Six white Oxbridge blokes

[Large Noise]

To anyone in the know, why is it BBC comedy budgets have been slashed but every other BBC prestige drama has the budget to be set in three or four different countries?

I'm very much not in the know, but comedy (so I hear) has far less international appeal than other genres because it's so culturally specific and jokes don't necessarily lend themsevles to translation into other languages. There's something similar going on in Holywood whereby less comedy gets made because the Chinese don't go for it.

[Brundle-Fly]

I suppose that Keith & Paddy picture Show is the closest ITV get to making scripted comedy these days. Can't imagine ever seeing anything like Shelley, Rising Damp or even Hardware being made now.

[pigamus]

To the chap who encouraged me to watch Tracey Breaks the News - my cursor has been hovering above a youtube link for a half hour...but I daren't.

Try the Overly Woke Support Group - Twitter likes that sketch.

[MattD]

To be honest, if it means less old fashioned smug shite like David Mitchell and more surrealism like Limmy, then I'm all for a bit of change at the BBC.

[Ignatius_S]

...To anyone in the know, why is it BBC comedy budgets have been slashed but every other BBC prestige drama has the budget to be set in three or four different countries?...

Other budgets have been reduced, so it's not just comedy. For instance, self-shooting on factual shows has become far more common; although there can be excellent reasons for self-shooting, frequently, cutting costs is a real driver.

However, returning to your question, the short answer is money and prestige – rather like when the Beeb was doing a decent amount of period dramas. Although pricey to make, these brought in a lot of money – e.g. international sales.

The time of dramas you're talking about tend to be very marketable aboard. Additionally, they (The Night Manager is one example) lend themselves to multi-national production, so the BBC isn't stumping all the money itself.

Comedy can sell abroad and indeed, the BBC has a very long tradition in this (e.g. the radio adaptation of Steptoe and Son was always introduced as 'the world famous comedy success'). More recently, I can recall a discussion of The Trip's first series here, where initially people were citing its UK ratings to judge its commercial success but overlooked how well it did overseas (IIRC, it did very good video on demand business in the States). However, there are difficulties (as pointed above) in exporting humour and ultimately, dramas are a safer bet commercial.

Also, the decline in the BBC's in-house guarantee (which is the amount of shows that earmarked as being a BBC production) has played its part. This was acerbated couple of years ago (I think, it was), it was announced that this would be scrapped (although there might be the odd exception).

In a nutshell, this means that all content has to be commissioned under competitive tendering – so BBC Studios (the production wing) has to pitch alongside independent companies. One idea being that companies will be competing fairly. This also allows the Beeb to pitch shows to other broadcasters.

Pitching is a time-consuming and hellish process – it's not unusual for that to take longer than making the blooding show – and the downside relates how likely is BBC Studios wanting to pitch shows that are risky? Broadcasters – whether the BBC or any other – are risk-aversive and BBC Studios needs to pay its way.

...And even if the beeb is in the doldrums, surely C4, ITV or Sky could still eke out a sketch show?

As per that story I linked to, broadcasters are nervous about comedy. To be fair, I feel they have some justifiable reason. A goodly amount of people I know, won't bail on a drama series after just the first episode and are willing to give it time – comedy, on the other hand, isn't given that consideration.

[Ignatius_S]

I suppose that Keith & Paddy picture Show is the closest ITV get to making scripted comedy these days. Can't imagine ever seeing anything like Shelley, Rising Damp or even Hardware being made now.

There's also Benidorm – although there was a tendency for ITV to put scripted comedy on ITV2 (and Plebs has been very successful there).

[Brundle-Fly]

There's also Benidorm –

Isn't that winding up now?

[Ignatius_S]

Isn't that winding up now?

I'd say sooner rather than later but wouldn't make a bet on the timing.  There was talk about this series being the last but there's been no official confirmation and previously, there's been plenty of speculation that proved wrong.

However, we do have the stage adaptation of Benidorm on Ice to look forward to.

[Icehaven]

Is it maybe a bit because tastes/humour have changed a bit now too,and sketch comedy like anything else has become (for want of a much better word) unfashionable? I feel like a lot of people who now turn up on panel shows all the time would have been in sketch shows 20 years ago (and some of the older ones probably were). It feels as if sketch comedy will end up being regarded in the same way variety performances etc. are now, as of it's time but not a medium anyone's that interested in producing or watching anymore. And I say that as someone who grew up loving loads of sketch shows and having my sense of humour largely shaped by them, but the whole idea of them feels like something from the past that's (currently anyway) been replaced (for better or worse) by other styles/genres like spoof docs, panel shows, American sitcoms etc.

