Probably one of the longest hiatuses I’ve taken on here in a while wraps up. I have a little time to do these again. And considering that Mock the Week now has a solid conclusion date, I feel like I should get back to doing this Watchdown.
So. Here’s why the ‘second golden age’ I’ve referred to begins with Series 11.
When I think of the first golden age, which I’ve made clear is Series 3 to around Series 7ish, I think of so many different people being in the right place at once. Not only the regulars, with Frankie and Russell as dueling anchors, but great guests like David Mitchell, Mark Watson, Ed Byrne, Stewart Francis, Adam Hills and Fred MacAulay. So many great episodes in this era happened because of a great rep company, a great group of regulars, and so much magic coming together.
I equate it to the first cast of Saturday Night Live. Nothing like that was being done, and the original crew of people like Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin and Bill Murray are remembered so fondly because of how stellar their output was, and how it was a coming-together of talented people, even for a short while.
To that end, people point to a second golden age with SNL, the 1986-1993 casts, or more accurately the Dana Carvey years, where it was an entirely different dynamic, with many more players [including Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, Chris Farley, Mike Myers and Adam Sandler], and the quality was arguably even higher.
And that’s what the second golden age of MTW feels like to me. A wider rep company, more people coming in and out, but really just the amount of funny people coming together at once to create great shows. From Series 11 to Series 15, Mock the Week utilizes a core featuring Josh Widdicombe, Miles Jupp, Rob Beckett, Sara Pascoe, Gary Delaney, James Acaster, Romesh Ranganathan, Katherine Ryan, Ed Gamble, Rhys James and, inevitably, Ed Byrne, Milton Jones, Zoe Lyons and Holly Walsh. That is a lot of funny people coming to the show at once, and that includes Hugh, Andy, and, for a bit, Chris. Three of these names are going to come onboard this series.
What’s important is that these are all very new players to the comedy scene. In the past, Mock had relied upon established comics, owing back to the ‘six of the funniest comics in Great Britain’ tag of yore. But now, Mock was about to become a breeding ground for new talent. The second golden age is where Mock the Week goes from being the pillars of the comedy scene to a place where up-and-coming comics can get discovered, which is a move that will eventually end the second golden age, as a lot of these players would eventually get their own shows and become too big for Mock the Week, meaning that the era the show would ride til the end would be one rife with inconsistency.
Strangest of all, this second golden age kicks off with this episode, 11×01, an episode that is very much rooted in what made the strong but self-contained Series 10 work. For instance, this is Micky Flanagan’s last Mock the Week, this is Greg Davies’ penultimate episode, and it’s a very runner-based and goofy-voice-centric show. This is the kind of thing we’re gonna be leaving behind as we get further into this era, but it’s all over this one. And yes, it’s one of my favorites, but to me it almost belongs in S10.
So…let’s dive right in. Hugh, Andy, Chris, Micky, Greg, and the returning Nathan Caton, who I loved his last time out. Right into 2012.
Headliners: O.B.E.C.
[stifles laughs knowing what’s coming]
Andy: “is it in fact Old Berliner Eats Chin?”
She’s not a donut!
Nathan, also trying to interpret that face: “is Merkel going ‘OHHH, BUBBLEGUM’S EXTRA CHEWY?”
Greg: “this is clearly…uh, Opulent Bellend Enjoys Coffee”
A lot of these are going for the clapter because they’re all upset with Osborne at the moment
Micky, much less clapter-y: “OSBORNE BANGS EURO CUTIE!”
GREG LOVES THIS ONE. Micky, seeing he’s got Greg back, goes ‘we’re off!’
Now, Chris is fluent in German, so he actually has a leg up in this round. “Is Merkel saying Oberschichtige Berühmte Englische Currywurst?”
[Top Class Famous English Currywurst]
The only problem is, nobody else on the panel knows any German:
Dara: “…LEMME JUST CHECK THE NOTES IF THAT’S UH…yeah, that’s ACTUALLY the correct answer!”
So now everybody’s been given the go ahead to do accents, which is bad news for Micky
Hugh: “is it a spanish comment on what’s going on in their country? is it [Mexican accent] OH BLIMEY…ES…CASTASTROPHE?”
Dara, finger to earpiece: “what was that? Could we move OFF the foreign voices?”
