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

HH has always been great at spotting TV stuff. It's gone a bit Look Around You, which I approve of. It's genuinely my ~TV highlight of the week~ rn

xp Noo! I thought Mandy got better. A bit '15 Storeys High'. Just daft. The 'Bulger boys' line had me laughing a bit too hard.

Really?! I bowed out after two episodes. I'll give you the Bulger boys line, that was funny :) But the whole 'I need to wee, let's piss in our wine bottle when my date's in the loo, empty it in his aquarium causing his fish to die, put it back on the table to have a sip of... wait for it... wee not wine!1!' was eyeroll for me. But I can see the slapstick element is funny for other people.

Hm yeah, that was a bit tedious. I think I just like the oddness of it, spider hammering, Shaun Ryder, Sonia - maybe it's the A-list cameos that pull me in.

b-but the whole spiders in the bananas thing...

it was interesting that they were 15 minute things, which felt about right. but then they showed them two at a time which undermined that.

Taskmaster starting soon on ch4

Daisy May Cooper
Johnny Vegas
Katherine Parkinson
Mawaan Rizwan
Richard Herring

(could've sworn KR had been on before)

Are people never on more than one series?

i don't think there's been a repeat so far, discounting the champion of champions season

ah, Katherine Parkinson is not the same person as Katherine Ryan (series 2)

Parkinson is the IT Crowd lady I think.

(i even used KR's initials in the same post as c'n'p-ing KP's name)

I am very surprised Richard Herring hasn't been on before now.

New series of Ghosts starts on bbc1 tonight (opposite university challenge). It's 8:30 on bbc1 so it's never going to be challenging but it's the horrible histories people iirc so is quite fun.

Oh yeah Ghosts is very enjoyable. I ended up canvassing a little with the lead actress on election day, funnily enough.

Atlanta is on bbc2 all this week. I think they are showing all 20 episodes of both series, 3 a night. It's not UK and not comedy, really, but I enjoyed it.

Watch it alongside community on 4 music for extra lols.

I think it's a comedy. The barber episode is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

It's funny but it also has something to say.

Last week's Frankie Boyle was good like this too. (Although sometimes on that I don't understand why they have 3 permanent guests and one they switch out halfway through. Mostly it's an expert but sometimes it's just romesh)

I found the BLM episode of Frankie Boyle's show a bit weird. Like, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be getting from it. It wasn't funny, and the people on it weren't any better informed than I was. So... what was the point of it? I haven't even watched this week's yet.

Atlanta is so great. We used to watch it as a double bill with the also sublime Better Things.

watched the BLM episode again and, dunno. was comedians talking politics but they were intelligent and probably had first hand experience of the stuff under discussion (ok, maybe Sara Pascoe not so much) and it was worth hearing. i hope it reached an audience that wouldn't see that stuff normally because they watch comedy and not, say, Newsnight.

it also reminded me of Larry Wilmore's Nightly Show thing that span off the Daily Show briefly and which was also interesting (but slightly weird in a similar way).

can't half-watch* Atlanta so i'm saving it up to binge some other time.

(* most tv watched during the day is listened to rather than watched because i'm 'at work'. a lot of shows don't really suffer when doing this, but some things are more complex or more involving or simply require me to look in order to follow it)

lovely bit on Ghosts on monday when robin's recounting his memory of thomas' death and they are all talking using his cadence.

tory mp on hignfy, why do they bother?

Ghosts is my favourite thing on telly right now.

New Taskmaster starts tonight.

is series 10 too late to start a taskmaster thread?

nothing wrong with last night's apart from the covid-inspired seating arrangements. oh, wait, he was too harsh on the 'no drop spilled' rule. there's a lot of rule bending i wish he'd come down harder on, but that wasn't one of them.

(they are all on All4 as well now, apparently (and still on Dave))

Daisy May Cooper laughing is already my new favourite thing on telly. The big reveal of the egg task was a bit Joe Wilkinson potato-gate, but the rest of the show was great fun, and Mawaan is going to be excellent value.

just want to congratulate Lee Mack for making me laugh for the first time in his career

Ghosts love thirded or fourthed.

Stath definitely getting S3 per Jamie Demetriou's Twitter.

That post from NV had me googling whether Lee Mack had died.

In a way

i'm trying ghosts based on you guys so let's see.

I lasted 2 eps then quit. Maybe it gets better.

If you don't like it from the start, you probably just don't like it.

yeah, it doesn't change much, all the one-joke characters continue with their jokes so it all depends on if you like said jokes.

that said, the rashomon-esque episode from a couple of weeks ago did something different and i've enjoyed the odd glimpse of their origin stories. and robin, generally.

the rashomon-esque episode from a couple of weeks ago did something different

Yes this was hilarious, and quite clever.

How does it hold up compared to, say, what we do in the shadows

it's 8:30 bbc 1 rather than 11:00 on bbc 2, which pretty much tells you everything.

i'm fond of it but don't expect dark or sophisticated (there is a plaque pit in the cellar...). it's all the horrible histories writers.

I'm a murrican, so I don't understand any of that!

It's much cosier and more family friendly basically - for me it's good natured-ness is part of the appeal. It's not completely without bite, though.

An innuendo about being sucked off is about as risque as it gets.

horrible histories is a book and tv series aimed at kids. educational sketches. there's a bunch on youtube (in the uk anyway).

okay. i'll test drive ghosts and see; which one is the rashomon episode?

also what is a "plaque pit"

a mass grave for victims of the Black Death

'Plague', not 'plaque'. A plauqe pit is where dentist toss removed rotten teeth.

Rashomon ep is 204, but probably more enjoyable if you know the characters a bit. I'd just start at the beginning.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p08vxrgx

I worked on this, so be gentle

Artwork by the guy who does Scarfolk

okay, watched the first two episodes of Ghosts. It's okay! Worth sticking with, I think.

I was halfway through the second when i had the very clear thought this was gonna be bought by a premium cable channel to screen and then remade by another premium cable channel for a US audience. Found out this morning it's new to HBO stateside, so halfway there.

And I listened to the Sink and enjoyed it. Reminded me of Blue Jam, but gentler, which is good given these times. Also, Alice Lowe.