― acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:24 (seventeen years ago) link
Ricky Gervais: Step into my office
He created one of the great sitcoms. He is a very funny man. And he's concerned about his 'legacy'. Which is exactly why Nicholas Barber would like to have a quiet word with Ricky Gervais
Published: 14 January 2007
Ricky Gervais opens his new live show wearing a plastic crown and a regal red robe, with his name in lights behind him and a six-foot model of an Emmy award to his left. "Not too much, is it?" he asks with mock-concern, but the answer is, no, it's not too much. If anything, it's not enough. Once he's slipped off the fancy dress, the reigning King of Comedy strolls around the stage for an hour and a bit in his trademark jeans and black T-shirt. He couldn't be more relaxed if he was at home in his pyjamas (which he is, he says, by 6.30 most nights).
He's such a natural comic that he gets laughs every time he unleashes his falsetto sarcasm or his saliva-soaked giggle. He skilfully deconstructs his stories as he's telling them, and he slips nimbly back and forth across the boundaries of taste, so we're never quite certain how offended to be.
But compared to any other stand-up show in a venue the size of Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall, it's a lackadaisical performance. Between swigs from a beer can, Gervais recounts a few chat-show anecdotes, does some student bar stuff about how nonsense songs don't make sense, has a smirk at those dunces who abused a paediatrician because they thought he was a paedophile, and dishes up regular portions of ironic homophobia.
At least, I assume it's ironic. When he makes an Aids joke, and then mutters, "I won't do that one in Brighton," I'm not 100-per-cent sure why it's less objectionable than it would have been if Jim Davidson had made the same remark. Overall, it's an amiable show, but there's not much in the way of depth or quotable punchlines, and there's no theme beyond the tour's title, Fame: doing charity gigs, signing autographs, being misrepresented in the tabloids, hugging Chris Tarrant. You'd assume that someone who didn't start writing The Office until his late thirties would have a stock of pre-fame memories to transmute into comedy. There was his stint in an Eighties pop duo, and then as a university entertainments officer, to name the two best-known jobs he had before he made headway at XFM and on Channel 4's 11 O'Clock Show. But instead of mining these veins of material, Gervais seems obsessed by his own celebrity. He's like one of those rock bands who get to their third album and can't dredge up anything to write songs about except groupies, hotel rooms and the disappointments of being a multi-millionaire.
Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Since The Office brought Gervais sudden fame and fortune, he's been the proverbial kid in a candy store, living out the fantasies of every film and comedy geek. He made a guest appearance on Alias because he was a fan of the show. He wrote an episode of The Simpsons, and turned up in it in cartoon form. He became friends with Jonathan Ross, as every rising UK comedian is contractually obliged to do. When Channel 4 offered him his own interview strand, he jumped at the chance to badger his heroes, Larry David, Christopher Guest and Larry Shandling. His first film roles seem to be motivated by hero-worship, too. Having shone as a pompous boss in The Office, he can now be seen cameoing as a pompous boss in both Night at the Museum and For Your Consideration. Neither film is very good, but they did allow him to hang out with Ben Stiller and Christopher Guest, just as his role in the forthcoming Stardust let him share a studio with Robert De Niro.
"It's like winning a competition," he said in one recent interview. "It's like, would you like to play with Spinal Tap for a day? Yes. Would you like to play with The Godfather for a day? Yes." Gervais is not the first British comedian to jump on a plane to Hollywood, of course, and there's nothing wrong with mutual appreciation sessions with your idols. Indeed, there's something sweet about such a major star letting his inner fanboy come out to play. As his collection of Golden Globes and Emmys attests, the American entertainment industry loves the man from Reading, so you can hardly blame him for loving it back. Who wouldn't want to be Peter Lawford in a comedy Rat Pack?
On the other hand, it's getting harder to ignore the weird disjunction between the way Gervais talks about his career and the way it actually is.
Ever since The Office began broadcasting in July 2001, its star and co-creator has been repeating in interviews that he's primarily a writer and director, and that he gets "no joy from seeing my fat face on the screen". Initially, he said he didn't want to do too much TV as himself because he wanted viewers to enjoy the illusion that David Brent and his colleagues were real people; that was why he cast unknown actors.
