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

i tried 8 out of 10 cats/countdown and it's not watchable

― Draymond is "Mr Dumpy" (forksclovetofu)

It's appalling. If you want a cosily undemanding yet entertaining comedy panel show try Would I Lie to You (or better yet Taskmaster).

Inbetweeners? Watched all of this so long ago that i have completely forgotten it existed! I think it was fine?
Spaced? heard of this, never watched it, will try it. i like edgar wright well enough so this is a good recommendation. i get it confused with red dwarf which i am thinking you might find funny.
Detectorists? Watched this, its decidedly okay!
Mighty Boosh? dated a girl who was really into this and i don't know if i can ever watch it again.
Royle Family? Never heard of this. Will give it a try!

Tried taskmaster, mostly unwatchable but to be fair i don't think I am into panel shows of any variety. I love Only Connect tho!

here's a list of some stuff that exists that I don't know anything about:
how to stay married
not going out
spicks and specks
rob and romesh versus
murder they hope
enterprice
housos
two weeks to live

here's a list of some uk/au stuff i watched and like:
adult material, aftertaste, brass eye, Cunk on, Day Today, Damned, Dead Pixels, Fisk, Fleabag, Getting On, Ghosts, Anything/Everything Alan Partridge, Look Around You, Mandy, Motherland, Mum, The Other Guy, Serafinowicz show, Plebs, Pulling, Rosehaven, Saxondale, Slings and Arrows, Staged, Stath Lets Flats, Why Are You Like This

I'd say you have watched far more British comedy than most people in the UK. I've seen about 4 of those and haven't heard of most of the rest.

The only one I've seen out of that is Not Going Out and I suggest Not Watching It

(xxp) Have you never seen The League Of Gentlemen?

15 Storeys High is kind of weird but good? Errol shows up in really random movies, always fun to spot.
I assume you've seen Peep Show

And IT Crowd I assume? Laughtracked to death though it is.

Peep Show is great and foundational, yes. IT Crowd's laughtrack means I can't watch it.
I think League of Gentlemen got US play years ago... that's also laughtracked I think.
I have never heard of 15 Storeys, grabbing that now. Cult comedies are of particular interest, sketch comedy is not.

i'm also gonna try enterprice and two weeks to live, both look promising.

It's appalling. If you want a cosily undemanding yet entertaining comedy panel show try Would I Lie to You (or better yet Taskmaster).

outside of covid times, these shows usually have audiences, which forks doesn't like - probably not worth the recs

oh lol xp

here's a list of some stuff that exists that I don't know anything about:
how to stay married
not going out
spicks and specks
rob and romesh versus
murder they hope
enterprice
housos
two weeks to live

fFs

laughtrack/live studio audience with a "LAUGH NOW" sign just takes me right out of the picture for some reason. Too many years of it as a kid.

explain your derision at spicks/specks and housos? I don't know anything about them.

they are from a different country, continent and hemisphere

Spicks and Specks is a music-quiz game show with an audience btw

I can't imagine you liking Housos, which is a very aggressively LCD sitcom about residents of public housing. (the creator/writer/producer/director/star dumbed it down from his previous sitcoms about working-class reprobates, Pizza, Fat Pizza, Fat Pizza: Back In Business, Pizza: Special Deliveries, World Record Pizza and Swift & Shift Couriers. There is also a Fat Pizza feature film, a Housos feature film, and a Fat Pizza Vs. Housos feature film. So if you do try it and like it, there's plenty of distraction to be getting on with.)

I love 15 Storeys High, it makes me wish that Shaun Locke had done more stuff in that vein, but I guess he's happy doing panel shows and stand-up.

co-created and co-written by Martin Trenaman who was also in PhoneShop, which should be also included in any list of underrated 21st century cult UK comedies of the

the other co-creator and co-writer was Mark Lamarr of all people - I don't think 15 Storeys High is what I would have expected from a sitcom created by Shaun Locke and Mark Lamarr if I'd only seen their other work.

does anyone else remember Simon Day's 2003 sitcom Grass featuring his Billy Bleach character from the Fast Show?

