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

No I would argue it's a revival of the trad sitcom in that it's so much slicker than 2.4 or Allo, Allo. It's a trad british sitcom but Curtis gave it an almost American feeling. maybe.

saw adverts for new IT Crowd series. next friday? appears to contain vince noir. it sounds digusting but is actually quite beautiful.

lol goths are depressed. Keep 'em coming linehan and/or matthews

OK it revived teh idea of the trad sitcom. My Family and My Hero can be seen as following directly from its undemanding but slick mix of mild slapstick and loveably quirky characters centred round "national treasure" type lynchpin.

-- acrobat, Monday, August 13, 2007 3:48 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

the trad sitcom never went away.

Father Ted = most influential non-UK European comedy?

Or does it count as UK because it was aired on C4?

it was made for channel 4 thru hat trick, so isn't really non-uk. and to be fair, can you name a single live-action comedy that has ever aired here from the continent?

monsieur hulot should have been a tv series, it would have removed the necessity for mr. bean's existence

Has Father Ted actually influenced anything? It was fairly traditional as well.

Has Father Ted actually influenced anything?

Black Books, for a start. Anything written by one of its creators.

Right, so Graham Linehan influenced himself to write a sitcom, having written one before. OK.

I think it's possible to influence oneself. Besides, I'm sure there are more examples of FT's influence.

Kudos to the C+B poster who note that you can recreate an episode of Mock the Week in your own house just by repeatedly saying "paedophile" in a Scottish accent.

Yeh the trad sitcom was very much a going concern when Dibley turned up but there is something slicker yet blander about it than what had before. It truly is the Tony Blair of comedy.

I don't think I've seen an entire episode of The VOD. But then, I've never seen so much as one second of "Black Books"

You're always saying you've never done this or that.

Gervais defends "Brent Dance" at Di gig:

However, the comic told radio station Heart: “After the Diana concert there was one guy – who works for a tabloid – and he wrote that the crowd booed.

“They didn’t boo, they loved it. People love it when something goes wrong and I was standing there and they demanded I do the ’robot dance’ and it was funny.

“But this guy wrote: ’He’s rubbish, everything he’s ever done is rubbish and it’s all over for him’.

“That week I got nominated for four Emmy Awards, sold 100,000 DVDs of Extras and signed up for two Hollywood movies. So bring on the backlash... I want him writing about me every day.”

I can imagine Gervais spending about 2 hours just insisting 'the criticism does not bother me' to his peers, ala Coogan in The Man Who Thinks He's It.

Is Mock The Week the funniest British comedy show on TV at the mo?

Talking of "signing up for two Hollywood movies - I caught a trailer for the adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" at the weekend. Gervais being billed above Robert De Niro will do his ego the world of good...

Is Mock The Week the funniest British comedy show on TV at the mo?

You have killed me.

MTW lol count = 4 or 5. More than 8 Out Of 10 Cats. Less than Star Stories.

Ban blueski

You're always saying you've never done this or that.

I've never done that

I saw some of Hyperdrive this week which wasn't that funny overall but they went back in time to 1995 which was funny. I think someone should write a whole sitcom set in 1995.

Diet Coke break
Dog Eat Dog
Devolution

Is Mock The Week the funniest British comedy show on TV at the mo?

Not in a world where Still Game exists, no.

I think someone should write a whole sitcom set in 1995.

SimpsonsSouth Park did it

Set in Essex.

Omni Trio, Outhere Brothers, Joshua Kaddison and Powder on the soundtrack.

think someone should write a whole sitcom set in 1995.

-- acrobat, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 11:18 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

i will write it. it will be called 'the auteurs plan their third album'. haines having his ankles broken will restrict him to his flat, giving it that classic 'confined space' brit sitcom vibe. the arc is, he has to 'sit out' britpop.

Not in a world where Still Game exists, no.

Didn't think it was still on. It's not particularly funnier anyway tho - just sort of nice pleasant viewing.

It's on Thursdays on BBC2, after Mock the Week and Hyperdrive. Presumably everyone's turned their TVs off for Hyperdrive and forgotten to switch them back on again. It's way funnier than watching Hugh Dennis pulling faces and doing Jimmy Savile impressions apropos of nothing, though YMMV, obviously.

I've never seen "Mock the Week". Never done that.

I've been a bit indifferent to the last couple of series of Still Game. It's still occasionally brilliant but for me too often strays towards Last Of The Summer Wine With Swearing.

Last one I saw was pretty hilarious

Never seem still game. Seen hyperdrive once. MTW twice. 8ooTC multiple times and that is the winner.

I like Still Game, I just find it more of a smile than a laugh.

Erm Still Game is on at the same time as My Name Is Earl people. Unless you is all amd and don't like that.

Never seen "My Name Is Earl". Never done that.

I don't like it as much as I did, but I still like it better than Mock the Week, and bits of the one a couple of weeks ago with Victor and Jack kidding on they were posh "aye, and then one time we kicked a giraffe to death" had me crying actual tears of laughter, and I don't do that very often.

(there are stacks of clips on YouTube, btw)

acrobat, there are these devices which allow you to record one programme while watching another. Watch Still Game, record Earl, watch Earl minus the adverts. Marvellous.

I think the Sc13nt0l0gy aspect puts me off "My Name Is Earl"

^^^ this

No, don't let it do that. I only found out about the Sc13nt0l0gy thing last week, it's not clunkingly obvious or anything (or I am stupid, or I am too busy laughing to care).

xpost

Maybe it's a Scottish thing.

I don't really watch TV. Or I don't mean to watch TV. I don't really plan. Louche.

xp

I was sad when I discovered this. But then Mark E Smith hits women and I still like The Fall.

And I still like Incredible String Band! So what a hypocrite I am!

Pac was a rapist but California Love is still hot.

who gives a shit if Jason Lee is a Scientologist?

Jason Lee's family?

Jason Lee's accountant?

I think it's the premise that Earl's karma-tastic adventures are pushing the religion of the main cast a bit, but that's pretty much nonsense.