Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 09:39:41 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Have I Got News For You returns with audience

Started by Fambo Number Mive, October 24, 2020, 02:22:07 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Fambo Number Mive

I know this has been mentioned in the GB thread, but I thought it deserves a thread in Comedy Chat.

Thought I might quote the comments on this from the GB thread:

Quote from: greencalx on October 24, 2020, 07:42:05 AM
This probably belongs in CC but even by the standards of post-Deayton HIGNFY this was a dire episode. The first couple this series, now that a studio audience has returned, were ok - nothing special, but passed the time. This one was so flat it made East Anglia look like the alps. Merton said about two words during the whole show, which tends to signal what he thinks of the host and guests. Jennifer Saunders's timing was all off, and her script was full of the formulaic jokes that were funny in the 90s when Angus was doing them, but less so 30 years later. What little momentum that did gather just got killed whenever Forde opened his mouth.

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on October 24, 2020, 08:26:01 AM
A studio audience has returned? Who would put their life and the lives of others at risk for sitting in the audience of Have I Got News For You?

Centrist satire finds another way to put lives at risk.

Are they taking the precautions SNL did or are they not even going that?

Quote from: greencalx on October 24, 2020, 01:49:30 PM
Yeah there's Perspex screens between the performers, and I think an audience of around 40 people, presumably in household groups. When the camera cuts to the audience, which isn't very often, you see threes and fours sitting together at some distance from others. I believe may be a second audience watching a livestream in a cinema, to fill out the applause/laughter.

Watching this now on iplayer.

- The panel laughing at a picture of Andy Burnham looking fed up with Saunders saying "Manchester didn't get the deal it wanted. Let's see how unhappy Andy Burnham was." Hah hah, the government aren't giving people facing a local lockdown enough financial support again.

- Matt Forde sounding critical of Starmer calling for a national lockdown.

- Just feels like five wealthy people and a studio audience giggling at piss-weak satire mildly critical of the Government, during probably the worst government since 1920 which have given the third worst response to the pandemic in the world (behind the US and Sweden). It's clear HIGNFY is there for a bit of release for the centrists still. Seems so weird Hislop is also editor of Private Eye (which I know doesn't have much effect, but it does report a lot of information the rest of the mainstream media don't).

- Missed opportunity to make a joke when Saunders read out the Theresa May recoiled like she'd found an ancient kipper in the fridge", given kippers is what some people call UKIP members.

- Michael Gove made with food, how funny.

- Matt Forde did a crap impression of Tony Blair.

I watched The Trial of the Chicago Seven a few days ago and it was inspiring to see people who cared so much morality and about what was happening in their country. Now it just feels like the spotlight is on wealthy people giggling about how bad things are so they can make weak jokes indoors during a pandemic. Stopped watching Have I Got News For You after ten minutes, it's shite.

Brundle-Fly

Not a loaded question, but who should be on the panel then?


Fambo Number Mive

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on October 24, 2020, 03:10:27 PM
Not a loaded question, but who should be on the panel then?

Good question.

I think its more a problem that most commentators dont live in the same world as ordinary people and so anyone in the media is usually either doing very well and is happy with the status quo or doing very well and wants to push things further to the right.

I don't know what HIGFNY could do on its own to change this, maybe look for younger and less wealthy comics. They could at least have come political balance and perhaps have more people with passion and who are somewhat political. Hislop used to be like this but now he's a toothless piece of cardboard.

No one really has much to say on there any more, compared to the Deayton years. I'd like Mark Steel or Will Self on there, but that might be my political bias. Maybe I am expecting too much from the show.

lankyguy95

- It baffles me people still watch this.

- It's never been a show that holds the government to account. It's always been a comedy news quiz that does bits of satire but where the comedy was its real strength. And it's crap comedy now because its a tired, half-assed version of the same format and its main comic driving force (Merton) can't be bothered.

- Incidentally, the only thing I've seen of it recently was a clip in the aftermath of the Cummings story and Hislop was as angry as could be expected.

petril

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on October 24, 2020, 03:31:48 PM
Good question.

I think its more a problem that most commentators dont live in the same world as ordinary people and so anyone in the media is usually either doing very well and is happy with the status quo or doing very well and wants to push things further to the right.

I don't know what HIGFNY could do on its own to change this, maybe look for younger and less wealthy comics. They could at least have come political balance and perhaps have more people with passion and who are somewhat political. Hislop used to be like this but now he's a toothless piece of cardboard.

No one really has much to say on there any more, compared to the Deayton years. I'd like Mark Steel or Will Self on there, but that might be my political bias. Maybe I am expecting too much from the show.

I think it suffers from having a slower turnaround than anywhere else topical humour emerges these days. Most of the real good gags and sticking the boot in will have been done and seen before recording. The only way they could really go with the current set up is sticking the boot in further, which seeing as its a BBC thing and how the Tories are whipping them, is unlikely. Scrapping it is probably more hassle than just keeping it running at this point

pigamus

It was still at least watchable until a few years ago - maybe a couple of decent laughs, the occasional good one with a decent host - but I can't watch it now.

petril


Brundle-Fly

It's harder to do this sort of satirical panel show now because politix is completely polarised more than ever.