Plus TV can't remotely keep up with the immediacy and cheapness of the internet, and not just for satire either. If people want a laff now they follow funny people on twitter or read humorous (YMMV) sites or fb pages etc., they aren't going to bother watching something on TV (or even catchup) when they don't find it half as funny.

[Brundle-Fly]

It feels as if sketch comedy will end up being regarded in the same way variety performances etc. are now, as of it's time but not a medium anyone's that interested in producing or watching anymore.

Britain's Got Talent pulls in nearly ten million viewers though.

[Brundle-Fly]

Plus TV can't remotely keep up with the immediacy and cheapness of the internet, and not just for satire either. If people want a laff now they follow funny people on twitter or read humorous (YMMV) sites or fb pages etc., they aren't going to bother watching something on TV (or even catchup) when they don't find it half as funny.

A lot of young people certainly.  Why would they want to watch a BBC sketch show if one can watch pranksters being arseholes, quirky American rich kids YouTube channels and people fighting in McDonalds? A lot of internet humour also uses source material like shreds too. Some of them quite brilliant, I must add.

[Icehaven]

Britain's Got Talent pulls in nearly ten million viewers though.

Well OK, maybe variety has come back around a bit (albeit in combination with the talent contest fad). Maybe in 10-15 years there'll be a comedy sketch show competition like an amateur version of WLIIA? I'd watch it. Once anyway.   

[Brundle-Fly]

Maybe in 10-15 years there'll be a comedy sketch show competition like an amateur version of WLIIA? I'd watch it. Once anyway.   

Sadly, that impro discipline and national pop culture collectiveness will be long gone by then.

[thenoise]

Well OK, maybe variety has come back around a bit (albeit in combination with the talent contest fad). Maybe in 10-15 years there'll be a comedy sketch show competition like an amateur version of WLIIA? I'd watch it. Once anyway.   

Jack Dee could be the Simon Cowell character, pressing his red buzzer when he doesn't like a joke and then insulting their appearance or something.  Josie Long or some other woman could be the 'nice one', letting them carry on with their shitty act even though the other two have buzzed.  The other one can be anyone really, whoever is cheapest.

Some of our greatest ever comedians started out as contestants on talent shows, such as Jim Davidson and Roy 'Chubby' Brown.

[Pseudopath]

Mandem never watched Famalam, no?

[Brundle-Fly]

Mandem never watched Famalam, no?

I love that!

[zomgmouse]

Genuine question: what would be the best way of funding and shooting a comedy show, whether sketch or narrative? Especially if like me you're basically an unknown with big ideas. What's the chance of being another Flying Circus or Comic Strip Presents (though thematically unrelated anthologies are probably even harder to sell), i.e. given a bunch of money and a bunch of freedom to shoot a bunch of funny material that would then actually be aired by a recognised broadcaster? Is that possible nowadays without, say, crowdfunding and then just uploading it on YouTube?

[Revelator]

From Michael Palin's website (https://www.themichaelpalin.com/palins_posts/busy-summer/)--the second paragraph is off-topic but might be of interest to Python fans.

"I see that the head of Comedy at the BBC has assured the world that he would not commission anything like Monty Python again. This is evidently nothing to do with the fact that we were dreadfully unfunny and wisely avoided by anyone with a sense of humour, but that, after careful analysis of photographs of the team, we have been found to have white skin colour and worse still, to have gone to two of the most useless universities in the world, Oxford and Cambridge. We can only plead guilty and apologise to the BBC for blatantly disregarding the fact that there is nothing funny at all about white skin pigment and a good education. We were lucky to get away with it for as long as we did.

Talking of Python, I do still go and visit my friend Terry J. Last time we walked up to the pub together. The symptoms of his dementia will not miraculously disappear, but I continue to go and see him because there is a real glimpse of the old Terry there. He says very little, but I feel that we make contact still. There's a lot there in his eyes, and he smiles and takes my hand, and that's worth the visit any day. And he's still walking miles each day. He's looked after very well – if his carers can keep up with him!"

[gloria]

Genuine question: what would be the best way of funding and shooting a comedy show, whether sketch or narrative? Especially if like me you're basically an unknown with big ideas. What's the chance of being another Flying Circus or Comic Strip Presents (though thematically unrelated anthologies are probably even harder to sell), i.e. given a bunch of money and a bunch of freedom to shoot a bunch of funny material that would then actually be aired by a recognised broadcaster? Is that possible nowadays without, say, crowdfunding and then just uploading it on YouTube?

