Interesting. I have no idea what to really make of it. On the one hand, it was quite good for a first show, being live and all, with presenters who are more comedians and Lauren Laverne than those who are used to political interviews on live television. However, what weighs down the other hand is what would suggest to me that this show was more embarrassing than funny. The pre-recorded sketches were painful. Lauren Laverne and that other guy doing that E!News skit about the Sudan was about as humorous as undergoing a triple amputation and finding that the only available prostheses were ones you'd have to rip from the arms of dying children. It was agonisingly unfunny.
The bits that worked best were the live interviews, although, the desire to be funny overwhelmed any sense of actual question and answer protocol. I adore David Mitchell anyway, and have been told on many occasions that we would make excellent friends if I wasn't as shallow and ignorant about the world's more serious issues, but he was really good. At least with David Mitchell, it felt like the humour was more natural, that he was finding comedy in the interviewee's response rather than awaiting to see if the answer was relevant to any preprepared material. The best thing was when he kept repeating the full names of those he was interviewing. "Richard Sharp, what do you think? And what about this, Richard Sharp? Erm... Richard Sharp..." So adorable, particularly when Richard Sharp himself went, "You can just call me Richard."
Jimmy Carr was very funny. He is funny. But I only think he's funny when he's interviewing someone intellectually inferior to him. Or at least an easy target. That environmentalist was an easy target, and although Jimmy Carr was able to get a lot of comedy from the situation, the point of the interview was lost, and time had run out before Bjorn, or whatever his name was, had even really begun to mention why he was there. Although, if you're going to go around claiming that building volcanoes is going to help solve global warming, I think you're only fair game. "Some might say, you put the 'mental' in 'environmentalist'." Excellent. Plus a nice gag about Bjorn Again is always going to make me laugh. His Tunisia bit though... Not so good. I saw the aim, and it could have been really funny, but in a live environment, it looked more like some sort of GCSE drama attempt. I would know, I've appeared in many such like it. But I thought he was excellent at keeping the whole thing together, he's quick which is helpful when people are running out of things to say or when the others tell jokes that bomb.
I love Charlie Brooker. I do. Even if his wife is thee worst television presenter of all time. I shall never forget her calling Usher a 'sex-god'... And he was funny. Not very funny. But funny enough. Obviously, it being the first show and everything, there were bound to be nerves, but when you're in the middle of a surprisingly convincing spur of the moment rant, to trip over the punch line and then go back and fix it when it didn't really need to be fixed ruins the illusion somewhat and therefore the whole idea of the joke being funny. What's funny in writing does not necessarily translate onto television. Tragic, because I adore his writing, and even though he writes how I imagine he would speak, it's not the same when you know it's scripted. I don't know... Maybe he'll get better. I hope so.
I'm not sure I even want to comment on Lauren Laverne. The only reason she's really there is because they needed a woman and let's be honest, there are few who are decent enough or in the right vein for the show. She was painful. She's not funny, she tries too hard, and she is clearly quite ignorant of the subject matter being discussed. If you're going to be on a show about politics, at least brush up a bit. Slash, the topics for discussion had clearly been rehearsed, why had someone not pointed out to her that she was talking a load of crap.
Lauren Laverne: "Obviously, with Ed Balls married to Yvette Cooper and them both now being in the cabinet, it might get a bit awkward. What do you think?"
David Mitchell: "Well, they were both in the cabinet together before, so nothing will change..."
Being undermined whilst attempting to sound like you know what you're talking about on live television by a colleague with much greater intelligence must be hard. But that was funny. Quite possibly the funniest bit of the show and (seemingly) unscripted. Excellent.
I'll watch again next week and hope it gets better. I think it has great potential, but I think they're trying too hard and attempting to fit way too much into the time they have. But what do I know? Well, I'm going to suggest a bit more than Lauren Laverne... About comedy anyway.
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