I am aware of but have not seen any of the Fast Show spin-offs. Can’t imagine any of them being 1/19th as great as Down The Line, the radio call-in show done by most of the same folks.

the swiss tony sitcom was ghastly.

i vaguely remember grass and how there was another spin-off show with a very similar premise - the green green grass, boycey and marlene move to the country to avoid the driscoll brothers.

yes, and there was another bbc 3 sitcom a few years ago with Russel Howard's sister called Witless that had the exact same premise again

Grass was pretty good iirc, not quite as good as Down The Line (there was a one series tv adaptation of the latter called 'Bellamy's People' which was great as well)

there was a show called Help which featuring Chris Langham as a psychiatrist and Paul Whitehouse playing various different patients, but afaict it's never been repeated or released on dvd because Langham was arrested a few months after its broadcast for child pornography

good call on phoneshop, though the accents are occasionally bamboozling. good writing!

Two recommendations for forks would be Catastrophe and Chewing Gum.

Chewing Gum is ace.

Two Weeks To Live is pretty decent xps
Stars Maisie Williams and the always reliable Sian Clifford and absolutely no laughter track

Anything/Everything Alan Partridge

btw forkdogg if this does mean that you do audio and prose, Down The Line is a auper-strong recommendations

People Like Us was Chris Langham as well, wasn't it? meant to recommend that last night but it might be hard to find.
Nighty Night was another one but I often found it too horrible to watch, and s2 was dreadful.

Limmy's Show

Lovesick (aka Scrotal Recall) is slight but amusing.

I'm a big fan of the two sitcoms Roisin Conaty stars in: Man Down and Gameface. Man Down is created by and stars Greg Davies. If you don't like Taskmaster, you may not enjoy his persona in it, although I thoroughly enjoyed it. Gameface is created by Roisin herself and is just great. Honestly, the first couple of times I watched Taskmaster I didn't really get the fuss either, but something just clicked for me one day and there it was.

Not Going Out was occasionally funny but frantic when Tim Vine was in it, but it got completely retooled to be a family comedy and now it's unwatchable.

I've also just come to Friday Night Dinner recently, and am really enjoying it. Although obviously it's very sad now because of Paul Ritter.

Another vote for Lovesick/Scrotal Recall. Especially if you want to see the guy who wrote the Detectorists theme tune and starred in the terrible David Bowie biopic actually be watchable.

Brand new Channel 4 comedy We Are Ladyparts was SO GOOD. We tried very hard to parcel it out, knowing there were only six episodes, but ended up watching the last three episodes all in a rush because we loved it so much.

If you like British quizzes or games, you could try Richard Osman's House of Games? It can often be very funny, but is a proper test of knowledge, not a load of tedious dicking about like Eight Out of Ten Cats or that fucking awful film thing that Alan Carr does on Sky, Jesus wept it's terrible.

Man Down seconded. Doesn't always land, but when it does it's hilarious.

Has Inside no 9 been mentioned? Two of the League of Gentlemen, no laugh track.

And their two season Psychoville was very good as well, somewhat forgotten now (featuring an early Daniel Kaluuya performance).

You might enjoy Murder in Successville which was an odd improv-sitcom-detective show featuring minor celebrities, although it has fairly niche cultural references. You’d quickly be able to tell if it was for you or not.

I cribbed most of my personality in my 20s from Spaced. It was incredible at the time but I'm scared of revisiting it. The "half a polo" joke still makes me chuckle tho.

i get it confused with red dwarf

Spaced is not actually set in space.

it makes me wish that Shaun Locke had done more stuff in that vein, but I guess he's happy doing panel shows and stand-up.

