Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 1st September 2017, 7:12 AM
Your next subject is OPEN cos Newsjack is rearing its dickhead.
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INT. DINGY LONDON FLAT - NIGHT
A tiny, filthy hellhole of a flat. Two tired and depressed WRITERS sit surrounded by empty coffee cups, cigarette ash and half-finished bottles of cheap gin.
WRITER 1
Ok, so, new series of Newsjack coming up. And this year's gonna be different. This is the year we make it as hilarious sketch writers!
WRITER 2
Oh yeah, this is it alright! I'm feeling so creative right now!
WRITER 1
Ok then. Sketch ideas: Go!
WRITER 2
Brexit!
WRITER 1
Not Brexit, for f**k's sake! Every dickhead with a refurbished Macbook and a knock-off copy of Final Draft'll be sending them Brexit stuff!
WRITER 2
Well, we could do it with a clever new twist? Like, a really scathing, biting satirical takedown of modern politics?
WRITER 1
How do you satirise it, though? How do you satirise a bunch of people trying to do something they don't really understand even though they don't really want to do it, because they're scared of repercussions from a bunch of people who don't really know what they want them to do, and probably wouldn't even really notice if they did it anyway?
WRITER 2
Give them all funny voices--?
WRITER 1
Ok, hard pass on that one. We need to go subtler. A really obscure, but immediately understandable news story nobody else'll pick up on that we can translate into a snappy, hilarious radio sketch.
He gestures to the screen of his refurbished Macbook.
WRITER 1(Cont'd)
What about this? There's a story here about a guy who tried to explain away getting caught drink-driving on a piece of beer-battered cod he had for lunch?
WRITER 2
I think that might be too obscure. Also, that story's 18 months old. Someone's just posted it on Reddit today for some reason.
WRITER 1
Ugh. Ok, fine, what about a sketch about how stupid Reddit is? I mean, have you actually tried to read anything on there? It's like trying to work your way through a badly-translated Italo Calvino novel backwards!
WRITER 2
Not really topical, is it. Plus, that'll likely alienate most of the BBC script readers. Young people love Reddit.
WRITER 1
Ugh, fine. Good point.
WRITER 2
Also, you really need to stop trying to shoehorn Italo Calvino references into everything. Nobody gets them.
WRITER 1
But it's funny because--
INT. DINGY LONDON FLAT - LATER
More cigarette ends and another bottle of gin have been added to the detritus.
WRITER 2
Ok, look, how about we just do what we normally do?
WRITER 1
We wrap something we've already written around a vague reference to a recent news article and hope they don't notice that the whole thing couldn't even tangentially be considered topical?
WRITER 2
Exactly, like when we tried to claim our 'Drunk Pilots' sketch had something to do with the European Court of Human Rights.
WRITER 1
I dunno. I feel that might be one of the reasons our sketches never get chosen.
WRITER 2
Well, alright, so...maybe we just re-submit one of our old ones and hope they don't remember it, and the quality of submissions this week is particularly bad?
WRITER 1
Oh, yeah, that might work. How about that first one we submitted, years ago?
He wipes a cigarette end off his refurbished Macbook keyboard and brings up the script.
WRITER 1 (Cont'd)
I mean, this was amazing. We were on fire back then!
WRITER 2
Ridiculous that it didn't get picked. What's wrong with a meandering, seven minute long sketch hanging on a really flimsy stereotype about foreigners, where half the gags are in German, most of the others require incredibly specific fart-based sound effects and it just sort of ends without a proper punchline?
WRITER 1
Actually, maybe we should keep at it...
INT. DINGY LONDON FLAT - MUCH LATER
Further bottles of gin and some fast food wrappers have been added to the pile. The ashtray is now overflowing. Both writers look tired and profoundly drunk.
WRITER 1
Oh, god! The submission window closes in an hour!
WRITER 2
Right. Focus. What have we got so far?
WRITER 1
(looking at the screen)
An outline for a sketch about Princess Diana that it turned out Mitchell and Webb had already done, a Word document that just says 'What if Kim Jong-un was Scottish?' in Comic Sans, and six links to funny YouTube videos with less than 50 views that we were considering whether they were safe to steal and pass off as our own.
An alert chirps out from the laptop.
WRITER 1(Cont'd)
Oh, and another warning to register this copy of Final Draft.
WRITER 2
So, nothing then? We've got nothing?
WRITER 1
Exactly! We've got f**king nothing! We've been sitting here for days, trawling through the arse end of every dodgy news site we can find, brainstorming hundreds of different possible nationalities for Kim Jong-un, and we've got nothing!!
WRITER 2
Ok, just relax. Let's just...take a minute, calm down and go with the first thing we think of. No idea's too contrived, no twist too obvious. Live in the moment! Trust in fate! This is the moment we think of our clever, unique topical sketch idea that's gonna make us stars!
They pause, stare into space for a moment and take a swig of gin from a couple of nearby bottles.
WRITER 1
(sighing deeply)
Donald Trump's a Nazi?
WRITER 2
(nodding)
Donald Trump's a Nazi.
They turn back to the reconditioned Macbook and get typing.
THE END