Newsjack - Series 4 Page 39

Well done to this week's winners. I've experienced all of the following (6 this week).

NJ Pain Scale:
0. get on and the audience roars
1. get on and it goes down ok
2. get on and it dies
3. get on and YOU don't find it funny
4. miss out and you CAN understand why
5. miss out and you CAN'T understand why
6. miss out and you THINK the audience would have roared
7. just miss out (dreaded 'close-but-no-cigar' email)
8. too lazy to send anything in

Be careful what you aim for. Personally, I don't like the scattergun credit-earner approach but each to their own.

I'm about to take some pain medication.

Quote: Badge @ March 3 2011, 7:09 PM GMT

A question for the webchat maybe? Though I think it was implied in the last one, if not explicitly said, that they like to see material coming in from people who've written something really good before. But you won't get anything sub-standard on just because you had previous success.

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Thanks Badge. If I get opportunity I'll ask it. I just imagine that part of the show's remit is to encourage new writing talent so, while they're not going to put out sub-standard stuff, having had something on last week I've been given a bit of an advantage this week.

And thanks to Stephen for the after show update, it was really interesting.

Quote: Larkin @ March 3 2011, 7:24 PM GMT

7. just miss out (dreaded 'close-but-no-cigar' email)

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Who else has received one of these? I wouldn't mind. Better than nowt...

Thought I'd make a point of subscribing to these forums rather than browsing through it every Thursday to see who has been successful this week and cursing those that do.

I've been submitting to pretty much every show of every series of Newsjack and Recorded For Training Purposes and up until last week the furthest I'd got were emails saying my stuff had been recorded but hadn't made it into the final show. Last week, amongst a sketch and a page of one liners, I wrote possibly the lamest, dullest, unimaginative and downright stupidest one liner for the Newsjack App...and it got on. My joy of getting that reply in the inbox saying my work was being used left me unbelievably happy that I wasn't wasting my time in submitting week after week and that "those in the know" found my gags worthy of transmission, only for me to be dumbfounded that they'd used said unfathomably tedious one liner instead of some of the "gold" that I'd submitted. Surely, I thought, it must be the sketch about Gregg Wallace from Masterchef physically digesting the news, or one of my gags about Piers Morgan having the lowest ratings since the Kraftwerk episode of Glee. But no, it was my page filling quip about double summer time meaning we'd have two weeks of summer as opposed to one. I actually groaned upon hearing this broadcast, feeling a degree of shame that I'd told my girlfriend, family and friends that I'd had something broadcast by the BBC.

So in conclusion, I agree that one man's comedy fulfilment is another man's Mrs Brown's Boys, but seeing as this is the only entry level radio comedy opportunity that the BBC has to offer, how are we supposed to progress through the ranks of BBC Comedy writing talent if such fate lies in the hands of a small group, probably exhausted from reading a thousand entries in under two days?

I didn't get on this week by the way. Bastards.

Quote: Tim Azure @ March 3 2011, 7:54 PM GMT

Who else has received one of these? I wouldn't mind. Better than nowt...

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I've had two types of those. The 'it got recorded but wasn't in the show' e-mail and the 'we like this would you mind doing a re-write' e-mail but then wasn't recorded.

Thankfully most of the other points on the 'Larkin' scale as well.

And Kevin - numbers 3 & 5 on the 'Larkin' scale. Welcome to the club.

While I'm here. Badge - series 1 and 2 team were the same weren't they (Dan Tetsell, Sam Michell & Tilusha Ghelani) and then in series 3 Simon Mayhew-Archer replaced Tilusha Ghelani? Dan Tetsell was the script editor for the first three series (with a couple of guest episodes here and there). Dare I say it I think the BCG Newsjack page is wrong in terms of the production team!

Hello. First post. I've been submitting to Newsjack since the start of this series. Since I've been following this thread for a while and everybody else seems to be joining in, I thought I might as well.

Quote: Tim Azure @ March 3 2011, 7:54 PM GMT

Who else has received one of these? I wouldn't mind. Better than nowt...

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I got a near-miss email for my submission for the first episode of this series. I actually got it the Friday after the episode went out, at about 17:30. It basically said my sketch had been in the recording but was cut out in the edit. Presumably because nobody laughed, although they kindly stated 'lack of time' instead.

