We all like a laugh. It’s what separates us humans from the lobsters. Yet when it comes to comedy your TV suddenly betrays you and transforms into a one-armed bandit of mirth; sometimes paying out the giggles, but often spitting lemons at you with a merry jangle, the cheeky electric bastard.
Yes, you can camp out on UK Gold for a while, but eventually that Mobius strip of Vicar of Dibley repeats is going to wear your funny bone down to transparency, and you’ll have to venture across the buttons to find new jokes. But where?
Here’s a round-up of the first three months of 2015’s new comedy. There’s been quite a bit and, to put it mildly, it has been mixed…
Catastrophe
Sharp, cynical, and very funny in a ‘thank god I’m not in their shoes’ sort of way, Channel 4’s Catastrophe skewered into the schedules and immediately became a critical hit. So much so that it bagged a second season by about Episode 2. Sharon Horgan and Fireman Sam lookalike Rob Delaney are the transatlantic couple brought together by a mutual interest in shagging one another, and then by pregnancy. Uncomfortable, devastatingly uncompromising, and as crude as a piss-covered engagement ring (yes, that happens), it whips off its shoes and knickers so it can straddle the fine line between comedic situation and crushing reality. You are advised to watch the whole lot of it now on 4OD.
House of Fools
For fans of Vic & Bob’s loony surrealism (especially those who like their 90s ‘Smell of…’ work), House of Fools is a treat so bonkers that it should be classified as a mind-altering substance. Season 2 of the sitcom that refuses to sit still has not so much broken the fourth wall, as smashed it with a novelty cannon shoe, put it back together, and then winked at the audience as it painted a big willy on it.
You can hear the live studio audience loving every second, as Vic and Bob merrily dick around in pantomime fashion, accompanied by pudding-voiced Matt Berry and the elastic presence of Morgana Robinson. It’s a pantomime of nonsense, but watching people having fun while trying to make you laugh is where much of its charm lies.
Pompidou
A CBeebies sketch that seems to have broken free of its moorings and drifted into an unfortunate timeslot, like a bouncy castle taken by the wind onto an industrial estate, Pompidou is a comedy that isn’t fulfilling potential.
It evokes the spirit of Jacques Tati and Mr. Bean, but it lacks the finesse of either. Matt Lucas has created a likeable character and scenario, but it doesn’t quite feel right in its current form. Perhaps it would be better as a series of ten minute shorts on iPlayer, or if the slapstick was aimed at a younger audience.
There’s definitely a space for what Pompidou is doing but that space is not BBC Two on a Sunday evening.
Nurse
Imagine if Paul Whitehouse’s Aviva ads weren’t trying to sell you insurance, and were instead about laughing at the mentally ill. Ha. Ha. Haa! Look at those craaaaazy shut-ins…
I watched Episode 1 of BBC Two’s Nurse and didn’t laugh once, which is good because if I had I would have felt terrible. Derek barely pulled off the potentially Molotov mixture of mental illness and comedy, but Nurse feels like a tour around a modern Bedlam. Pay your shilling and laugh at the freaks. Or in this case, don’t.
It’s a tepid poke at a risky comedic ground, and it doesn’t help that much of it is simply Paul Whitehouse under a series of different noses. Despite the prostheses, every character looks like him and sounds like an impression of a celebrity. It may have worked on the radio where it originated, but it fails here.
Up the Women
Jessica Hynes’ suffragette sitcom is comedy toast, in that, like toast, it won’t make you guffaw, but it is enjoyable and inoffensive. It’s gran-level gentle and, because Hynes is very, very good at creating characters, works on the principle that the more you get to know it, the more you like it.
Yes, some of the puns are excruciating, but there’s a jolly atmosphere that calls to mind the camaraderie of the old Perry & Croft sitcoms like Dad’s Army and Hi-De-Hi!, and any comedy which invokes those shows is worth giving a chance. It’s not unmissable, but it is certainly worth an iPlayer watch on the bus.
Asylum
No.
Uncle
Vaguely pot-scented, vodka damp slacker comedy is BBC Three’s speciality (Him & Her, How Not To Live Your Life, Siblings), and the corporation’s most skinny-jeaned channel has always done it with gusto, which is why Uncle has found a comfortable bum-groove on the Beeb’s sofa rather than Channel 4, where the pilot episode aired.
You shouldn’t laugh at the line ‘NASA doesn’t care about some dead little boy’s ashes, it’s too expensive!’, but there’s a fierce interplay between disaffected beard Andy and brainy skimmed milk shadow Errol that makes it all vaguely acceptable. It’s very much the onesie of comedy, but admit it, you love your onesie. Zip it up and enjoy.
Moone Boy
Season 3 of Sky 1’s best comedy (sorry, Trollied) has just started, and shows no signs of weakening. Chris O’Dowd (Cockney rhyming slang for IT Crowd), isn’t everyone’s cup of beard, but he plays an imaginary character, so technically he doesn’t exist. Instead enjoy the increased role for Ian O’Reilly as Martin’s school mate Padraic, who comes dangerously close to stealing the limelight.
Packed with plenty of great lines, and an irresistible Irish charm, the only problem with Moone Boy is that you know it’ll end sooner than you want because its wonderful little star David Rawle is going to grow up and grow out of his imaginary chum. Someone start feeding him those pills they used to give Judy Garland.
Count Arthur Strong
Like Mrs. Brown’s Boys, Count Arthur Strong is Marmite for the soul: you either love it, or it leaves you feeling disgusted and sticky. Its second run out on the screen improved on its first, and there were some nice moments (the episode with the clocks changing was good, go on, admit it), and there’s something endearing about its pensionable simplicity. If anything, it should be in a more teatime slot. It moved to BBC One from BBC Two this year, but the BBC doesn’t seem to know where to put comedy (see also: Pompidou, Up The Women).
Frankly it’s just interesting to watch just to see Rory Kinnear in a show you frankly wouldn’t expect him to be in. It’s like watching an orca in captivity; entertaining, bewildering, and a little disheartening. Jump free of that tank, Rory, and return to the freedom of Shakespeare and Bond!
Crims
The last prison comedy BBC Three tried was Sharon Horgan’s Dead Boss, which was good, but apparently not good enough to escape death row. Now we’ve had Crims, described by one of its stars, Kadiff Kirwan, as ‘Not so much Porridge as Ready Brek’.
The humour is broad and often crass, much in the same way as it would be if you spread Ready Brek on your bum and bared it out the window. Some people would laugh, many would turn away. That’s very much the reaction toward Crims.
You should never ever have to drink to enjoy a comedy, but if you’re going to watch it and want to enjoy some of it, you should have exactly three beers.
What’s your favourite new comedy of 2015 so far? Let us know below…