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8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown

Started by amateur, April 16, 2021, 10:23:39 PM

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amateur

I'm sure there's an old thread for this, but I know Barry Admin loves a new thread and this is on the telly at the moment.

I've never watched it before. It's taken twenty minutes for them to get to the Countdown part of the show, which I don't have a problem with, but it does seem unusual.

Quite into the combination of chat show, stand up riffing and Sean Lock surrealness.

Twenty one series though! Is this one of Britain's greatest panel shows?

jobotic

Used to be alright if the Dictionary Corner guest was good, and Sean Lock was on form. And Jon Richardson wasn't there.

I could watch it despite the loathsome presence of Carr, but these days, - Rachel Riley, no thanks.

paruses

#2
Best consumed as the highlights compilations on YouTube, I have found.

Joe Wilkinson's poem, Sean Lock and Miles Jupp bickering, and Gregg Davies' Chris Eubank (both parts) are my arbitrary top three.

lankyguy95

Is this still on? Unreal.

I enjoyed it when the idea of watching that very straight daytime format being done in a chaotic, amateurish way was funny. Even the initial series or two when they extended out the prepared comedic setups a little. But looking at Wikipedia that was around 2013/2014. 

I would guess, without looking, that the viewing figures quickly grew higher for the Countdown version than the original and that's why it's still on. I don't know what the premise of the show is now other than some increasingly contrived sketches, I would guess. People surely can't still be watching it because HAHA THEY'RE BAD AT THE GAME!

Alberon

The actual game is played fairly straight most of the time, though of course none of them are as good as an average contestant on the real Countdown.

The comedy bits are increasingly tired and formulaic as the show has gone on too long (as successful shows often do). Sean Lock and Joe Wilkinson occasionally deliver magnificent stuff, like Joe's poem mentioned above, but it is time to stop.

Sean's absences, or when he's back looking ill, don't help either. Richardson's fussy old man shtick is completely worn out now as well.

Mind you, it doesn't seem like they're making many new episodes at the moment, at least partly due to the pandemic. Of the five or so episodes first aired this year I believe two were recorded well over a year ago.

Intro - 5 minutes of Jimmy Carr doing paedophile/dogging/old people dying jokes.

20 minutes of each guest introducing their hilarious comedy prop mascots which a line of intern vassals have spent hours making only to watch Rob Beckett bite it in half and hoover up all the laughs.

Words round - contestants pretend not to know what a words are.
Numbers round - contestants pretend not to know what a maths is.

Dictionary corner - twat with a laptop showing comedy pie charts / twat doing 3 minutes of their 2015 edinburgh show / John Cooper Clarke looking bemused.

Break. Joe Wilkinson comes on dressed as a snail and does a poo on the floor.

Words/numbers. Jimmy Carr crawls naked across the studio floor pretending to be an earthworm to try and distract John Richardson from getting the word 'ERUDITE'.

Conundrum - the word NOBJOCKEY

Jimmy Carr looks like a mole from Sylvanian Families with his new hair plugs.

Good night everyone.

Ambient Sheep

It's my guilty pleasure... or was.  Richardson and Riley's behaviour has put me off somewhat, although I have caught a couple of the more recent ones.

At least they've got past the phase of having (an) animal(s) on every single episode for a series or two... that was fun at first but soon got very tiresome.

Also, I'm sure they're lovely people, but most of the Dictionary Corner guests whose schtick is pretending to be someone else can fuck RIGHT off.

amateur

I quite liked Riley saying "no, you've fucked it" to someone on the numbers round tonight.

Got a laugh out of me tonight at the very least!

chveik

Jon Richardson AND Rachel Riley, that's enough to send you into a murderous rage

imitationleather

I used to watch it and found it generally alright but I can't bear the sight of Rachel Riley now.

non capisco

Last time I saw this a few years ago Sean Lock looked and sounded a ball hair away from death. Is he alright now?

Stoneage Dinosaurs

For me the main appeal is Sean Lock still being on TV and being funny. I also kind of enjoy it because I like playing at home, but don't want to watch actual countdown because I'm not a hundred years old

Stoneage Dinosaurs

And yes dictionary corner is largely a chore to get through. Even someone naturally funny and likeable like Adam Buxton looks like he's dying on his arse in those bits.

Captain Z

This and WILTY are the two panel shows I will happily stick on in the background if I want to break up the silence. 50% of the time there's at least one good panellist that might make you laugh, with the added bonus that you can actually play along with the rounds.

But yes, dictionary corner is the absolute pits. There was one with John Cooper Clarke the other day where you could tangibly sense the audience willing him to end his poem about halfway through, people on the verge of clapping in a desperate attempt to make it stop. It actually made me laugh for the first time in a very long while tonight when Christopher Bliss (who? Ed) did his train-murder short story.

