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

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

well apparently anything with YouTube in the url gets mangled, let's try again.

this is the link

House Of Fools! only two seasons, criminally

i think i like emma fryer a lot

Limmy's Show

― Number None, Thursday, June 3, 2021 12:11 AM (twenty-two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Aye. It's all on YouTube too

Oh I see you've already covered this haha. I have translated many sketches for Canadian friends

No love for Gareth Marengi's Darkplace?

* Garth

Oh yes.

Lots and lots of love. Foundational.

There's stuff (possibly including Darkplace) where I wonder whether the referents are too English for it to really hit - Green Wing and A Touch of Cloth might count as both (but are brilliant - the latter is Tough Northern Detective Police Squad)

I could never get into Green Wing - always seemed like smug whimsy and the episodes were an hour long!

I quite like Boosh though, so I'm obviously OK with some smug whimsy.

I think the corny 80's horror paperbacks Darkplace draws on are internationally known; transplanting those to TV might be a slightly more British thing (thinking of sci-fi more than horror here really).

Also it's funny how often stuff that feels super insider-y to ppl from the place it came from ends up being super popular outside it - ppl are drawn to geographical specificity even if they don't get all the jokes, I think.

It's like when I used to watch the Simpsons and they'd reference a US celeb I'd never heard of, but I didn't mind because I could generally guess what that person was meant to signify in the context of the joke.

OTOH I think some styles of humour have difficulty crossing international boundaries - for example I've watched several reaction vids of Americans utterly bemused by Reeves & Mortimer.

It's like when I used to watch the Simpsons and they'd reference a US celeb I'd never heard of, but I didn't mind because I could generally guess what that person was meant to signify in the context of the joke.

Just like an average day on ILX in other words. Daniel_Rf OTM btw.

If we're mentioning Darkplace we should probably also call up Doctor Terrible's House of Horrible for horror films 10-20 years older.

darkplace got usa play on adult swim, never clicked for me.

Thanks for the Doctor Terrible shout aldo, catnip for fans of 60's Brit horror. The titles alone!

I watched the Witchfinder General parody and it's interesting how despite being a loving reconstruction of 70's visions of Ruritania it also feels totally like a 90's Xena/Hercules type set. Also weird to hear Coogan's witch locator use these inflections that we now associate so deeply with Partridge.

I've never been sure how it'd play to someone familiar with the original films - especially since some of them lift actual dialogue and have the original cast in them - but for those of us that way inclined they're tremendous. I particularly love the one based on Vault of Horror, and also the Karnstein trilogy version.

Watch out for the cameo by Pete Walker regular Sheila Keith in the first of those, her final performance.

One of my other massively unpopular things that play 100% into my wheelhouse is Cruise of the Gods.

It's the ur-version of the Coogan/Brydon model later used in Tristram Shandy and The Trip, with them as ex-teen stars of a post-apocalypse ITV-style kids show set in the New Romantic era. It's set on a fan cruise and looks hard at fandom, writing TV sci-fi and cult celebrity.

In further Pete Walker connections, it also stars his one-time lead actor Jack Jones.

Warning for the above, contains both David Walliams and James Corden but just push past it.

I've never been sure how it'd play to someone familiar with the original films

Close to unwatchable I'd guess, assuming you meant unfamiliar and judging by the ep I saw - a lot of it is mockery of Hammer's horniness, which I think w/o the context of what they're parodying would just scan as terrible 70's sex jokes.

Haha yes, I meant unfamiliar.

One of my other massively unpopular things that play 100% into my wheelhouse is Cruise of the Gods.

It's the ur-version of the Coogan/Brydon model later used in Tristram Shandy and The Trip, with them as ex-teen stars of a post-apocalypse ITV-style kids show set in the New Romantic era. It's set on a fan cruise and looks hard at fandom, writing TV sci-fi and cult celebrity.

WTF, how have I not heard of this?!