Utterly trivial observations about comedy

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Poor Linda.

[Twonty Gostelow]

The Young Ones wasn't actually the first instance of the University Challenge split screen team-on-team violence gag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzr6Xz_HOdM

[dr beat]

Currently watching the UK Office episode where Brent does the motivational speech and just noticed Gog from Peep Show is sitting on the front row.

[petril]

The Young Ones wasn't actually the first instance of the University Challenge split screen team-on-team violence gag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzr6Xz_HOdM

one day they'll use CGI to make the teams look like they're sat side by side in the studio, and the set will be the proper one everyone thinks it is

[franticplanet]

Currently watching the UK Office episode where Brent does the motivational speech and just noticed Gog from Peep Show is sitting on the front row.

Same thing, but with the League of Gentlemen's Christmas special when Chinnery was doing his (successful) public surgery on the rabbit, and the Prize Idiot from Dick & Dom in Da Bungalow.

[famethrowa]

I have an utterly trivial question. In the radio series of People Like Us, our Roy follows around a photographer and when he takes a family portrait, there's a "bit of business" about the makeup powder for faces. Is it some sort of "mistaken for cocaine" situation? I never quite got what that was all about.

[dissolute ocelot]

one day they'll use CGI to make the teams look like they're sat side by side in the studio, and the set will be the proper one everyone thinks it is

They should have done that with the current COVID studio instead of having plastic barriers between them, just put everyone in a separate studio (with intercoms for conferring) and put it all together afterwards using a big computer.

EDIT: Or have each person sitting atop a separate tree, all throwing food at each other.

[the]

Carol Cleveland is credited on the very first episode of the first series of " Monty Pythons Flying Circus", but is not actually in the episode; in fact, no ladies of the female persuasion appear in that particular show ( The one with Italians learning Italian, and the funniest joke in the world, and all that).

This might be a wrong vague memory, but I think in the first episode there's a sketch with CC that didn't make the final edit, but her name remained on the credits. I could check in the viewing notes but I can't be arsed to dig it out.

I've had a look now - the restaurant sketch (dirty fork) was taped for that episode, but during editing it was excluded, and it ended up in episode 3 instead. That's why an absent Carol Cleveland receives a credit for episode 1.

[Twonty Gostelow]

I have an utterly trivial question. In the radio series of People Like Us, our Roy follows around a photographer and when he takes a family portrait, there's a "bit of business" about the makeup powder for faces. Is it some sort of "mistaken for cocaine" situation? I never quite got what that was all about.

I didn't pick up on it if it is. Just a case of Mallard being asked to put powder on the bolshy son-in-law's shiny nose before the photo as a contrivance for the innocent Mallard to get punched (foreshadowed by Mallard having to have the same thing done to his nose earlier).

EDIT: Just thought I'd type 'Mallard' again. Mallard.

[C_Larence]

In episode 6 of the webseries Nirvana The Band The Show, there's a short montage of Matt trying to get a girlfriend. In this montage he sees a policeman on a horse and says "if only I had a horse...that's the secret, get a horse!".

In "The Burger", the opening episode of Nirvanna The Band The Show's second season on Viceland, Matt believes that he has found a magic burger that grants wishes. He uses the burger's "power" to convince Jay to go with him to an ice hockey game, and perform a gay kiss in the stadium on the kiss cam, which he believes will make everyone in the audience throw up and lead to himself and Jay getting on the news, and thus booking a show at the Rivoli. Outside the stadium he persuades the people who are in charge of the kiss cam to focus it on him and Jay. In a talking head (because the episode is a parody of the reality show Wahlburgers) he claims the burger is granting wishes he's not even wishing for and says "I'm thinking, what, am I going to get in there and have my own horse?"

[the]

Whenever I experimentally watch Transatlantic comedy that's touted to be good I normally come away cold, because its usual effect is of a truckload of writers unrelentingly hurling any wacky shit at a wall for 22 minutes, and unconvincingly pretending that it's all joined up. I have to say that episode description sounds like an example of this phenomenon.

[Mr Trumpet]

In Knowing Me, Knowing You the bit where he brings out a photocopier for the Hollywood actor to fix is meant to play as a really banal and idiotic gimmick, but that's exactly the sort of stunt that's absolutely standard now in the chat show genre. Now that celebs are desperate to show how normal and game for a laugh they are. Alan Partridge was a genuine pioneer in his field.

[the]

In Knowing Me, Knowing You the bit where he brings out a photocopier for the Hollywood actor to fix is meant to play as a really banal and idiotic gimmick, but that's exactly the sort of stunt that's absolutely standard now in the chat show genre. Now that celebs are desperate to show how normal and game for a laugh they are. Alan Partridge was a genuine pioneer in his field.

I suppose the implication in KMKY is that Gary Barker doesn't want to appear as the ordinary bloke that he really is underneath, and relishes his status and appeal as a Hollywood actor (which he doesn't want to be questioned - 'so is he normal or a star?').

In the case of a modern chat show, the implication would be that the celeb wants to additionally appeal as an ordinary person, their status as a celebrity being unquestionable ('they are a star AND they are normal').

Cutting through it like that, I can't tell if the modern example exposes an inflated belief in the magical properties of celebrity ("it's alright everyone, I can still function!"), or the requirement to manage your social relatability to your fanbase. The stunt itself is dressed as irony but in a way it's actually quite dogmatic about status.


^{Although obviously this is comparing a fictional example to real-world ones, and the fictional one is playing on the fragility of Gary Barker's status for comedy purposes}

[Zetetic]

Whenever I experimentally watch Transatlantic comedy that's touted to be good I normally come away cold, because its usual effect is of a truckload of writers unrelentingly hurling any wacky shit at a wall for 22 minutes, and unconvincingly pretending that it's all joined up. I have to say that episode description sounds like an example of this phenomenon.