He even boasted, somewhat ungallantly, that he'd turned down roles in Pirates of The Caribbean and the other films which went on to feature his Office co-stars. "Secretly I think I'd be quite good on QI," he told one interviewer, misinterpreting the word "secretly". "But you have to discipline yourself and you have to ration yourself. I can get sick of someone I like within the space of a weekend if I see them on two quiz shows and then in the Sunday paper." It's a strange statement from someone who once fought Anthea Turner's husband in a televised boxing match.
The Ricky Gervais who talks to journalists is a publicity-shy artist with exacting principles. "That quest for excellence, and also the legacy - I think about that," he said in The Radio Times. "I don't know if that's because I came to it older, but we really want to to have a great batting average. We don't want to let our guard down. You do it because you want to be proud of it." To Esquire, he pronounced: "When you're creating art, you've got to be a complete fascist." To GQ, he described himself and his co-writer and co-director, Stephen Merchant, as "comedy fundamentalists". He's often said that he doesn't rate many British comedians after Stan Laurel. "American comedy is better. It aims higher," he told Esquire. This Ricky Gervais is an ascetic, slightly intimidating perfectionist. And yet the other Ricky Gervais, the one who's all over the media, is someone who knows he won't be in the limelight forever, and who wants to revel in the exposure, the side projects and the glamorous friendships while he can.
It's impossible to exaggerate just how successful he's been. The Office has been broadcast in 80 countries, and remade in several, including the hit American edition with Steve Carell in the lead role. Sales of the British Office DVDs were record-breaking - four million is the current figure - and, as the tongue-in-cheek introduction to his live show reminds us, he's won an Emmy, two Golden Globes and six Baftas.
But this astonishing Midas Touch doesn't stop a large proportion of his work falling short of the benchmark he's set himself. His current stand-up tour, the fastest selling in history, sees him sitting right in the middle of his comfort zone. Podcasts of The Ricky Gervais Show are another record-breaking hit, but as funny as they can be, they consist largely of his XFM producer, Karl Pilkington, reeling off outlandish theories, while Gervais and Merchant berate him for not being as well educated as they are. And if his trio of children's picture books, Flanimals, hadn't had Gervais's name on it, the publisher would have sent it back with a polite note saying that it wasn't what they were looking for.
And then there's Extras. At the risk of inviting hate mail, I'd argue that Gervais and Merchant's second sitcom is, objectively, a patchy programme. Yes, it had its laughs. The fizzy water incident is destined to join Del Boy falling through the bar in all future bank holiday retrospectives of The 100 Best British Sitcom Moments. But it always felt less like a fully-formed show than an exercise in muscle-flexing by two writer-directors who had realised how powerful they were. They wanted superstars, they wanted location shooting, they wanted no canned laughter and almost no supporting cast; they had a list of minorities for the characters to upset and they wanted to tick them off methodically, week by week. Everything they wanted, they got.
The mysterious aspect of Extras was that it drew almost entirely from Gervais's own experiences in television, and yet it couldn't shake off a whiff of fakeness. It missed the satirical targets which were right in front of its creators' noses. Take its famous guest stars, for instance. On the programme which had the biggest influence on Extras, The Larry Sanders Show, the celebrity guests challenged us to spot where they ended and their scabrous self-parodies began, something Gervais himself does brilliantly on talk shows and on stage. But in Extras the celebs were all caricatured so ridiculously that there was never any danger that they might have been revealing their dark private selves. Did anyone watching it ever suspect that Daniel Radcliffe goes around propositioning actresses twice his age, or that Orlando Bloom pathologically hates Johnny Depp, or that Ben Stiller has exactly the same speech patterns as David Brent? Probably not. The actors could congratulate themselves on being good sports without the slightest risk.
