The Fix

[McFlymo]

#sadface

..... Creepy Android Jimmy Carr is hosting this new Netflix panel show, opening with tired shite like "haha old people are racist!" and "the internet is bad, maybe..."

It's shit for cunts, isn't it? I suppose I should've known given a) it's a panel show. And b) Jimmy Carr's Android Eyebrows are hosting it.

What the effin heck?

[McFlymo]

Android Jimmy Carr does his command line "HUR HUR HAAAAAGH" laugh on cue, about 3 times within the first 5 minutes and a recording of Nikki Glaser's laugh at 5:32 is clearly repeated about 5 seconds later.

DESOLATION.

Sorry if I've been out of the loop, but has Jimmy Carr been in some sort of traumatic acid face incident recently and this is his comeback and I'm being a really insensitive cunt?

[paruses]

Funnily enough I've just given up the pretence of working and switched this on. Did an immediate search on google to see if there's a thread on here about it.

It is awful - is it meant to be edgy? Is this edgy in the States? The editing on Jimmy Carr's first fake laugh was either meant to mark this out as his catchphrase or just shocked the audience so much they were silent.

No doubt I will have many more thoughts about this and will either keep them to myself or drift off to one of the "hub" sites to seek solace.

Katherine Ryan is OK but it's still just reading out bits and not even on the skill level of Mock The Week.

[McFlymo]

Yes! And the audience laugh edits are curious in a few places, but that's probably standard for this sort of thing. Alarmingly, 15 minutes in and I'm warming to it (although Seasonal Alcohol Dependency should be factored in) ... I liked when the women talked about periods and being sent dick pics. #feminism #wokeasfuckbro...

(kill me now please)

[paruses]

Also warming to it but I think that's because Nikki Glaser and Katherine Ryan were pretty good - they seemed to break away from the set piece stuff. I quite like a bit of Ian Duncan Smith's schtick but the guy in the hat (who everyone on earth probably recognises except me) seems woefully out of place.

Jimmy Carr seems to be Brit-ing it up for his withering put downs and disdain but it just comes off as lukewarm hammy acting given what I presume are the network constraints placed on what he can say.

I don't care for the man these days but he seems even more stilted than usual and to be doing an audition piece on this show.

Starting ep2 now for some reason - I thought the guy on KR's team was Phil Wang so now I feel a right old racist.

[Pseudopath]

Android Jimmy Carr does his command line "HUR HUR HAAAAAGH" laugh on cue

No idea why, but YouTube recently recommended me a video which proves that ludicrous laugh is fake as fuck: https://youtu.be/WDUXYG6vaws

[Sin Agog]

I heard that they employed the entirety of Weta and ILM to spruce up the audience laughter.

This is one of those weird, botched attempts at introducing panel shows to America along the lines of Marc Maron's Never Mind the Buzzcocks and the American Taskmaster, and maybe even a little of Brand X with the nerdy statician break.  Ryan's doing the thing she does on panel shows where she says a completely jokeless line, then tags it 'so suck it, bitches!' to bring it back to laughter firma (I do like some of her brutally honest stand-up, by the way, lest you think I'm just being a dick), and Carr is being more transparently fake than ever.  They both strike me as slightly Macchiavellian people, so doesn't surprise me that they're friends.

Not totally unwatchable, though, just a bit reheated with lots of jarring Americanisms like those laugh tracks on top of actual laughs.

[paruses]

No idea why, but YouTube recently recommended me a video which proves that ludicrous laugh is fake as fuck: https://youtu.be/WDUXYG6vaws

I'll watch the video in a bit but it occurred to me it was as fake as fuck when I was watching some Cats Does Countdown compilations and there are bits where he laughs honestly and spontaneously and there's not a trace of that seal noise in there

[Sin Agog]

I don't think having a fake laugh is automatically nefarious.  I used to know a guy who had two laughs, one a pig-snort, and the other a more organic guffaw.  The former he'd dole out as an acknowledgement of a good job well-done (have a sticker).  It's a small way of allaying the social awkwardness of the silence that can hang in the air after a perfectly decent joke.  Everything about Carr is so self-built and consciously thought out that I don't know if he's doing it to be social, or to have a notable character trait that distinguishes him from his riva--- peers.

[paruses]

I don't think having a fake laugh is automatically nefarious.  I used to know a guy who had two laughs, one a pig-snort, and the other a more organic guffaw.  The former he'd dole out as an acknowledgement of a good job well-done (have a sticker).  It's a small way of allaying the social awkwardness of the silence that can hang in the air after a perfectly decent joke.  Everything about Carr is so self-built and consciously thought out that I don't know if he's doing it to be social, or to have a notable character trait that distinguishes him from his riva--- peers.

