Newsjack 2017 Page 20

In respect of one-liners, I note the guidance says the maximum is 3 "breaking news" and 3 "number crunchers" but does anyone know if you can supplement? I have 4 breaking news and only 1 number cruncher... thanks

Quote: Von1 @ 11th September 2017, 12:49 PM

In respect of one-liners, I note the guidance says the maximum is 3 "breaking news" and 3 "number crunchers" but does anyone know if you can supplement? I have 4 breaking news and only 1 number cruncher... thanks

When I am in this position, I repurpose my surplus one-liners into number-crunchers or vice versa.

Quote: nabbit @ 11th September 2017, 1:51 PM

When I am in this position, I repurpose my surplus one-liners into number-crunchers or vice versa.

Funny you mention that...i was just in the process of trying that out! cheers

we sent off 2 sketches this morning - good luck everyone!!! :)

3 oneliners and 2 Number Crunchers sent. Couldn't think of a third one to save my life.

Good luck everyone.

I sent the full quota of sketches and gags. Fingers crossed. Anyone going to the recording tomorrow?

3 Oneliners and 3 Numbers just sent!

Good luck everyone! Ooh yes, if anyones going to the recording let us know what you hear hehe!

J x

3 oneliners and 3 number crunchers sent.

When do the "you made it" and "you nearly made it" emails go out? It's usually around 5pm on Thursday isn't it?

Good luck to everyone (unless your jokes are better than mine). I think they said the first week is the toughest as they get the most submissions then, by the last week of the run lots of people have given up and your chance of success increases dramatically!

we sent full quota - going to the recording tomorrow so will report back! :)

I'm also looking forward to all the "Newsjack Rejects" threads on here. It's always interesting to see the jokes that they turn down and try to figure out how their process works, what ends up on the show and why.

I know it's a bit late to be asking this, given this week's deadline for one-liners has already passed, but has anyone got any tips for generating lines/angles for the number-cruncher lines?

I really struggled with this last series as I kept experiencing a creative block. The object, of course, is to look at significant numbers in the news and find an ironic association or punchline, but, for some reason, I find it ten times harder than writing punchlines for breaking news headlines.

The only decent number-cruncher I came up with this week was:

20 inches: The rainfall experienced in central Florida, according to male meteorologists.
10 inches: The actual rainfall experienced in central Florida, according to female meteorologists.

Please help!

Managed to send off the full quota of one-liners in the early hours of the morning.

Newsjack just tweeted they've received 650 sketches and 770 one liner docs this week!

@DamienB I'm in the same boat as you. I don't really like number crunchers. I mean I welcome the challenge but I just can't seem to write a joke I'm happy with. I could only come up with two for this week and while I think they had something going for them, there's no way they will be selected for the show.

That said, I do have one or two thoughts about making them. For example, the joke or twist should still be somehow related to the news story at hand. I don't think your 20-inches joke fits that rule because although the hurricane is topical, the joke itself is about penis size which is unrelated to the hurricane. In fact I avoided Irma completely just for tactical reasons as I suspect Newsjack might ignore any jokes (even tatseful ones) about what is a pretty bad disaster.

Quote: Stobbart42 @ 12th September 2017, 9:55 PM

In fact I avoided Irma completely just for tactical reasons as I suspect Newsjack might ignore any jokes (even tatseful ones) about what is a pretty bad disaster.

I really hope they don't skirt Irma - four of my jokes were about it. :(

The BBC occasionally does a page on its News Magazine called 'The Week in Numbers'. It's quite useful, but they don't seem to update it consistently.

Here's hoping Newsjack changes the format next year.

Quote: Damian B @ 12th September 2017, 10:24 PM

Here's hoping Newsjack changes the format next year.

I'm missing Viewsjack. When they announced it was being replaced at the writers briefing, this news was well-received. Number Crunching seemed to be a popular idea.

However, I don't think the concept works very well on radio. It's better suited for a TV format.