Pretty sure NtBtS was all done on one side of the Atlantic (specifically in Canada) and written by two or three people. (That might be a slight underestimate, in fairness.)

[C_Larence]

Pretty sure NtBtS was all done on one side of the Atlantic (specifically in Canada) and written by two or three people. (That might be a slight underestimate, in fairness.)

Yeah I'm not sure how many writers it technically has but I think it's officially something like 7. Matt Johnson has said in interviews that any good idea that gets suggested by anyone on the crew will usually be considered, so you could count everyone involved as a writer. 

Whenever I experimentally watch Transatlantic comedy that's touted to be good I normally come away cold, because its usual effect is of a truckload of writers unrelentingly hurling any wacky shit at a wall for 22 minutes, and unconvincingly pretending that it's all joined up. I have to say that episode description sounds like an example of this phenomenon.

Written down it would sound like that, but it all works in the show and there's a reason NTBTS is highly regarded on this board.

[the]

It wasn't intended to be an accusation, it was just my personal observation about a lot of well-liked US/Can comedy that I've tried. The episode description just nudged me into vocalising it.

[spaghetamine]

Probably old news to a lot of you but rewatching Jeremy Makes It the other day was the first time I noticed Gog has a massive painting of himself in his house

[C_Larence]

It wasn't intended to be an accusation, it was just my personal observation about a lot of well-liked US/Can comedy that I've tried. The episode description just nudged me into vocalising it.

Fair enough, if you ever get around to watching NTBTS I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

[Icehaven]

In the Big Bang Theory, one of the goth girls that Howard and Raj try to chat up in series 3 turns up again working at an escape room in series 8.

[Icehaven]

On Friends, when Monica goes out for dinner with a millionaire, he asks her if she likes pizza and then flies her to Rome. That's an 8hr flight each way, and Rome is 6hrs ahead of New York, so if they'd left at a normal evening dinner date sort of time, say 7ish, they'd have arrived in Rome at about 9 o clock in the morning. Also that's a bloody long date. And Monica probably wouldn't have had her passport on her.

[Magnum Valentino]

Do you need a passport to fly on a millionaire's private plane?

[Marner and Me]

Do you need a passport to fly on a millionaire's private plane?

Yes, my mate is a chauffeur pilot. I got a text from him saying well that was a wasted trip. Upon further messages he told me this guys favourite restaurant is in Nice and he wanted to go there for his lunch hour. Got to the French airport and was unable to enter the country as the bloke had forgotten his passport. He owns Bournemouth airport, which will be the reason why he didn't need it on the way out. 

[Icehaven]

Do you need a passport to fly on a millionaire's private plane?

Yes, my mate is a chauffeur pilot. I got a text from him saying well that was a wasted trip. Upon further messages he told me this guys favourite restaurant is in Nice and he wanted to go there for his lunch hour. Got to the French airport and was unable to enter the country as the bloke had forgotten his passport. He owns Bournemouth airport, which will be the reason why he didn't need it on the way out. 

Yep I'd have thought you still need it to get into another country even if you don't go through a normal airport.

he told me this guys favourite restaurant is in Nice and he wanted to go there for his lunch hour

That's a looooong hour.

[Mark X]

On Friends, when Monica goes out for dinner with a millionaire, he asks her if she likes pizza and then flies her to Rome. That's an 8hr flight each way, and Rome is 6hrs ahead of New York, so if they'd left at a normal evening dinner date sort of time, say 7ish, they'd have arrived in Rome at about 9 o clock in the morning. Also that's a bloody long date. And Monica probably wouldn't have had her passport on her.

Similarly, in the episode of Community 'Early 21st Century Romanticism', Professor Duncan (John Oliver) gets Jeff to blow off the Valentine's Day dance and let him watch Liverpool v Man Utd on cable at Jeff's apartment. Meaning, even if the Valentine's Day dance starts as early as 7pm (given Greendale is in Colorado, 7 hours behind GMT), the match at Anfield is being played in the middle of the night.

"What if it's a pre-season friendly taking place in the USA?" Nope. It's Valentine's Day, right in the middle of the season. BoyIhopesomebodygotfiredforthatblunder.

[Marner and Me]

Bloke owns the airport, I doubt he's going to stick to that 1 hour for lunch.

My mate was also given the other ridiculous task of flying this blokes wife to and from the south of France daily for two weeks so she could decorate the house there. Then be back in time for dinne.

[Bazooka]

Bloke owns the airport, I doubt he's going to stick to that 1 hour for lunch.

My mate was also given the other ridiculous task of flying this blokes wife to and from the south of France daily for two weeks so she could decorate the house there. Then be back in time for dinne.

"I'm not eating this foreign muck, get me back home so I can eat turkey twizzlers in front of Hollyoaks"

[Marner and Me]

"I'm not eating this foreign muck, get me back home so I can eat turkey twizzlers in front of Hollyoaks"

The blokes actually an Aussie, but yes pretty much like that, he'd work all day, she'd goto the south of France then she'd have to come back and make his dinner. Why he didn't employ French decorators I don't know.

[jobotic]

If they had any class at all they would get a helicopter to the restaurant and land on the roof. What, like the restaurant has its own passport control? Do me a favour.





Helicopters don't go that far do they?

[Icehaven]

The blokes actually an Aussie, but yes pretty much like that, he'd work all day, she'd goto the south of France then she'd have to come back and make his dinner. Why he didn't employ French decorators I don't know.

Or a chef.

[Icehaven]

In Friends, it's never addressed how Monica and Chandler ended up living opposite each other. It's mentioned several times that Monica's apartment was previously their grandmother's, but not how Chandler came to be in the other one. Given they did quite a few flashback episodes it's strange they never bothered covering it.