Comic Relief 2021

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

It was funny when Vic and Bob would turn up, and they were invariably pissed up.

Also, remember that Blankety Blank spoof, with Glinner's Brother In Law's Brother ( can't be fucked to try and spell his surname , soz)'s unnervingly accurate impersonation, and Martin Freeman as Johnny Rotten, amongst other fine star turns? Astonishing nowadays to think that that went out during the Comic Relief slot.

[DrGreggles]

That Blankety Blank sketch was the last decent thing Comic Relief produced.
https://youtu.be/pNq7IZ-sTgI

Pretty stellar cast too.

Fuck me, Serafinowicz's Wogan is amazing.

[Norton Canes]

"You've all got eczema"

It's always the throwaways.

[DrGreggles]

"You're such a prick"

Love Putner's cameo too.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Fuck me, Serafinowicz's Wogan is amazing.

It's unnerving. Uncanny. That's not just an amusingly accurate impression, it's like Serafinowicz has actually become Wogan. Which sounds like hyperbolic wank, I know, but my God.

[jake thunder]

Partridge occasionally turns up doesn't he? Always good

[Antiseptic Poetry]

Partridge occasionally turns up doesn't he? Always good

Yep, very regularly. This is still my favourite (it gets a mention in I, Partridge).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-XLBKH0g_Y

[kalowski]

Yep, very regularly. This is still my favourite (it gets a mention in I, Partridge).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-XLBKH0g_Y

Ah, brilliant. And the big red shoes and pepper spray was last year wasn't it?

[up_the_hampipe]

That Blankety Blank sketch was the last decent thing Comic Relief produced.
https://youtu.be/pNq7IZ-sTgI

Pretty stellar cast too.

Fuck me, Serafinowicz's Wogan is amazing.

Yeah, that might be the last great sketch I can remember, aside from Partridge. British TV really gave up on Serafinowicz which angers me to this very moment.

[Glebe]

Didn't watch this, but there seems to be a bit of a buzz about Lenny Henry's weight loss. Saw a pic and he does indeed look incredibly svelte.

That Blankety Blank sketch was the last decent thing Comic Relief produced.
https://youtu.be/pNq7IZ-sTgI

Pretty stellar cast too.

Fuck me, Serafinowicz's Wogan is amazing.

Yes, absolutely fantastic. "Weary old Wogan's really startin' to look his age!" Pity there's only a low-quality clip on the Tubes.

[jobotic]

"You've all got eczema"

It's always the throwaways.

Seen this before but missed

eczmallent

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

God, I bloody love that Blankety Blank sketch. 

"We have to bid farewell to the jovial Juliette.  BUT DON'T COMMIT SUICIDE, YOU'RE GOING HOME WITH A BLANKETY BLANK CHEQUE BOOK AND PEN!".

I know it's a pre-recorded bit that the Comic Relief studio audience were watching on monitors on the night, but it seems to register barely a titter from them through most of it.

EDIT:  Christ, that was from 2003, that sketch.  18 bloody years ago.  Hard to imagine anything that unusual or even actually funny being made as part of modern day Comic Relief.  Can't imagine that suicide line would fly these days either.

[cacciaguida]

Was it for Comic Relief that David Walliams did his 24hrs of Panel Shows?

I remember it being largely wank, because Walliams is Walliams, and having him massively fatigued is no real improvement.

However, one of the panel shows was Call My Bluff.

I remember I enjoyed that, one but only because Key and Horne were on opposing teams and basically took over proceedings. Cue 5 mins of the kind of banter we now see regularly on No More Jockeys.

They really have a unique voice.
I recall the rest of the panel of low-grade comedians and celebs and maybe Russel Tovey not really being on the same page. Was great fun though.


I haven't seen this since 2011 though, so I may bewrong. Sadly seems to have disappeared from the online space, perhaps because it was broadcast live and you get all the weird bits of people saying the wrong stuff and walking between sets and fixing mics etc...

Anyone else remember this? I know there is a thread on it here somewhere, too.

[up_the_hampipe]

I know it's a pre-recorded bit that the Comic Relief studio audience were watching on monitors on the night, but it seems to register barely a titter from them through most of it.

I don't think they were playing the audio of the Comic Relief audience, as the sketch relied on the reactions/non-reactions of the Blankety Blank audience. For example, the sincerity of the "you're such a prick" response wouldn't have played as well with laughter, it had to hang there like a real moment.

[Phil_A]

Didn't watch this, but there seems to be a bit of a buzz about Lenny Henry's weight loss. Saw a pic and he does indeed look incredibly svelte.

