Okay, I have taken it upon myself to spread the word about a television show that totally cracks me up. It's on BBC America (which leads me to believe that in Europe it's on BBC) and it's called "That Mitchell and Webb Look" and stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It's a sketch comedy show that is really funny and inventive.
Most sketch comedy shows have about a 50/50 funny rate to me (that is, I find about fifty percent of the sketches funny and the rest only so so or worse). Some seasons of "Saturday Night Live" have been as low as 10/90. "Kids in the Hall" usually ran 70/30. "Little Britain" (also on BBC America and coming soon to HBO) was 80/20. But "That Mitchell and Webb Look" is consistently 90/10 or higher. Some of the sketches are so funny, I laugh out loud (this is a rare feat at home, where a chuckle is the norm).
My favorite sketches are "Numberwang", a convoluted game show that no one knows the rules to, even the host, and the contestants are always "Julie" and "Simon". I would make "That's Numberwang!" my catch phrase if it wasn't, you know, stealing.
I also LOVE the "Lazy Film Writers" (hmm, maybe because I am one?) where they basically write films they know nothing about. "We started writing and the Microsoft Assistant popped up and said 'It looks like you are writing a heartwarming, underdog British sports movie, would you like some help?' so we just typed in some character names and a title". It's so funny if you are at all a film fan. The trailers for the film cracked me up..."From the catering staff that brought you "The Full Monty" and starring a guy who was almost in "Brassed Off"... They also wrote a medical drama but didn't want to research medical jargon so in it the doctors just keep calling for "medicine, nurse, this patient needs medicine, right now!" It's pee your pants funny.
I love the sketches at the swap meet too, where the seller always has some thing that looks normal, but isn't (The wardrobe he's selling is the doorway to Narnia, the cup he has for sale is the Holy Grail.) I wanted to put one of those videos on this post but couldn't find one so I put this sketch on instead...here, the Nazi's figure out that they might be 'the baddies'. Hysterical.
There are other recurring skits, like "Sir Digby Chicken Caesar" and "Ted and Peter", the snooker commentators.
Okay, you definitely need to see this show. It airs Friday nights on BBC America. And if you don't have BBC America, call your local cable provider...then go to YouTube, because they have lots of Mitchell and Webb sketches there. Enjoy!
1 comment:
That was a good skit. I checked to see if they had any dvds on Netflix but they don't. Not yet, anyway. I imagine they will eventually if it is a popular show. I'll have to remember to keep checking for it.
Sketch comedy is great when it is done well. The early days of SNL were the best, but some of the later seasons had some good moments. Wayne's World, The Church Lady, and The Sweeney Sisters were some of my favorites after the original cast had left. And I've recently caught an episode or two of Mad TV that were pretty funny. One skit was about Oprah Winfrey and it was hysterical.
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