There was a whole episode about a boy with an arse for a face, and when he spoke it sounded like farting. IIRC, Kenny posed for the school photo with his hoody on backwards so you saw his arse; then Cartman sent that picture off to the milk carton people who advertise for missing people. Then a couple claim that the picture is their son.

As for the rest of the show, I have no problem with it being "hit-and-miss"...if you watch back the old Two Ronnies shows, there is an awful lot of hit and miss on that, but maybe that just my age.

Numberwang is definitely my favourite part of that show!

Well, I thought it was great!

Thank god the snooker commentators have gone, I was getting quite bored with them (although it was wonderful on the radio version).

None of the sketches disappointed me, actually. So I don't know where you all are coming from.

Although, somehow I missed the Two Pints dig. What was it?

Still better then any other sketch show about at present, IMO. All sketch shows are "hit and miss". The boy with the arse for a face was a variation (I'm not suggesting plagiarism) of an old Alexei Sayle sketch of a boy with a wooden head. Not many sketch ideas are entirely original, but the point is to make people laugh. (The bawdy 1970's hospital sketch reminds me of something similar I wrote ten years ago for a revue). Plus, I do think just how good as performers M&W are has been overlooked a bit.

They are indeed, jolly good performers.

I haven't seen the old Alexei Sayle thing, but the fact that the M&W sketch is a comment on today's channel 5 et al predilection for 'the boy whose legs fell off' style docs, I don't really think you could say it was really related to that?

The Alexei Sayle sketch was actually thumbing its nose at that type of documentary to a degree. Prurient and voyeuristic documentaries have been around for a long time.

Ah, in that case, I retract!

Quote: zooo @ February 22, 2008, 4:55 PM

Ah, in that case, I retract!

View original

No need for you to do that, but thanks. Anyway, as a sketch writer I'm painfully aware of how difficult it is to write a completely original sketch. I'd rather laugh at a funny, well-performed variation on a theme than some original but desperately unfunny sketch.

Most sketch shows are hit and miss. Look at Monty Python for example, some genius, genius sketches mixed with some painfully unfunny oxbridge nonsense. The Fast Show was probably consistently hit though.

I didn't see last nights M+W, but I recall the first series was hit and miss as well. Some of the hits though, were excellent.

I don't know if they're great performers though. I mean they're ok, but neither of them are Paul Whitehouse or Graham Chapman. Those are two versatile comedy actors.

They ain't Chapman, but I think they're both better than Whitehouse. Webb is great in Smoking Room.

I don't normally like sketch shows. The only ones I have ever liked are Harry Enfield and Chums and The Fast Show. I didn't think much of the first series of this but after watching the start of series 2 I thought it was great.

A lot of funny stuff, from the carry on hospital to the interview (I liked it when he would just call him a wanker while the others where talking) the boy with an arse for a fce was good and I like to think a nod to South Park and the garden part was hilarious IMO.

But look at Whitehouses versatility. Ted, The 15th Duke of whatever, Chris the thief, Brilliant kid and the one who used to say "With my reputation?". Actually Charlie Higson was pretty damn good too - Colin Hunt and the artist who was obsessed with black.

I enjoyed it. Was it funny? Errrm....in places, it was hilarious, but those moments were a bit few and far between. Merrr....I'll see what next week brings. Sir Digby Chicken Caesar was still in it, and that does it for me.....I often crack up when he does his own theme music using his poor musical voice - very amusing (have no idea why.....just one of those things!)

I thought it was ok. Didn't make me lol at any point, but there were some good sketches. I will definitely keep watching.

Quote: Winterlight @ February 22, 2008, 11:34 PM

the artist who was obsessed with black.

View original

One of my fav Fast Show sketches - forgot all about that, and reminded me how brilliant the FS was. Think I might treat myself to a DVD.

@ zooo,

The 2 pints bit was when they were in the garden. In a nutshell, M said 2 pints has a huge garden and W said 'is that why it keeps getting re-commisioned?'.

Ohhhhhh.
I saw that sketch, I don't know how I missed that bit.

I only saw the second half, but i thought it was good. Nothing excrutiatingly funny though (other than that typewriter bit at the end, that was brilliant). I'll be watching next week.

Incidentally, to those that noticed the variation on the Alexei Sayle's Stuff sketch, I'm surprised you didn't notice that the final sketch was a variation of a sketch done in the first episode of Absolutely, where a person is interviewed for a job and there's someone who gives constant abuse to the interviewee.