Noticed that a couple of years back when the BBC did that odd retrospective show for him. I didn't think the gaunt look suited him that well, it really ages him.

[Billy]

I don't think they were playing the audio of the Comic Relief audience, as the sketch relied on the reactions/non-reactions of the Blankety Blank audience. For example, the sincerity of the "you're such a prick" response wouldn't have played as well with laughter, it had to hang there like a real moment.

I think this is mostly correct, but a mini-mystery for me is the moment when The Actor Kevin Eldon says "fuck" and a 2003-sounding audience titters in the background, in a way that doesn't fit the 70s vibe of the sketch. It's possible that it's generally a canned audience with the sounds of a (mostly dead) live audience occasionally heard over the top - what the YouTube clip doesn't indicate is that the two halves of the sketch were split over the evening and by the second half especially it was fairly late at night, when a lot of the audience had buggered off home and the few left were half asleep.

Saying that I really love the fantasy idea that the whole thing is the live Comic Relief audience, applauding at Wogan's Russia line, ho-de-hoing along with Su Pollard and general silence & unease whenever Johnny Rotten says or does anything ever.

[thr0b]

Early 2000s Comic Relief still had some great specials as well; not just the "new guard" (as was) doing Blankety Blank.

There was also this tremendous mini-episode of One Foot In The Grave. If you've not seen it before, do not look at the comments first as they obviously ruin every joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uhn-QmQ2rA

[jobotic]

Freddie Starr doing his Elvis impression of Johnny Rotten is brilliant.

[Captain Z]

Early 2000s Comic Relief still had some great specials as well; not just the "new guard" (as was) doing Blankety Blank.

There was also this tremendous mini-episode of One Foot In The Grave. If you've not seen it before, do not look at the comments first as they obviously ruin every joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uhn-QmQ2rA

That's very good.

Spoiler alert

Funnily enough, I looked at the year in the video title and thought "hang on, wasn't the final episode out before this?".

[close]

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

It's pretty obvious what's going on in that OFITG clip about 30 seconds in.

[Virgo76]

I've literally never seen anyone anywhere do such a good an impression of anyone as Peter Serafinowicz's Terry Wogan.
I don't suppose he gets much call for it these days.
Liza Goddard is dead at the end.
Who played the Greenham Common protester?

[petril]

Early 2000s Comic Relief still had some great specials as well; not just the "new guard" (as was) doing Blankety Blank.

There was also this tremendous mini-episode of One Foot In The Grave. If you've not seen it before, do not look at the comments first as they obviously ruin every joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uhn-QmQ2rA

I mean the comments ruin the whole series really. actually wish it had never been made now.

it's on my time travel bucket list to prevent it ever being made now

[Pseudopath]

Who played the Greenham Common protester?

Morwenna Banks, isn't it?

[vainsharpdad]

It's pretty obvious what's going on in that OFITG clip about 30 seconds in.

Spoiler alert

Pah. How does he hold up the newspaper/dvd then? Or it not get noticed? This is clearly from before he dies, and Margaret is just really, really pissed off with him

[close]

[Brundle-Fly]

Who played the Greenham Common protester?

It's Stirling Gallacher from The Office, Little Britain (plays the PM's wife), and seemingly every BBC hospital soap made in the past twenty years.

[neveragain]

Spoiler alert

Pah. How does he hold up the newspaper/dvd then? Or it not get noticed? This is clearly from before he dies, and Margaret is just really, really pissed off with him

[close]

That always stuck out to me. It's a shame it was seemingly made in a bit of a rush with details like that going unnoticed. The ending is edited rather abruptly too. I still think it's a lovely scene, even if you know what's happening from the start. The dialogue (and how it works both ways) is brilliant, as you would expect from Renwick.

[Pseudopath]

It's Stirling Gallacher from The Office, Little Britain (plays the PM's wife), and seemingly every BBC hospital soap made in the past twenty years.

Yeah...you're right. That'll teach me for treating 16-year old CaB threads as gospel.

[Brundle-Fly]

I think the problem with Comic Relief was when Children In Need and Sports Relief started doing more sketches. Also Strictly, Dancing On Ice, and the glut of celebrities making fools of themselves on reality shows. It got to saturation point. Once it was fun to see a stuffy newsreader attempt the cha cha, now it's 'yawn'. And who needs  another EastEnders sketch? 

[neveragain]

Yes, that ties in with my earlier point. Other brands of entertainment 'getting in on the joke' but with no funny bones about them.

[OpenMikeKnight]

That Blankety Blank thing is superb. Do we know who wrote it?