The Emperor's New Clothes

Does anybody else out there watch comedies that everybody else raves about and think, "What's all the fuss?". The comedy I do this most with is Green Wing. While there are moments of inspired genius, my overall feeling is that it's bloated, self indulgent and could do with being half an hour shorter. I desperately want to like it, but it just leaves me cold. Another show that everybody raves about but passes me by is The Catherine Tate Show. While she's clearly a brilliant performer, the writing is leaden, lazy and uninspired...

Does anybody else out there swim against the tide on much loved shows?

The Office.

Just ask Wheeler and I that question.

The Mighty Boosh.

I saw Mighty Boosh for the first time on YouTube (Don't tell). It was research for one of my own shows, to 'genrefy' it. It was the one with the killer kangaroo. It was okay, but barely that. I laughed maybe once or twice (the video section with the disembowelling dialogue was very good) and I smiled a few times more. What i liked was the tying in of several gags at the end, and the surreality, but for me there was too much dancing, too many odd songs, and it laboured on the testicle symbolism for minutes, rather than seconds. I began to wonder how much improv was going on at one point.

I'd watch it again, but mainly out of curiousity, in case i watched a poor one.

Mitchell and Webb...

from the wonder that is peep show.....to the scraps of That mitchell and Webb look ...

oh that's a bad miss? funny how?
numberwang funny after the 18 time?

I totally agree with Chipolata's views on catherine tate...I've said that to people how she is brilliant at characters and voices but some of the material in the sketches is so poor. I'd still give her stuff more credit than...TMAWL.

I really like Green Wing, although not enough to defend it when an electrician saw the DVD on our kitchen table. He said he didn't get it and I said it was my wifes. He was a big lad. Catherine Tate's first series was more laughs than latter ones. I gave up watching half way through series 2 and only watched the first episode of series 3. Agree about her acting though, it's the material that's below par. Never saw Peep Show but TMAWL got a lot of publicity so I watched the first couple but it didn't float my boat.

Can't say I've ever got a buzz from watching Green Wing. Initially I thought it was me and I would eventually get 'it' but so far this show has left me feeling a bit Douglas Barder. Y'know, about 2 feet short of the punchline. I mean it must be me, obviously, and not the show because it's won buckets and buckets of awards but as they say, that's life - which is exactly what the writers of Blunder should get.

I really like Green Wing because the plot line, however thin, appeals to my girly soap side, and I love the comedy aspect! of course! and I also like the Mighty Boosh loads-but I agree Blunder and the Office are lost on me!

SLAGA, I would reccomend persevering with THE MIGHTY BOOSH, it really does grow on you and is, in my opinion, one of the best comedies of recent years. Shows this imaginative should not be ignored or passed over, there is a true and original comic voice, view and world going on there, you just have to sink into it and acclimatise!

I'll give it my best shot, Matthew. It's the kind of show I should like.

There are some popular shows I've never got into and I feel guilty about it. Others I have watched but never made an effort to watch repeats or buy videos/DVDs.

They are:

Catherine Tate
Green Wing
The Royle Family (yet I love Early Doors)
Will and Grace

Have a major love/hate relationship with Friends. Still can't work out if its one of my favs or incredibly annoying.

I forget to mention in my original post the entire career of Sascha Baron Cohen. Borat? Number one film in America? I must be missing something, because as far as I'm concerned it's a three minute idea stretched to breaking point.

OK, this might be stretching the post just a bit - well, quite a lot actually - but what, for those of us who are old enough - no offence Scatterbrained Floozy - think about any of the 70's programmes like 'On The Buses', Mind Your Language' and 'Love Thy Neighbour'?

Ok, if you watch any of those 'I Love....' programmes, there's usually a lot of anti comments from a bunch of standup comics saying how embarrassed they were watching them - even though most of them weren't even born at the time.

How many thought they were pretty good or were they a case of "The Emperors New Clothes"?

I've only seen clips of Love Thy Neighbour but it doesn't look very funny. Oddly enough, whilst it was branded racist and, I think I'm right in saying, hasn't appeared on our TV screens since the '70s, I remember Only When I Laugh (which is just as un-PC) being repeated in the mid 90s. Now that show was awful - the writers utilised every foreign sterotype available but, alas, forgot to include some jokes.