Chris, however, knows what this means: “yes, Merkel is saying Offensichtliche Beschämende Egoistische Currywurst”
[Obvious, Shameful, Selfish Currywurst]
And I love that Dara immediately no-sells him: “NO. NO, that’s NOT the correct answer.” This is a great episode for Dara’s no-selling.
This is the sort of annoyed energy Dara hasn’t had since the Frankie days, the ‘please stop doing this’ and then they keep doing it energy. “Can we just- genuinely, cause then we can do the correct answer and then I can get up and move on with my life.”
FIRST SHOW OF THE SERIES and he already wants to move on with his life.
I love, therefore, Hugh’s immediate reply of, in a thick German accent, “EES ET OUTREITCHT BERLIN…”
Dara: “NOOO, THAT’S EVEN WORSE..”
Chris, even more aggressively: “Merkel is saying ‘Orangefarbige Bestechliche Ehrgeizige Currywurst!’
[Orange, Corrupt, Ambitious Currywurst]
Dara, who is done: “STOP SAYING GERMAN THINGS.”
Hugh, with the simple one that drives it over the line [a la Frankie’s ‘two fat hairy cocks’] “or is it Osborne believes he is Elvis’s Child?”
SILLY ENOUGH TO WORK
Dara: “there IS an answer to this…”
Chris, behind him: “Osborne’s Bollocksed Everyone’s Cash?”
That’s almost like an Andy one
Chris, smirking: “How about a compromise, what if we give you the right answer, BUT IN A GERMAN ACCENT?”
This is what Chris Addison is capable of, and why I’m so glad he’s a part of the show, even for such a short time
Dara: “it is difficult to take the world’s economy seriously when the world bank is written as BANCOOOOO, it’s genuinely easier to think that they probably don’t do ‘HEYY, BIENVENIDOS EL BANCOOOOO! BANCO BANCO BANCO..”
[come quick, the Latinos are mutating and they’re heating up the planet!]
Chris: “THIS accent’s alright, is it, Dara?”
PFFF
Dara: “I’m sorry”
Chris: “to be honest, Dara, you’ve been doing a ridiculous accent since the beginning of this series…”
[Why did I get a Frankie vibe from that line? Maybe it’s the seat]
Micky has a good joke about cognates making it easy to get around in Spain. “Supermercado, that’s a supermarket, banco, that’s a bank, barro, that’ll be a bar…y’ever been to Japan? NOTHING.”
Micky: “I was in the bank the other day, this is absolutely true, a man had a shit on the floor.”
AND THIS DARA REACTION:
I LOVE THAT
Micky: “it was the most shocking thing I have ever seen in my life”
Andy: “that is one HELL of a deposit that man has made…”
Greg: “he probably does all of his banking on the internet, but he couldn’t log on that day..”
BOOM
Chris: “the Greeks are really angry, they’re building a horse and everything..”
Dara: “what has Osborne hinted at in regard to Europe?”
Chris, who is on an absolute tear: “…that he might be gay”
Dara: “NO….not…hinting that he’s gay?”
MICKY’S GONE
Chris: “I’m really sorry”
Dara, not believing this: “I WILL say it again…”
Hugh starts in with the answer
Dara: “wait, I have to do it without him going ‘he might be gay'”
So Dara asks the question in full once again
Chris, without batting an eye: “…that he might be gay.”
Dara: “no.”
Micky brings up a point of ‘what happens if a country leaves’, which sort of foreshadows Brexit. He also uses the phrase ‘swimming about’, which delights and confuses Dara.
Micky: “how can you let someone vote on something when they don’t know what they’re doing?”
Chris: “that’s what happens at general elections…”
MORE CLAPTER
Micky, in a very prescient way: “I like the direction this show’s taken…”
Chris says that the UK isn’t the most responsible nation because a dog just won Britain’s Got Talent
Dara: “IT CAN WALK ON ITS HIND LEGS.”
Chris: “we may as well vote in a pineapple with a face drawn on it because it looks FUNNY.”
Dara, also predicting the future: “…you mean, Boris Johnson essentially?”
