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

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.

what's taskmaster and is it worth watching?

It's on Dave. Five comedians are given some tasks to do (some daft, some creative, some puzzles, a lot of lateral thinking which most of them fail to spot to much hilarity), and judged on how well they do by Greg Davis and Alex Horne. It's gloriously daft, and a lot better than it sounds on paper.

Series 1: Tim Key, Frank Skinner, Romesh Ranganathan, Roisin Conaty, Josh Widdicombe
Series 2: Richard Osman, Katherine Ryan, Joe Wilkinson, Doc Brown, Jon Richardson
Series 3: Al Murray, Rob Beckett, Sara Pascoe, Dave Gorman, Paul Chowdhry

Probably worth the entire thing alone for the "make a video for a nursery rhyme" task in series 2.

Ach, I can't get Dave.

It's also available online via UK TV Play (but I thought everyone could get Dave?)

i thought no one was allowed not to get dave

It's probably my aerial but there's a bunch of free channels I can't seem to pick up, never have in this house. Not too bothered generally tbh but quite like Dave every so often. Thanks for UK TV Play tip, will try it!

Still loving Richard Herring's interview show. Armando Iannucci's story about Jeffrey Archer is pretty funny.
Hans Teeuwen was interesting. He's a popular Dutch comedian but translates all his jokes and songs for English audiences.

Ayoade on 8/10 cats.

An watching on catch-up but I hope he uses the "I'm here to drink milk and kick ass" line

Watched qi after harry hills new cookery show on sky and it made it seem like the tamest middle class shizzle.

But (ailsa's mate) Sandi did OK, I thought.

wait what made what seem middle class?

When was the last time Mark Lamarr did comedy? Haven't seen him on tv in ages. Did he completely disappear into music?

gawd, 17 series

Lamarr was host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks when the show launched in 1996 and continued in this role for 17 series until 2005. Under Lamarr, the show grew a reputation as a scathing, almost rebellion like stand against the boy bands and pop music that had dominated the music scene since the early '90s, a theme that was kept by his successor.

it's weird because he co-wrote 15 Storeys High, which was great, but aside from Shooting Stars everything else he has been involved in was terrible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER_3XR4HHtY

this is what he's up to these days apparently

https://twitter.com/joe_christmas/status/452794536813953025

he has an infrequently updated parody twitter account: https://twitter.com/Mark_Lamarr

It says I'm not authorized to view that tweet.

I loved 15 Storeys High. Could have swore I seen some Lamarr standup which was brilliant, there's some on youtube so I'll have to try that.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks grew really tiresome regardless of who was presenting, I often found it a bit too cruel but there were definitely great moments from the main presenters and captains.
Lamarr describing someone as having "a face that only a fist could love"; when someone said Blue weren't as bad as other boy bands, he said "that's like saying they're the least smelly dog poo"; that series which he did really long absurd descriptions of things he hated every episode; all that was classic.

I see the tweet now.

I saw Mark Lamarr doing standup once, in the early 90s. He was dreadful.

I forgot to watch my bezzie mate Sandi doing QI. Ta for the reminder.

Taskmaster still bringing the goods. The most I've laughed at the telly this week after Jimmy Carr covering his face with elastic bands on Catsdown (OK, that was last week, but was watching it on catch up). Dave Gormans' little polythene grief cave nearly ended me. That and the random bottle of champagne.

I'm in love with this Simon Munnery aphorism

"Once bitten, twice shy, three times a lady"

stand up to cancer's Humans sketch was fun, i thought.

was a bit on taskmaster this week when the subject of the whispering task just laughed out loud at the contestant, which was great. as was the bouncy castle task. and the zooming in.

seems odd to me that 8/10 cats proper has moved to more4 with new captains (rob beckett, aisling bea). i guess catsdown is now the main show.

new Modern Life is Goodish this week.

Aisling Bea is not funny, a major failing in a comedian. I died a little inside watching her Live at the Apollo stint.

Looking forward to Modern Life is Goodish, despite Gorman being mostly rubbish on Taskmaster.

Next Taskmaster cast announced: Hugh Dennis, Mel Giedroyc, Lolly Adefope, Joe Lycett (who I love) and Noel Fielding (who I also love).

Aisling Bea is not funny, a major failing in a comedian.

A failing that is very much the rule rather than the exception. She is terrible though, from what little I've seen her. I hate all of these people though.