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

Whew.

also on the bad can someone please put Have I Got News For You out of its misery.

At the risk of, on this reviewer's logic, inviting lynch-mobs to my door, I'd argue that Extras was shite.

xpost

To put things into context: Harry Hill aside, all British TV Comedy right now is total shit.

-- Ruairi Wirewool (horseproduction...), January 15th, 2007. (Ruairi Wirewool) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

what were the chances of that happening?
-- mark grout (mark.grou...), January 15th, 2007. (mark grout) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you can put CT and Green Wing on a par, you truly show a lack of discernment IMO.
Frankly, now that GW has been and gone, I'm inclined to agree with Ruairi, minus the bit about Harry Hill.

-- You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (papiermachealamphibia...), January 15th, 2007. (Haberdager) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you can put CT and Green Wing on a par, you truly show a lack of discernment IMO.
no it's just a 'higher' (or rather 'stricter') level of discernment.

-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'the thick of it' will be back, later in the year, and so will 'peep show'.
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

but in a another more accurate sense...
-- mark s (mar...), January 15th, 2007. (mark s) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

but then i do like Harry Hill so it's apples and roundabouts.
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

rubbish
-- RJG (RJ...), January 15th, 2007. (RJG) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so you keep saying
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RJG's TV Burp
-- Dom Passantino (juror...), January 15th, 2007. (Dom Passantino) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hmm. I was only talking about currently-running comedy shows. If Peep Show returns for a fourth bite at the cherry (and TTOI for a second), I will only be too delighted. Of course, the one I'm really looking out for is Nathan Barley II.
-- You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (papiermachealamphibia...), January 15th, 2007. (Haberdager) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i think it would be a big ask for there to be a 'great' uk comedy series to be running all 52 weeks of the year. i have low standards perhaps; but i don't ask for a 'great' film each month either.
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

of course i too want 'nathan barley' back.
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They could drop scissors on a dog's head this time.
-- Dom Passantino (juror...), January 15th, 2007. (Dom Passantino) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

uh, rose-tinted view there i reckon - but at least it was generating interesting discussion.
one episode of Screen Wipe a month would be good. ditto TV Burp.

-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ha ha Dom OTM
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unread Messages
as with 'green wing', take away the hype and the expectation it'll live up to 'the day today' and 'nathan barley' was 23 minutes well-spent. i lolled anyway.
-- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i didn't laugh more than i did laugh etc.
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)

And Screen Wipe rocks.

it was good, but not 300 times better than 'nathan barley'.

xpost

steve otm

this happened in the show except he thought she turned out not be under-age (at which point NB thinking it now okay to pretend she WAS under-age was actually quite a clever little point about...something or other).

i did hate NB but yes no less than anyone else around him.

Actually, scratch that, that's not the idea at all. It's funny caricatures falling into situations and scrambling to return to the status quo whilst simultaneously being trapped; a very old-fashioned sitcom thread. I certainly didn't feel that is was trying to make a big insightful statement about something, at least, nothing larger than "it's better to like something than to dislike something."

'THIR-FUCKING-TEEN'.

In fairness, I guess originally Barley wasn't really a character, just a cipher, and in making him human Morriss and Brooker made him more, er, human. I just don't think that made for great comedy. It wasn't sharp enough to be genuine satire and it wasn't silly enough to be knockabout comedy. It was just 'dark'.

I doubt whether Channel 4 enforced any 'nicening'.
You know, maybe Barley always looked like that in Brooker's head, and if you boil the actions in any of the episodes down to the kind of 3-sentence description that you would find in TV Go Home, it wouldn't be that different. But TVGH gave the impression that Barley was a cartoonishly horrible amoral grotesque, and that's not what we got in the TV show. We got 'idiots'. I hoped it would be either venemous or ridiculous and it was neither.

pt. I

pt. II

For me it's Joanne McNally this year, for absolute comedy snob reasons. She's just not for me. I don't rate her one bit.

I absolutely love John Robins (fellow Queen enthusiast that he is), and his attempts to stick a chopping board to a whiteboard really made us laugh this week. Otherwise it's all a bit meh so far. I love Nick's vampire costume, though.

Jamali was a terrible contestant, I remember, but that must have been a stressful season to be on. Total social distancing, whole country on edge, etc. But yeah, it's not a show to try to maintain your cool persona on. If being in control is your thing, you should not answer the call.

i just find it odd that Steve P isn't sat in the traditional old man seat.

They sit in alphabetical order of first names, always have. They must have forgotten to get younger people with names later in the alphabet.

Joanne would probably be a laugh to hang out with, but hardly a comic genius.

> They sit in alphabetical order of first names, always have.

mind blown.

i kinda wish they'd have some of the Dave-era people back onto the bigger budget show

5, 7 and 9 are the best series imo. Don't think 8 was that bad either.

I’ve seen Sam Campbell live and his energy is off the charts nuts

This is amazing
https://bsky.app/profile/blueno.se/post/3kqgtq5hlir2f

I watched this last night and noticed we were getting a lot of low angled shots showing the puddles but didn't twig that they'd edited out Nick Mohammed's reflection. I wonder if there's much more of that kind of thing they've included that hasn't been picked up on yet? (I know about them having the contestants sit in alphabetical order each series)

Ooh, I didn't notice about the puddle reflections, that's a nice trick. I'm sure there are loads of wee Easter eggs in the linking shots. It took me about three series to work out that Alex was holding up the number of fingers of the episode part in the inserts cutting to and from ads.

It was also kind of mindblowing for reasons I couldn't quite fathom that the age-split of teams has Nick on the old person team. So I looked them all up and it's because there's ten years between the four younger ones then another ten years up to Steve.

Sophie youngest by four years, Jon and Joanne about the same age, then Nick about five years older than them but still ten years younger than Steve.

do they always split the teams by age? I always assumed it was mostly about scheduling and who was available to film stuff at the same time.

I don't think it's always by age but they like to have the teams contrast imo, age is one way to do that.

It seems quite age-based most of the time (basing entirely on Brand and Baddiel here, tbf) I haven't really looked it up.

Alan Davies and VCM an obvious age-split one as well

Season 7 for example it was gender based, Jessica Knappett is the same age as Acaster and Phil Wang but got paired with Kerry Godliman.

The pairings aren't always age-based: Frankie Boyle and Ivo Graham developed a weird father-son relationship in the Series 15 group tasks, for example.

I would have guessed Sophie was second oldest by a few years. She's had a hard paper round and is being played in the 'slightly crazy/menopausal woman' personality slot on the panel.

I was surprised as well but yeah she was born in '87!

I honestly don't know how old I thought Sophie was, but I'd absolutely have gone "older than Joanne" every day of the week.

aw I thought *every* reflection of nick had been removed but it's only the ones in that task.

Yeah I would've swapped Sophie and Joanne's real ages! (36 & 40 respectively)

Sophie has definite eccentric aunt vibes