Beyond that, there was the implausibility of Gervais's character, Andy Millman, being hoiked to stardom from work as a "background artist" even though - unlike Gervais - he had no TV-comedy experience. There was also the bewildering animus against the BBC, which was forcing Andy to wear a bad wig and specs in his sitcom-within-a-sitcom; when did that last happen in the real world? But what was more damaging was the series' grating inconsistencies. Sometimes Andy would be as crass and tactless as David Brent ever was, whereas at other times Andy would be the judicious one, and the solecisms would be parcelled out to his friend Maggie or his agent, played by Merchant.
In their introduction to the Extras script book, the writers say that they wanted a change from Brent. They wanted "Andy to be more like us: more normal, more self-aware, educated and liberal-minded, with a half-decent sense of humour". And so he was - some of the time. But he was also a man who saw a Bosnian refugee's photograph of his murdered wife, and then chided him for his choice of developer. "Oh, you missed a trick," he said. "Truprint give you a free film when you get something developed. So you're a mug." And witness the way Andy was shocked when Keith Chegwin grunted that the BBC was run by "Jews and queers" - and I'd love to know when anyone in showbusiness last said that - but was also horrified when a schoolmate he hadn't seen in 20 years thought he might be gay himself. (More only-just-ironic homophobia there.) "Andy's not a jerk at all," said Gervais in the Onion AV Club last week, but when it suited the joke, Andy mutated into David Brent multiplied by Basil Fawlty.
Whereas The Office took such pains to fool us, for half an hour at a time, that we were flies on the wall of a genuine paper merchants', Extras required viewers to give it the same leeway that they would a pantomime. In a single episode of the second series, Andy was at the BBC, filming a sitcom, and yet the same sitcom was already on air, getting a critical pasting, and Andy was also auditioning for a play, rehearsing it and performing it. Assuming that he wasn't supposed to be a Time Lord, Gervais and Merchant had given up caring whether their programme had any internal logic or not.
At the risk of inviting yet more hate mail, I'd suggest, too, that even in the second series of The Office, there were signs that its writers already believed the hype. Gareth was more obnoxious; Brent was more self-deluding; the humour was broader and cruder. When Brent frothed at a birthday party about how he'd have sex with the Corrs, the raucous, drunken festivities slammed to a halt and everyone stared in disgust.
Fair enough, that's the kind of thing which happens in sitcoms all the time, but the previous series hadn't felt like a sitcom; it had felt like an unwittingly hilarious documentary. The second series could have been written by someone who had watched the first one, but hadn't quite understood it.
That's not to say that anyone who masterminded those first terrific six episodes of The Office shouldn't be proud of himself. Nor is this an attempt to start a backlash or chop down a tall poppy. After all, everything Gervais does is worth a look, because he's funny even when - as on the current stand-up tour - he's not trying very hard. And when someone has accrued so many millions, so many plaudits and so many famous admirers he might feel justified in letting standards slip.
But let's get his output into perspective. Perhaps we should ease off on the King of Comedy accolades until Gervais's batting average, as he calls it, is a little closer to Galton and Simpson's or Clement and Le Frenais's. And that's not likely to happen unless he eases off on the cameos, the podcasts and the children's books. Maybe now that he's done a stand-up show called Fame, he can get back to the sort of work which made him famous.
The first leg of Ricky Gervais's stand-up tour has sold out. Tickets for the second leg, beginning on 6 March, go on sale on Tuesday at www.ticketzone.co.uk
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2152792.ece
― acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:26 (seventeen years ago) link
BURN.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link
is this true?
― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link
xpost
― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael Philip Philip Philip Philip Annoyman (Ferg), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:17 (seventeen years ago) link
xp
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link
I would say that though, because I hate women.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:20 (seventeen years ago) link
Here's a scene. You're looking along your collection of CDs, or shuffling through your playlist, trying to find that new Lady Sovereign album or whatever. But you stumble across something else, something from 10 years ago - the Fugees, say."
― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:22 (seventeen years ago) link
That senile dribbling cunt with his own column in the Guardian weekend magazine.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link
Cue stock that's no way to talk about Zoe Williams gag.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael Philip Philip Philip Philip Annoyman (Ferg), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't have a Wikipedia entry either.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:35 (seventeen years ago) link
Radio 4 turns over the airwaves to solid gold laughter, as Steve Punt joins up with a host of stars, backstage movers and industry shakers from the comedy industry with a two-hour special.
