What’s your favourite Comedy Panel show on UK TV?
This will be a public poll (i.e. your vote is visible to all)
I won’t vote, as I’m in the States and have only seen the first three (though I’ve watched quite a bit of those). I love them all, but I think QI is my favorite.
I adore QI.
Probably one of my favorite shows. Is it back on yet?
Yes. The 4th episode just aired.
I so wish there was an American version of the iPlayer. I have to make do with the QI clips on Youtube.
QI is unbeatable, by miles. Except for the episodes with Johnny Vegas in.
Second is probably a tie between Mock the Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats, then Would I Lie To You.
Don’t much care for HIGNFY, Shooting Stars (it’s exhausting), or Buzzcocks without either Bill Bailey or Simon Amstell.
Toss-up between QI and HIGNFY, for me. I like them both, but I think HIGNFY is marginally funnier, and IMO they have maintained the same standard throughout the entire twenty-year run, which is quite a feat. But ask me tomorrow and I might vote for QI. Shooting Stars was great at its peak, too.
QI by a long way. HIGNFY is OK but not on my must-see list any more. Shooting Stars I used to watch back in the Dove from Above days, I’ve seen the odd episode more recently and it feels like the the same gags in new clothes. Buzzcocks has been crap for ages.
I get most of my comedy from Radio 4. Tonight it’s The Unbelievable Truth, which is the other (funnier) show on the BBC with David Mitchell which is about lying.
I voted for QI, though I also love HIGNFY and Would I Lie To You. I like Mock the Week a lot, but they keep having panelists I find entirely unfunny (e.g. Jack Whitehall, and I’m also not a fan of the guys who are only capable of spouting one-liners–I just don’t think it works with the panel show format). 8 out of 10 Cats and Buzzcocks I’ll watch if someone I really like is on, but I’m not really interested in the shows aside from that. I’ve only watched maybe two episodes of Shooting Stars (the first just to see what it was like, the second because James May was on it), and it raised my anxiety level so much that I refuse to watch it again. Total sensory overload, plus nothing making sense and everybody shouting.
GuanoLad, I didn’t like Johnny Vegas in his first QI episode, but I was at the taping of his second one (6x4, “Fight or Flight”) and found him surprisingly funny.
Johnny Vegas may not be that funny in and of himself, but the way the rest of the panel responds to him can be hilarious.
QI is one of the greatest shows ever made, and I’m not entirely just saying that because Stephen Fry is my hero. HIGNFY is pretty good, at times brilliant. Mock the Week had gotten to be well-nigh fantastic, then Frankie Boyle left. It’s a pale shadow of itself now, and I just can’t understand anyone who thinks Milton Jones is funny. 8 out of 10 cats is worth a watch, but I wouldn’t be bothered if I missed it now and then. Would I Lie to You is usually great. I don’t watch the others.
MTW was brilliant, particularly Frankie Boyle’s brand of cerebral filth, but I was starting to tire of his schtick by the time he left. Haven’t watched it since. Dara O’Briain is excellent, Hugh and Andy are OK, but Russell Howard gets on my nerves.
I really miss Amstell. It took a wee while to warm to him but once he clicked I just loved the guy. I liked his recent comedy, “Grandma’s House”, but I did spend a lot of it wishing that he’d just go back to Buzzcocks. Perhaps the fact that he was essentially playing himself in the show, with the references to him quitting a job as a presenter, didn’t help.
I tried one episode. It was the most hideously full of itself show I have ever seen. Just a load of people sitting around, back slapping about how amazingly funny they are, except without actually being funny.
Difficult. HIGNFY is brilliant and, without sounding like too much of a wanker, really important, and as Ximenean says has been remarkably consistent over twenty years. Merton / Hislop are a remarkable double act. QI is just joyful, though. I went for QI.
I used to watch Buzzcocks but, I don’t know, it doesn’t have any warmth. I never really took to either Lamarr or Amstell. Also the guests are pop stars and generally pop stars aren’t particularly funny, Amy Winehouse notwithstanding.
Shooting Stars has its moments of brilliance, but it is tiring. I don’t watch any of the others.
Well, you’ve just described the whole comedy panel game format :). But I know what you mean. I didn’t like MtW at first, but unlike you I did find it funny enough to outweigh the smugness.
SMUG. That’s the word I was looking for! Cheers!
I guess I could give it another go, but there’s really too much good TV out there to watch anyway. Pity really, as I really do like Frankie Boyle.
You picked the wrong show to get an impression from. I kind of agree with you that it seems to be a back-slapping fest. It is sometimes genuinelly funny, but unfortunately, a lot of the time, it’s people trying desperately to be funny.
ETA: It was better when Frankie Boyle was on it. I don’t mind Russell Howard, but I fail to see how Andy Parsons can call himself a comedian. He’s just plain not funny.
Would I lie to You may have slipped under the radar a bit for American fans of this type of show, (and UK dopers radars too to a lesser extent) but I think it is the funniest because of the arguments that happen between David Mitchell and Lee Mack.
And David is Hilarious in his own right. I love his pedantry.
Do not miss The Unbelievable Truth, six thirty this evening on Radio 4. There’s a link to listen again for last week’s show in my previous post.