cynic
Monday 13th October 2014 9:55am
4 posts
I must say I too was left open-mouthed by the episode 3 breaking news one-liner:
"height differences caused by DNA says bear who shits in woods"
(I had to listen to it a few times to see if I was missing something)
Obvs I'm just jealous/bitter as I didn't get anything on, but that's pretty cliched stuff. (Apols to whoever wrote it, well done for getting something on and apols for sounding negative!)
The prior strict ideology where newsjack jokes had to be a) true b) a genuinely new angle was really great, I totally agree series 9 was very strong. - I can still remember some one-liners from it!
I think it made newsjack unique in terms of topical comedy and I write that as a listener not a wanna-be writer.
So ok it was a strict regime, perhaps too strict, but some discipline is maybe important for up and coming rather than established writers? Surely it's best to encourage writers to stick to real news and try and be original, so lines about bears and woods don't sit well with this.
(Despite all this I actually do like the odd surreal/silly one liner which seems to be more of a feature in this new series).
I agree the new show format may still be bedding-in but I think the producers need to be quite careful not to just let it turn into 'just another topical comedy show'...the above one liner was the 3rd one in episode 3....the HP prints/prince liner that followed it was good, so maybe it's just a blip.