Variety shows and radio were the traditional routes to comedy fame and fortune, but what about today? Super agents, DVD sales, straight-to-TV stars; where does radio fit in? Steve and a panel of guests pick apart the laughter seam of the modern comedy industry, as well as generating a few jokes along the way.
Includes News Summary at 9.00pm.
― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link
like swimming in a cool sea and passing through a warm current, etc...
Where are the standards of today, I ask you.I don't have a Wikipedia entry either.
-- Marcello Carlin (marcellocarli...)
Oh, have I got one?
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link
Whew.
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link
also on the bad can someone please put Have I Got News For You out of its misery.
― acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link
At the risk of, on this reviewer's logic, inviting lynch-mobs to my door, I'd argue that Extras was shite.
― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link
To put things into context: Harry Hill aside, all British TV Comedy right now is total shit.
-- Ruairi Wirewool (horseproduction...), January 15th, 2007. (Ruairi Wirewool) (later)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
what were the chances of that happening? -- mark grout (mark.grou...), January 15th, 2007. (mark grout) (later)
If you can put CT and Green Wing on a par, you truly show a lack of discernment IMO. Frankly, now that GW has been and gone, I'm inclined to agree with Ruairi, minus the bit about Harry Hill.
-- You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (papiermachealamphibia...), January 15th, 2007. (Haberdager) (later)
If you can put CT and Green Wing on a par, you truly show a lack of discernment IMO.no it's just a 'higher' (or rather 'stricter') level of discernment.
-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)
'the thick of it' will be back, later in the year, and so will 'peep show'. -- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)
but in a another more accurate sense... -- mark s (mar...), January 15th, 2007. (mark s) (later)
but then i do like Harry Hill so it's apples and roundabouts. -- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)
rubbish -- RJG (RJ...), January 15th, 2007. (RJG) (later)
so you keep saying -- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)
RJG's TV Burp -- Dom Passantino (juror...), January 15th, 2007. (Dom Passantino) (later)
Hmm. I was only talking about currently-running comedy shows. If Peep Show returns for a fourth bite at the cherry (and TTOI for a second), I will only be too delighted. Of course, the one I'm really looking out for is Nathan Barley II. -- You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (papiermachealamphibia...), January 15th, 2007. (Haberdager) (later)
i think it would be a big ask for there to be a 'great' uk comedy series to be running all 52 weeks of the year. i have low standards perhaps; but i don't ask for a 'great' film each month either. -- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)
of course i too want 'nathan barley' back. -- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)
They could drop scissors on a dog's head this time. -- Dom Passantino (juror...), January 15th, 2007. (Dom Passantino) (later)
uh, rose-tinted view there i reckon - but at least it was generating interesting discussion.one episode of Screen Wipe a month would be good. ditto TV Burp.
ha ha Dom OTM -- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Unread Messages as with 'green wing', take away the hype and the expectation it'll live up to 'the day today' and 'nathan barley' was 23 minutes well-spent. i lolled anyway. -- the original hauntology blogging crew (miltonpinsk...), January 15th, 2007. (Enrique) (later)
i didn't laugh more than i did laugh etc. -- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007. (blueski) (later)
― acrobat (elwisty), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link
And Screen Wipe rocks.
― Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Feargal Hixxy (DJ Mencap), Monday, 15 January 2007 15:08 (seventeen years ago) link
Guess who shows up in the replies?
― Monthly Python (Tom D.), Thursday, 14 September 2023 17:34 (six months ago) link
Fairly sure Ayoade has also continued to stump for Woody Allen in recent years, so unfortunately there is precedent here. Still stings though
― vexingvexillologist, Thursday, 14 September 2023 22:15 (six months ago) link
People are disappointed that Richard Ayoade has nice things to say about Graham Linehan. As a trans woman, I’ve built up a solid defence to this kind of thing by operating under the assumption that every person in British media falls somewhere on the scale between cunt and nonce— Cathy Brennan (@TownTattle) September 13, 2023
― whatever happened to gravy brain? (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 14 September 2023 22:19 (six months ago) link
mawaan riswan has a new sitcom, Juice, but it's probably a bit too bbc 3 for me, trendy ad agency, zany bits
loved starstruck 3
the burner phone task on Taskmaster NZ...