Very valid point - I have a sort of bark of a laugh which I use socially to be inclusive (I hate it when I have moments of self-realisation) but if I find something truly funny I tend to laugh quite silently.

Someone on RHLSTP said that Jimmy Carr isn't a naturally funny person but he has worked out how jokes work and applied that formula to his act. That laugh seemed to appear on one of the early Big Fat Quizzes so I assume he decided to work it into his act / persona then for some reason.

[McFlymo]

I did actually like Katherine Ryan's and Nikki Glaser's schtick on episode 1. Episode 2 just felt vacuous. Fell asleep after that.

Since Paruses mentioned it, I've found myself very attentive to everyone of Jimmy Carr's fake laughs. They seem to never ever get a reaction from the audience or panel on this show!

And that youtube video confirms he's a big creepy fake ass weirdo and definitely an android. Possibly from the future.

[paruses]

Yes - the lack of reaction is weird. The laugh is so jarring and there's a half second delay in there where you (I) think the audience are going to laugh at that rather than the material but it then crashes on.

Thought ep2 started a bit stronger, more confident, and more polished - which I found odd as it's not like the QI pilot vs Series 1 is it? Surely it's just commissioned and then filmed.

Didn't get very far with it as the dogs all jumped up and wanted to be let out (needless personal detail there for you). I will probably watch a couple more out of sheer bloody mindedness and morbid curiosity.

The sexy statistician is jarring too. She does her bit with the air of one of those people who ring in to Any Answers and are nervously breathless. And she needs to be more confident walking in those heels off the stage too because my nerves can't take the jeopardy when she exits.

Who is the man in the hat though? At least make me feel as out of touch as a high court judge.

[Sin Agog]

D.L Hughley is one of the four Original Kings of Comedy (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0236388/).  I saw that in the cinema when it came out, then hadn't heard hide nor hair from him since, so it's kind of interesting seeing him turn up on this dog's dinner of a Netflix show.

[McFlymo]

The sexy statistician is jarring too. She does her bit with the air of one of those people who ring in to Any Answers and are nervously breathless. And she needs to be more confident walking in those heels off the stage too because my nerves can't take the jeopardy when she exits.

Was genuinely on edge when she walked out of shot on one episode, wasn't sure she was going to make it. Her outfits are very interesting. I'd love to imagine that it's some sort of surreal, Shooting Stars type humour, but I suspect it's just an odd inconsistency that she looks so massively different every time and still seems so out of place.

[Sin Agog]

^ I just realised she was a guest on the Adam Buxton pod a couple of weeks back.  Haven't listened to that one yet because it hasn't exactly always been a life's ambition to get into the mind of a 'data journalist', but I guess I'll give it a shot.

[olliebean]

Wasn't she a semi-regular on that Frankie Boyle thing?

[paruses]

Wasn't she a semi-regular on that Frankie Boyle thing?

New World Order? Yes. I have just realised that she is also the data person whose columns I sometimes read in The Guardian. She seems pretty accomplished in her field but like everything else on this, out of place.

I've got this auto-playing sort of in the background as I sort of work and it is getting better but may well have plateaued. D.L. Hughley is a bit more comfortable but it's all still that "Tell us a funny story about Blackpool" style of presenting. It's only really any good when they break out of the set pieces and relax into some riffing but then that's true of pretty much anything in this genre.

And Jimmy Carr's mugging is increasing at an exponential rate. It sort of works on 8OOTCDC because there's some give and take with the guests but it's too subtle here and the only real feeling of interaction is with Katherine Ryan; presumably a mixture of having known each other a long time and being more comfortable calling each other sex pests and bad mothers but without having to signal it as bantz.

[up_the_hampipe]

I like some of the guests they have listed on this (it's a nice break from the repetitive panel show collective), but it looks rubbish. Netflix are really trying to get into this panel show/chat show/Daily Show game but they don't work as well on a binge watch streaming service, they are for TV.

[Swift]

Watched Episode 1 the other night. Add my name to the pot of people thinking it was going to be dire after the first few minutes but was surprisingly funny as it went on.

[Famous Mortimer]

I warmed to it rather quickly - but you're right, person who mentioned this a while ago, American comedians don't seem to love this format, or audiences don't, or something.

I wouldn't be upset if it came back, but Carr having no relationship with any of these people (Ryan aside) makes it tricky at times. Still, it's all comedians, so I should be happy.