Just Plain Awful 'Comedy'

[Stormkhan]

I met Danny J-J once. Great guy but so incredibly hyper. Someone joked to him that he must do a load of coke and he went straight-faced and said "Even if I wanted to do Charlie, I daren't! I don't think my heart could take it!"

 

[GNC]

The theme tune was excellent and was so out of place amongst the cheesy intros of contemporary sitcoms such as "That's My Boy", "Never the Twain", "The Two of Us", etc.

Plus Jacko painting the wall and completing the job just as the end credits/music finished.

 

[Swifty]

Needs more Del Boy falling over. Funny the first 500 times you saw them. FFS.

 

[catseye]

This is the problem - that humour is SO subjective and personal. A TV programme only has to have 10% of people in stitches, 10% who don't mind it, 10% who watch in horrified fascination and 10% who just can't be bothered to change channel and it's a hit!

 

[Peripart]

Howard Lew Lewis (Elmo) was great in Chelmsford 123. Playing Blag, it's hard to think he once had a job as a computer operator in the RAF.
He collects books, though, so he's all right by me!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Howard Lew Lewis died 3 years ago..

You're right about Chelmsford 123, though. Mind you, pretty much everyone involved in that contributed to the enjoyment. The day the DVD finally came out was a happy one for me!

 

[Fluttermoth]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Howard Lew Lewis died 3 years ago..

You're right about Chelmsford 123, though. Mind you, pretty much everyone involved in that contributed to the enjoyment. The day the DVD finally came out was a happy one for me!

I was SOOO happy for the Chelmsford 123 DVD!!! I had it on video, until my younger sister taped a football match over the end of series 2. Still my favourite comedy of all time.

 

[Stormkhan]

1) I'd read about HLL's death on Wikipedia. Bit of a mystery still there in the circs.
2) I've only got CH123 on tv-taped VHS. I'm angling for the DVD for my upcoming birthday.

 

[Xanatic*]

Too many people who thinks shouting in itself is funny.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I never watched Bo' Selecta first time around and, now that Channel 4 have removed the show, due to some of the caricatures being of black people, I doubt I ever will watch a full episode.
I've seen a few extracts on YouTube though and, it struck me as utterly puerile and juvenile grotesquery.
Anyone out there find it even remotely funny?

 

[gordonrutter]

I never watched Bo' Selecta first time around and, now that Channel 4 have removed the show, due to some of the caricatures being of black people, I doubt I ever will watch a full episode.
I've seen a few extracts on YouTube though and, it struck me as utterly puerile and juvenile grotesquery.
Anyone out there find it even remotely funny?

View attachment 35354

The odd minute or two I’ve seen strikes me as a complete waste of space, totally unfunny as far as I’m concerned.

 

[Analogue Boy]

it struck me as utterly puerile and juvenile grotesquery.

Spot on review!

 

[Beresford]

I never watched Bo' Selecta first time around and, now that Channel 4 have removed the show, due to some of the caricatures being of black people, I doubt I ever will watch a full episode.
I've seen a few extracts on YouTube though and, it struck me as utterly puerile and juvenile grotesquery.
Anyone out there find it even remotely funny?

View attachment 35354

I would agree. I've never found Leigh Francis remotely funny. He's made very little talent go quite a long way.

 

[Analogue Boy]

The BBC is going to do a Festival of Funny to cheer us all up.
That should keep this thread going for a while.

 

[Souleater]

Personally i find 'friends to be one of the least funny things i have ever had the misfortune to watch (i have only seen a couple of episodes, that was more than enough), i really dont see what all the fuss is about, i came across some footage where the canned laughter was removed and it really is unfunny.

 

[David Plankton]

Personally i find 'friends to be one of the least funny things i have ever had the misfortune to watch (i have only seen a couple of episodes, that was more than enough), i really dont see what all the fuss is about, i came across some footage where the canned laughter was removed and it really is unfunny.

It's like he's channeling Nicolas Cage, especially in the one you posted the other day about the sandwich.

 

[Analogue Boy]

Personally i find 'friends to be one of the least funny things i have ever had the misfortune to watch (i have only seen a couple of episodes, that was more than enough), i really dont see what all the fuss is about, i came across some footage where the canned laughter was removed and it really is unfunny.

That’s interesting. It becomes a bit like a Peanuts strip.

 

[Souleater]

It's like he's channeling Nicolas Cage, especially in the one you posted the other day about the sandwich.

That’s interesting. It becomes a bit like a Peanuts strip.

This ones even worse

 

[Peripart]

That’s interesting. It becomes a bit like a Peanuts strip.

The horror. The horror.

 

[Stormkhan]

Thing with much of the American sitcom humour, to me, is that it includes a laugh track to tell people when it's funny. The audience needs clues and the writers while trying to be clever, know their audience won't get the 'smart' bits unless they're prompted to laugh. The viewer only laughs because they're told they should.
In fairness, UK comedy of the past relied on catch-phrase. In the US, a bloke walks onto the stage and everyone chants, yells and laughs uproarously ... without them doing anything. In the UK, people would applaud ... until when the actor could shoe-horn in a catchphrase. It didn't matter that the words meant nothing - the audience expected the words from that particular actor so got them!
"So we aren't allowed to tell the visiting Prime Minister that he's only there because no one else wanted the job?"
Dead silence.
"We really must stop young Jenny - our 'punk' daughter going out with that raving socialist Nigel from college - calling our Prime Minister a quote toilet-brushed head of a Etonian elite?"
Mild mirth.
"Oh, lummie! The Prime Minister is visiting our firm? Where's my autograph album?"
Uproar of laughs from the studio audience.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Personally i find 'friends to be one of the least funny things i have ever had the misfortune to watch (i have only seen a couple of episodes, that was more than enough), i really dont see what all the fuss is about, i came across some footage where the canned laughter was removed and it really is unfunny.

