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

Trailer for The Peter Serafinowicz Show.

Jimmy Carr is being lined up to front a new clip show for the BBC.
He last night recorded a pilot episode of What Are You Looking At? with plans for a full series.

The show, made by Have I Got News For You producers Hat Trick, promises to take a ‘comedic look’ at the week's television

However, the show has already been criticised for being a carbon copy of Harry Hill's TV Burp, which has proved a ratings hit for ITV.

BBC director general Mark Thompson has previously been dismissive of copycat programmes, and the corporation says their show will be ‘more spiky’*.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s236/mezxspectrum/HarryHillsmallerrordiffusion.gif

Dogface officially not too bad.

Who'd have thunk it 25 years ago that the only member of the Young Ones/Comic Strip clan to still be making reasonably good TV comedy into his 40s/50s would be Planer?

"Mike" was on SAXONDALE last night.

the only thing i remember about t&j being how topical it was, hence the cb radio episode, etc.

I don't remember ever having seen this episode, but it sounds fucking fantastic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7028033.stm

"Other winners included David Gest, who picked up the prize for funniest reality TV person."

i still can't believe he's bangin Malandra Burrows

BBC2 launches it's Comedy Night (again) tonight:

The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle - Jennifer Saunders giving Oprah-type confessional talk shows the Larry Sanders treatment.

The Peter Serafinowicz show - impersonates The Beatles, Michael Caine, and other hip'n'happenin stuff.

That Mitchell and Web Look - (rpt)

Newsnight - Tories lol.

Serafinowicz won't be funny

i like PS, find him v watchable so expect at least 2 chuckles

in other news i think there should be a Mighty Boosh comic

Ban Peter Serafinowicz, this is dreadful

Between the old Futarama gags, the old French and Saunders gags and the old Simpsons gags, my most entertainment was from going "Look, it's the guy who played The Curious Orange" when the guy who played The Curious Orange was onscreen

/\ ban, obv.

i thought PS was fine, better than expected, several good lols. i also cheered Paul Putner tho. better than Dogface (which features the same doe-eyed lass).

BBC scheduling methodology troubles me now as it seems that you can't get a new comedy on BBC2 unless you're already a name, you can't get on BBC Four unless you're aloof (i think FOTC counts as aloof altho i still haven't seen an ep), and you can't get on BBC3 unless you're incredibly stupid and crap. Doesn't bode well for actual fresh funny talent at all.

didn't see it

think you'd be somewhere between me and dom if you had

I was disappointed by Serafinozowicz. I loved Look Around You, but this wasn't half as clever. Seemed like he was taking cheap shots at things that have already had the mick taken out of them a thousand times before (Big Brother, Michael Caine, QVC). I don't get the Mitchell and Webb sketch with the snooker commentators at all.

Can anyone remind me what the bit of music Seraphimowitz played on the lady's fingers? I can't work it out, even though it's very famous.

In other news, I've been really enjoying Snuffbox (about a year too late I know). Especially "Rapper With A Baby".

The '70s man getting married' thing felt a bit Look Around You S2 but in a good way.

Can anyone remind me what the bit of music Seraphimowitz played on the lady's fingers? I can't work it out, even though it's very famous.

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

PS's alan alda was great. rest of it middling. but passed the time.

vivyan vyle was bbc1 fodder, i thought, ab fab watered down.

best of the three was mitchell and webb, yes. unfortunately the last one. still graham norton next week.

i liked the chiropractor sketch on mitchell and webb

I liked the cavepeople sketch and the nazi sketch on Mitchell and Webb. the rest was disappointing.

Dogface officially not too bad.

It's total cack

i'm sticking with my first answer

thursdays now officially less funny now norton has replaced mitchell and webb. v vyle still dreadful. BUT 30 rock is on ch5 later and is quite good.

serafinowicz good bits = none of the recurring characters (although i did like butterfield's(?) disguises). dickens' jammy corners, poison sockets good. beatles very poor.

'30 rock' is great. by episode four or five it's genius.

Serafinowicz has a sort of gentle silliness that is quite likeable but, generally, the material is shandy weak. Poison sockets, Christmas Man, Limpy's Got Cancer the only highlights this week.

Funny that, for all his voice talent and acting chops, the best thing he's ever been involved in (Look Around You S1) hardly featured him as a performer at all.

the best thing he's ever been involved in

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UDONGdCjkNw

Yeah, that was good too.

Serafinowicz has a sort of gentle silliness that is quite likeable but, generally, the material is shandy weak.

i agree, forgot to watch last night (thought it was on friday for some reason, in your face BBC branding-obsessives).

Paramount Comedy has a kinda "stand-up" compilation show featuring biggish name stand-ups of today's routines that they can get cheap, ie: from 1997. It's fucking weird to watch. Stewart Lee as a punchline machine comedian, Sean Lock doing a kinda "Gas as hosted by Lee Mack" surrealism piece, Dave Gorman telling actually jokes...

Also, on the topic of S.Lee, apparently he's got the BBC nod to produce his own pilot, based heavily on the old Dave Allan stand-up shows. Except with an extra half-a-finger, I assume.

I'm glad he found work so soon after being sacked by Bolton.

OK, "It's Adam and Shelley", it's the last straw really. Why? How? Why again?

did anyone see Learners? her from spaced, him from doctor who. i taped it but am not sure i can summon up the will to actually watch it given the BBC1 9 o'clock timeslot

Going to the taping for S. Lee's no-longer-cancelled pilot, will report back

I saw most of Learners. It was not worth the time although I had to keep watching because I was intrigued by the building they used for drving school HQ and wondered whether they were using the actual interior or a set.

Also, on the topic of S.Lee, apparently he's got the BBC nod to produce his own pilot, based heavily on the old Dave Allan stand-up shows.

What is with Dave Allen? This from the bbc's blurb about Amid Djalili's new show...

Omid Djalili invokes the spirit of Dave Allen in his new self-penned, self-titled stand-up and sketch show.

I imagine a lot of comedians are fans of his

Dave Allen was funny, died within the past five years, didn't have a massive fall-off in funniness towards the end of his career, plus there's something endearingly "old school" about his approach that's gonna suit guys like Djalili and Lee: stand-up with brief character sketches

xp

Plus Lee and Djalili are both "lightly political" comedians, like Allen.

Dave Allen was great! His comedy was gentler, slower, and yet more piercing and devastatingly-observed than most modern wannabes'.

I'd forgotten that Dave Allen used to do sketches. I only rember him sitting on that stool telling jokes (and drinking and smoking iirc).

Pour one out...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/content/images/2007/08/20/daveallen_2_396x222.jpg

Allen became very rude towards the end or, perhaps, that material was always part of his stand-up and '90s TV allowed him to broadcast it. I just remember my parents (big fans in the '70s) being appalled by the explicit sex jokes; like a hero of theirs had revealed his true colours. I doubt my Dad had been so disappointed in anyone since Dave Hickson joined Liverpool in 1959.

He used the f-word, I was shocked by that

Yes, perhaps it was more the language. Poor old Mum just can't get past swearing; she nearly made my Dad turn off One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest when it was first shown on TV in about 1988 cos of the cussing. It became one of my Dad's favourite films!

Welcome to the Jonesy Nostalgia Thread.