Nothing to stop you making a load of cheap and cheerful comedy vids yourself and sticking them up on YouTube. People do this everyday and careers have been created this way. Don't expect to transfer to BBC 1 until you have a few hundred thousand subscribers, though.

[Famous Mortimer]

Isn't one of the issues about how difficult it is to get your foot in the door, these days? Internships are thing, and you need some coin behind you to live and work in London for £0. Or is this still the case? I admit to not paying super-close attention.

[Ferris]

From Michael Palin's website (https://www.themichaelpalin.com/palins_posts/busy-summer/)--the second paragraph is off-topic but might be of interest to Python fans.

"I see that the head of Comedy at the BBC has assured the world that he would not commission anything like Monty Python again. This is evidently nothing to do with the fact that we were dreadfully unfunny and wisely avoided by anyone with a sense of humour, but that, after careful analysis of photographs of the team, we have been found to have white skin colour and worse still, to have gone to two of the most useless universities in the world, Oxford and Cambridge. We can only plead guilty and apologise to the BBC for blatantly disregarding the fact that there is nothing funny at all about white skin pigment and a good education. We were lucky to get away with it for as long as we did.

Talking of Python, I do still go and visit my friend Terry J. Last time we walked up to the pub together. The symptoms of his dementia will not miraculously disappear, but I continue to go and see him because there is a real glimpse of the old Terry there. He says very little, but I feel that we make contact still. There's a lot there in his eyes, and he smiles and takes my hand, and that's worth the visit any day. And he's still walking miles each day. He's looked after very well – if his carers can keep up with him!"

Jesus, poor old Terry J.

Dementia is my greatest fear, thank fuck it doesn't run in my family so if I end up suffering from a heady dose of it, I'll be a genetic trailblazer.

[idunnosomename]

[tag]Put another dime in the jukebox, baby[/tag]

[gloria]

Isn't one of the issues about how difficult it is to get your foot in the door, these days? Internships are thing, and you need some coin behind you to live and work in London for £0. Or is this still the case? I admit to not paying super-close attention.

If you want to get into the BBC or ITV via an internship and don't want to/can't afford to live cheaply in London, move to Salford. There's shitloads happening at Media City. But that's not the only way to get on. Kids have become millionaires by doing dumb shit on YouTube. Many places these days have fringe theatre festivals and it costs next to fuck-all to put on a play above a pub. Get out there and DO something. Then, once people start to know who you are, they'll look at your TV scripts with greater interest. Just think - people with LESS talent than you are getting on in the industry because they possess the drive and enthusiasm to produce their own stuff.

[Famous Mortimer]

But, the avenues that were there in the past to working class kids with little / no money are no longer there, right? And going through all the rigmarole of getting theatre on at a fringe festival while holding down a full-time job, in 2018, is a lot more difficult than you're making it out to be.

How many people doing shows at the BBC or ITV got their start via an unpaid internship, compared to people who were hired from the free fringe or Youtube?

[gloria]

How many people doing shows at the BBC or ITV got their start via an unpaid internship, compared to people who were hired from the free fringe or Youtube?

Don't know, sir. But I doubt anyone got to write their own comedy series after being an intern. It's like any kind of writing. Get a job and do it in your spare time til it pays enough to quit.

[Brundle-Fly]

Many places these days have fringe theatre festivals and it costs next to fuck-all to put on a play above a pub. Get out there and DO something.

I admire your positivity, gloria, but (unless you're loaded) I'd love to know where you can put on any play in a room above a pub for 'next to fuck-all' especially if you're expecting to get bums on seats?

[thenoise]

I admire your positivity, gloria, but (unless you're loaded) I'd love to know where you can put on any play in a room above a pub for 'next to fuck-all' especially if you're expecting to get bums on seats?

Find and befriend some people who are already doing it.

[thenoise]

Dear BBC I am known on the famous cookdandbombd comedy website for being very funny indeed and I believe that my post history speaks for itself. Please find attached my six part comedy series which I might consider offering to you for production. Channel 1 or 2 please, not those poxy digital channels.
Kind regs, thenoise

[Brundle-Fly]

Find and befriend some people who are already doing it.

Or wait for your kid to become one of these' YouTube dumb shit comedy millionaires' to pay for it?

[idunnosomename]

me an ma mates are dead funny. spesh gary. LEGEND GARY we call him. BBC should give us a channel haha no but they should give us a show.