― koogs, Sunday, 24 September 2023 15:57 (six months ago) link
and ghosts us doesn't quite hit the highs of the best uk episodes but it'll do
― koogs, Sunday, 24 September 2023 16:01 (six months ago) link
Taskmaster Australia S1 is a genuine contender for best series of the franchise. I don't care for the hosts much, in fact the Assistant is not right at all, but the cast are brilliant and pretty much every task one of them is totally on it. Lots of examples of my favourite subgenre of task, the ones where the player's solution is so deranged you worry for their mental health. And there's a live task which is the best ever.
― Hello I'm shitty gatsworth (aldo), Sunday, 24 September 2023 16:24 (six months ago) link
first repeated task in TM NZ in series 2 episode 10 - hold the milk over the microwaves (why microwaves?)
the guy who sat around for over an hour drinking tea and didn't immediately open the envelope was an international weight lifter
― koogs, Friday, 29 September 2023 17:02 (six months ago) link
(series 3 starts immediately, which is good)
Alan, where did you watch Australia? I can't find it.
― trishyb, Friday, 29 September 2023 17:38 (six months ago) link
i am enjoying 'no activity'
― mark e, Friday, 29 September 2023 19:30 (six months ago) link
I watched Australia on the dodgy streaming services, T, but even they didn't have all the episodes so I had to resort to dodgier download sites. I think some of it is on YouTube?
― Hello I'm shitty gatsworth (aldo), Saturday, 30 September 2023 09:33 (five months ago) link
Yeah, we just downloaded it in the end.
― trishyb, Saturday, 30 September 2023 09:39 (five months ago) link
I've been enjoying all the contestants on the new series of Taskmaster, but particularly Julian Clary. I think there's something about that style of camp that involves a defiant dignity, regardless of what humiliations life inflicts on you, that makes him a perfect fit for the show
― soref, Friday, 6 October 2023 10:00 (five months ago) link
lol I was gonna say this is the first Taskmaster season I've caught live where I really don't find anyone particularly engaging, still a good watch tho
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 6 October 2023 10:01 (five months ago) link
I think Clary in the blindfold saying "I expect you're enjoying this, aren't you Alex?" while Horne cracks up was my favourite moment from any series
― soref, Friday, 6 October 2023 10:07 (five months ago) link
Sue's "portcullis" thing was also glorious a couple of weeks ago. She's such a delightful opposite to Julian Clary (and I agree, his general air of disdain and distance is a brilliant fit)
Also Susan is great fun. She reminds me very much of Katy Wix as a contestant. Completely off her trolley without seemingly trying too hard to be all "look at how wacky I am".
― ailsa, Friday, 6 October 2023 11:45 (five months ago) link
'distance' is a good word for it, feel like usually a contestant conspicuously not entering into the spirit of the show wouldn't work, but he pulls it off
― soref, Friday, 6 October 2023 11:53 (five months ago) link
I'm at the total opposite end of the scale. I don't like him, so I don't think he pulls it off. oo-er, etc. I think his sense of humour is old-fashioned, and not in a charming way. It was really cemented for me when he was on that reboot of Friday Night Live recently, and he took the piss out of some woman in the crowd because of how she was dressed. Unless he knew her (and even then, we didn't know if he knew her or not) it was completely uncool and is just not how the good comedians do it these days. But I guess that's personal taste for you.
― trishyb, Friday, 6 October 2023 12:18 (five months ago) link
Perhaps if I'd seen that I may feel differently, but I'm literally only going on this which is the first time I've seen him on anything for over a decade. I wasn't a huge fan back in the day, but his demeanour is pleasingly at odds with the others and doesn't seem mean-spirited. I bet he's a total bitch next week now.
