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

brydon and coogan were such boors at lunch. the way brydon, in particular, forced things - it gave a different, more unpleasant note to his character. (which felt like an emotional twist, in a way - he had previously seemed like the face for the audience, more sympathetic than coogan.) and yet despite their awfulness, they were still half-charming, half-hilarious. feels very interesting/real/true, knowing irl actors/comedians - insufferable and sufferable.

thought there was a new tragedy to Coogan's interactions w the photog. (Does he really remember her? So sad.) And I liked the come-on -- undercut Brydon's perfect marriage, but in this note-perfect way that wasn't a moral black/white.

but i think me and history maybe just not on the same page: enjoyed the PA character, heard wits under her giggles. and felt like the program was completely unsympathetic to the photog - she looked pretty, but seemed by far the least, i dunno, alive? spirited? like, i felt somehow that she was beneath them all, in spite of her self-command.

she looked pretty, but seemed by far the least, i dunno, alive? spirited?

Also, she was using a 7D! Call yourself a pro and you're shooting with a crop sensor? Pah!

Sorry. Do carry on.

new gervais stand-up is pretty bad. his usual "arent i awful" schtick. the only half-funny things come when he mentions a few pilkington quotes

Geting very bored of the Trip this week.

bag o'shite

Brilliant new episode of The Trip. Every episode has surprised me in some way, done something new to make me look forward to the next.

oh snap

I liked the limestone guy but this was the first episode that really felt like treading water to me.

^ditto

As much as I liked it at first, I can't help but feel they'd exhausted the concept three episodes in.

I dunno if it was treading water. I think the Coogan character is treading water. He faultered so often, it looked like his heart wasn't in the usual impression banter, the comments seemed more barbed, less humorous, more meant. Brydon noticed COggan was on the rocks (do you see aaaaah) and was being nice in the way that competitive blokes are nice ie not being very nice at all but thinking they are. I thought this episode was beautiful.

agreed. i don't know if its gripping television or anything, but there's a definite subtle evolution to the characters as the show wears on, and so the repeated format of the shows - their banter, the dinners, the impressions - is different every time: more tense, darker in today's episode. there's a melancholy to the coogan character as well which offers a nice side of pathos, tempered by the fact that he's not entirely a sympathetic character.

i'm really enjoying it. not desperate to watch last night's episode again, unlike the first couple, which had me helpless with laughter again on the second watch.

So, did anyone watch Tramadol Nights? We watched it last night, and just kind of sat looking at it going "uh, wtf?" a lot. Sketches were uniformly terrible, about two lols in the stand-up bit, mostly seemed to be based upon the desire for an (unsuccessful) attempt to out-Sadowitz The Pallbearer's Revue just for the hell of it.

i did. enjoyed the bit about burning bush etc. then spent the rest of the time just looking at his lack of beard whilst unfunny things happened. audience seemed to like it.

is repeated tonight.

Burning bush bit was one of the lolz, the "in the Village People?!" comeback to the camp fireman the other. Was losing the will to live by the end of the Knight Rider sketch.

There's a Knight Rider sketch?! Cutting edge, man.

mostly seemed to be based upon the desire for an (unsuccessful) attempt to out-Sadowitz The Pallbearer's Revue just for the hell of it

'Doing' Jerry Sadowitz is Frankie Boyle's entire career surely? I don't pay much attention to him, so maybe I'm wrong

I suppose. He didn't used to be quite so nihilistic, I'm sure.

guy's got approx 1hr of good material and he hammers it a lot. wouldn't've called him exackly Sadowitz-esque but I find Jerry more endearing tbh

I used to actually find Boyle a wee bit endearing and likeable, whereas now it's all just "fuck you world" with no let-up. Sadowitz is the nearest lazy comparison I could find, and I'd be surprised if he wasn't a clear influence on Boyle.

Well, The Pallbearer's Revue was what came to my mind when I watched TN as well (I didn't think that quite worked either). But the sketches in this were so drawn out and aimless, and, my god, the Green Mile skit... bizarre.

