Soporific Anal Sarcasm
The Wright Way Page 21
Just caught up with this. It was pretty much as I expected - standard Ben Elton stuff, with a diverse collection of characters which where obviously very similar to those he created for The Thin Blue Line. I thought the script was funny in parts, with the usual innuendo and mildly amusing acronyms, plus in one episode a scene involving the emptying of a kitchen bin - a routine which I saw Ben Elton do a similar version of during his stand up tour in the mid 1980s!
Overall I thought this was OK, but not the best new sitcom around. I'll probably watch the 3rd episode and see how it goes.
Even though nothing can really save the barrel-scraping junior school-level humour displayed in the dead horse that is this show, you'd think Elton would know that it would be one iota less unfunny and painfully, intelligence-insultingly signposted and dragged out if the weekly acronym "gag" was done in a way where you don't visually find out exactly what letters and word are being written down until they are revealed via a rotatable flip chart or whiteboard.
Instead we get the already dire, infantile, archaic and overall painfully unfunny 'joke' not once...not twice....no not even thrice.....but basically FOUR times:
1. Gerald says each set of words that are going to form acronyms....for which just you need the ability to listen and spell to figure out what the acronym is going to be.
2. Then in front of your very eyes as clear as day and at a glacial pace he writes each letter down....whilst also saying each letter as he does so, mind.
3. He reads out what each acronym just happens to spell
4. Then get ready for the most contrived, head-bludgeoningly unsubtle single-entendre you've ever heard.
Well done Mr Elton! Not only do your "jokes" fail but they fail on 4 different but equally abysmal levels. Now if only the BAFTAs or even the Knighthood had their equivalent of the Golden Raspberry Award...
Makes me laugh, though.
Quote: johnny smith @ May 8 2013, 3:00 AM BSTEven though nothing can really save the barrel-scraping junior school-level humour displayed in the dead horse that is this show, you'd think Elton would know that it would be one iota less unfunny and painfully, intelligence-insultingly signposted and dragged out if the weekly acronym "gag" was done in a way where you don't visually find out exactly what letters and word are being written down until they are revealed via a rotatable flip chart or whiteboard.
Instead we get the already dire, infantile, archaic and overall painfully unfunny 'joke' not once...not twice....no not even thrice.....but basically FOUR times:
1. Gerald says each set of words that are going to form acronyms....for which just you need the ability to listen and spell to figure out what the acronym is going to be.
2. Then in front of your very eyes as clear as day and at a glacial pace he writes each letter down....whilst also saying each letter as he does so, mind.
3. He reads out what each acronym just happens to spell
4. Then get ready for the most contrived, head-bludgeoningly unsubtle single-entendre you've ever heard.
Well done Mr Elton! Not only do your "jokes" fail but they fail on 4 different but equally abysmal levels. Now if only the BAFTAs or even the Knighthood had their equivalent of the Golden Raspberry Award...
Duh. That is the joke. All of it together. That is what he is doing and he is doing it deliberately.
The acronym joke works because it builds anticipation. You wonder what inadvertently rude word he will be spelling.
I must say I really enjoyed last night's episode. The Wright Way is really funny and I don't care what critics are saying.
Nice to see that it obviously gets better. I'm really looking forward to see this, and I also don't really care what the critics say. The critical reception of The Thin Blue Line was also rather bad back then, but it's still in my top 5 of the funniest Britcoms I've ever seen.
A perfect underrated sitcom. What is wrong with it anyway?
I have seen some shite in my time, but this in my view is the worst sitcom I have ever seen. Everything about it is shocking, from the awful theme tune, to the daughter's lesbian partner, not to mention the acronyms and the black woman who walks in when something dodgy is happening and over-reacts in that OTT afro-Caribbean accent template. And what is that Mayor about, or Gerald's work colleagues. Absolutely f**king awful, what is Elton doing?
I genuinely believe I with no experience could write a sitcom far better than that.
If you genuinely believe that, Jack, why not have a stab at it and post the first couple of scenes in Critique?
I thought eps 2 and 3 have been very entertaining. Both better than the first episode, and that wasn't too bad either. Laughed a lot, especially at the anticipation of the acronym thing. David Haig is very funny, as is Mina Anwar.
My 11-month-old has never really noticed the TV, but the first thing I've seen her pointing at and laughing hysterically was... the really rude scene in episode 2 with all of them with the dummies. So, if it works at an 11-month-old level, it's obviously doing something right!
The only irritating thing to me is that the two actors who are known for soap operas (an admitted personal bugbear of mine anyway) seem to be very 'soap-y' in their acting; like they could've found some comedy actors that may have been better. It doesn't ruin it entirely, to be honest, just grates a bit.
Oh, and I don't get what the mayor's Yoda-talk is all about. I assume we'll get an explanation at some point?
Dan
Quote: swerytd @ May 9 2013, 1:03 PM BSTOh, and I don't get what the mayor's Yoda-talk is all about. I assume we'll get an explanation at some point?
Yeah, I like Robert Daws generally, but that Yoda-talk is over-done. I think it worked if it's every couple of sentences, but not every sentence.
I timed that at 25 mins exactly. Only 4 mins longer than Vicious which has good reason to be short.
Other than that, how do you sensibly review a sitcom episode like that? Elton certainly goes for it in his very loud style. I laughed several times and sometimes disliked myself for doing so. But I'd rather have our money spent on this than another unfunny snarkcom. It's a well formulated narrative sitcom albeit with a peurile sense of humour, cartoon characters and a hideous enhanced laughter track. Elton at his best and worst. 
...
Quote: swerytd @ May 9 2013, 1:03 PM BSTI thought eps 2 and 3 have been very entertaining. Both better than the first episode, and that wasn't too bad either. Laughed a lot, especially at the anticipation of the acronym thing. David Haig is very funny, as is Mina Anwar.
My 11-month-old has never really noticed the TV, but the first thing I've seen her pointing at and laughing hysterically was... the really rude scene in episode 2 with all of them with the dummies. So, if it works at an 11-month-old level, it's obviously doing something right!
The only irritating thing to me is that the two actors who are known for soap operas (an admitted personal bugbear of mine anyway) seem to be very 'soap-y' in their acting; like they could've found some comedy actors that may have been better. It doesn't ruin it entirely, to be honest, just grates a bit.
Oh, and I don't get what the mayor's Yoda-talk is all about. I assume we'll get an explanation at some point?
Dan
Forthcoming an explanation no doubt will be.