That Mitchell And Webb Look

Mitchell & Webb's most iconic sketches

Written by: Rhianna Evans
Published: Thursday 13th July 2023

By 2006, Mitchell & Webb had already firmly established themselves as the protagonists of cult hit Channel 4 comedy Peep Show. The sitcom that (via interior monologues) gave us a bleakly honest window into the souls of neurotic everyman, Mark (David Mitchell) and delusional man-child, Jeremy (Robert Webb). However, outside of the series, it was not yet widely known that the pair were in fact, a "proper" double act, who had met at Footlights, starred in two TV sketch shows (Bruiser and The Mitchell And Webb Situation) and found a home on Radio 4 in 2003 with That Mitchell & Webb Sound.

That Mitchell And Webb Look was the duo's first major TV series on the BBC. Here the wider public saw Mitchell & Webb pitch themselves as a traditional double act, the new Fry & Laurie, if you will.

It was a speedy introduction... after the titles, and before you even really knew what you were watching, Mitchell & Webb hit us with perhaps their most iconic, certainly most easily recognisable moment - it's a sketch we all know and love, penned by the pair themselves, and like almost all truly iconic moments in comedy the humour relies on one very simple premise. We see an officer of a dubious-looking army barracks approach another, 'Hans, have you looked at our caps recently?' David Mitchell's character asks Robert Webb's general. 'What? No... a bit,' he replies.

'They've got skulls on them... Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of skulls on them?' Mitchell's pseudo-Nazi persists. 'Hans...' he then tentatively questions, 'Are we the baddies?'.

Are We The Baddies?

This was akin to seeing The Two Ronnies performing Four Candles as an opener to their first ever sketch series. Double acts usually build up to their iconic moments, but to put that sketch first made you stop in your tracks and think, these two have something special.

The sketch had been performed before on the radio, a year prior to the TV series in That Mitchell And Webb Sound; but there the scene was slightly more focused on the skulls that adorned those caps of which Mitchell's comrade had first taken issue, instead of the 'Are we the baddies?' line, which had not yet been defined as the crowning glory of the sketch.

Mitchell: 'Well, you know...skulls... the connotations are pretty much all negative: death, cannibals, beheading... erm... pirates...'

Webb: 'Pirates are fun!'

Mitchell: 'I didn't say we weren't fun, but fun or not, pirates are still the baddies.'

Although this follow up discussion was included later on in the TV episode, the decision to cut away from the scene so early, choosing to reduce the sketch down to its simplest premise was the thing that really made it sing.

These days the sketch, or more specifically the "moment", is known around the world. 'Are we the baddies?' has reached meme status, with combined YouTube viewing totalling almost 10 million. The simple question is posed during many an argument on Twitter; now used as online shorthand, a way of asking people to check their allegiances via one sentence or image, a reference to something everybody is expected to be familiar with. Really, how could anybody deny the cultural significance of this sketch?

The Football Is Officially Going On Forever...

The football trailer was another sketch that was originally performed on the radio in That Mitchell & Webb Sound. Flying the flag for anybody who doesn't really care for the sport, David Mitchell mustered one of his famous rants in order to satirise Sky Sports.

The sketch comprised of an advert that greatly overexaggerated the vital importance of every single 'constantly happening' football match that was to be broadcast on the channel, 'Every kick of it massively mattering to someone, presumably!' Mitchell declares as he strides along a football pitch.

Every line was a gem, but 'The football is officially going on forever! It will never be finally decided who has won the football!' perhaps became the definitive line.

David Mitchell has frequently expressed his dislike for the game, although the sketch is loved by football fans, including Bob Mortimer who found himself connecting with the sketch on a deeper level. Picking the skit as a personal favourite, he commented on the Gold series My Favourite Sketch that he was reminded of Mitchell & Webb's trailer before being admitted for surgery he feared he might not survive. Just before Bob went into the operating theatre, he watched Middlesbrough play Manchester United for what he thought would be the last time, 'So, really the football does end', Bob recalled thinking, as he watched his team win on penalties.