HOW FUCKING…okay. We move onto a topic Andy introduces that Boris Johnson is being talked about as a future prime minister [!!!] but then reveals that because Johnson was born in America, he’d be more likely to be the next US President, “WHICH WOULD BE MY PREFERENCE.” And the joke is that everybody would want something like that because it’d be really funny. THIS REALLY DOESN’T LOOK GOOD IN 2022. Again, I love this episode and this show, but this ‘vote the funny man in’ mentality leads to awful political regimes like what the US and UK have been fighting off for the past 7 years.
Incredible opening round. Not only did it have that excellent Headliners, which…I mean, so much chaotic energy there, but a lot of really nice topics, time for people like Chris and Micky to shine, and just some really good energy. And this is the start of the series.
Stand Up Round: Andy, Nathan and Chris
Micky, in his last show, does not do the stand-up round, foreshadowing his burgeoning star.
Andy, on finance: “I would argue that anyone who bought the autobiography of the talking meerkat, Alexander Orlov, YOU have too much money…”
Yes, the Compare the Meerkat jokes continue in S11
Andy brings up recent fads, like “a cozy sofa blanket with sleeves, CALLED A SLANKET” as reasons for people overspending.
Andy also mentions the overpriced smoothies. “Go out to the supermarket and buy yourself a banana, costs 20 pence, take a bite, go [WOBBLES CHEEKS FOR 5 SECONDS], you will have saved yourself 2 pounds 49…”
I put this somewhere in the middle of Andy’s large grouping of MTW sets, but I did like how pointed his satirical idea was, and how it seemed a bit different from his usual obvious punchlines
Nathan’s set, on health, concerns the period of his youth where the medical files had him listed as a woman by mistake, and invited him for a ‘cervical screening’. “This is where I messed up. See, at 17, I knew what ‘cervical’ was, that’s obvious, but what I didn’t know was that there was more than one meaning to the word ‘screening’.”
It’s a good set, but honestly where he lost some ground with me was the bit after this where he explained the joke. There was applause after that joke, the audience got what he meant. Though I did like the detail of him showing up to the doctor’s with “nachos, popcorn and pick’n’mix.”
Chris, on relaxation, has a bit about Waitrose’s ESSENTIAL lavender-scented candles. “BECAUSE WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.”
Like usual, a lot of this set is overplaying and exaggerating, but this did work for Chris’s impression of whale noise CDs. [CACOPHONOUS WHALE NOISES] “are you relaxed?” “dear, I’ve never been more at peace” [MORE WHALE NOISES]
Chris: “I once saw a CD once with ‘RELAX with PURE SCOTTISH MOODS.’ [YELLS TITLE IN SCOTTISH ACCENT]
heyyy, Peter’s gonna get mad…
Yeah, Chris’s set was good, but his overplaying did weigh this one down a bit.
Decent stand-up round overall. I had issues with all three sets but none were completely bad.
If This is the Answer: Home News; Trains, Toilets and Celebrities
[stifles more laughs knowing what’s coming]
Even Nathan’s opening one is funny: “is it if you’re going to make a sex tape on public transport, what three things do you need?”
Chris: “is it, according to the coalition agreement, which 3 things do the lib-dems have responsibility for?”
Hugh: “is it name 3 things I’ve left my umbrella in?”
PFFFF
Dara just buckles after visualizing that third one
Micky: “is it three things you’re probably best not to lick clean?”
Chris, as Greg is still laughing: “is it what is the name of Thomas the Tank Engine’s no-holds barred autobiography?”
I love this one
And now Greg: “is it what Peter Andre answers when he’s asked what his daily routine is? [HIGH PITCHED SLIGHTLY AUSTRALIAN VOICE] I TRAINS, I TOILETS…AND I CELEBRITIES.”
Chris: “…high pitched but not Australian anymore?”
Greg, slightly more Australian: “I TRAINS, I TOILETS…AND I CELEBRUTOIGHS..”
Chris, high pitched: “I went to a voice coach to get rid of me Australian accent, and I CAN’T HELP THINKING SHE’S DONE SOMETHING WRONG..”
Greg, jokingly put off: “I’VE BEEN IN THIS COUNTRY AWHILE SO SOMETIMES I SLIP INTO BOTH FUCKIN’ ACCENTS, CHRIS!”
This is so damn silly. Just the silly voices alone, but the spite behind them
AND THEN GREG HAS TO EXPLAIN THE JOKE: “I TRAINS CAUSE OF ME SIX-PACK…”
Dara: “I GET IT. I GET IT.”
