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

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.

are there dependably good improv/sketch troupes in London? (whose material will be somewhat comprehensible to a Yank)

Comedy Store Players? But I don't know how solid/fluid their line-up is, or how consistent they are.

xp Not my bag, but the Comedy Store Players are still working (though I'm unsurprised that the two 'famous' ones are not on the current bill): http://www.comedystoreplayers.com/

morbs if you're in London on a Monday go to the Old Rope night at The Phoenix Pub. it's cheap and it's a "new material" night, usually with a fairly big name at the end (I saw Stephen Merchant there)

i am! but i was maybe gonna go to the theatre that night

..but i will make a note, as i am staying nearby on Tottenham Ct Road

Austentatious are good (also featuring Cariad Lloyd) but they seem to be on infrequently at the moment. http://www.austentatiousimpro.com/shows/london/

Motherland has been commisioned for a full series.
Brilliant news.

nice callback by kevin bridges to an earlier appearance on have i got news for you, i thought.

The big dog thing? Yip, noticed that.

itt, me and koogs watching all the same telly.

(I'm just watching Taskmaster now, so expect some more of the same later)

caught the last ten minutes of a thing called Damned on channel 4 last night with a half decent comedy cast (Kevin Eldon, Isy Suttie, er Alan Davis) which I think was supposed to be comedy but contained zero jokes as far as I could tell.

Isy, much as I <3 her, is particularly terrible in the above.

It seems like a continuation of Jo Brands previous thing about a hospital, but it's just a shambles.

Taskmaster was solid, nothing really stood out though. Morse code needs delimiters between letters though and I'm not sure I saw any.

Would maybe have been worth a quick google by Murray to see if there was anything in it? It's not like it would have wasted time.

I enjoyed the escape room task (watching with my husband - we'd recently done similar, both of us in different teams of friends, each time doing the same room at the same time, so the hilarity of seeing everyone miss what seemed obvious was bringing extra personal lolz), and every single cutaway to Dave Gorman's face throughout the whole show as he realised there were clearly way better ways of approaching everything than whatever direct route he had chosen.

Paul Chowdhry does appear to have stumbled into the wrong show though.