Howdy all!
The Last Laugh was a brilliant forum! I loved it. Met some nice people there. I did Miss Milton (along with several hundred others, what a hussy) and got nowhere.
Oh yes, and I met my husband on that forum too. He did quite well.... in the competition, I mean.
It was a brilliant time...............made so many great friends still keep in touch too! x
How strange, I read my entry earlier today and thought it was too Americanised and absolutely not what the Beeb would have wanted 
Anyway, I've grown up since then.
Great idea this Bill
WRITEFORESKIN
I was Roodeye of course.[/quote] you could get banned for saying that
Quote: Roodeye @ October 20 2009, 2:59 PM BSTAh, the infamous Last Laugh competition.
I bet the BBC are still trawling through those 6000 scripts trying find the FIRST laugh!.
Still, as dire as most of those scripts were, even the worst wasn't as bad as the very best episode of 'My Family'.
I could not have put it better yourself
Quote: WRITEFORESKIN @ October 20 2009, 8:06 PM BSTI could not have put it better yourself
how yer doin' Stee
Rood? Is that...is that really you?
The sledgehammer wit, the potentially multiple personalities and the sunglasses smiley...
Awww, I've come over all warm and cuddly. 
Quote: Roodeye @ October 21 2009, 3:50 PM BSTBut seriously though, folks - out of all 6000+ scripts, I saw only two really funny ones.
How long did it take you to read 6,000 scripts?
I remember seeing discussion of this at the time on another writing site, but I didn't give it a go.
Looked like it was a fun opportunity though.
Quote: Roodeye @ October 21 2009, 11:18 PM BSTIt was a really good laugh, Steve.
Well obviously it wasn't - otherwise you would have won.
Quote: Chappers @ October 22 2009, 12:10 AM BSTWell obviously it wasn't - otherwise you would have won.
The forum we were all on was fun and a good laugh
Quote: Roodeye @ October 20 2009, 2:59 PM BSTAh, the infamous Last Laugh competition.
I bet the BBC are still trawling through those 6000 scripts trying find the FIRST laugh!.
Still, as dire as most of those scripts were, even the worst wasn't as bad as the very best episode of 'My Family'.
You didn't get shortlisted then...?
Quote: Roodeye @ October 21 2009, 3:50 PM BSTBut seriously though, folks - out of all 6000+ scripts, I saw only two really funny ones.
One was my own (obviously) and the other was Steve's 'Miss Milton' in which the star of the show was a hilarious Asian grandad.
Neither was selected for the short list and that alone demonstrates what a load of retarded humourless bastards the readers were.
Of those shortlisted, the best script by a mile was Mary Marland's ending for Carla Lane's 'Someday I'll Find Me'. Also worthy of mention for the quality of its writing is Sheepy's ending for Ian Pattison's 'Annie's People'.
The two shortlisted 'Miss Milton' endings were total, absolute, complete and utter shite.
As a competition it brought nothing but disgrace upon the BBC but for the competitors it was a hell of a laugh.
How charming.
For the record folks, the readers were not "retarded humourless bastards".
And The Last Laugh did help launch a few writing careers and furnished a few more people with the stimulation and impetus to carry on writing because - for no other reason - they liked it.
The shortlisted endings for all the scripts were chosen because they provided contrast and a continuation of style. A lot of people read all the submitted scripts - people who read and work with comedy and writers all the time. What may have been a great script to the writer may have actually been something The Last Laugh people saw flaws and setbacks in.
And being funny is never enough when writing comedy. There is nothing worse than funny after funny with nothing inbetween.
Also, between them the "Egyptian", the "American" and "one of the girls from 'Two Pints' - not the funny one, the other one" have produced a lot of work that has got commissioned, re-commissioned, syndicated, remade around the world and actually made. Just saying...
Quote: Roodeye @ October 22 2009, 11:47 AM BSTReally?
How about UNfunny after UNfunny with nothing in-between?
Yes, the Last Laugh readers had to plough through a lot of them too.