Greg: “I TOILETS SO THAT…I DON’T MESS ME *JEANS* UP…”
[That part always gets me. It’s barely improvised, it feels]
Greg: “AND THEN I CELEBRITIES TO MAKING THE MONEY FOR THE kiids..”
That’s the funniest bit. The way he says ‘kids’. The volume just breaks and he just shifts the inflection and it breaks me.
SURE ENOUGH:
Dara, after recovering: “…does anyone have another answer?”
Andy: “I think I got it..”
Dara, annoyed: “…that is NOT the buildup to the correct answer, but go on…”
Andy, now amused: “is it name three things I’ve puked up on at the end of a festival?”
PFFFF
Chris: “I KNOW THE ANSWER, DARA. I’ll give you the real answer.”
Dara, not completely convinced, peers over
Chris: “what are the three main talking points on a Saga holiday?”
THAT is good
Andy, as Dara’s still laughing at that one: “IS IT THREE THINGS THAT ARE FULL’A SHIT?”
NOW MICKY’S GONE
Dara has to stop laughing, and motion to Greg going “I’m still on the Peter Andre thing”
Greg, high pitched: “YOU LIKED THAT, DIDN’T YOU DARA?”
Greg KNOWS this is what gets Dara, and he keeps hitting it. And this just keeps building
Dara: “where I makes the money for the children, that was the bit that got me…”
Chris, Peter Andre voice: “IS IT…?”
Dara: “NO…”
Chris, who HAS the answer, still does the voice: “WHAT THREE THINGS WERE MOST COMPLAINED ABOUT AT THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE?”
Dara: “if you could do that in a proper voice.”
And then…Chris jumps back to the top of the show in one of the greatest callbacks I have ever seen: “VHAT SVEE SINGS VERE MOST COMPLAINED ABOUT…?”
And then Chris does the answer again, and the…madness dies down for a moment.
A lot of this jubilee stuff is pretty simple for a foreigner like me, but I did like the bit about the Tower bridge technicians turning into an action movie
Ah yes, 2012, Nathan mentions Rolf Harris was at this jubilee. Again, as much as I loved this episode…not all of it has aged well.
Dara mentions Grace Jones popping out with a hula-hoop, which is as silly of a visual as it is when he reenacts it. “I genuinely thought ‘am I the only one seeing this?’ ‘SLAAAAVE…. TO THE RHYTHM…’ WHO *BOOKED* GRACE JONES?”
Chris: “she wasn’t hula-hooping, she’d been imprisoned by the elders of Krypton.”
Dara: “Why is the weather making headlines?”
Chris: “because the weather outside is frightful, ALTHOUGH THE FIRE INSIDE…is delightful.”
That ‘best regular’ position isn’t even gonna be close, is it?
Andy: “they have had some problems with caravans, haven’t they?”
Dara: “…THAT IS PUTTING IT MILDLY…”
I kinda loved this editing decision
Andy: “well the thing about caravans is that you can actually MOVE THEM, CAN’T YOU?”
Nathan talks about the woman vacationing in Wales saying it’s a disaster. “And you’re thinking, if you’re married to a man whose idea of a honeymoon is taking a vacation to Wales in a caravan, it’s already a bloody disaster.”
Just like his first go, Nathan is a really nice panel presence tonight, mostly just as a standard stand-up mind
Andy: “in Littlehampton, where did they put the flood victims…they PUT THEM…in the LOCAL SWIMMING BATHS. I mean, that’s just taking the piss, isn’t it? It’d be like putting earthquake victims in a bouncy-castle..”
This is clearly Chris’s episode, but Andy is gaining some ground with his emphasis in this round
Not as good as the opening round, but man is that ITITA just a masterclass of gags building on top of each other. The other topics were fun too, with Dara taking a lot of stuff himself. I’m noticing that Micky is a lot quieter in this one, and all show honestly. It’s been harder for him to really fit into things. I guess this explains why this is his last one.
Scenes We’d Like to See:
“Unlikely Things to Hear at an Award Ceremony”
Chris: “and the winner is, Dara O’Briain.”
DARA:
and we’re off!