Now loved by fans, the football sketch has found a global audience with its simple sarcastic message of 'Watch the football! It's gonna move!! It's football!!!'.

After 'The Event'

The Remain Indoors sketches, also known as The Quiz Broadcast although officially titled After 'The Event' were a run of skits penned by David Mitchell, Jonathan Dryden-Taylor, Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley, which depicted a quiz show set in the end of days.

Presumably the group we meet are the last survivors of a nuclear war, but we're never told what 'The Event' was, other than we mustn't think about it. Mitchell portrayed a quiz show host whose appearance seemed to be rapidly deteriorating each time we saw him, but his enthusiasm was rarely dulled. He declares brightly in the opening sketch:

'Hello! Good evening and remain indoors! This is The Quiz Broadcast coming to you every Friday, the same day as your food parcels! So, chow down on a protein fudge, take whatever injections are recommended in your sector and prepare to enjoy the show!'

The contestants were typically portrayed by Sarah Hadland who played bewildered ex-supermarket worker Sheila, and Robert Webb who completed the line up as kindly young blind man Peter.

Mitchell portrayed the host with great skill, never allowing the character to come across as sinister, as he rules over the other survivors, forcing them to join in with the futile game. He's just utterly desperate to pretend things are okay and the sketch manages to inspire warmth towards these characters in the face of their dire predicament.

However, looking back over the sketches for a podcast during the height of the pandemic in 2020, David Mitchell wondered if the jokes had at times become too dark. Reflecting on one gag in particular - the slight chuckle made by the host as he reminisces, 'Oh yes, post Event the world would have been a different place if we'd managed to keep even some of the children alive.'

David remarked, 'We were looking for the bleakest, nastiest, most tragic thing we could think of, and I think we got pretty close... but now, it just makes me shiver; it doesn't amuse me anymore. I wish it wasn't there.' Jonathan, Joel and Jason all pointed out that the sketch wouldn't have been as good without it, commenting that what really sold the line was the way it was performed; David delivered it with the wonderful combination of a man that is both heartbroken for humanity, but also has no option other than to present a game show... and the line did get a big laugh.

The post-apocalyptic saga of The Quiz Broadcast was inspired by a chance visit to the Kelvedon Hatch R4 Bunker in Essex. This bunker was a part of the BBC's plans for broadcasting in the event of a nuclear war (considered a genuine possibility during the height of the Cold War). BBC documents referred to as 'The War Book' revealed meticulously detailed plans for The Wartime Broadcasting System or WTBS. Broadcasts would have been operated across eleven secret bunkers across the UK.

By far the most fascinating aspect of this plan, and possibly the inspiration for the now famous catchphrase 'Remain Indoors' were the emergency recordings created for the BBC's Wartime Broadcasting System. Peter Donaldson, a well-respected voice of Radio 4, recorded a series of announcements to be played in the event of such an emergency. A freedom of information act revealed the full transcripts for all of these announcements back in 2008, a few of the original recordings have since been released.

There were also plans to broadcast classic comedies, copies of Round The Horne, I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, and Hancock's Half Hour were kept in the bunkers, until it was eventually theorised that this would be a terrible waste of radio batteries in the event of an actual disaster.

But the idea of the BBC's quest to plough on regardless with making (or at least repeating) classic comedy and entertainment shows in the face of almost total global annihilation was so darkly humorous that it inspired the Mitchell & Webb writing team to set about writing the After the Event sketches. They were so keen on the idea that both the writing pairs of David Mitchell and Jonathan Dryden-Taylor, and Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris unwittingly worked on different versions of the same sketches, which then had to be stitched together - that's apparently why The Quiz Broadcast has two endings.

In the early spring of 2020, when the world went into lockdown the Remain Indoors sketches received a huge resurgence in popularity, with many seeing them for the first time. Once again, it was social media that spread the 'Remain indoors' catchphrase - therefore Mitchell & Webb, the kings of the quiz show parodies, found that The Quiz Broadcast had, for the first time, overtaken the popularity of Numberwang.

