Jason Manford

Less laughs for Jason Manford as viewing figures fall

Jason Manford's Show Me The Funny saw audiences dwindle on Monday night.

Will Jason Manford shine at opera singing?

Comedy star Jason Manford will be hoping to prove he was Born To Shine on the ITV celebrity talent show at the weekend - with his new skill for opera singing.

Here's a tricky question: Was it humanly possible to make shambolic Show Me The Funny any worse? Answer: Yes... by adding bagpipes.

For some inexplic­able reason the useless wannabe comedians joined the Scots Guards to see if they were any good at military circuit training. They weren't. Who cares?

With hapless host Jason Manford looking more forlorn by the second, venerable veteran Jo Brand suddenly cropped up from nowhere to inform us: "Either you make people laugh or you don't." Memo to the crap contestants... You don't.

Show disappointed as the contestants joined the army

Show Me The Funny saw Jason Manford, Alan Davies and Bob Mortimer judge the hopefuls at a military base, but the comic value of comedians participating in an army bootcamp is surprisingly low.

Host Jason Manford keeps out of the firing line as the nine remaining comics perform for the 1st Battalion Scots Guards at Catterick in North Yorkshire. But first they have to go through army training so they can write five minutes of new material.

"I shouldn't be doing this. I've got a verruca," complains Rudy, 47. It's the best one-liner of the night, although that's not actually part of his set.

It's weird, the way this formula is intent on squeezing comedy into an observational straight-jacket. And with critic Kate Copstick on the panel, I'd love to know what she really thinks of the end product, where viewers only judge most of the stand-ups on the basis of just one or two gags.

The big questions are: will Prince Abdi attempt another woeful accent and will Cole make a prat of himself again? Happily, the answer's "Yes" to both.

Gigglebox weekly #13 - Show Me The Funny

This week I have decided to devote the entire column to just the one show: the new comedy reality programme Show Me the Funny, hosted by Jason Manford. My review can be summed up in a few short words, but I'm not allowed to use those sorts of words so I have to elaborate.

Q&A: Jason Manford - "Piers Morgan is an oxymoron"

The Show Me the Funny host on what he loves and loathes on TV.

Show Me The Funny was a shambles that looked like it was being hastily cobbled ­together as they went along. Anyone work out what the hell was going on? Damned if I could.

Twitter fan and former One Show sensation Jason Manford was the host. I think.

Dying a death in Liver­pool, 10 criminally hopeless ­alleged stand-up ­comedians seemed determined to establish they couldn't make us laugh if their lives ­depended on it. Mission accomplished.

Meanwhile, Jimmy ­Tarbuck and Alan Davies spouted seasoned-pro claptrap with some old girl doing an impression of Cruella De Vil on a bad-hair day. They were the ­judges. I think.

But back to the action... and contestant Cole Parker's first "joke" of the empty night: "The amount of oestrogen in this room is as palpable as it is ­intimidating." Boom-boom!

After that it was downhill all the way. Hard to crack a smile.

There are supposed to be six more episodes of this ocean-going turkey. But is it really worth ­carrying on? I think not.

Review: Show Me The Funny

Unfortunately titled, considering the scarcity of laughs. Jason Manford presents The Apprentice-for-comedians, as 10 stand-ups compete for £100,000, a DVD deal, and a nationwide tour.

Jason Manford's gags cut from Show Me The Funny

Jason Manford's new programme Show Me The Funny flopped on Monday - after a legal wrangle forced bosses to cut the comic's jokes.