Inbetweenies Movie Trailer (Newsjack)

Hello all. Any advice/criticism of my failed Inbetweenies movie trailer sketch would be gratefully received...

MOVIE VOICE-OVER GUY:This summer four friends - best friends - finally grow up and come of age in the number one box-office smash from the hit TV show, 'The Inbetweenies'.

MILOsad) But I'm eighteen now and I've still never driven a car, changed my hairstyle, or put my penis in a lady.

BELLAh Milo, don't feel sad. Max says he was forty before he lost his virginity.

JAKE: Yeah, Doodles still won't go near him.

FIZZ:Jake! Anyway Milo, we've got our summer holiday to look forward to. Two weeks in Malia - who knows what exciting adventures we'll get up to?

ALL:Inbetweenie Clock - where will it stop?

GRAMS:'Tweenie Clock' music

JAKE:Clunge Time!

BELLAh Jakey, you are silly. There's more chance of me having a threesome with the Chuckles Brothers than you having sex with someone other than your hand.

LAUGHTER FROM THE OTHERS

MOVIE VOICE OVER-GUY:This summer inappropriate comedy just got a whole lot inappropriater.

I feel I'm missing a crucial bit of information.

Is there something called a "tweenie"?

It's the inbetweenERs you novice.

Make no wonder it was rejected lol

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ September 17 2011, 1:43 PM BST

I feel I'm missing a crucial bit of information.

Is there something called a "tweenie"?

View original

A long running kids TV Show, 'The Tweenies':

Got it, thanks.

While googling, I came across

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwj41b1Xp4I

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0igo6o4x0XI

That's a general piece of advice. Always worth googling a joke/idea to see if someone else has done it elsewhere (especially on YouTube).

D'oh! Thanks for doing the research I was too lazy to do!

In my limited defence, I did Google 'inbetweenies' but got nothing similar, just a few references to an Ian Dury song*. Incidentally, when I've just re-googled it this thread is now at the bottom of the first page - fame at last!

*I did only look at the first page it has to be said

Setting aside originality and tenuous topicality*, you need to ask the question "can I imagine this being played on NewsJack?" I couldn't see this ever getting past the first stage - just completely wrong tone - nob gags, onanism, the word "clunge" etc.

Having said that, I could see this on Tramadol Nights... It's a clever word play and not a bad idea.

* by tenuous topicality I mean it's a popular movie but been around a while now. Would be a good trailer to parody if could tag against a topical event.

Thanks Big Jack, I agree with all of that. I have had a couple of one-liners on the last series but no success with sketches and I can't help myself going towards the 'sweary' which I know is not their style but I can't help it But I do think being professional and writing for their particular house style is the key so I'm going to bear that in mind this week.

And I know it wasn't topical but they make a point of highlighting the 'Batman Man' trailer and its topicality was tenuous at best!

Batman-man was brilliant - and completely legit. The set up to the sketch was a clear context setter - new movies being made of Superman/ Spiderman etc were highlighting a spate of American superheroes being portrayed by British actors. I remembered reading about it in the paper and had thought that there might be an angle about how it wasn't that long ago that all the baddies were played by British actors - and was gutted when the sketch cam out that I hadn't had the idea! It was a genius concept - both clever in conception and ludicrous in execution.

Remember that despite what they said in the webchat, it's not just the week's news but also the "zeitgeist" which gets included.

I'm not au fait with The Tweenies at all, but the sketch just isn't long enough for a movie trailer. Probably need to expand it a bit and, with the first line, you need to spend a bit longer misdirecting before hitting them with the Inbetweenies reveal.

It needs a few more parallels between the two to work better too. If you can find any!

Dan

Thanks for reading the sketch and for the advice, Dan. I didn't send a movie trailer in this week but I do like that kind of sketch (as opposed to the Justin interviewing someone kind) so will maybe have another attempt at a new one at some point in the series.

I think the issue was one of topicality. Although I got it, the child with which I watched Tweenies is now a teenager. As evidenced by the first couple of reactions, a lot of the audience wouldn't get the references because they don't know the characters.