I've also apparently got something in tonight's episode. Although my name is toward the end of the list which to me would indicate a correction or something, except I haven't sent in any of those. I just hope it's not a tragic mistake and I won't get an email saying 'Sorry, we seem to have sent you an e-mail in error - it was meant to go to somebody funny'.

Quote: Kevin Mears @ March 3 2011, 8:04 PM GMT

Last week, amongst a sketch and a page of one liners, I wrote possibly the lamest, dullest, unimaginative and downright stupidest one liner for the Newsjack App...and it got on... about double summer time meaning we'd have two weeks of summer as opposed to one. I actually groaned upon hearing this broadcast, feeling a degree of shame that I'd told my girlfriend, family and friends that I'd had something broadcast by the BBC.

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Welcome to the world of comedy, son. It's happened before, and it'll happen again. There are two things to remember about all this:

1. You can be sure what you find funny
2. You can NEVER be sure what other people find funny.

But... it's a credit. That's all that matters at this stage.

Quote: Larkin @ March 3 2011, 7:24 PM GMT

Well done to this week's winners. I've experienced all of the following (6 this week).

NJ Pain Scale:

View original

You missed one. Get on and you don't know why.

i.e. you get a credit but nothing in the show sounds like it was written by you.

Happened to me once.

@RJ

I'm definitely not complaining about the credit. Apologies if my rant sounded like I was selfishly complaining about it, more bemused that my first ever credit was for a throwaway comment rather than something I'd re-written and thought long and hard about.

Here's to a similar vibe next time

Believe me, I understand where your bemusement is coming from. Don't be surprised if something like that happens again, though. Often a throwaway gag is what they'll pick over anything else.

Ahh shucks, Griff.

Quote: Humberfloob @ March 3 2011, 7:07 PM GMT

I have a question following on from Stephen's - if you have material on one week do they 'look out for you' in subsequent weeks and perhaps give you preferential treatment over people who haven't previously been successful?

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Katie Tyrell said in the last web chat something along the lines of 'a buzz of excitement comes in when a writer with previous sends something in and, yes, it gets read immediately.' (I may be paraphrasing but the link to the chat is still in this thread somewhere) [EDIT: Link doesn't work anymore as it's ready for tomorrow's chat. Wonder if it's available anywhere else. Might be worth cutting and pasting it for future reference tomorrow if they're going to disappear]

Along those lines, when some of us were lucky enough to attend the pre-S2 workshops we were told that we had not just been invited because we'd had stuff on, but because we were consistently sending good submissions in, despite the lack of feedback. They just can't feedback on so much in such a short space of time.

That said, that did not stop me having a big 'never writing anything ever again!' strop earlier when I didn't get anything on. But I have got man-flu and am feeling sorry for myself.

Quote: Badge @ March 3 2011, 7:09 PM GMT

A question for the webchat maybe? Though I think it was implied in the last one, if not explicitly said, that they like to see material coming in from people who've written something really good before. But you won't get anything sub-standard on just because you had previous success.

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Badge is right re: the substandard stuff. Problem is after some successes and some failures, you genuinely don't know if what you thought was good was, in fact, utter bollocks.

Quote: Jinky @ March 3 2011, 9:06 PM GMT

i.e. you get a credit but nothing in the show sounds like it was written by you.

Happened to me once.

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This has happened *twice* to me! And once was a sketch!

Dan

Quote: Jinky @ March 3 2011, 9:06 PM GMT

You missed one. Get on and you don't know why.

i.e. you get a credit but nothing in the show sounds like it was written by you.

Happened to me once.

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That happened to me tonight! Just listened to the show and nothing really sounds like anything I submitted. I did write a Nick Clegg 60 Second interview sketch, but it was very very different (by which I mean, worse) than the one they broadcast. But I can't see them giving me a credit for that.

I think I'll send an email to find out (and then I'll go fish out that piece of bread stuck in the toaster with a fork).

Quote: crake @ March 3 2011, 11:14 PM GMT

I did write a Nick Clegg 60 Second interview sketch, but it was very very different (by which I mean, worse) than the one they broadcast.

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I wrote a Nick Clegg interview too. It was basically the one broadcast except for, um, all the different words they used, in a different order. And completely different. And they cut the punchline. So the credit I got I think was for the single line they used from my original sketch.

Congratulations to everyone who got stuff on and commiserations to those who didn't. Mine was the 'Congratulations, you've been selected for a revolution ...' Jack App.