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Mock the Week cancelled.

Started by TheQueensboroBridge, August 02, 2022, 03:47:35 PM

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Jackson K Pollock

Presumably it's a sign that I'm getting old (only early 40s, but still...) but in my head Mock The Week is still that new thing that I haven't quite got round to watching yet but probably will one of these days if there's nothing better on.

Pretty staggered to learn it's been going for 17 years!

Kankurette

Doesn't Merton have a reputation for being a bit of a cunt?

Stonefish

Quote from: Kankurette on August 06, 2022, 07:33:22 PMDoesn't Merton have a reputation for being a bit of a cunt?

I went right off him with the Angus Deyton stuff. Nothing wrong with giving Deyton a hard time about what happened, but it seemed more than joking, especially at the end.

Bennett Brauer

He's stuck the knife in a few times since Deayton was forced to go (although Deayton has twice been asked to come back as a guest host - dunno if Merton was party to that). When there's personal antipathy there's not much you can do about it, but I think he would have been better off shutting up after the event.
Deayton and producer Harry Thompson used to work all week on the show, developing the rounds and honing the script, before Merton rolled up on the Thursday for the recording. Without Deayton I doubt the show would have been anywhere near as big, and Merton should appreciate that.1

I watched this episode a couple of weeks ago, and there are a few incidents of Merton pointlessly having a go at Deayton (who looked taken aback), and this was still seven series before Deayton got the boot.


1.  Also Merton was a terrible guest presenter

Stonefish

Quote from: Bennett Brauer on August 06, 2022, 08:05:45 PMDeayton and producer Harry Thompson used to work all week on the show, developing the rounds and honing the script, before Merton rolled up on the Thursday for the recording.

Deayton was always my favourite. It's hysterical that he got fired for this when recently it was reported that they found cocaine in every toilet in Westminister and nobody gave a fuck.

Virgo76

Enjoyed that Guardian piece by Dara. Hit the nail on the head.

Midas

Mock the Week was shite, etc.

Quote from: Kankurette on August 06, 2022, 07:33:22 PMDoesn't Merton have a reputation for being a bit of a cunt?

I get the impression he may be 'difficult'. Don't know of any specific incidents, but he seems to have this irritable, standoffish demeanor when he isn't performing that rubs me up the wrong way. I'm probably full of shite.

Virgo76

Never heard any shit about Merton.

Fambo Number Mive

I've probably mentioned this on here before but I have the two Have I Got New For You books from the 1990s and they have some satirical bite and a real anger in places at the Major years. Was it Deayton going and the decision to keep celebrity guest presenters each week (which I thought was a terrible idea) that removed almost all of the remaining satire from the show?

Dayraven

QuoteI liked Dara's article, it was a reasonably argued. I still never fully got on with the show, though. Just the ratio of good and bad comics was always way off.
I always thought it was unusually variable round to round — in particular the 'do a bit of your standup' round often being weak and out of place, while 'Scenes We'd Like to See' got the best out of most people.

bigfatheart

Quote from: superthunderstingcar on August 06, 2022, 02:15:11 PMMy money would be on Merton because Stewart Lee, who also had a bad time on HIGNFY, wrote in one of his footnotes in How I Escaped My Certain Fate, "It's probably worth pointing out that during my short-lived and misguided attempt to appear on TV comedy panel shows, in late 2006, Hislop was easily the most helpful and supportive person I encountered."

Fair enough - I was mostly reckoning Hislop because I remember him getting shirty back when a few people mentioned it as a show that was intimidating, a boys' club, etc. Plus, when O Briain did Room 101, it was one of the few shows where Merton looked like he'd actually woken up and was enjoying himself.

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on August 06, 2022, 08:49:02 PMWas it Deayton going and the decision to keep celebrity guest presenters each week (which I thought was a terrible idea) that removed almost all of the remaining satire from the show?

I reckon that was the major blow - both because it meant they lost Deayton's contributions to the script, and because too many episodes became about the novelty of who was hosting. Obviously Boris Johnson, but also Bruce Forsyth, Brian Blessed, Tom Baker, etc - fun, but inevitably it became all about the personalities rather than the satire, and those episodes were the ones that got the attention, so they chased that. Looking at the list of episodes, they mostly seem to have stepped back from that in recent years and stuck with comedians and dependable presenters, but I'll go out on a limb and say that it's probably not regained any of the bite it used to have. Would love to be proved wrong, though.

Quote from: bigfatheart on August 06, 2022, 09:47:57 PMtoo many episodes became about the novelty of who was hosting. Obviously Boris Johnson, but also Bruce Forsyth, Brian Blessed, Tom Baker, etc

Jimmy Savile was a guest presenter once.

DrGreggles

The one with Brian Blessed hosting was amazing telly, but not really why HIGNFY exists.

I think I bailed shortly afterwards.

Fambo Number Mive

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on August 06, 2022, 09:55:39 PMJimmy Savile was a guest presenter once.

