There are still a few decent 'mainstream' sitcoms around (but you do have to go beyond the Beeb at times).
Cuckoo
Man Down
Friday Night Dinner
Best of the crop of 'old school' throwback comedies is probably Big School, but only because they roped in some decent comedy actors.
Not a sitcom, but The Last Leg is great value for topical/edgy stuff at the moment.
[i]Has anyone actually watched blackadder recently? [/i]
Yep, I think I laughed even more than first time round. It was a mixture of knowing what comes next and being surprised by bits I'd forgotten ( Percy fancying Baldrick in women's clothes " What an original perfume!")
Fantastic. didn't hear the canned laughter.
It was [url= http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/father-ted-writer-unveils-new-irish-comedy-to-rival-mrs-browns-boys-9150013.html ]The Walshes[/url].
Written by the Father Ted writer, apparently, i didn't realise that. And NOTHING LIKE Mrs Brown's Boys!
Also there was Drifters on E4, which I thought was great.
I thought Count Arthur Strong was funny on R4. However, after the switch to TV .....
Monkey dust was great but the BBC have disowned it I imagine for being too close to the bone. Only season 1 was ever released on dvd.
News Quizz, Now Show and ISIHAC on R4 still makes me laugh but other than that i've retreated into R4 extra. Captain Kremmen is currently a surreal way to start the day.
There's tons of superb comedy on Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra. Far better than most of what is on TV because they don't feel the need to pander to the lowest common denominator.
To everything is to everyone's taste, but it's well worth seeking out and checking. I love stuff like Ed Reardon, Hut 33, Now Show etc. And anything that John Finnemore writes is gold dust. I'd rate Cabin Pressure as the funniest sit-com of all time, beating the likes of Fawlty Towers and Blackadder.
This is probably just part of getting old IMO. Comedies were so much funnier in our day, as was the music etc. When I was a lad, me and my mates thought Eddie Murphy - Delirious was hilarious but I bought the DVD a few years and it hasn't aged well at all.
Writers are so constrained by political correctness and so many subjects are off limits that it is hard to produce anything with a bit of an edge.
I'm not talking about crass stuff like Love thy Neighbour either. I reckon something like the glorious Father Ted would struggle to get commissioned nowadays.
I'd rate Cabin Pressure as the funniest sit-com of all time
Seriously? It's tepid, middle of the road rubbish.
Ed Rheardon and the Now Show are about the only funny things left on Radio 4.
All of the current R4 6.30 shows are pretty lame at the moment.
It's pretty obvious that humour is very individual and subjective. Everyone is unique. We're all individuals!
Yes! We're all individuals!!
But as just demonstrated, some items of comedy are timeless classics that permeate our society.
(That was a deliberate 'feed' btw! I expected that response. But I didn't expect...)
Someone will post in a mo saying they just didn't 'get' Life of Brian. That's the way of the world.
No-one has mentioned Citizen Khan.
How on earth did that get picked up? The jokes would have been old in Dad's Army but no-one in the commissioning meeting dared say anything unless they were judged racist.
Sitcoms are dead now, like variety shows.
My favourite of the last few years was 'Rev' but that is finished now so not new either
Oh yes Rev was excellent. How could I forget
THE THICK OF IT
?
Friday Night Dinner
+1 for Friday Night Dinner.
Found it on Netflix having totally missed it on tv.
Jeff
ScottChegg - MemberNo-one has mentioned Citizen Khan.
Come on now pay attention 😉
deluded - Member
What we have now is bilge like Citizen Khan and Mrs. Brown's Boys.Posted 15 hours ago
I think the true mark of comedy is where phrases and scenes become part of everyday language, can't see much new stuff doing that.
Mind you thinking back to the 70's there was some real dross.
This is probably just part of getting old IMO. Comedies were so much funnier in our day, as was the music etc
[s]Erm, utter bollocks![/s] (Beg pardon, just noticed the "IMO" - well not in mine!)
Music is different, but just as good as it ever was.
Comedy is different, but as funny as it ever was.
I've laughed will tears ran down my face at Not the Nine O'Clock News as a teenager - done the same a few months ago a Mickey Flanagan's Back in the Game.
Did no-one else see The Walshes then?
R4's produced some great sitcoms--Clare in the Community, HR, Beauty of Britain, Polyoaks, Ed Reardon, Party--but it's all archive stuff. The last series of Him and Her on BBC 3 was v good. Psychob*tches on Sky is brilliant (if you can find it).
I've laughed will tears ran down my face at Not the Nine O'Clock News as a teenager - done the same a few months ago a Mickey Flanagan's Back in the Game.
I don’t mind Mickey Flanagan – I’ve sent this clip to ex barrow boy colleagues in London when they take the pi55 out of the ‘turnip top from Hicksville’ that worked with them for a few years.
I've had a quick scan and no one seems to have mentioned Stuart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.
Lifer - MemberAs for R4 comedy, most is rubbish but 'In and out of the kitchen' by/with Miles Jupp is brilliant.
In and out of the kitchen
Yup, it's superb.
🙂
Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang Up's was good too, but we do seem to be going through a bit of a bad patch at the mo.
As for R4 comedy, most is rubbish but 'In and out of the kitchen' by/with Miles Jupp is brilliant.
No it's rubbish. In jokes for the middle classes, pretty much a laugh free desert for me from beginning to end.
