Quite a lot of very good laughs toward the beginning of this week's show: the show is at its strongest when they don't go near domestic politics.

I suppose it didn't fit the gags they were making, but nevertheless it felt slightly odd that in all the Charlie Sheen gags they failed to mention that one of those interviews had included a drug test that had come out clean. (Oh, no, Brooker found time to mention it at the end of the show - nevertheless...)

Genuinely surprised at Carr's product placement sketch this week - for the first time it was laboured, but didn't feel it, and was actually funny! Good stuff. (Less so the Olympics logo... )

All in all, an improvement this week in itself, but a bit depressing that they have to steer AWAY from domestic politics in order to get near to what they're clearly trying to be.

I can't tell what they are trying to be.
But it seems pretty good for a live show. Although I've seldom been glued to the screen when it's on.

Quote: Aaron @ March 5 2011, 12:31 AM GMT

Quite a lot of very good laughs toward the beginning of this week's show: the show is at its strongest when they don't go near domestic politics.

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I thought it was funny throughout this week. Good gags at the start, Charlie Brooker delivered, and whoever wrote the 'triple eBay' gag in the product placement sketch deserves a medal. David Mitchell was uncharacteristically a bit weak this time... he didn't really hide his frustration at having his interviews cut short twice.

Next week I might time how many minutes each of the four is on screen for. I have a feeling I know which will have an almost zero count.

I can't help wondering why they don't have a bit more audience interaction - they put the hash-tags and Facebook links up at the start and have an audience full of potential wit. And then proceed to do nothing with it. Would give Laverne something else to do as well, she'd be used to that kind of thing from radio.

I don't know... I highly doubt there'd be much wit in the audience.
Awkward, stumbling audience participation is usually my least favourite part of any show.

Forgot it was live - yeah, without the ability to edit out the bad audience stuff, it could well slow the pace too much. They could still read out comments/jokes sent in via Twitter and Facebook though?

Yeah, that could work, if they had someone good choosing the funny/clever ones.

Just got round to watching last week's show. Jimmy Carr's 'gay cricketer' to Ashley Cole link had me rolling.

Why do a feeble Ed Miliband Being John Malkovich sketch with Laverne, when they could have done a far funnier Peep Show one?

I rather liked Jimmy spinning randomly on the rope.

That Tory in the Libya debate seemed quite a nice bloke. There's something not quite right about that.

Quote: zooo @ March 10 2011, 11:23 PM GMT

I rather liked Jimmy spinning randomly on the rope.

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Yes, I think the bits where he's pretended to be a soldier/newsreader/ad man have been pretty funny. A lot of it because he has a tendancy to corpse.

Quote: chipolata @ March 10 2011, 10:20 PM GMT

Why do a feeble Ed Miliband Being John Malkovich sketch with Laverne, when they could have done a far funnier Peep Show one?

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I thought that segment was just pointless.

Quote: chipolata @ March 11 2011, 9:54 AM GMT

Yes, I think the bits where he's pretended to be a soldier/newsreader/ad man have been pretty funny. A lot of it because he has a tendancy to corpse.

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You see I think that this is the first one of those that have worked. Mainly because it didn't work.

Quote: Nil Putters @ February 24 2011, 10:45 PM GMT

Booing Crow annoyed me. Yes, he comes across as a bit of a twat sometimes, but he's representing the average person on the street. Trying to stop businesses screwing their workers over for their shareholders. It's unfortunate that it's always to do with the underground, as this gets Londoners' backs up.

I wish we had a union at work, I think 90% of the company would join up at the moment.

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I wouldn't mind Bob Crow representing me at work either.
Didn't see it but I can just see a bunch of young London liberals applauding workers putting their arses on the line in Egypt but booing Crow because they had to take a bus to work.

Out of the four I expected Jimmy Carr to be the most uncomfortable with the topical format but he seems to be the funniest and most relaxed one.

Quote: youngian @ March 11 2011, 2:22 PM GMT

I can just see a bunch of young London liberals applauding workers putting their arses on the line in Egypt but booing Crow because they had to take a bus to work.

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Yes, massive pro democracy demonstrations are precisely the same as wage and benefit strikes.