It was one of the first shows to represent how we should all aspire to have a perfect circle of friends. As a lot of us didn't aspire to this and the rest couldn't so it allowed people without friends to share in the fantasy. One of the first sitcom/soap blends.

So it was ok, not my cup of tea, but was well written.

 

[Victory]

I never watched Bo' Selecta
Anyone out there find it even remotely funny?

No.
It has it's fans, but this show really struck me as The Emperor's New Clothes.

 

[Aurora Newman]

Anything with Keith Lemon in it. Another 'funny man' surrounded by people who laugh at everything he says or does (like Chris Evans). The Lemon character had been around way too long, but while there's an unlimited supply of z listers desperate to appear on ANYTHING that pays, there will always be a place for people like K.L.
Through the Keyhole? Lloyd Grossman he ain't.

Lloyd Grossman and David Frost did come back to do the new Through The Keyhole. But they saw Kieth Lemon had sent in an audtiton tape of him doing the whole show. Lloyd and David laughed their heads off at how disrespectful Keith was in his made up video at the person's house. They told the producers to go with him. I actually think Lloyd and David are completely nuts for making that decision. I don't watch the Keith Lemon one. I loved it when it was now David back over to you.

 

[Aurora Newman]

No.
It has it's fans, but this show really struck me as The Emperor's New Clothes.

In a really cringy that's so racist sort of way. Can't believe how far he actually went.

 

[GNC]

In the book Scarred for Life Volume 2: The 1980s, there's a chapter on US sitcoms doing "A Very Special Episode" where the stations were obliged to tackle serious issues by using the sitcoms' characters. It's an interesting read, because they were filmed in front of a live studio audience, and that audience would laugh at the serious stuff: sexual assault, child abuse, drug abuse, so it just looks terrible now. There would be bits where they gasped or groaned, but they would be keen to get back to laughing so the crunching gear changes were just bizarre.

 

[Aurora Newman]

i remember programs like that. They did that it with Peter Parker in Spiderman Comic being sexually abused by a man when he was young.

 

[Souleater]

In the book Scarred for Life Volume 2: The 1980s, there's a chapter on US sitcoms doing "A Very Special Episode" where the stations were obliged to tackle serious issues by using the sitcoms' characters. It's an interesting read, because they were filmed in front of a live studio audience, and that audience would laugh at the serious stuff: sexual assault, child abuse, drug abuse, so it just looks terrible now. There would be bits where they gasped or groaned, but they would be keen to get back to laughing so the crunching gear changes were just bizarre.

Here are some clips with canned laughter added inappropriately

 

[Mythopoeika]

That’s interesting. It becomes a bit like a Peanuts strip.

Peanuts was never funny. It was more about philosophy.

 

[hunck]

Canned laughter was first used in the US in 1950 on The Hank McCune Show. We can blame a man named Charley Douglass, ex Navy engineer.

For a hundred bucks, Douglass would wheel the Laff Box to the studio on a dolly, sit in a screening room with the producer and take notes as to where they wanted audience reaction. Douglass stoked Hollywood's demand for artificial laughter by cloaking every facet of his operation. Nobody but his immediate family members were allowed to look inside the Laff Box and see how it worked, and he kept the 2-foot tall box tightly padlocked and rarely left it alone. While on the clock, he locked himself away in a private room and painstakingly dubbed in the audio using his machine, a process that took about a day.

Amazingly, the actual physical Laff Box showed up on an episode of Antiques Roadshow in 2010, giving the world their first peek at the inside of the device. The machine featured 32 typewriter keys, each one of which would cue playback on an individual tape loop featuring ten laughs. A foot pedal controlled master volume, allowing Douglass to fade the sounds in and out realistically. It was a remarkable piece of engineering, a versatile device more musical instrument than machine.

 

[Souleater]

Canned laughter was first used in the US in 1950 on The Hank McCune Show. We can blame a man named Charley Douglass, ex Navy engineer.

I find it a little annoying that sports are now using canned crowd on tv broadcasts, even on the snooker!! I thought the idea of snooker was its supposed to be quiet, are they going yo have canned coughs and mobile phone rings just so the ref can say 'quiet please' and 'can you make sure your phones are turned off' lol

 

[hunck]

I find it a little annoying that sports are now using canned crowd on tv broadcasts, even on the snooker!! I thought the idea of snooker was its supposed to be quiet, are they going yo have canned coughs and mobile phone rings just so the ref can say 'quiet please' and 'can you make sure your phones are turned off' lol

Personally I don't find canned applause objectionable in snooker. A fantastic shot deserves a round of appreciative applause which it would certainly get if a crowd were present. It's not comparable with canned laughter which can appear at even the slightest attempt at humour.

On football, you can generally watch a 'crowdless' version online if you prefer.