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

I don't have a Wikipedia entry either.

Includes News Summary at 9.00pm.

like swimming in a cool sea and passing through a warm current, etc...

Where are the standards of today, I ask you.
I don't have a Wikipedia entry either.

-- Marcello Carlin (marcellocarli...)

Oh, have I got one?

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)

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

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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)

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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)

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'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)

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

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

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

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

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

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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)

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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)

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

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

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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)

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

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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)

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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'.

Tim Vine has a recurring role in Lee Macks's sitcom Not Going Out, which imo is as close as UK comedy gets to its own According To Jim.

We just watched season six - the last of the old seasons we hadn't watched (we only got into the show during lockdown and had been watching the previous seasons in order of a blog my partner found that rated them), and I don't know if it's because the most recent season was such a drag but I really enjoyed it - Asim Chaudry was a great contestant, I really liked Tim Vine, the two young ones were mostly rubbish (esp Russell Howard, who was uniformly unfunny and seemed to simply want to assert he was a 'proper' 'bloke' in each task), and Liza Tarbuck was a manic, mischievous energy I very much appreciated. Not peak TM by a long-run, but still fairly strong I thought.

Excited for the new series, though.

Russell Howard, “one of the world's top comedians” (Sunday Times)

A mate of mine worked for Deliveroo a while and delivered food to Russel Howard. He didn't tip.

Alice is very pretty but alas has a politics podcast with Matt Forde so is indefensible.

I rewatched all the serieses last year and concluded that Alice Levine is the least standout contestant they've ever had (is this what the young people call "mid"?). She's not super competent or incompetent or funny or anything, really. I'm sure she's a perfectly nice person.

I have to say, I love Tim Vine. I've been to see him a few times at the Fringe, and have laughed very hard at all his very stupid jokes. He's just excellent at what he does. I can see how not everyone could like what he does, however.

he should do a politics podcast with jeremy vine

TM made me finally explore Tim Vine's standup stuff, and his brilliance at the dad-joke made me suspect if I ever caught a show of his I mighth legit die laughing - he tickles a spot within 49-yo me that only Harry Hill previously reached. Alice might have had potential but she was absolutely scuttled by being teamed-up with Russell Howard in every team task.

Don't understand Alice Levine's appeal at all, much less how she spent nearly 10 years at Radio 1 including a stint in the Peel slot.

This series of Taskmaster New Zealand failed to deliver, despite Abby Howells delivering probably the greatest ever prize task item, first up in the first episode. I suppose it was always going to be downhill from there, but it actually felt a lot like S12 UK with all the contestants being generally competent and rarely outstandingly funny.

S12 UK was great! Desree! Guz!! Morganna!!!

Hmm, I just remember it as Alan Davies and VCM being able but not really funny. I thought Morgana was great but stood out in a shallow pool.

> Liza Tarbuck was a manic, mischievous energy

the thing i remember most about her in this series was her just stomping something into the ground.

The thing where she gets Alex to plant his naked arse into a cake

That's what I won't forget

Anyway, this show is remarkable in how it's redeemed a whole slew of what I imagined were low-table DAVE panel-show dullards and proved they are actually very very very funny (tbh I watch no panel shows beyond WILTY). The TM magic failed with Russell, however.

Very few people can't be redeemed by Taskmaster, so it's quite an achievement for Russell Howard to be as bad at this as he is at everything else.

Do you guys get to see the New Year one-off specials? There's some real gold in there too - Rylan Clark and Kojey Radical and Shirley Ballas should really have done a whole series.

I liked Alan Davies a whole lot more than VCM on their series. And I concur that it's probably possible to die laughing at Tim Vine's stand up. He's the absolute GOAT at his format.

Yeah Kojey was great.

i thought it was time for a dedicated taskmaster thread: a thread for Taskmaster

I’m in!

catching up with Colin from Accounts and it's pretty good, albeit without much Colin. episode 5, the Brisket episode, especially good.

they were on Front Row tallking about it and it gave it a bit more context. all those jokes about being married, all the age difference jokes, the odd phrase here and there (Dame Edna, sleak brown dog...) all from life.

and Ludwig starts tonight, him from everything and her from everything, comedy detective show. i will give it a go but it's on bbc1

Love Colin, tho heart sank as everything went tits-up in the final ep (hoping there's a s3 to make it all good again). the episode in the resto with her mate's awful gf was excellent. it's a sharp and warm romcom but - and this is key - it also has a line or a joke or a setpiece every episode - and indeed, often several - than genuinely has me LOLing.

Still not clear if the couple also partook of the drug party in that one episode and I think they purposefully kept it vague

and Ludwig starts tonight, him from everything and her from everything, comedy detective show. i will give it a go but it's on bbc1

― koogs, Wednesday, 25 September 2024 18:22 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Watched ten minutes of this and couldn't be bothered with continuing, not enjoyable or interesting on any level.

As someone who likes wry, silly, murder mysteries based around puzzles, and Mark Corrigan trying to wing it in fish-out-of-water situations, and Anna MM being a bit sarcastic, this in theory is right up my street. Unfortunately the "case of the week" aren't fun puzzles you can work out (yet) and you don't see any of the 'main' puzzle. So it's more for people who like the idea of puzzles but not actually doing them. I'll watch them all though I guess.

Really like Colin From Accounts. Altho - did I miss something with Meggles and who she was with then wasn't? And the Rumi character at the dinner was amazing!