Cotton and Russell Brand, agreed, but I basically don't find her funny at all.

that fearne impression:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiY_0_livhY

but yeah it was house of fools where i first noticed her

I also enjoyed motherland, would definitely watch the series if it was commissioned. How long do these things usually take to get decided?

This series of People Just Do Nothing has stepped up a notch, some very funny jokes.

Watched the Jury thing and yes it was disappointing.

But I did learn that court artists in the UK aren't allowed to sketch on court whereas they are in the USA

enjoyed motherland a lot.

hope that gets a proper series.

gave up after 7 minutes of the jury one.

is it series 2 of people do nothing now? the pilot was so perfect and the resulting series so poor i gave up on it, but might give it another shot

acaster's we the jury is flawed yeah. it's very much his voice, which is great in stand-up but feels disjointed and unconvincing in a sitcom. like what 'world' is it, is everyone a bit of a tool, except the blonde lady juror? but then even she turns a bit wacky. felt it didn't abide by classic comedy show rules, but in a shit awkward way rather than a wow revelation way. some ok bits but overall too pleased with itself considering the amount of duff gags. crazy high production values though, and some star turns. acaster's clearly made powerful friends. (compare & contrast to the cheapshit tv adaptation of funz and gamez which sucked all the joy and intimacy from the amazing live show)

as for james acaster's classic scrapes, i checked out the bus fight with group of lads one and am i missing something? a fairly dull story, embellished with crap corny fake bits, soundtracked by plummy guffaws from a panel of awful oxbridge grads. "yeah alastair, watch your mouth" << where's the joke? is it that the other guy would put his dick in the mouth? pissfuckingpoor, not worth telling down the pub let alone a backslappy podcast. ain't hating, seen acaster live a bunch of times and always love it but this latest output is dire

oh yeah, a telling moment when widdicombe talks about some 'youths' getting on his bus and spraying mace so he walked to a different section of the bus, punctuating this nothingy anecdote with "a win for the educated!" because in widdicombe world only council scum commit crime

Motherland was pretty great, although I'm not 100% sure we need another "the working class are the only ones that can get shit done" comedy.

The remade Hancock has probably been the most successful show of the entire season, even if Katy Wix wasn't very good in it.

is it series 2 of people do nothing now? the pilot was so perfect and the resulting series so poor i gave up on it, but might give it another shot

― NI, Saturday, 10 September 2016 16:19 (two hours ago)

They're on series 3 now. The first two were only intermitently funny imo, this one has been hitting the spot pretty consitently.

as I've found from the repeats on Yesterday, KUA is ENDURINGLY UNFUNNY. As a result this feels like fake nostalgia for a show nobody could like.

I love love love Keeping Up Appearances. this may be somewhat down to contextual factors - that I watched it a lot as a kid for one thing, but especially that it reminds me of my own family; the world Keeping Up Appearances is set in is feels more reminiscent of the world I grew up in than pretty much any other sitcom setting. I do think it's a genuinely great show as well, though.

I haven't seen Young Hyacinth yet but it looks interesting. this had totally passed me by , but apparently there was a stage version a couple of years ago with one of Hale & Pace playing Onslow:

http://i35.servimg.com/u/f35/14/45/43/72/pictur23.jpg

Original statement was fairly ridiculous, plenty could like it and do.

it was popular in the Netherlands, apparently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1k1G6fFZGk

Original statement was fairly ridiculous, plenty could like it and do.

Meh. A million people think Clarkson was sufficiently funny on TV that they signed a petition protesting his removal. Didn't stop similarly hyperbolic statements, some from respected journalists, about Top Gear.

I quite liked Acaster's bus story. I'd recommend the one about him pulling after a gig and if you don't like that, don't bother with the rest.

The Last Leg is great when it's doing what it was originally designed for.

it's pretty incredible that they can fill an hour with decent comedy content every day for two weeks. a couple of the sketches have fallen flat but on the whole it's been solid.

Original statement was fairly ridiculous, plenty could like it and do.

― Bottlerockey (Tom D.), Sunday, 11 September 2016 05:06 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it does what it does so well (including targeting a particular kid of viewer) that it's difficult to criticise on any level, apart from the fact that nearly episode is exactly the same:

- hyacinth speaks to violet/sheridan on the telephone
- hyacinth does the 'room for a pony' line
- hyacinth has elizabeth for tea in her kitchen
- rose complains about her boyfriend, 'mister' so-and-so
- emmet panics about avoiding hyacinth
- hyacinth tells richard how to drive
- the dog barks and hyacinth falls in daisy's hedge
- onslow says 'oh nice' at the very end of a scene
- hyacinth comes undone in a way that stains/wets her blue dress with the white spots

in fact there's probably a random episode generator somwhere

scrolling through the episode guide on wikipedia and as much as I love it these all do pretty much blur into one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Keeping_Up_Appearances_episodes

23 "The Art Exhibition"
Hyacinth’s preparations to visit an art exhibition are thrown off course when Daddy goes off to join the Foreign Legion. Rose and her latest boyfriend help hunt for him, not realizing their suggestive conversation is being broadcast throughout the neighbourhood. When Hyacinth finally finds Daddy he’s holding a sign that reads “If you love me let me know.” outside the home of a woman he is trying to get romantically involved with. Hyacinth reveals she is a prude in this episode.

23 "The Art Exhibition"

Hyacinth reveals she is a prude in this episode.

haha superb effort

"episode 39: hyacinth reveals she has a pearl white slimline telephone"

Hyacinth reveals she is a never-nude in this episode

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2016/09/28/25872/bbc_axes_boy_meets_girl

Rebecca Root, who played lead character Judy accused the BBC of ‘selling us short’ by axing the show after two series.

‘Everyone's really sorry that the show's come to its end,’ she told Chortle. ‘We’re all very disappointed.'

I quite liked it, but yeah, it was basically Gavin & Stacey with nothing to say once they'd said what they set out to say.

it was a bit weird watching two of them start a cafe for no particular reason.

"i think i'll start a cafe", 23 minutes later: cafe

cut to postcard shot of the tyne, cut back

new Taskmaster tonight. which is odd because it's the second series this year, the previous one being on 5 consecutive nights. this one is weekly.

features dave gorman, al murray, a woman and someone not white, probably.

(Sara Pascoe, Paul Chowdhry and Rob Beckett)

Paul Chowdry is really bad at it. Not Catherine-Tate-on-Catsdown bad, but bad. Though I'm still laughing at his slush puppy ice rabbit snowman half an hour down the line.

Yes, that bit and the £150 for the taxi ride had me laughing. (He only went 18 miles and back).

Again, there's too much bending of the rules these days, it goes beyond thinking outside the box and into ignoring the box territory, I think. Maybe the tasks are just specced badly. How hard is adding "You must stay behind the rope"?

("And you cannot move the rope")

("Or the carpet ")

I was v surprised that it was Rob Beckett who went for the inventive interpretations of the rules tactic, I'd have put good money on that being Dave Gorman's approach.

going to wait for the whole season to be shown and binge watch.
loved taskmaster season 1 and 2.
currently on catchup re dave gormans, 'modern life is goodish'.
very enjoyable stuff.

One of the best things about Taskmaster is that I really like Greg Davis on it, despite having absolutely no time at all for him as a stand-up or a panel-show guest.

That, and Alex Horne's facial expressions.