― ailsa, Friday, 6 October 2023 13:27 (five months ago) link
I seen him on tv for years either, but the format of the show means that the only person he really has an opportunity to be mean to on Taskmaster is Alex, which feels fair enough given that Alex is the one making them play these annoying games, maybe I'd find it less enjoyable on a different show
― soref, Friday, 6 October 2023 13:33 (five months ago) link
It's very easy to carry baggage and expectations though, but I like it when people change them by being on Taskmaster. I mean, Lucy Beaumont irritates me hugely elsewhere with her "what is this... [perfectly normal thing] *giggle* " schtick which might not even be a schtick, she might actually be that ditsy all the time, but ditsy people doing Taskmaster is fun, so it's ok in a way that watching her baffled by the concept of words and numbers on Countdown just isn't.
― ailsa, Friday, 6 October 2023 13:36 (five months ago) link
I only have indirect dislike of Beaumont because of her horrible husband but I realise this is unfair and sexist.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 6 October 2023 13:40 (five months ago) link
this week's taskmaster started terribly but was saved by contestants in the second half
i sometimes wonder if the pre-recorded tasks for a given episode can be chosen to dictate the winner (although Greg is too unpredictable with his scoring and the bookend tasks are live so...) but i think they may be chosen to mix the dull tasks with the more successful ones. and i guess there could be tasks that just don't make it.
― koogs, Saturday, 28 October 2023 08:05 (five months ago) link
AIUI there are a fair number of tasks that don’t make it, plus there are the tie-break mini-tasks and occasionally if one of those is super-funny they’ll promote it to a main task.
― Tim, Saturday, 28 October 2023 08:31 (five months ago) link
yeah how do they film the tie breakers? they're pre-recorded but as koogs says the final results are up in the air, so do they just film a bunch of them with every contestant and then apply as needed? if so, they must be sitting on mountains of outtakes that a reasonably ravenous fanbase would probably pay for...
they do manipulate the results at least a little so that every contestant gets to win at least once (think there's an exception to this but can't remember who).
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 30 October 2023 10:01 (four months ago) link
romesh (s1) didn't win an episode (6 episodes)
wilkinson (s2) " (5 episodes)
pasco (s3) " (5 episodes)
aisling, nish (s5) (8 episodes)
wang (s7) (10 episodes)
judi (s13) (10 episodes)
frankie (s15) (10 episodes)
― koogs, Monday, 30 October 2023 12:00 (four months ago) link
i absolutely fucking hate lucy beaumont
― here 1st (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 28 November 2023 03:12 (four months ago) link
Only a couple of eps in to this series but I've found her very funny - classic Taskie-washing effect of the show rendering funny and likeable the very people I generally find tedious.
― Yngwie Azalea (stevie), Tuesday, 28 November 2023 09:12 (four months ago) link
Probably the weakest lineup of recent years. I found Sam Campbell funny at first but got sick of him fairly quickly. Susan Wokoma is likable enough. Don't mind Clary, but he's not exactly hilarious.
― chap, Tuesday, 28 November 2023 09:33 (four months ago) link
i found lucy beaumont's act pretty funny and well suited to the show, clary had a few good moments but he was, unsurprisingly perhaps, too aloof.
― organ doner (ledge), Tuesday, 28 November 2023 09:42 (four months ago) link
yeah it's a weak season
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 28 November 2023 09:56 (four months ago) link
qi xl last night. the alex edelman guy, i think i saw him doing 15 minutes at a josie long black heart gig a while ago, like 5 years easily, talking trash about Neil Armstrong. something obviously stuck with me that i remember that.
we didn't talk about Lenny on Christmas taskmaster. brave choice, really, given his age and his circumstance but i don't think there was ever going to be any other winner.
and great to see all the winners again, and kyell, in the third champion of champions.
also been watching Significant Other on itv. comedy drama = no jokes. but ok.
― koogs, Saturday, 27 January 2024 14:15 (two months ago) link
Christmas (New Year) Taskmaster was great, and Kojey Radical really should get a promotion to the main series.
