Oh deary dear. I'd rather deliver pizzas in Northern Ireland then have to watch this sketch show again. (Too soon?)

Perhaps I'm not getting this new style of ultra hip BBC Three comedy - i.e. fat bloke takes off his clothes to get laughs of shock and revulsion from a braying adolescent audience.

My licence fee paid for a sketch about teachers instructing their pupils how to draw a cartoon cock. I'm not shocked by the profanity, crudeness or outrageousness of the sketch, I'm shocked that someone over the age of 10 thought this immature crap would be funny.

Unlike others on this forum, I have nothing against C&H personally and thought their performances were more then satisfactory. The quality of the sketches on the other hand were beyond abysmal.

Renegade Carpark Verdict: 2/10 V. Poor

YIKES! That was shit. Shame they have to waste more valuable airtime with the rest of the series.

Quote: zooo @ March 10 2009, 11:12 PM GMT

Ha. It was good, but he was definitely doing Brent, not Gervais.

I liked the really short one in the supermarket with Horne getting violently pushed over. (I'm sure even the haters must have found something to enjoy there...)

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I thought that bit was funny as well. I haven't got a clue what it was all about though.

I liked it.

Preferred when Corden wasn't making fat jokes about himself.

I liked the camp war correspondent and the public school boys who met up in the park. Think these 2 characters have potential and I hope they develop them.

If you took out the sketches where James Corden's morbid obesity isn't being exposed and used to shock people into laughing, and the sketches where one of them wasn't being 'gay', sounding 'gay' or acting 'gay', you'd be left with about 9 minutes. And that 9 minutes wasn't hilarious either. Their 'characterisation' was about as skilled as Jim Davidson...

OK Corden can do a David Brent impression, but it's a character that's not been on telly for years. If the point of the sketch was that Gervais can't do any other character, well that's a soft target and a point that has been made many, many times.

The opening bit set the tone and is EXACTLY what winds me up about them - running around like prats, self congratulating on getting a show of their own. The trailer gave it away really: "Did you like Gavin and Stacey? Would you like to watch a sketch show with two of the people from Gavin and Stacey in it? Then watch our show!"

And that's groundbreaking programming

There was one good sketch which I liked, and this was the public school boys one. That one really clicked with me. Sadly, I thought the rest of the show was pretty mediocre. I thought the fat jokes were a bit repetitive and when they started the relay race sketch you knew immediately what the joke was going to be and it was almost an uncomfortable lag waiting for it to happen. I also got the impression that they thought that their Gavin & Stacey fame meant that 70% audience satisfaction was already in the bag and that people would think they were funny just for that.

Overall it wasn't great. I liked the public school boys but I'm not sure if that is enough to make me want to watch the whole show again.

Def.

It was brilliant!

When the relay race sketch started I had no idea that it would end with their team losing because Corden is fat and can't run very fast! Genius.

The David Brent sketch was ace! Because it's really relevant as The Office was about eight years ago now and it's always a good idea when comedy actors do impressions that almost sound a bit like fellow comedy actors.

There was just so many funny lines and I couldn't get enough of the jokes about James Corden being fat! Fat people can't run and their tummmies wobble - pure comedy genius! I really liked the way all the sketches went on and on too, so that the one joke was really stretched.

In fact I found it so funny I couldn't watch the last five minutes. I didn't want to ruin a good thing.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that was sarcasm.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ March 11 2009, 9:33 AM GMT

"Did you like Gavin and Stacey? Would you like to watch a sketch show with two of the people from Gavin and Stacey in it? Then watch our show.."

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And what's wrong with that exactly? It's called advertising. Trying to appeal to its potential audience. Makes sense to me.

I actually feel a bit sorry for them - can they really have sat there watching it thinking "Isn't this GREAT! It's exactly what we wanted to do!!"?

Imagine watching the first broadcast of your new show with your friends with you, waiting for their reactions... Waiting for the flurry of congratulatory texts and calls afterwards...

*embarrassed silence*

Quote: Matthew Stott @ March 11 2009, 9:52 AM GMT

And what's wrong with that exactly? It's called advertising. Trying to appeal to its potential audience. Makes sense to me.

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It's an all-too-clear window onto the highly sophisticated commissioning process they went through. There really was no other thought or consideration. Nothing. That really was it.
Speaks volumes about their thought processes at BBC Three ("people like that- people will LOVE this"). I think it's verging on contempt for the audience - that the audience is just a braying moronic cacophanous herd with no independent thought processes; they can't find a programme on their own, can't watch a trailer which contains a joke and judge for themselves if that is funny and tempts them to watch the rest.

Or maybe BBC Three realised what a crock it was and there wasn't enough decent, witty material broadcastable in trailers. Face it - if they had shown maybe 3 sketches in advance there would have been no need to see the rest of the show. "Ok, James Corden is fat, I get it. Can we move on now please? What, there's another 26 minutes? "

I think the shouty boarding school man is a fantastic sketch show character.

True, some sketches weren't great, but I'd give it a second chance.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ March 11 2009, 10:05 AM GMT

It's an all-too-clear window onto the highly sophisticated commissioning process they went through. There really was no other thought or consideration. Nothing. That really was it.

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Yeah, wanting another show from two performers who seem hot at the moment; what fools! Of course they're going to ask them for more; if you're doing well, you get more work and more opportunities; that's how life works!

At the expense of any good ideas of what they are actually going to do? What they actually CAN do?

They may as well put them on the plinth in Trafalgar Square doing nothing. That way people get to point at them and say "Oh look, it's them off of Gavin an' Stacey. I likes them, I does."

Quote: Maurice Minor @ March 11 2009, 10:23 AM GMT

At the expense of any good ideas of what they are actually going to do? What they actually CAN do?

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Maybe though, and this is just a long shot, maybe other people have a different opinion about what they can do than you! I'm not saying I thought the show was great, but I don't find it in any way odd that they were given the chance.

Well I don't say they can't act. Horne didn't annoy me much on Catherine Tate or The Smoking Room, Corden was fine in History Boys... I think Gavin and Stacey was just overhyped even though I really rate Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones.

Whether these two could carry a sketch show or not is still not clear as I'm not sure anyone can carry this particular sketch show - the ideas just aren't there. There's nothing here at all. Just acting 'gay' or "Look at me - I'm fat and oafish". It's just a rush job to capitalise on being the face of the moment.

Pretty awful. A vanity project that proves once and for all Ruth Jones is the talent behind Gavin and Stacey. They can act, but the writting was weak and poredictable. Still, it's BBC Three, so it'll be critic proof and get a second series.