It feels like R4 controllers basically commission writers that remind them of younger versions of themselves (Tom Wrigglesworth, Alex Horne) or try to be 'with it' ('Elvenquest', 'The Castle' don't get me started) rather than taking risks on the truly surreal or really investing in good writing.
Often these comedies feel like they have been put on the radio without sufficient development, as the writers come from a nice safe reliable stable (ie Oxford or Cambridge) and 'should' be funny, but frequently are not outside the glass cubicles of the dear old beeb.
'Fags, Mags and Bags' was great (the early series at least) because it came from the writer's personal experiences. Kevin Eldon's 'It's Kevin was brilliantly surreal, and worked because it basically didn't give a damn what you thought of it.
If you play it safe you get a low laugh count (IMO) and the beeb is playing it very safe at the moment.
Did no-one else see The Walshes then?
Yup, way back on page one. 😉
eviljoe - you're absolutely bang on. I like to have Radio 4 on in the evening while I'm pottering about. And the 'comedy' all reeks of nice cozy meetings where nice people form nice suburbs in the home counties say' since Tabitha and Belinda both graduated from Oxford, they've written some simply super material, They storybooked it while they were travelling in Goa. Its frightfully funny! I read some of it to the girls at the Rotary Club and they all thought it was hilarious"
I find myself asking who the **** finds this banal, uber-safe, tedious, formulaic claptrap remotely amusing. Then I see the audience figures for Miranda, and it all becomes apparent. A lot of people apparently.
+1 on the once great, now shit R4 6.30pm slot. All just a bit meh.
The 6:30 slot is limping but far from dead, the News Quiz, Now Show and ISIHAC are still pretty reliable, the Unbelievable Truth seems to be getting slowly better as well now that David Mitchell seems to have found his stride. I also quite enjoyed Paul Sinha's history revision, good mix of funny and 'Ooo I never knew that.'
However... On the way home this week I have encountered "Bridget Christie Minds the Gap" and "what does the K stand for" holy moses, lasted a few minutes and turned them off, both painfully forced and just not funny to a toe-curling degree, even the studio audience sounded a bit embarrassed.
There's plenty of good comedy about just not all of it in traditional formats, I cannot help but think that if Ben "Yahtzee" Crosshaw had been born 30 years earlier he'd be writing viciously funny comedy scripts rather than reviewing video games, the man's use of weaponised English is a sublime.
+100 for Binners. I wonder if even the chattering classes find them funny? Miranda? Don't get me started. I thought Hugh Bonneville was good in W1a, though. (Runs for cover)
The other thing to consider, is how programming has changed has changed in the wake of the internet.
In the old days, a program was an event. I used to wait all week to see the next episode of Blackadder, and it would be something that I would watch with my entire family.
Those days have gone, and with it, the reliable method of how to measure success. Unless of course, you desperately try and hold on to that tried and tired old formula to get the punters in, and fill all the cheap seats.
There is room for all the safe stuff, and apparently, people love it. It's when you try and do something outside of that, it gets a bit more difficult, and the networks get a bit nervous. Hence why the best place to find exciting and edgy new comedy is online. The BBC has lost it's way, and until that changes, you'll need to look on You Tube instead.
Channel 4 does better, but it needs to keep that edge in order to keep ahead of the competition.
+1 on Paul Sinha
Big +1 on Yahtzee and Zeropunctuation. Love it!
eviljoe - MemberAs for R4 comedy, most is rubbish but 'In and out of the kitchen' by/with Miles Jupp is brilliant.
No it's rubbish. In jokes for the middle classes, pretty much a laugh free desert for me from beginning to end.
I thought it was an excellent pisstake of the kind of people who actually enjoy Nigel Slater's memoirs on 'Book Of The Week'.
The Paul Sinha stuff was good, Fags, Mags And Bags was genius.
But budgets are tight and someone talking at you for half an hour is a lot cheaper than a full series of a sitcom.
Lowlights for me last year were The Party (the political, idiots round a table one), The Castle, again, and any more than 10 minutes of Isy Suttie.
For those a bit bored of Mock the Week/HIGNFY's brand of political satire John Oliver's new vehicle [url= https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight ]Last Week Tonight [/url] has produced some crackers.
Think a less American John Stewart.
The Last Leg.
I've always wondered why the bbc buried the excellent 15 stories high with Shaun lock and Benedict Wong. Only shown a couple of times then disappeared.
Someone mentioned Rev, well I'd most definitely second that. However I have to counter it by saying it's more a "mocumentary" than Comedy. Not there aren't moments of Comedy, fir sure it had me giggling, but actually I got right into the charactors and sort of Lived a Life Through Their Eyes kinda ting.
Ended up buying the Box Series off iTunes and have since watched them 3 times.
I do wonder if they'll do more ?
But, on the plus side, 'Still Game' may be getting another series:
http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2014/07/26/20640/still_game_will_return_to_tv
On R4 6.30 slot: John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (similar kind of sketch comedy as Mitchell and Webb)
A big +1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame sketch made me commit the cardinal "laugh out loud whilst wearing headphones" offence.
and the Now Show are about the only funny things left on Radio 4.
Write a weak gag with a punchline that is obvious and gets the audience laugh half way through the set up. Then deliver the punchline. Then do a 30 second sketch repeating/labouring the punchline. Shoehorn a second rate impression into it as youve got an impressionist on the team.
And repeat.
Enjoyed Paul Sinha's History Revision stuff as much for the research and educational stuff as the humour.