― ailsa, Saturday, 27 January 2024 14:24 (two months ago) link
He was very funny. NY Taskmaster for me was very much him, Deborah, and Lenny. The other two were also there.
― trishyb, Saturday, 27 January 2024 15:04 (two months ago) link
Haha, I genuinely had to look it up to remember who the other two were, and it was only on about a fortnight ago
― ailsa, Saturday, 27 January 2024 15:11 (two months ago) link
They seemed to be more focused on not making tits of themselves than on winning, which is not how you play Taskmaster.
― trishyb, Saturday, 27 January 2024 15:21 (two months ago) link
Yeah Kojey was great, seems like a lovely bloke as well.
― chap, Sunday, 28 January 2024 19:40 (two months ago) link
Steve Pemberton and Nick Mohammed are the only two of the new contestants I particularly know, both of whom I can imagine being good (better Pemberton than Shearsmith anyway). John Robbins rings a vague bell, could just be his generic name though.
― chap, Sunday, 28 January 2024 19:44 (two months ago) link
I only know him from his radio show with Ellis James. Seems nice enough but not sure if he's funny or not. Big fan of prog and post rock, but also a Queen uber-fan to a worrying degree. Apparently infamy comes from both him and Sara Pascoe doing shows about their breakup and her getting the panel show career despite his winning the awards.
The other two are best known as writers I think?
― Hello I'm shitty gatsworth (aldo), Sunday, 28 January 2024 20:32 (two months ago) link
Sophie Willan wrote Alma's Not Normal which is the epitome of critically acclaimed though I don't know anyone who has actually watched it. Joanne McNally does a podcast with Vogue Williams. I've got reasonable faith in the Taskmaster casting team that they'll be fine.
― ailsa, Sunday, 28 January 2024 20:39 (two months ago) link
i saw and enjoyed Alma
― koogs, Sunday, 28 January 2024 20:47 (two months ago) link
is Outsiders the second thing to make the jump from Dave to proper tv? (after Taskmaster). didn't watch series 1 when it when it was on dave so good to catch up. Jessica Knappett (born "1983/84" according to wikipedia) has grown on me, quoting wilfred owen etc.
― koogs, Thursday, 8 February 2024 17:26 (one month ago) link
("Greg Davies Live – Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog" was apparently a (one-off) Dave original, as seen recently on ch4)
― koogs, Thursday, 8 February 2024 17:36 (one month ago) link
Big crush on Jessica Knappett, she was great on Taskmaster too.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 8 February 2024 20:08 (one month ago) link
she was a massive factor in the very enjoyable/chucklesome CH4 Drifters before Taskmaster.
― mark e, Thursday, 8 February 2024 20:57 (one month ago) link
outsiders, and maybe taskmaster before it, makes me think i don't ever want to cross ed gamble.
Alma's Not Normal gets a repeat from monday (ahead of her taskmaster appearance)
― koogs, Wednesday, 28 February 2024 09:01 (one month ago) link
I don't entirely like Ed Gamble but this may be because he went to the private school in the area where I grew up and all those kids were dicks
― impostor syndrome to the (expletive) max (stevie), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 09:09 (one month ago) link
i enjoy ed gamble on taskmaster because he gets really intense about the tasks. his recent meltdown on a champion of champions task was pretty funny.i don't know if i'd want to be best friends with him but listening to the off menu podcast helped humanize him for me somewhat.
― na (NA), Wednesday, 28 February 2024 14:15 (one month ago) link
If you're not allergic to podcasts Adam Buxton's chat with Jessica Knappett is very charming and quite revealing in how much she views Drifters as a kind of lost opportunity (while still being proud of it).
First ep of that Noel Fiedling show was very meh, wish there was more cool popcult about highwaymen aside from the song "Highwayman" by the band the Highwaymen.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 18 March 2024 10:33 (one week ago) link
tim key’s “poetry programme” is back (not actually a poetry programme)https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001xdnb
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Monday, 25 March 2024 12:20 (four days ago) link