Return of The Fast Show

[Jonsmad]

http://youtu.be/JKdLZ9P9RdQ

Topic

[Pete Part Three]

Utter shit.

The Ted and Ralph sketch is particularly stinky. That is NOT Ted.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Utter shit.

I agree with you about Ted and Ralph, but everything else was exactly as it was before!

[Pete Part Three]

Rowley Birkin sketches rely on a decent monologue. There wasn’t one here.
DMBLBIT has never been funny. Arabella Weir was always the weak link.
Monkfish was a step in the right direction, but marred by the tiresome dig at the BBC/ITV.
Tom Bowler/Jack Pott made me smile but it could have been a clip from Series 3 and I’d be none the wiser.

[si]

It wasn’t classic Ted and Ralph, no, but Ralph’s reaction made me chuckle.
I’m with Pete – Monkfish was probably best, but the BBC/ITV rant was a bit cringeworthy. Chanel 9 was ok, not brilliant, but still better than plenty of stuff that’s on TV.
Looking forward to some Jazz Club and Suits You in the next couple of episodes.

[Ridley]

Since when was the handyman IRISH? Thought he was West Country? or something?
Kelly14UK 54 minutes ago

LEAVE HIM ALONE!

[pfm]

Worth watching just for curiosity value.

[si]

Of a slightly Fast Show-ish flavour: It’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s birthday today. He’s 89. Just a couple of years behind Karl.

[Jonsmad]

http://yfrog.com/h6imnsxj?ref=nf

Does my head look big in this?

[hummingbird]

Oh dear. That is beyond poor. What were they thinking of?

[Tarka Dal]

http://bit.ly/tSaGch

[pfm]

A load of little bits of paper, who’d want that??

[si]

I quite enjoyed last week’s but today’s second episode is a little disappointing:

http://fosters.co.uk/post/12923639044/the-fast-show-episode-2

The sketches aren’t very *fast*. That’s the main problem. And the exclusive material accessed before 2pm consists of the same introduction from last week, which is longer than the single sketch which follows. :/

[Pete Part Three]

{depressed sigh}

As with Rowley Birkin last week, they’ve resurrected a character who relies on a decent monologue. In this case, it’s Caroline Ahearne’s teenager (who I still remember almost making me wet myself with laughter in the Christmas special). Alas, there’s just nothing to the sketch.

Suits You gets a plus point for touching upon a good idea (A lesbian in the shop!) but then you’ve got the distracting substitution of Higson for Williams, plus it all goes on a bit too long.

Ron Manager seemed like a missed opportunity. They could have done a satire of him being shamed in the years since we last saw him (like his Atkinson namesake). They could have spoofed the fast moving nature of Soccer Saturday with Manager unable to soundbite. Instead, I don’t know what they did. It dragged and I tuned out.

I agree with Si. 4 sketches in 7 minutes just aint fast enough.

[si]

Simon Day’s character in the Ron Manager sketch seemed too odd. He was always more of a straight man, bemused at Ron and Tommy. Here, he’s as Bad as the pundits. And all Denzil Dexter needed was the Pavlov’s Bell set up, to Dave and Beans, and then ended it after the first fart. I’m gonna stick with it, though. Hopefully we’ll get a decent Unlucky Alf or Jazz Show sketch soon.

[Jonsmad]

I enjoyed the teenagers monolouge, but she’s pushing the age at which playing that character looks right. Higson’s standing in on suits you, is too towards disturbing rather than the ultimate cheek of the team before, though I think the sketches idea was strong enough, I think Thompson in the football sketch faired better, was nearing his “rubbish” character there. Denzil was just too long, mostly in setup.

[si]

I think an interview for the job, with Ken, would have been better for the Suits You sketch, especially following the situation vacant sign at the start.

[si]

Return to form today! Swiss Toni! Dave Angel! Quick bursts of Arthur, Denzil and Cheesy Peas! Plus a decent amount of ‘Fast Share’ stuff. :)

[Pete Part Three]

Better. Good to see Swiss Toni (and Paul) back, and the material for his sketch was on a par with the golden years, although part 2 wasn’t really necessary. Liked Dave Angel attacking trees with a stick. Arthur Atkinson didn’t outstay his welcome. Not sure we need more Nigella spoofs (although Ulrika did a good one in Shooting Stars) and it kind of betrays the fact that Cheesy Peas are a brand.

Have they completed filming the sketches for these or are they still in production?

[si]

Return of Jazz Club today, plus Janine and Ron Manager. Not a bad little episode. It was actually the return of an old favourite at Upstairs Downton that made me chuckle the most, though… :)

http://fosters.co.uk/post/13587897142/the-fast-show-episode-4

[Jonsmad]

And yep, louis vause made it in again on piano, but best of all my mate Mark Bedford from Madness gets to be Clam on bass! I’m seeing him in three weeks at Camdens Jazz Cafe. How apt!

