Harry and Paul, Paul and Harry

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Anyone else watching their new series? I am right now – look it’s on the telly!

Surprised by how much I like it after hating Ruddy Hell It’s Harry and Paul.

Their humour seemd curiously old-fashioned these days and I’ve never liked Enfield much, but this new series is rather good.

Topic

[Andrew]

I laughed twice this evening. Which is twice more than their show usually manages, so bully for them!

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Aye, it’s not really belly laugh stuff but it amuses me.

[ChrisM]

I don’t mind it but it’s a mixed bag. The older shows they did (Harry Enfield and chums)together I liked more. It seems a bit less vicious (probably not the right word) than the show Enfield did on Sky 1 a couple of years (or more) back.

The Dragon’s Den silliness made me laugh.

[John Hoare]

I haven’t watched tonight’s yet, but I’ve been bemused by how much positive reaction the series as a whole has been getting – from both the press and hardcore comedy fandom too. There’s the odd good line and nice performance, but I find most of it just a bit poor. This is the same team that did Harry Enfield’s Television Programme and Harry Enfield and Chums – two of my favourite sketch shows ever?

I will sit down tomorrow and try again, and then come back and tell you all what your opinion should *really* be.

[ChrisM]

Most people here have been pretty “Meh” about it. Good but not that good etc.

[John Hoare]

Yeah, sorry, I wasn’t really referring to here. It’s other places that I’ve been seen it getting consistent positive reviews… and it just really surprises me.

[pfm]

The thing is, I think it’s good (I’d rather watch it than Catherine Tate or Little Briain) though it’s hardly anything like Television Programme or Chums, they’re just not going for that style.

I like the surreal and more subtle stuff. In fact, I can’t believe some of it has actually made it onto BBC1, mainly because it doesn’t feel like it’s for that audience (though what is anymore?). Bizarrely I loved the Blair thing. It should have been disasterous but somehow wasn’t. And though the idea of a Dragon’s Den spoof makes me want to switch off (the worst moment in The IT Crowd, and due to Linehan mentioning it I can’t stop thinking about the bloody backdrop!) the ‘Kitten Stomper’ was funny. ‘Grumpy Woman’ from those sketches is definitely old-school Enfield.

I DO wish they were doing more of the old-style sketches though. I thought the Gates/Jobs ones in the first series were actually pretty good, despite the lame puns. Harry and Paul in front of an audience works well.

[Zombie Jim Undead]

I very much like the black and white sketches…

“Can’t say I recall. Not that I remember. Not as far as I recall.”

Those ones.

[Pete Part Three]

Just seen this for the first time this series.

Utter shit.

I’ve watched bad comedy shows before and not laughed, but I’ve at least acknowledged where the laugh-lines are, regardless of whether it was amusing. Not so with this. This isn’t surreal; it’s just meandering and pointless.

Always a bad sign when the best thing about a TV show is the make-up.

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Wasn’t a strong episode tonight…but I still found it gently amusing. The Polish girls in the coffee shop and the surgeons were good.

The football national anthem sketch was dire, though.

[ChrisM]

I missed todays (or rather yesterday’s now.)

I quite enjoyed the previous episode though. Nelson Mandela does Blur. Very silly, but I found myself laughing.

“Wahoo!”

[pfm]

> The football national anthem sketch was dire, though.

Probably the worst sketch this series. I say ‘sketch’ it nearly took up half the episode. I wouldn’t have minded if it had actually been funny (OK, the fact that England still got beat 13-12 WAS fucking hilarious, though sadly a little too accurate).

> ?Can?t say I recall. Not that I remember. Not as far as I recall.?
>
> Those ones.

Doesn’t ring a bell.

[hummingbird]

I saw about 10 minutes of this last week and then gave up. Found it hard to raise a smile, let alone a laugh.
What the hell happened?

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Nelson Mandela hiding in a wheelie bin, stealing people’s bicycles. I can’t understand how you wouldn’t find that amusing.

[pfm]

> Nelson Mandela hiding in a wheelie bin, stealing people?s bicycles. I can?t understand how you wouldn?t find that amusing.

I thought it was funny just for the sheer insanity of it.

[Zombie Jim Undead]

Exactly.

[genericnerdyusername]

*Waits for someone to mention Clarkson Island*

[Tarka Dal]

I turned over and caught the very end of this. The football sketch immediately brought back memories of Julio Geordio and the Arsenal from the 30s v Liverpool from the early 90s sketch.

Note to self, must put Julio Geordio in PES.

[ChrisM]

On the buses! Quite a good impersonation… Not sure of the piss-take of a good show though. (Amusing though it was. They probably had more laughs than this one. Not that I dislike this.)

Mmmm. Big (Sophie Winkleman) Suze…

[Pete Part Three]

I’m undecided whether it’s as bad as Little Britain USA.

[pfm]

I thought the dog sketch in Little Britain USA was pretty funny. The voice Walliams was doing for the dog cracked me up, even though it was crap that they couldn’t find anything funnier to do than get her to stand in the ‘trash’. That was obviously something just decided on location.

The rest of it was pretty average or just repeating stuff from the original series (that was to be expected though seeing as it’s all new to the HBO audience). I like the Mom and girl idea but it’s just gonna be the same punchline every time, the girl says something rude, whoopee…

No Daffyd, no Vicki and no Sebastien/President sketches for the first episode? The astronaut was crap (though great makeup). The gym buddies not shown, despite the sketch being on Jonathan Ross the week before.

[ChrisM]

I admit, I liked Little Britain USA. Come to think of it I liked Little Britain too. I agree that much of the humor is based on repetition and running jokes though- which I like to some extent (the anticipation can add to the humor. I liked the space corp directives in Red Dwarf 6 for example, although others have described it as ‘lazy writing’) but it only works so many times. I think they went a bit overboard with the gross out stuff last series too. And they went that bit too far with the lady puking thing.

Still little of the full gross out this time. Unless you count the wheelchair chap peeing in the pool… but that made me laugh.

[Pete Part Three]

The thing is, I really liked the first series of Little Britain; enough to still have a passing interest in the programme several year later. Admittedly, the characters were a bit fresher back then but there were some lovely surreal bits. I remember having a friend round and forcing them to watch the Pirate Memory Game sketch, simply because it was the weirdest thing I’d seen in ages. The Tom Baker links were actually amusing back then too.

Unfortunately, it’s clearly easier to write a load of smut and innuendo then it is to write something original. What was once a minor part of the show, became the ONLY part of the show. Cue fat suits, Bubbles, Bitty, that woman who wets herself, that woman who vomits…etc etc.

Matt Lucas is incredibly talented (David Walliams rather less so) but this is a show that’s well past its best yet will keep going for time immemorial because some people still find this “edgy”. It’s not; it’s just weak and too easy to write as opposed to something of their earlier standard.

[Jonathan Capps]

And they clearly stole the ‘Tom Baker as narrator’ from Lee & Herring. Or at least I like to think so.

[Tarka Dal]

Never been a fan. Rock Profile was good occasionally.

[Author]

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