You young 'uns don't know how easy you've got it. Back in the good old days you never got this email of success.
You had to submit your material by post to Weakending, then were forced to endure the whole programme to see if you got on.
Newsjack - Series 3 Page 8
I noticed that there was a grammatical error in my first gag.
Just the one mistake. Round here, that's actually quite impressive. 
Quote: Failed Comedy Writer @ June 16 2010, 10:07 PM BSTYou young 'uns don't know how easy you've got it. Back in the good old days you never got this email of success.
You had to submit your material by post to Weakending, then were forced to endure the whole programme to see if you got on.
Yeah, yeah, grandpa, we don't have to submit stuff by pigeon or semaphore either, doesn't make it any easier in the writing 
(Actually some of the differences over time etc are quite interesting. We don't have quite the same 'walk-in' access it seemed you could once get, but do have more abilities to edit, and quicker/instant delivery, although that means more competition and probably less pride in the work (from both writer and producer*)
(*I heard a thing on the radio other week, about David Nobbs ringing up 'That Was the Week that was' and asking if they took sketches. David Frost sent a taxi round to fetch the script.)
(Also I think almost everything I've had brodcast I found out when it hit the air. (Ok, sometimes when I went on iPlayer clicked straight the credits and heard my name. That's -almost- the same.)
anyone had any replies from newsjack yet? so far I haven't, still positive though
Not me.
I haven't, but I think not using my stuff is written into the BBC's charter.
Quote: Hennell @ June 16 2010, 11:14 PM BSTWe don't have quite the same 'walk-in' access it seemed you could once get
Bang on mate - I once (early / mid 1990s) decided to walk straight through the door at Broadcasting House and announced to reception that I'm a writer for Light Entertainment. They gave me directions to the heart of the building where I spent half an hour having a nice chat with Punt and Dennis over a cup of tea, then walked into the script meeting for Weakending.
It was astounding how desperate they were, scrabbling round for jokes and piss poor puns (Weakending, that is - not Punt and Dennis) before one of them finally suggested they should bother sifting through "the crap" that had been sent in.
Imagine my pride when my own material was plucked out of the pile of aforementioned crap and rejected for being "too edgy".
Still, I'm sure they don't refer to our stuff in such glowing terms. Keep check those inboxes this morning, but it's still us vs them.
1993 - blimey, you've only just started mate! I've been failing as a writer since 1977!
Gee, and they're calling YOU grandpa! 
I s'pose 'too edgy' is probably the best rejection you can have. It probably beats 'too clichéd' or 'too mad'.
It's still a BBC series so you have to walk the fine line between 'really edgy out there stuff' and 'something that we can't possibly put on because it might possibly offend someone, somewhere in some remotely possible way'. 
If anybody is sending in 'edgy' stuff, it suggests they haven't heard the programme before.
Nah, John - this was Weakending (RIP). They regularly got 'edgy' and 'funny' mixed up and rejected stuff for being the latter.
Hey team - anyone heard from the Newsjackers yet? (He asks, suspecting it's business as usual. Still, gives me a spare half hour this evening to catch up on my DVDs of Three Pints of Lager etc etc la di da.
I note it's got a slightly earlier timeslot this time round: 10:30pm.
I wonder if this series they are going down the route of not telling anybody beforehand in order to make everyone who submitted listen and thus increase their audience. I have to say it's what I would do, but then I'm a bastard.
Maybe they could hire those mercenary North Korean supporters?