Be Excellent To Each Other

What did you think of it?

I think I forgot it, even though I saw it was on earlier.
I'll try and watch it tomorrow.

Series 22? Goodness.

twas good though I prefer a proper frothy head on my amstel

His hair is fucking terrible!

it's not that good
Also, it made me feel old as I can remember when that style was first in fashion 25 years ago!

I miss his hair, too. It was so lovely and spongey!

Pretty much exactly as good as it has always been.

Um, not that good, TBH. Mark Ronson isn't exactly Bill Bailey. I liked the miming bit, though.

Mimi was on it? I must've missed that bit.

"Welcome to the last series of Never Mind the Buzzcocks!"—unless they can get a decent replacement for Bailey. Ronson wasn't it.

I was dressed as Mark Ronson, I'm glad I managed to fool a professional Mark Ronson spotter,

Amstel >>>> Lamarr.
Bailey >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ronson.

Bailey is on tour for the next few weeks - I'm not sure if he's missing the entire series. However, more importantly, Ronson was only on for this week - they're changing team captains each week. IIRC they mentioned Stephen Fry for next week...

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Bailey's not coming back though.

http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.htm ... _a_source=

I thought it was great. I thought Ronson did alright for something he's not done before, and he provided a good target for plenty of good-natured mirthery.

OhJesusfuckno.

Unfortunately it wasStephen Fry OR some random person I have never heard of.

Skinner will be good. O'Leary will be so very, very poor.

This was alright last night. It's never hilarious really, is it?

Stephen Fry would be an entirely wrong choice for Buzzcocks. Skinner will be shit, but nowhere near as bad as O'Leary, the pompous, smug twat.

I had several belly-laugh moments last night, so

Er, he's none of those things. He's very down to earth and extremely sweet and funny.

Guests are bearable if it's for a short period of time, like when Merton 'left' HIGNFY, but after a while they just grate. Also, the line-up for Buzzcocks just looks dreadful, even Fry, who's just not going to work on that show, apart from being a target. I'll be amazed if he's agreed to do it, not least because the panel show he heads—QI—has made most other panel shows look dated and redundant.

It's a real shame about Bailey buggering off, though, because Amstel breathed new life into what had become a really tired show. Well, that and Bailey's too big these days, and so only plays absurdly large venues.

To be honest, I've always thought there was a lot of similarity between NMTB and QI - both rely hugely on interplay between the presenters for their content and humour, with the questions only really forming a framework. The only real difference is that QI tends to have subject matter that is interesting and new, whereas NMTB covers music, rarely obscure music, and is a little more pandering.

Buzzcocks with Amstell seems to be a lot of cringe comedy as the professional comedians rip the piss out of their pop star guests, it's funny sometimes but I much prefer the genial atmosphere of QI.

Suits me fine - I love cringe comedy.

I saw this yesterday. Verdict?
Silly hair
But as funny as usual
BUT WHERE'S BILL BAILEY?!

It works best when it is at it's most subtle - like when Amstell started quoting passages of someone's girlfriend's really bad autobiography 'I bought some shoes at Marks and Spencer and it made me feel really posh'. He never actually said anything other than to read her 'own words' aloud to her boyfriend/husband, but it was just well measured to top it over the edge. He often sees that line and just pokes his toe over it. Frankie Boyle does the same, but in a different way (he doesn't say anything personal, but he just goes that slight step too far... Sometimes I think he can't even believe himself what he has just said. I'd love to know the kind of stuff that gets cut from Mock the Week.

I have the CDs of the 'not shown' stuff from Mock the Week. It's mostly about wanking. In fact, it's mostly about Frankie Boyle wanking.

I think it was just a joke at the end of the episode.
Although, if you watch the later series of QI, he doesn't really appear to be enjoying himself.

I didn't find it as funny as previously. Maybe it was the inclusion of Mark Ronson but it seemed like a group of pissed celebrities bitching about their friends. Unamusingly.

It's an odd thing, a programme that's so big it can now attract some quite famous people who are unfortunately put off by the fact that they will be ridiculed. So we end up with Amstel's mates.

O'Leary? Seriously?

Edit: Actually, I may not have meant pompous; I can't remember the word I want but it's still not a positive one. He's definitely smug though.

Am I the only one that doesn't really find Bailey overly funny? I'll admit I don't mind him at all in small doses, though.

I liked this episode. I laughed far more than I was expecting to.

You can find them on YouTube, I think it's called "Too Hot For TV"?

Either way, I love the way that the audience laughs in anticipation when Frankie Boyle takes the mike on Mock The Week.

Am I the only one here who doesn't find Frankie Boyle particularly funny? He has the odd good line here and there admittedly, but he's hardly a comedy genius. Probably the best thing on Mock the Week, but that's faint praise indeed.

No, I am.

He's really not smug. He's down to earth, funny, and actually just a regular guy.

Sorry Meems - we're talking about the guy from X-Factor. There appears to be confusion.

Frankie Boyle is all right. He does good standup. I don't think Mock The Week is that good, though.

I find Frankie Boyle funny, but it's not necessarily down to his jokes as much his accent. There are just certain accents that make virtually anything pant-wettingly funny, to me. Boyle goes for the shock factor, much like Jimmy Carr in some respects.

There's a sketch on Not The Nine O'Clock News parodying Question Time, where they end up discussing an imminent nuclear holocaust. Richard Davies (in the part of Clive Jenkins), in a Welsh accent, says "It's round about now I wonder what Nye Bevan would have done. And I'm pretty sure he would have shat in his pants."

The delivery of the line is perfect.

//edit: This sketch, in fact.

I mean this Dermot O'Leary:


I don't know of any other and I've not seen X-Factor, but I thought that it might have been the one above that will be on Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

I keep hearing that he's meant to be a super nice bloke in real life and I've no reason not to believe it. I still find him quite annoying but mainly just rubbish on telly though.

I quite liked him on BBLB when I was forced to watch it with Pauline.

Malc

It's just when he kept banging his clipboard with one hand whilst doing a half-pirouette to face the other camera, little things like that annoy me more than they probably should.

It's an odd show, really, because they've mashed together HIGNFY—but without the dry wit—and WLIIA?—but without the free-flowing nature. It's all terribly awkward, the rounds system doesn't work (which is why QI's so great—it's more like an ongoing conversation, rather than relying on the tired 'dance around the answer telling lame jokes before having to say the right then eventually; WLIIA? was great also for not having set 'answers' to sketches), and you know most of the people on there would be better if the format was replaced with something better.

I still don't entirely understand why someone doesn't bring back WLIIA? Get the better people from Mock the Week, rope in anyone willing from The Comedy Store Players (including Richard Vranch, but actually let him take part, rather than gluing him to the piano) and the likes of Ross Noble, and just let it rip. It'd still crap all over most other panel shows out there.

At least we're talking about the same person, even if we'll never agree on his smugnacity! It is his TV bombast that I dislike and find so smug though; I have seen a couple of small, quiet interview bits (with him as the -ee rather than -er) where he seemed reasonable.

Ah well, I think you'd soon change your mind if you met him, but I am sure I won't be able to convince you

I believe the concept was sold to the USA and now we can't have it back, or something.