Jockice

Never seen it. In fact I've never seen Countdown. I'm strangely proud of this.

timebug

Agree with most of the previous posts.Used to be good, lost it way back. And Richarson morphed from being a young weirdo with OCD to an old man with extreme views on almost everything. Sean saves it,when he is able to. But it is no longer 'must see' TV for me. I will watch it if I have nothing better to do.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I'm not sure it was ever must see TV, but I do enjoy it. I've tried to work out to what extent the Countdown format plays into it - perhaps the simplicity of it makes it fairly unobtrusive, leaving the panelists free to crack wise. That's probably more thought than anyone has or should ever give this show though.

I don't have a problem with the Dictionary Corner guests. One of the few I remember falling flat was, sadly, Vic Reeves.

Quote from: amateur on April 16, 2021, 10:23:39 PM
Twenty one series though! Is this one of Britain's greatest panel shows?
I suspect it's one of Britain's cheapest panel shows. They can probably shoot a whole series in a couple of days (hence Sean Lock appearing to be dying of a frog in his throat for weeks on end). Heck, they didn't even have to make their own set.

Autopsy Turvey

Quote from: Angrew Lloyg Wegger on April 17, 2021, 12:57:04 AM
And yes dictionary corner is largely a chore to get through. Even someone naturally funny and likeable like Adam Buxton looks like he's dying on his arse in those bits.

That might be because Adam Buxton isn't naturally funny, he's naturally quite bland and ordinary (but likeable, fair enough) and he needs something funny to say or do. Weirdly, instead of doing that, he chose to squander a rare chance to engage with a TV audience by just reading out 'genuine YouTube comments' in his stilted mid-Atlantic RP. That'll do eh. At least the man who pretends to be Sean Bean has some trace of eccentric originality. Countdown is an evergreen format, but the original has lacked any humour and jollity since Richard Whiteley died. This one just needs more letters rounds and less mascot shit.

I think the worst Dictionary Corner I saw was three blokes doing a song about gloves.

Quote from: Autopsy Turvey on April 17, 2021, 12:21:56 PM
Weirdly, instead of doing that, he chose to squander a rare chance to engage with a TV audience by just reading out 'genuine YouTube comments' in his stilted mid-Atlantic RP.

See also Holly Walsh blandly introducing some venn diagrams that probably took 10 minutes to make and Joe Lycett's fake emails to various local council departments.

Famous Mortimer

Another former enjoyer who got thoroughly turned off by the recent antics of Riley (Richardson has always been a complete comedy vacuum, so I didn't need him being an idiot to put me off).

Dictionary corner has gotten much worse, too - once was too often for Brett Domino, that bloke who pretends to be Sean Bean, that woman who pretends to be Natalie Cassidy, Spencer Jones or Ivan Brackenbury.

BeardFaceMan

It's nice they get a bit experimental in Dictionary Corner but it fails more often than it hits. Was it last series they had a guy on who literally does shit video edits on youtube and he just talked over them without making any jokes? A big problem with DC are there are too many one-joke characters who come back for more when once is more than enough. And when it's people doing characters they're usually just doing material from their scripted act so if they get asked a question they haven't prepped for by one of the comedians they just look lost, improvising is not their strong suit.

Famous Mortimer

I presume it's less experimental than "this comedian is represented by the same agency as me, best have them on", but I may be being excessively unkind.

notjosh


Gulftastic

Aside from being dull, what's Richardson done to put him on the shit list?

Spiteface

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on April 17, 2021, 01:52:14 PM
Another former enjoyer who got thoroughly turned off by the recent antics of Riley

Same here, to a degree.

Could never imagine Vorderman doing some of the skits they do while the clock's going, though.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Gulftastic on April 17, 2021, 04:33:41 PM
Aside from being dull, what's Richardson done to put him on the shit list?
Mostly it's the dull thing, I think he made some boring beige centrist comment a while ago but if he was funny I wouldn't have minded.


Ambient Sheep

Yup, that's the one.

Being anti-Corbyn is one thing, but actually blaming him for somehow letting the Tories be cunts -- rather than, y'know, blaming the actual Tories themselves -- is quite another.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: non capisco on April 17, 2021, 12:47:43 AMLast time I saw this a few years ago Sean Lock looked and sounded a ball hair away from death. Is he alright now?

Seems to be.  But yeah it was pretty worrying for a bit.  He seemed fine in S13E01 (2017/06/22), Lee Mack replaced him for S13E02 (2017/06/29), then he turned up again in S13E03 (2017/07/06)[nb]For some reason, Virgin have called these S13E03, S13E04 & S13E05 in the past; they might still do to this day for all I know.  They had the correct first broadcast dates on them though.[/nb] with shaved head, beard, and sounding very croaky.

Questions were asked at the time but nobody came up with anything definitive.

Not quite sure when he started to look better (maybe a year later?) but he seems fine now.

Although, as has been noted above, some of them are clearly recorded WAY in front of transmission, and close together, so we can't deduce much about the actual timeline.


idunnosomename

sitting across from Nicky fucking Morgan, who said she would never serve in a Johnson government pre-leadership election, then did serve as culture sec in a Johnson government, then resigned before the election to into the lords

moon faced tory cunt