[Jonsmad]

Overall though after my initial delight, I’m not really laughing much at this new online series, it’s well made, but im not really that into fast show anymore I think this has proved it’s more a memory thing than a watch again thing for me.

[Danny Stephenson]

Strange isnt’ it? When we went to TVC for an audience there was a glut of DVDs to buy at RIDICULOUSLY low prices, tons of box sets and stuff one of them was Fast Show.

It’s still there on my shelf and i’ve watched the first disc so far. I cant’ watch a lot of it at once, and it doesn’t take long before i tire of it for another year.

It’s good, but in small doses.

[Alex]

Strange isnt’ it? When we went to TVC for an audience there was a glut of DVDs to buy at RIDICULOUSLY low prices, tons of box sets and stuff one of them was Fast Show.

It’s still there on my shelf and i’ve watched the first disc so far. I cant’ watch a lot of it at once, and it doesn’t take long before i tire of it for another year.

It’s good, but in small doses.

I found exactly that to be the case too, and I’ve barely watched any of it. In large amounts there’s just not enough variations in the sketches to keep you going. To a lesser extent I decided to look back at the first series of Time Gentleman Please the other day, mainly due to Richard Herring’s contribution, and it’s hard to watch too many at once. I think that’s largely due to the sheer amount of running gags and catchphrases in every episode like:

– Terry! You’re barred.
– Look at his face it’s a picture.
– That is the woman I’m going to marry.
– Reminds me of my last boyfriend.
– Hellllllooo
– I was never confused
– I’m so alone
– I’m implying I’ve got a massive cock
– Remember when the Prof won two quid on it?

Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with having catchphrases when used well, but they can become wearing in large doses. Such is the nature of the beast.

[Pete Part Three]

I fucking detest Time Gentlemen Please. Bought it on DVD last year as I’d never seen it and I like a lot of Herring’s stuff, but it was depressingly bad. Broad, embarrassing shit that made Red Dwarf VIII look sophisticated. I only made it to the end of series two because of Emma Pierson.

[Ian Symes]

Odd. When I picked up the Fast Show boxset a few years ago, I smashed my way through it in a couple of weeks, and still absolutely loved it. It’s worth pointing out that “you can’t watch too much of it in one go” isn’t really a fair criticism; it’s a sketch show, you’re not supposed to watch it all in one go!

With Time Gentlemen Please, remember that Herring had to write something like 24 episodes in eight weeks, so no wonder it’s shit…

[si]

I’m with Ian re The Fast Show – I finally got the box set just a few months ago, and watched the whole lot over the course of a week, and loved it.

[Ben Paddon]

I plowed my way through series 1 and 2 and got halfway through series 3 before I stopped watching. I’ll go back to it eventually, but first I’m attempting to recreate the experience of watching British comedy on an American network by watching every episode of Black Adder out of sequence, starting with “Goodbyeee”.

[John Hoare]

I had the same experience as Ian recently when I devoured the boxset – if anything it was much better than I remembered. The catchphrases are what stay in your head, but each episode was crammed with real, actual jokes I’d forgotten.

Even really liked The Last Fast Show Ever (the LYING BASTARDS), which I wasn’t expecting to – a few bits which really didn’t work, but plenty that did.

Not seen the new web series yet.

[Alex]

Odd. When I picked up the Fast Show boxset a few years ago, I smashed my way through it in a couple of weeks, and still absolutely loved it. It’s worth pointing out that “you can’t watch too much of it in one go” isn’t really a fair criticism; it’s a sketch show, you’re not supposed to watch it all in one go!

With Time Gentlemen Please, remember that Herring had to write something like 24 episodes in eight weeks, so no wonder it’s shit…

Well such was my point really, that it’s not meant to be watched that way. One day I’m sure I’ll try and blitz the box set again and by then might feel differently. As for TGP if I remember right from one of Herring’s DVDs he wrote 10 episodes in 9 weeks as they wanted more for the first series. The others they had more time on but still working to a fairly quick turnaround. That’s always going to impact on the quality, even more so when you have one writer doing about 80% of the work, with Stewart Lee writing a few episodes (which Herring rewrote) and Al Murray doing bits here and there and presumably writing the other remaining episodes.

[TheLeen]

I love the Fast Show.

I’m banned-by-IP from watching the webisodes.

And because it’s free, no one seems to upload anything anywhere.

No Fast Show for me.

[Ian Symes]

You should have thought about that before you decided to be German.

[si]

This week’s was okay, and a nice amount of ‘Fast share’ material (mostly outtakes rather than new sketches, but amusing all the same). Suits You was fairly amusing, as was Johnny – nice twist in the first sketch, though I thought revisiting it so often was a waste of time.

[Ben Paddon]

And because it’s free, no one seems to upload anything anywhere.

Ah, well, that’s not strictly speaking true. Not that I’d know about such things, obviously.

[TheLeen]

Details! DETAILS!

[Ben Paddon]

I’m sure I couldn’t say here, on a public forum, with eyes watching.

If only there were some kind of private electronic mail service we could use for situations like this…

[Author]

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