"The one who tries to please everybody is universally despised"...etc

Ominous Dave

It's become the British equivalent of the Simpsons, a once-great show that's been limping along embarrassingly past its prime for so long that it's hard to even know what it's meant to be anymore.

In retrospect they should've killed it after the second guest-presenter series. The Bruce Forsyth episode would've been a fun format-breaking note to go out on.

BlodwynPig

BBC

Pointless Celebs had

Ian Dunt
Jacqueline Smith
Ayesha Hazarika
Michael Fabricant
Rachel Johnson
(+ Martin Bell and someone I didn't know)

on tonight.

These are the New Celebrities of The Extreme Centre.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Get Her Who Plays Villanelle presenting it, Hislop and Merton sucking their guts in, combing their hair/ scalp ( in Hislop's case),  both doing their best to impress the hostess, best show in years, job's a good ' un.

thenoise

Jonathan Pie to present
Jack Whitehall playing the 'posh' one
James Corden playing the 'working class' one
Ben Shapiro playing the 'serious' one and the butt of all their jokes
Plus a token woman, of course.

See, it could be worse.

dissolute ocelot

The guest panellists really aren't the problem, especially as normally at most one of them is even noticeable. They need to get rid of the team captains most urgently, find a regular presenter, and sack all the writers and producers and theme tune and everything else.

It's hard to see how this sort of satire can be done well: look at Channel 4's slightly fresher version The Last Leg, which really isn't very good but at least tries to take a point of view (being nasty to the disabled is bad, something I'm not sure anyone involved with HIGNFY could confidently pinpoint). But it has regular panelists who have some kind of rapport with the host (as do other popular comedy panel shows from ALOTO to QOS), while HIGNFY has a team captain who doesn't bother, a different presenter every week, and Ian Fucking Hislop.

One possible way to go would be to play up the silliness and whimsy and "here's a photo of a horse", a Russell Howardy sort of topical comment with lots of banter between the team. That might be shit, but wouldn't be as bad. But the people at the BBC want to think they're doing topical satire while simultaneously not actually doing anything resembling topical satire.

May as well just turn it into Eric Pickles and Alasdair Campbell throwing Ikea meatballs at each other for 30 minutes every week. That would be a kind of topical political comment.

jimboslice

Quote from: pigamus on October 24, 2020, 04:03:24 PM
It was still at least watchable until a few years ago - maybe a couple of decent laughs, the occasional good one with a decent host - but I can't watch it now.

I remember people saying this 15 years ago, and I don't disagree.

I don't share the same hatred that many do of Ian Hislop, he's capable of a good rant and I enjoyed his Cummings bit all those months ago.

But fuck me, that was absolute drivel on Friday. Someone else mentioned that Merton and his new floppy hair barely said two words, which I noticed too. Laziness? Off day? Pure contempt toward the guests?



The Last Leg is watchable if they have a guest on who's a bit unpredictable, like Sean Lock or that time Chris O'Dowd was pissed. Usually it's just Josh Widdecombe scrambling around on live telly, struggling to say anything coherent, never mind amusing, about current events.

As for what to do with Have I Got News For You, I don't have a fecking clue.


Tony Tony Tony

Quote from: jimboslice on October 24, 2020, 10:50:58 PM

But fuck me, that was absolute drivel on Friday. Someone else mentioned that Merton and his new floppy hair barely said two words, which I noticed too. Laziness? Off day? Pure contempt toward the guests?

Agree Friday was the poorest one in many a year. I too noticed how little Merton contributed, maybe it was just the edit. He did seem to perk up a bit towards the end and his dislike of Matt Forde was evident. Forde looked embarrassed and slightly hurt when Merton
Spoiler alert
criticised albeit as a joke(?) one of his impressions - I think it was the Keir Starmer one
[close]
. I would check back but the show really doesn't merit a rewatch.


greencalx

Last nights claimed to have a "virtual audience". Do they just mean edited in laughter, or did they have people watching the recording from home on Zoom or something?

Didn't think it was too bad, though I'd been drinking. Ayoade was in the chair. I know he's not rated in these quarters, and he's rarely done much for me, but he had a disdain for the script/format which seemed to keep Merton entertained and that lifted it a bit.

greencalx

Turns out the Hat Trick website has the answer: "Series 60, episode 6 was streamed live to 200 virtual audience members who watched in their homes. The reactions of the virtual audience recorded on the night were mixed with audience reaction from shows previously recorded this series." So a bit of both.

dissolute ocelot

Since The Last Leg was just mentioned, centrist desolation last night in their US election special: Jimmy Carr, Richard Osman, and Ayesha Hazarika. I miss the days they'd have a dangerous radical like Anna Soubry on.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on November 07, 2020, 07:38:57 PM
Since The Last Leg was just mentioned, centrist desolation last night in their US election special: Jimmy Carr, Richard Osman, and Ayesha Hazarika. I miss the days they'd have a dangerous radical like Anna Soubry on.

