Quote: zooo @ January 19 2011, 10:30 PM GMTI MISS SIMON AMSTELL. The show was brilliant with him asking the questions.
Quote: Aaron @ January 19 2011, 5:26 PM GMTBut yes, Frankie Boyle should take over as permanent host. I highly doubt they'll ever go back to proper hosts for these shows, alas, but it's a nice dream, and his recent episode was certainly the best in a very, very long time.
Agreed x2
Three things:
1. God, I miss Simon, and he was brilliant.
2. God, I hate Russell Brand, he was awful and too much.
3. Frankie Boyle's Channel 4 show to be axed. He's free now. Trial him for one series.
Loved the Brand episode. Easily one of the best in recent years. Can't remember laughing so consistently though an episode of NMTB. I think Hugh FW was a bloody good sport, which is good because I like him and his crazy meat fetishes.
Quote: Zachary Greenwood @ January 18 2011, 3:43 PM GMTMark left because he was boring and not funny anymore.
I think it went more like 'Mark left because he found the show boring and not funny anymore'. And I can't help but agree with him. Its brief renaissance under the stewardship of Amstell (when the show really only became about Simon himself) was a blip in an otherwise uninterrupted decline. Put this show out of its misery, somebody. 
Like HIGNFY, the format may be solid but the element of the unexpected disappeared a long time ago. It's like a couple still engaging in rudimentary sexual intercourse after 10 years of marriage. They may have kept themselves in shape, changing their look from time to time; the sex may still be frequent and mostly pleasurable... but it becomes increasingly difficult to reignite that spark of lust and excitement as the years go by. In a marriage, this is an accepted part of growing old together. In television, to not keep it fresh is a sin (though, it has to be said, these days a very commonplace sin). So shows like HIGNFY and NMTB should roll over and stop trying to f**k like their younger selves... Or buy a massive dildo and start experimenting up the bum.
I think people read into this show far too much. Its aim is to make you laugh, and during Mark and Simon's era it did just that. Mark's time on the show between '96 and '98 was brilliant, it was anarchistic and rebellious and hilarious. But he became bored with the show and his last years were painful to watch with Phill and Sean (and later Bill) providing the only real comedy. I liked Simon's style of humour, it was fresh and new, but it took the show away from Mark's time. It was like Trivium's The Crusade following Ascendancy. It was a good album but hated by the fans because there was no screaming on it. Frankie Boyle would definitely bring that scream back into the show and it would revert back to being utterly funny and anarchistic and rebellious like in Mark's day, if a little on the 'oh my God, did he just say that?' side. It's meant to make you laugh. It makes me and millions of other people laugh so I cannot see why this won't be on for another 15 years. I respect the opinions of those who don't like it, it's always been controversial and some episodes are lame, especially since Simon has gone, but if Frankie takes over, there is no reason why it should be over with because it still has millions of fans. Its day will come, but not yet. I've lost too many TV shows in recent years, I'm not losing this one.
Just to agree with the above posts... I miss Simon Amstell too! It was a bit of a mistake broadcasting that Russell Brand episode at the end of the current run I think, just shows how much better it worked when he was in charge and firing off the gags.
Frankie Boyle would make a good replacement host, but I don't think that's going to happen now he's got himself in trouble over at Channel 4. The BBC will want to avoid any more Daily Mail headlines.
If the show does have to come back with guest hosts again, can I just make a public plea to the producers to adopt this very simple check list...
a) Is the guest host you're thinking of a comedian? If they're not (e.g. Mark Ronson), don't use them.
b) Can the suggested guest host read gags from an autocue and get the timing right? If they can't (Catherine Tate to name one of many), don't use them.
Oh no, Catherine Tate's inability to read an autocue with comic timing, combined with her natural comic abilities, makes for hilarity. But anyone else, ehh...
I think Frankie would take the job. The new boss of C4 has said Tramadol Nights will never be aired again, which is another way of saying he's sacked from C4. I've always maintained that BBC has been around long enough to know how to handle people like Frankie. Yes, he left Mock the Week because he was being too heavily censored but that went out at 9pm. BBC Two after 10pm is a very different place. He can get away with a lot more and he knows that and thrives on that, but the producers know when he has gone too far and censor that out. I think BBC Two won't be afraid to sign him on, if anything they want him back. They'd be fools not to.
I feel like a perm host should have pretty good music knowledge, like the last two. Hasn't FB said in the past he's useless with that sort of stuff?
Obviously doesn't mean whe wouldn't be a good host, but it makes me feel all wrong
Simon didn't know about music did he?
Apart from having picked up a bit from interviewing popstars.
I would have thought he would have got a LOT of knowledge from Pop World. At least he had a bit of music pedigree, despite the fact it was mainly shit music.
Hehe.
Lamarr was a bit of a music snob/bore really. So I'm not bothered either way.
Most if not all Radio 1 DJs have zero interest or knowledge of music. I remember that used to annoy me, but now I've got used to it. (Not that I listen to that channel anyway.)
When Frankie hosted it the jokes came from his personal experience of music, like hating Muse which was funny because they are crap, and his two shows had loads of great one-liners based on that. His lack of knowledge of music would be trumped by those one-liners and I think eventually, people wouldn't be bothered he doesn't know a lot about music. I think his two shows were refreshing and just hilarious, which is all that matters, really.
And I would like to add that people on Radio 1 know nothing about anything, not just music, and I hate that station. Kerrang! at midnight for me.
In Frankie's two appearances on NMTB he's called Muse and Guns N' Roses shit and bigged up the Pixies' 'Debaser', so he's already won me over in regards to his music knowledge.
Quote: Zachary Greenwood @ February 1 2011, 1:53 PM GMTWhen Frankie hosted it the jokes came from his personal experience of music, like hating Muse which was funny because they are crap
Indeed, Boyle truly is the King of saying the unsayable... 