Nathan, bringing this up even if the show didn’t have time: “and the winner of driver of the year goes to David Cameron for his perfectly-executed u-turns!”
Hugh: “Welcome to the National Insincerity Awards, and can I just say [big smile] WHAT A PLEASURE IT IS…”
Hugh, with maybe the 60th piece of foreshadowing of the show: “would you please welcome, your host for the night…..DEC!”
Funny then, but now they’ve actually presented shows solo
Micky: “and the award for best Actress this evening goes to John Travolta’s wife.”
BOOM. I’ve always loved this one. Yes, tragic now, but a complete, Frankie-esque slam at that marriage.
And now Greg: “Predictably, for the 50th year running, the Rear of the Year goes to the same person, come on up, Chris.”
[silence]
Greg: “…it was a Chris Rea joke.”
I am 90% sure they edited around a swear.
By the time Nathan comes up, the audience is just laughing at the patheticness of that one.
Nathan: “and the winner of best film…CLING! CLINGFILM!”
PFFFF.
This gets a slightly better response
Greg, going towards the audience: “OH, SO THAT WAS ALRIGHT, WAS IT?”
This is so damn silly. Greg’s strengths in this era haven’t been specifically nailing jokes, but for just nailing jokes about the little in-between subtleties around jokes.
Greg: “and the best posthumously-released rap record goes to Kim Jong for ‘I Told You I Was Il”
UNIVERSAL APPLAUSE. And Greg’s just not forgiving the audience yet.
Greg: “TOO LATE.”
Chris:
What a contrast
Andy: “here to present the award for Best Film in a Foreign Language, would you please welcome, Nick Griffin.”
[I still go back to the joke about him always looking like he can see his wife having sex with Ainsley Harriott]
Greg, now devoid of any remorse: “AND THE WINNER OF REAR OF THE YEAR, CHRIS REA.”
APPLAUSE, AT GUNPOINT
“Unlikely Lines from a Thriller”
Hugh: “what more evidence do you need that there’s a mole? Look at the lawn!”
Andy: “your wife’s head in a box? You must be the most unlucky contestant ever on Deal or No Deal..”
Greg: “I want to make you a vodka martini…YOU CAN’T HANDLE VERMOUTH.”
I love how he just walks off, basking in the laughs with a middle finger in the air
Andy: “is that a gun in my pocket or are you just pleased to see me?, she purred. Yes, it is a gun in my pocket…and I’ve just shot my cock off…”
PERFECT
Nathan does a subversion on the usual ‘Blofeld stroking a cat’ joke done in these rounds, but the intensity and timing “we meet at-AAAAAGGHHH, FLIPPING CAT!” makes it work
Greg: “I would like to gently lift your horse’s foot.”
[Chris chuckles in advance]
Greg: “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE HOOF.”
Greg: “and as his eyes gradually became accustomed to the shadowy darkness, he realized he was not alone in that room. ‘Who is it?’ “…IT’S ME, PETER ANDRE!!!”
AND OF COURSE WE COME BACK
Very strong SWLTS. I’ve often thought of the Award Show round as one of the most packed ones they ever did.
Overall: …Yeah, still as classic as I remember. Yes, Micky and Hugh were a bit more muted, but even they contributed to the unmistakably wild energy to this one. Greg was sprouting runners all night and working off the performers and audience. Chris was in an amazing mood and had so many perfect answers against Dara. The opening Headliners with the accents and the ITITA with Peter Andre are both iconic. There’s so many great conversation bits that everyone forgets. Nathan does a solid job all night as the more traditional panel presence. And MAN that Stand Up Round is really good. A very full, satisfying show that both jumpstarts the next stage of MTW and puts the last few series’ to bed.
Best Regular: Chris Addison. Putting anyone else here doesn’t make sense.
Best Guest: Greg Davies. Nathan had the more traditional show, but Greg farmed the biggest laughs and had the biggest night in that sense.
Worst Performer: Micky Flanagan seemed to be less enthused about this taping than his last few. At least he laughed.
Best Round: Headliners. Oh my god, what a way to open the show, and the season. Even Micky’s best stuff is in here.
Best Topic: The flooding
Best Runner: German accents
COMING UP NEXT: Folks…if you thought THIS ultra-specific ITITA one was iconic…
In which Jordan writes about stuff 