Since The Last Leg was mentioned, I did a big lol at this.
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1325026313875361792

Jockice

Quote from: dissolute ocelot on November 07, 2020, 07:38:57 PM
Since The Last Leg was just mentioned, centrist desolation last night in their US election special: Jimmy Carr, Richard Osman, and Ayesha Hazarika. I miss the days they'd have a dangerous radical like Anna Soubry on.

Jeez. I tried really hard to like that show (on the grounds of disability representation etc) but it's absolutely fucking awful. I'd rather watch literally anything else.. I mean, I rarely see Have I Got News For You nowadays but I don't go out of my way to avoid it.

Billy

Anyone else catch the 30 Years clip show tonight? Not sure if a repeat or not but it referenced the pandemic so recent enough.

For me it suffered from some extraneous talking heads, so we heard in detail about how much Victoria Coren-Mitchell likes the show that could have been used for more old clips (which varied in quality, some looked ex-VHS/YouTube) and insights from Ian, Paul, John Lloyd etc. Angus wasn't interviewed at all which was rubbish (declined or not asked?) but a good amount of time was spent on his departure and the episodes around it, including some neat unaired bits after where they note that a journalist was in the audience who quickly scarpered after recording. They made a big point over the fact that they disagree they "made Boris prime minister", claiming they just intended to show him up as a hopeless buffoon who couldn't even host a quiz show, let alone the country, but it didn't stop me being incredibly depressed at the clips of him which were a right laugh 20 years ago but stopped being funny the moment he became Mayor of London, let alone anything more.

I wondered if they'd include clips of Savile on the show but that was skipped completely, as was the Paula Yates ep which would be just as uncomfortable to see again today. Nice to see some of 'John Lloyd's Newsround' (the original pilot) and some fascinating test footage of Alexander Armstrong auditioning as host on a dodgy makeshift set, back when they were still considering a permanent Deayton replacement. Interestingly the iPlayer description states new talking head contributions from Nigel Farage and Ed Balls, neither of which were seen at all - last minute editing going on there? We got a few seconds from Ken Livingstone at least...


idunnosomename

Quote from: BlodwynPig on October 24, 2020, 08:48:56 PM
BBC

Pointless Celebs had

Ian Dunt
Jacqueline Smith
Ayesha Hazarika
Michael Fabricant
Rachel Johnson
(+ Martin Bell and someone I didn't know)

on tonight.

These are the New Celebrities of The Extreme Centre.
meteorite this studio of cunts


up_the_hampipe

The documentary really highlighted that the show hasn't gone bad, it was actually never good at all. We just didn't know any better.

Victoria Coren-Mitchell still treats it like the height of cutting edge satire. I'm begging her to watch anything else.

lankyguy95

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on December 27, 2020, 02:56:05 PM
The documentary really highlighted that the show hasn't gone bad, it was actually never good at all. We just didn't know any better.
Odd comment. Don't even know how you could get that from a short documentary.

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on December 27, 2020, 02:56:05 PM
Victoria Coren-Mitchell still treats it like the height of cutting edge satire. I'm begging her to watch anything else.
This I do agree with and it's continually odd to me that people treat it like a satire show. Ultimately it's always been a comedy news quiz with a small element of satire. The difference is it used to be a funny one.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: lankyguy95 on December 27, 2020, 03:39:46 PM
Odd comment. Don't even know how you could get that from a short documentary.

Very few funny clips pulled from an archive of 30 years.

Quote from: lankyguy95 on December 27, 2020, 03:39:46 PM
This I do agree with and it's continually odd to me that people treat it like a satire show. Ultimately it's always been a comedy news quiz with a small element of satire. The difference is it used to be a funny one.

I don't see how that's odd. It is a satire show. Paul Merton says some bollocks to break things up, but it's centered around political humour.

Fambo Number Mive

The companion books Have I Got News For You (1995?), woman with tub of lard lying on bed on front cover, and Have I Got 1997 For You were properly satiricial and angry at the Tories. The companion books now are just absolute shite.

My theory is that in the late 1990s the establishment was happy for the Tories under Major to be really properly mocked by the comfortable UK satirists and held to account because a load of Red Tories were waiting in the wings so not a lot would change.

Will we see the same thing in the next couple of years or is this government going to become full on dictatorship style by 2023 far surpassing anything Bossy Cop Labour could become? I do think life is going to become like under the fictional fascist government in Michael Drysdale's succession in a few years - sorry for being so cynical.

I also think that, morally, what the show has done since Angus left (enabling the rise to power of Johnson and Rees-Mogg) is worse than anything Angus has done. I'm not defending taking cocaine but the whole guest presenter shite has helped the career of some terrible, terrible people (I know Rees-Mogg hasn't guest presented yet but they gave him a really soft ride on the show. Remember how he said something slightly nice about Corbyn and Coren Mitchell made it sound like he had given every lefty a hug).