Newsjack Series 18 Page 3

Three one-liners and three number crunchers (or whatever they're calling them now) sent in. Subjects?

Killer Whales talking - Food Hygiene - Prostate Exams - Harry Kane - Bit Coin - Processed Meals

Fingers crossed - good luck everyone!

Two sketches submitted (Video Assistant Referees & end to F1 grid girls) but no one-liners. Tbh, I was expecting to sit out this series (cos busy-ness) but ended up having a couple of ideas which felt worth writing up.

They're always low on sport so you could have a good shot there.

Quote: Thosisd @ 6th February 2018, 1:06 PM

They're always low on sport so you could have a good shot there.

Hope so. As ever, that initial excitement of 'yes, there's something funny in X' dissipated into, 'is that thing about X actually that funny?' and then crumbled into, 'why can't I execute my idea about the possibly-not-even-that-funny X'.

I kept trying to get a Spice Girls reunion one-liner together but none of the ideas really landed. It was all something like - "Fans are excited about the Spice Girls reunion tour and can't wait to hear their amazing voices. Victoria Beckham will also be there" There's got to be a good joke in there somewhere...

Fans are excited about the Spice Girls reunion tour - it's what they really, really want

my twitter gag...the spice girls are busy tweaking lyrics for their big comeback tour, apparently "if you wanna be my lover" has changed to "I'm old enough to be your mother" #SpiceGirlsReunion

I like all the spice girl gags. There will be a few of those sent in.
My one-liners were on Aldi dead rat, Celeb Big Brother, Brendan Cole, Pepper robot, Prince Charles.....

Interesting to hear the variety of topics people choose to cover.

Quote: Dantrobus @ 6th February 2018, 1:33 PM

Hope so. As ever, that initial excitement of 'yes, there's something funny in X' dissipated into, 'is that thing about X actually that funny?' and then crumbled into, 'why can't I execute my idea about the possibly-not-even-that-funny X'.

Same. In addition, if I do manage to do a sketch I like, I big it up in my mind before sending it then I gradually go off it. The process starts Monday evening and by the time Thursday comes along I have realised that in many ways it is crap. From Tuesday evening I start to see the reasons why they won't choose the one liners. However, as they are usually the only one-liners I was able to come up with - what the hell.
It's all good fun.

I understand that Episode 1 of the series gets about 600 sketches which's tails off for the rest of the series as disappointment blues kicks in. With the usual mix of hope and masocism I sent in a sketch about Bitcoin and Boris Johnson plus a one liner about the stable genius of Donald Trump - sure fire, take it to the bank, caste iron winners - until 6pm Thursday.

I've noticed a large number of people on Twitter saying they're submitting for the first time. The NJ and Writersroom teams both seemed to do a lot of promotion aimed at first timers in the lead up too.

As much as it's nice to get fresh voices in the mix - there was already too much completion!

Determined to continue my run of submitting full allocation every week. I've previously had two 'nearly' emails (one per series) so hopefully this time I'll find something which can survive the cruel, cruel edit.

Good luck everyone!

Yes the odds did not need to get worse!
Still, welcome to any newbies.
I am an oldie who has had no success.
I have lost count of the series I have tried.
It is something like my fourth one now I think.

This'll be my third Newsjack and as yet I've been 100% unsuccessful. I know I can write a good joke every so often but the trick is not just writing a good joke, but one that kind of 'feels' Newsjacky. Last season they used some terrible, blindingly obvious one-liners which made me realise that there are probably other factors that go into it, such as keeping a certain tone and easily pleasing a large bunch of thickos.

I think there's a massive amount of luck involved too. The reject thread proves that some really well written (and funny!) jokes get missed, while a few weak ones get in. Keep trying and one day you'll get a hit.

Quote: Thosisd @ 6th February 2018, 9:22 PM

I think there's a massive amount of luck involved too. The reject thread proves that some really well written (and funny!) jokes get missed, while a few weak ones get in. Keep trying and one day you'll get a hit.

That's true. The reject thread does prove that.

Quote: Thosisd @ 6th February 2018, 8:12 PM

I've noticed a large number of people on Twitter saying they're submitting for the first time. The NJ and Writersroom teams both seemed to do a lot of promotion aimed at first timers in the lead up too.

They've also been promoting it a fair bit on Radio 4. IMO, Newsjack would be better suited to 4 rather than 4 Extra.

My Breaking News this week were on Amazon's "robot postmen", Dorset knob-throwing contest, and 200 migrants discovered in a lorry. Number Crunching were 2 on the Super Bowl and 1 on Bitcoin.

Good luck everyone!