Little Britain

[Shade]

Three years after everyone else got into it, and having only seen bits of it before now, I've just watched my first complete Little Britain and I am speechless (well, not quite) with just how awful it was. There was not a single moment in it that made me smile and several which made me so disgusted that I felt like a retired Colonel for a moment: the vomiting racist woman (hilariously called Mrs Blackamoor), and in particular the incontinent granny, which actually made me quite angry that they thought it was remotely funny rather than puerile and offensive. The 'surprises' were always predictable, like Ting Tong ("ha ha, David, she's a Chinky so that's, like, a funny name for her!" "You're right, Matt, we're geniuses! Now let's write a meaningless sketch about a man who says 80s slogans when he eats a hot curry!") being a ladyboy and Desiree's wig becoming Bubbles's pubic hair - another scene which appalled me in a Disgusted-of-Tunbridge-Wells fashion. Here's news, boys: being disgusting and 'taboo-breaking' isn't funny or interesting in itself. The League of Gentlemen showed how to do it and make it funny (and even sympathetic). You either don't have the talent, or can't be bothered to make the effort.

The characters were lazy stereotypes - ahahaha! A girl who studies Women's Poetry has a moustache! And the entire basis of the sketch is someone else being rude to her about that!! - and the 'new' jokes including two fat women having a catfight are already boring. I felt ashamed for Rob Brydon, Nigel Havers and Tom Baker, who deserve so much better. And I felt ashamed of myself for sitting through the whole shitty half hour of it, when it was clear from ten minutes in that there was nothing to stay for.

 

[lilbiteb]

I'm just off to bed so I'll keep it short.

I agree with everything that you've written. I didn't even smile while I watched it. It's such a shame as I had really looked forward to this series. It's very lacking.

 

[Stewart]

The League of Gentlemen showed how to do it and make it funny (and even sympathetic). You either don't have the talent, or can't be bothered to make the effort.

Now, The League of Gentleman, there's funny for you. A sketch show, with the occasional catchphrase, that is different every week and, in the case of the third series, willing to push itself in new directions. I remember the Little Britain guys' previous show, Rock Profiles and that was just as bad.

Shows like Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show, Chewin' The Fat, The Karen Dunbar Show, and The Fast Show are just feeble attempts at comedy. I'd even include Harry Hill's early shows in this "catchphrase comedy" bracket. They are lowest common denominator shows; visual jokes, for the greater part, for an audience too thick as shit to understand words.

Big Train was one of the best sketch shows we've had in recent years. True comedy where the jokes aren't always too obvious and you start laughing halfway through the next sketch because it's just sunk in.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Shows like ‘Little Britain’ will always be hit and, increasingly, miss. I would think that by the end of this current run they’ll have put out enough good material to make up one really good series; the other two thirds being filler and repetition.

But whilst I might think that they’re variable in quality, if they’re popular and win awards it doesn’t really bother me as there are thoughtful, well observed, intelligent comedies around for me to watch and keep me happy.

Still I suppose if shows like this mean we terribly bright young things get to laugh at the poor taste of the proles whilst we waste our lives posting on Internet book boards isn’t that reason enough for them to exist?

Yours, laughing at the peons,

K-S

 

[ruby]

I did watch last wks Little Britain and it wasnt funny at all.
So i didnt bother watching last nights!

A couple of you have said about The League Of Gentleman,now thats what i call funny,its in a class of its own.

 

[Stewart]

A restart class of its own.

 

[Shade]

Oh yes, which reminds me that Marjorie Dawes is clearly a lift from Pauline...

 

[G4G]

This programme is shit, and I can't see why it's so popular.

 

[Dan Luna]

The TV mag had a photo of Dafydd in it, so I laughed at that and watched BBC 2 about Death Metal and Satanism instead. Mind you, the bit with the open minded Norwegian parents who had bought their 13 year old a guitar and large amplifier, could have passed for a Little Britain piece, as too the roadie discussing the problems involved in handling pig's heads during the summer outdoor concert season.

 

[Halo]

I must be one of the few people in the UK who has never seen Little Britain. It just doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Shade]

As you've seen from above, you're not missing much.

 

[geneviv]

I've never seen Little Britain. It sounds a bit like South Park.

The first two seasons of The League of Gentlemen were really great but I feel it really jumped the shark at the Christmas special and the third season was just too wierd for me.

 

[Stewart]

I've never seen Little Britain. It sounds a bit like South Park.

Nothing like it. The crap above is a repetitive sketch show whereas South Park can, at times, use satire in addition to crude jokes.

[The League of Gentlemen...the third season was just too wierd for me.

Really? Because it moved away from a sketch show format to a proper storyline per week?

 

[ruby]

A restart class of its own.

Do we need to start calling you pauline?

 

[lies]

I actually thought it was quite funny at moments... the jokes becoming as predictable as the jokes my friend and I would make ourselves.

 

[kirsty]

The League of Gentlemen is much better, I agree, but I do like Little Britain too. It's hardly offensive. Much of it is laughing at steryotypes, rather than endorsing them. The Fat Club (blatent copy of LOG's Job Centre) for example, shows an overweight hypocritical racist running the group. The laugh is on her for her steryotypes, not at the Asian lady. That's how I see it anyway.

 

[Stewart]

Kirsty, it's more their inability as writers to create enduring or interesting characters and, as a result, their skill is limited to poor stereotypes which they use to elicit cheap laughs. Any pretence at satire is, if not lost, diluted.

 

[phil_t]

I cant say I've ever bothered watching an episode, but from everything I've ever heard about it in the papers I dont think that it would appeal to me.

If I want a laugh, I'll stick on my Spaced DVDs

Phil

 

[ruby]

I cant say I've ever bothered watching an episode, but from everything I've ever heard about it in the papers I dont think that it would appeal to me.

If I want a laugh, I'll stick on my Spaced DVDs

Phil

Spaced is brilliant so funny and i own the dvds as well all thanks to my daughter who got me watching this one friday night

 

[kirsty]

Stewart, I said in my first post in this thread that I didn't think it was all that good. It is, as you point out, extremly repetitive. It isn't 'cleverly' written, but then a lot of what people watch on TV isn't. I like the satire. A lot of people do see it as racist, and laugh at that, but I find that in itself funny! It's not racist, it just rips into those who are.