Sadowitz is the nearest lazy comparison I could find, and I'd be surprised if he wasn't a clear influence on Boyle

Well I know one person who certainly thinks so. Glaswegian. Big nose. Top hat.

The Green Mile thing was just eye-widenly toe-curlingly WTF-inducingly fucking batshit. Oh, and not funny.

Couldn't sit through Tramadol Nights...I find unfunny comedy excruciatingly painful -almost akin to social embarrassment, for some reason.

Last episode of The Trip was the best one I reckon.

The closing intercutting between Lonely Coogan and Fulfilled Brydon was so overegged my television set developed salmonella.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R2dsmggw6E

I presume it was an homage.

Jordan taking her lawyers to Frankie Boyle over a joke he made about her son. Am slightly surprised this is the story and not a really unfunny sketch solely building up to a punchline which involved wanking Jesus on the cross, tbh. Where's all the Jerry Springer The Opera nutters when you need them (to laugh at)? If, as is suspected, this is Frankie Boyle's career suicide by TV, he's completely failed at even outraging people.

Tramadol Nights is really really painfully unfunny. Two episodes in and I'm not sure I can even watch it out of morbid curiosity now.

The closing intercutting between Lonely Coogan and Fulfilled Brydon was so overegged my television set developed salmonella.

sadly yes - ruined it a bit for me, but this felt like the least eventful episode also

biggest lol probably coogan's tom jones

http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a292045/frankie-boyle-comedy-slips-below-1m.html

980,000 for a Channel 4 show at 10pm is a triumph tbh

unless there's a Hollyoaks Tits Oot special, obv.

i saw 2nd tramadol. that was NOT JESUS on the cross, it said on the sign above him. but yes, stuck for something funny? throw in some wanking. (george michael sketch in week one, time travel sketch week two)

also
"Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights averaged 980k (4.7%) for Channel 4 from 10pm, down 380k week-on-week. A further 159k (1.4%) watched the show an hour later."

can the people writing the "below 1m" headline not add up?

Why is Dirk Gently now a TV adaptation?

http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsServlet?event=20&channelId=47&programmeName=Dirk%20Gently&startTime=16/12/2010%2021:00&jspLocation=/jsp/prog_details_fullpage.jsp&jspError=/jsp/error.jsp

Why is Dirk Gently now a TV adaptation?

― Defecate on Myspace (Schlafsack), Thursday, December 16, 2010 1:07 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Because it might be good? Or at least sell some DVDs.

It could definitely be good but my expectations are not high.

Did anyone else watch Desperate Fishwives or was it just me? Probably no more hit and miss than Limmy or Burnistoun, but somehow funnier.

Talking of which, is it Burnistoun bloke that's in the sketches on Tramadol Nights?

Never seen Burnistoun, but Tramadol Nights guy is the guy who does (bad) standup as the Reverend Obadiah Steppenwolf.

bring back craig hill

ok don't just get rid of all this shite an aw

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/23/frankie-boyle-tramadol-nights
Pretty much had enough of this fellow now. I can see what he was trying to do but it was such a hamfisted and unfunny way of making a point which is frankly already very old.

This cutting edge comedy...

I mean, come on C4, even you must know that this is a lie.

dude just wants to use 'racial epithets' on telly, seriously doubt his humanitarian concerns

Looked up his picture and naw, Burnistoun bloke is Robert Florence.

I watched a bit of ep 2 of TN when nothing else was on and I was too lazy to change channels, and it was a bag of shite.

how are skits based on The A Team cutting edge in any way?

reminds me of the bo selecta sketch in which bo selecta was dressed up like dennis norden and the joke was that dennis norden is old - think bo selecta even had a drip like old people do. I flicked past this and was so offended by how unfunny it was that I wrote an email of complaint to ofcom and eventually got a response that said thanks we didn't get any other complaints

haven't seen tramadol nights thing but it is obviously completely rubbish and I can't be bothered complaining to ofcom about things being unfunny nowadays so I just keep the telly on bbc news 24 24 hours a day

Anyway, so it was just me for desperate fishwives then? Buff Hardie's son is one of them apparently.