Instant quips from Carr

On 8 Out Of 10 Cats, the panel has to guess which are the five things most cited in a public survey. On last Friday's edition, these were (I think) the 5 greatest living Brits. What was interesting was that even when the panel guessed incorrectly, Jimmy Carr would have a little quip ready for that incorrect answer, even though ther must be countless incorrect answers (although maybe only a few hundred 'most likely' answers).

How is this achieved?

Conceivably, it could be that he has a team of researchers to find a gag instantly, and relay it to his earpiece, or it could all be a written beforehand, and the team can only choose from a secret list of a few dozen names; or it could even be that Carr has a virtuoso ability to do little off-the-cuff gags.

Does anyone know?

There are a lot of writers listed at the end (or 'Programme Associates'). Basically, like all other panel shows, a lot of it is scripted (particularly the chair's scripts, albeit often by the chair themselves). The impro bits are usually Sean/Jason going off on one, I suspect, but even some of that is probably unused stand-up material they've latched on to. (Though to be fair, they've thought of using it 'on the spot').

Might seem quite contrived, but an entirely improvised panel show would be a very long and boring thing to watch otherwise!

Dan

Sure, I was understand that a lot of it is scripted.

Possibly, it's virtually completely scripted?

Quote: NoggetFred @ July 22 2009, 9:33 AM BST

Sure, I was understand that a lot of it is scripted.

Possibly, it's virtually completely scripted?

View original

Since a lot of these panel shows employ professional comedians I'd imagine that there's a bit of spontaneous off-the-cuff stuff that ends up being used. Although most is probably scripted.

I think it's probably more likely that they are given an idea of some of the questions so they can prepare material in advance.

As for Carr's quips - they probably just write a bunch for various news stories and only show the ones where he has a funny answer ready.

To be fair, I understand that HIGNFY has the chair's script completely scripted (obviously) but Ian and Paul apparently improvise a lot of the rest. I can't believe they're not 'pointed' in the direction of certain things though, as to be completely unprepared would make for poor TV.

Dan

As far as I understood it, Merton and Hislop don't have any preparation for the recording. I imagine that their preparation is just done by reading the papers every day. Which in Ian's case, as editor of Private Eye, is a necessity anyway.

Possibly worth watching Annually Retentive if you want an insight into how these shows work.

Some shows are obviously more scripted than others. Non-reliably funny guests (and in the case of TTIAO, team captains) are fed gags, though some shows have formats and/or booking policies that negate the need for for this. There is a lot of recycling of old stand-up material, most shamelesslessly on MOTW, and a lot of basic gags are transferable between contexts, but a lot of the spontaneity is just that, professionally funny people thinking on their feet - and the adrenalin of performance makes that much easier than you might think.

As for the chair, HIGNFY regularly shows up the difference between a host who reads out a script and one who can improvise around it.

TTIAO? MOTW?

TTIAO - They Think It's All Over
MOTW - MOck The Week (sort of).

Ah!

I've seen HIGNFY being recorded and I totally believe that the most preparation they have is to see the questions before hand. Also, I don't get why either Paul or Ian would bother to prepare - Ian is the editor of Private Eye, so knows the news backwards and Paul has spent the last 25 years of his life performing as part of an improv troupe. Why would he learn a script? When you see it live, you can tell when the guests are hammering things in that they've already prepared - it's pretty obvious that it's not just banter.
As for Jimmy Carr - he did a programme about the best and worst Britons and hundreds of those 100 Top or 100 Worst programmes. So I expect he's got loads of jokes about those people in his mind.

Quote: SillyBry @ July 23 2009, 12:09 AM BST

As for Jimmy Carr - he did a programme about the best and worst Britons

View original

Where did he come in the worst Britons?

Pretty near the top I would guess.

This thread has got me thinking and wierdly enough I have to say that the greatest panelist of all time for improvising and being funny is when Jonathan Ross was on TTIAO (They Think It's All Over). He was actually a comedy genius - so good that it led to the last eight years of making mediocre TV yet getting paid a shitload for it.

Yeah, Ross was funny on TTIAO wasn't he.

In regards to the original thread topic: as has already been touched upon above, I'm sorry to shatter any illusions Fred, but a lot of panel shows are sort of pre-scripted.

Obviously the auto-cue gags are always pre-written, but often the panelists are supplied with additional gags too. It's never so scripted that they decide beforehand: "OK, so you say this after him"... but they know what questions are coming up and can pitch in with their gag when ready. For example, Jason Manford will know they're going to be talking about, say, Michael Jackson so have a few mini-jokes prepared for that.

Mock The Week is perhaps the best example of the involvement of writers - each episode has about 8 writers on it (cleverly disguised in the credits as 'Programme Associates'). The fact that Dara doesn't have any scripted gags to deliver between rounds, reveals that these writers must be providing material for the panelists.

Personally I don't think it's a problem - shows like Mock The Week take two hours to record, so its not a surprise they need a little help with extra jokes.

Don't get me wrong, some of it is very much still off-the-cuff and certain panel shows - like Have I Got News For You - don't actually supply panellists with any material.

In our new writers area we will have an interview with Pete Sinclair, a panel show writing veteran, in which he explains a bit more about how it all works.