He's not listed as being a guest presenter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Have_I_Got_News_for_You_presenters

He was a guest on the programme though, can't remember if he was on Ian's or Paul's team. Rolf Harris hosted it once according to that list.

Looking at that list, Clarkson hosted 12 times, Hague 3,  Campbell once, Alan Johnson once, Boris Johnson four times, Balls once, Philips once, Clegg once... talk about being the establishment's jester.

Church presented it when she was 17, which is impressive (Charlotte Church is pretty great generally to be honest).

Apparently John Torode and Gregg Wallace co hosted a show.

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on August 07, 2022, 09:06:29 AMHe was a guest on the programme though, can't remember if he was on Ian's or Paul's team.

Sorry, I got mixed up.


superthunderstingcar

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on August 07, 2022, 09:06:29 AMLooking at that list, Clarkson hosted 12 times, Hague 3,  Campbell once, Alan Johnson once, Boris Johnson four times, Balls once, Philips once, Clegg once... talk about being the establishment's jester.
If you're looking for reasons why the show lost its bite, this right here.

All of those would have been fine as guest panelists (even Johnson, up to a point), but as soon as you make them host you lend them an air of authority, and when they get to read out all the scripted jokes it means you're laughing with them instead of at them.

beanheadmcginty

I was in the audience for the recording of one of the Ed Balls hosted episodes and he was so spectacularly awful at presenting it I started to think he had some sort of brain damage. They did a heroic job of salvaging something mildly watchable in the edit.

kalowski

Quote from: bigfatheart on August 06, 2022, 09:47:57 PMFair enough - I was mostly reckoning Hislop because I remember him getting shirty back when a few people mentioned it as a show that was intimidating, a boys' club, etc. Plus, when O Briain did Room 101, it was one of the few shows where Merton looked like he'd actually woken up and was enjoying himself.

I reckon that was the major blow - both because it meant they lost Deayton's contributions to the script, and because too many episodes became about the novelty of who was hosting. Obviously Boris Johnson, but also Bruce Forsyth, Brian Blessed, Tom Baker, etc - fun, but inevitably it became all about the personalities rather than the satire, and those episodes were the ones that got the attention, so they chased that. Looking at the list of episodes, they mostly seem to have stepped back from that in recent years and stuck with comedians and dependable presenters, but I'll go out on a limb and say that it's probably not regained any of the bite it used to have. Would love to be proved wrong, though.
They should have just stuck with Jo Brand, easily the best guest presenter.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Jackson K Pollock on August 06, 2022, 07:30:38 PMPresumably it's a sign that I'm getting old (only early 40s, but still...) but in my head Mock The Week is still that new thing that I haven't quite got round to watching yet but probably will one of these days if there's nothing better on.

Pretty staggered to learn it's been going for 17 years!

I know what you mean, even though I was at the recording for the pilot it doesn't feel that long ago, I watched (and mostly liked) the first couple of series but then Andy Parsons started appearing in what seemed like every episode (and imdb suggests he was in all of season 3, so it was probably then) and I've never been a fan and so gave up on it. I'm sure some episodes have been great, and it did give a lot of comedians who I really like some of their first tv appearances, I just never got around to watching it again even if someone I liked was on it - until Alasdair Beckett-King was on it really recently, but even then though I found myself mainly only laughing when he or Eshaan Akbar contributed, despite liking the rest elsewhere.

Quote from: Ray Travez on August 04, 2022, 08:21:00 PMPeople take the piss out of Dennis, but he's always there with a timely reminder that I'm paying too much for my car insurance

As a twat teenager I always preferred Newman and Baddiel to Punt and Dennis on the Mary Whitehouse Experience (though half liking the latter still), but I've time for Dennis these days, he made for a great Taskmaster contestant and I think he's a pretty decent actor, he was impressive in Fleabag and while I never really watched Outnumbered when I saw the odd clip it made me laugh. And now like all sane human beings i've no time for Baddiel, though I do quite like Rob Newman, I saw a work in progress show earlier this year and was surprised by how deliberately silly a lot of his supposedly smart jokes are, and he came across as warm and relaxed in a show I liked an awful lot.

Kankurette

OK, back to the IDS Mock the Week parody: who are the comedians he's impersonating in it? I recognise some but not others.

In order: Dara O'Briain, Andy Hamilton, Josh Widdecombe, John Bishop, Michael McIntyre, Rhod Gilbert (who is French for some reason), don't know, David Mitchell, Jack Whitehall, Jo Brand, Kevin Bridges, Lucy Porter, don't know, Sarah Millican, Greg Davies, and Russell Howard. I'm crap with faces.

jobotic

Chris Addison and Mickey Flanagan

Kankurette

Thanks!

Whitehall would have been more accurate if he'd gone 'is it an attack helicopter? My father owns several, rah.'

mrpupkin


Pauline Walnuts

Great, I now have Party Fears Two stuck in my head.

...Colin Bostock-Smith...