At this moment in time, The Quiz Broadcast seemed to neatly reflect the desperate and worried state of television. It was a strange time in broadcasting, with viewers witnessing some truly bizarre moments, such as before ITV soap Coronation Street a continuity announcer reminding viewers about social distancing, telling the public to remember to adhere to 'Government guidelines', seemingly stopping just short of adding 'Remain indoors'. Meanwhile, two flagship shows of Channel 4 and ITV, The Last Leg and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, had to glibly limp on without a studio audience, performing to an eerie display of empty seats with a slight look of nervous terror in their eyes.

What the After the Event sketches managed to hit on so well (similar to the premise of Raymond Briggs' When The Wind Blows) was the particular tragedy of normality in the face of extreme hardship. Somehow, a person on a TV show struggling on in the face of overwhelming adversity, trying their best to enjoy themselves, despite their nightmarish situation is scarier and bleaker than anything else.

With tragic, reflective comedy only becoming more popular in recent years, The Quiz Broadcast aged like a fine wine, becoming more culturally relevant than it had been when it debuted back in 2009.

That's Numberwang

It is fair to say that Numberwang is the Yang to After the Event's Yin. Surrounded by a colourful array of glittery set pieces, Robert Webb takes centre stage as the quiz show host in a pantomime of oddity, one which features Peep Show star and future Oscar winner Olivia Colman as the contestant Julie and fellow Peep Show star and well-respected actor Paterson Joseph as Simon (who is from space). The pair are seen doing all kinds of ridiculous things such as playing Numberscoff or bouncing on trampolines, but most of the time they must simply shout out a number to find out if it's Numberwang.

Webb: Let's move on to Round Two, Imaginary Numbers. Simon?

Simon: Twentington.

Webb: That's Numberwang!

Julie: Frilve hundred and neeb.

Webb: That's Numberwang!

Simon: Shinty-six.

[A buzzer sounds]

Webb: Oh, bad luck, Simon. I'm afraid shinty-six is a real number, as in the popular phrase "I only have shinty-six days left to live.".

Dreamt up by Mark Evans, the sketch is largely incomprehensible.

Numberwang has no rules, and in being so utterly assured in its own absurdity it satirises every tedious, tiresome and unnecessarily complicated quiz on TV. In all truth, the sketch has ended many a fledgling TV quiz with one simple, devastating put down - the verdict, decided by many a keyboard warrior, declaring that a show is so utterly incomprehensible, that... well... It's Numberwang.

Numberwang's popularity saw spin-off sketches including a pseudo-documentary about the origins of the show, a German language version (Das Ist Numberwang!) and even an elaborate Dan Brown movie trailer parody, The Numberwang Code featuring David Mitchell playing a floppy-haired Tom Hanks and Robert Webb's stirring turn as Ian McKellen.

Although Numberwang only features in its purest form in That Mitchell And Webb Look's first series, it still, like all the other examples on this list, made a huge cultural impact.

Brain Surgeon

Our final sketch, is one that continues to gain traction as an all-time classic, chosen by Paul Whitehouse as one of his favourites in the Gold series My Favourite Sketch. It was penned by The Dawson Brothers. With its genius lying in the simplicity of the punchline, we saw Robert Webb cast as a boorish, entitled, self-important brain surgeon ambling around a party proclaiming of his vast knowledge and achievements to guests. When David Mitchell walks through the door to the greeting, 'Oh Jeff! Did they keep you late at the space centre?' It's not hard to see where the sketch is going, which makes David's delivery of the punchline all the more satisfying.

As you can see, Mitchell & Webb are truly a pioneering sketch duo, with many sketches to their name that will go down in the British comedy hall of fame. These are creations that can comfortably be placed alongside the cast iron classics such as Four Candles, or Monty Python's Dead Parrot. When you look at all the prominent sketch shows down the years there really aren't that many with such a strong hit rate as That Mitchell & Webb Look.