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Comedy. It’s the one genre that everyone admits to liking, even if we rarely agree on what’s a good comedy and what isn’t. But I’m sure everyone would agree that British comedy is not in a good state at the moment. If you’re not a Miranda fan (though I can’t see why you wouldn’t be), there isn’t really much out there. With that in mind, Channel 4, and its hip digital sister, E4, have taken it upon themselves to relaunch their Comedy Showcase and Comedy Lab shows, which both, ahem, showcase new, innovative comedies. So let’s take a look at this week’s offerings.
Comedy Showcase
This kicked off with Chickens, a sitcom written by, and starring, two of The Inbetweeners, alongside someone else. The set-up was pretty simple (as all good comedy ideas are), revolving around three men who, for various reasons have ducked out of the First World War, remaining at home in their small, quiet country village. (I suppose those adjectives are a bit redundant…) They are, of course, branded as cowards, and regularly subjected to heckles and abuse from their female neighbours.
Not being a fan of The Inbetweeners, I was hoping that this show would have something to offer to outsiders like me, but either I missed that bit, or it just didn’t offer anything, as the comedy seemed to rely solely on the presence of its leads, without actually giving them anything funny to say. And the problems didn’t end there: Chickens lacked direction; it was overly talky, lending proceedings a knowing, cocky and, as such, unlikeable air; it was horrifically slow paced (you’re not telling me that was only 25 minutes); and it was entirely joke-free.
I said earlier that all good comedies are developed from simple ideas. But I should have added that not all simple ideas make good comedies. In short, it was fowl.
Comedy Lab
Because of my experience above, I approached Comedy Lab with some trepidation. I was pretty sure that things could only get better, though, and reading the press release convinced me no end, as it proudly boasted that it had launched the career of Ricky Gervais. Strange, I always thought The Office was a BBC thing. Hmm, live and learn.
Anyway, the first experiment was sketch show Anna and Katy, starring Anna Crilly and Katy Wix. And it was pretty decent really, even if it was difficult to feel too strongly either way. For the most part, I found it, at the very least, mildly amusing, but only occasionally laugh out loud funny.
Perhaps the most concerning thing about it was that, in almost all of the sketches, formula had already set in by the end of the episode, meaning that items such as the German Casualty and the ‘Congratulation’ daytime show (I say daytime show…) felt as if they’d already run their course. But then there were others, like the brilliantly excruciating Church Hall skits, where it felt like the surface had barely been scratched.
So there’s definitely some potential there, it just needs nurturing, and to have more characters brought into the mix, before said potential is fully realised. And, let’s face it, you’re not going to find a better summary of In It to Win It anywhere else, are you?
Check back in a few weeks, when The Yorker TV team will be picking out their favourite pilots from the rest of the series.
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