He doesn't actually enjoy doing panel shows but knows he's good at them and enjoys the money for minimal effort, according to Stewart Lee's autobio. He tells a story of him, Daniel Kitson and Locke hanging out, Lee and Kitson both talking about how to maintain their level of fame on a lower level so as to not have to deal with mainstream pressures and Locke being like "wtf you idiots".

Which reminds me, forks - have you explored British stand-up at all?

I'll always have some lingering affection for Red Dwarf, big part of my childhood as it played on the local station that was the only one I could get back in S.Miguel, but boy do they need to be put out of their misery.

I maintain the first two seasons of Red Dwarf are both pretty good comedy and pretty good sci-fi. I was exactly the right age to enjoy III-V when they first aired, but it retrospect the increased budget and popularity went to their heads and a lot of it is trash.

Sean Locke was consistently the best thing about a slew of limp panel shows for years, but recently it seems like he's lost the will to live.

I check out an episode every five years or so, and the standard generally seems to be higher in the nu-Dwarf era than when the creator of American Idol's brother was writing 'em. If the super-low-budget wrinkly-bloke version of the show is making some viewers happy, and I don't have to watch more than that, good for Naylor, Dave, the cast and the viewers imo.

Not watched Phoneshop but Emma Fryer's own show, Home Time, was brilliant, one of my favourite things of the 00s

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

Man Down was excellent to start with, especially any episodes with Rik Mayall as his dad, but they were right to pull the plug on it when they did as it had dropped off the cliff towards the end.
watched the 1st episode of Lady Parts, and yeah, really looking forward to checking out the rest.

I've enjoyed Pls Like though it is quite a lightweight thing.

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle might be a good suggestion here?

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle might be a good suggestion here?

Audience laughter (which personally I find entirely appropriate in a stand-up or panel show format).

don't think there's a lot of audience-free stand up out there, but after 2020 who knows?

Catastrophe, Chewing Gum, Inside No 9 = Love, have watched much of or the entirety of

Limmy's Show = I find this hit or miss but frankly there are lengthy sections where I cannot understand what he or some of his fellow actors are saying. It's a strong accent!

Audio/written Partridge = will keep an eye out for

British stand up = i watch some? i would need recommendations here. Also harder to access via my back channels.

Nighty Night s1 = tried this, only copy I could get had barely watchable resolution... but I don't think I like Julia Davis' very knowing approach to parody? the points of reference are often totally different than mine so it's like watching alien satire.

Lady Parts = started, it's okay? Well acted, well considered, i enjoy the moments of magic realism. Will likely finish at some point.

People Like Us, Lovesick, Man Down, Gameface, House of Games, Psychoville, Murder in Successville, Home Time, Stewart Lee = will try!

Thanks all, this is a lot to get through!

I think you'd be better off watching some of Stewart Lee's stand-up before trying Comedy Vehicle

Stand Up Comedian, 90s Comedian, 41st Best Stand Up Ever, and If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask for One is an unimpeachable run

Yeah, Stewart Lee is great and does a lot of deconstructing the ins and outs of stand-up comedy.

Current golden child of the stand up circuit is James Acaster, he's got a bunch of specials on netflix that are uniformly excellent.

Josie Long has a special on amazon as well I think, v loveable leftist stand-up.

There's some streams Limmy did that are up on youtube which are him broadcasting old episodes of a quiz show called 3, 2, 1 and analyzing them in the most granular detail, also getting very angry whenever there's some perceived slight against Scottland. Enough hours of that and I got a much better grasp of the accent.

I'm a Limmy agnostic, but yes his 3-2-1 analyses are absurdly brilliant.

it's low-res but Home Time appears to be on YouTube. Got to love a sitcom that has Hometown Unicorn as its theme tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VcoWPj6j3U

Which reminds me to recommend Toast of London as well.

I'm subscribed to this YouTube channel where an American couple mostly watch / comment on British comedy, might be an interesting place to start (though their tastes are pretty mainstream)

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