Love the show, but i'm convinced people watch it more for the comedy than 'the business side'. The REAL appeal of the show is seeing egotistical people who 'big themselves up'.......make basic errors and looking like prats. It's pure 'tall poppy' comedy. The prouder and narcissistic they are, the funnier their mistakes and fall.

When people talk to their friends about the show, they never say 'so and so did a great efficient business proposal' they all say 'ha! did you see that balls up/that Alan Sugar put down).

For example these moments are the most talked about/youtube viewed:

*Lee's pterodactyl

* 100 chickens for 100 pizzas

* 'Shall we pull down Michael's trousers to see if he's a good Jewish boy'

* Kosher Chicken

* Getting the juicer from Marrakesh

All the comedy bits. And 'You're fired' with Adrian Chiles bills itself as a dissection of thetask with the fired candidate, but really is a 'lets rub salt in the wounds p*ss take of them'.

Of course the last two episodes really start to concentrate on the business side, but a large appeal of the shows success is the comediic failure of candidates.

Very true!

A good point.

Perhaps we should remember that when we become too analytical.

"Environmentally Friendly Day greetings cards"

Lmao!! I'd forgotten that little gem

There's a business side?

so very true i often miss parts of it through laughing at their stupidity and their egoistic statements

Yes, thinking about it, I don't think there is another reality show that makes me laugh as much at some of the mistakes the contestants make. The lack of common sense displayed at times is astounding, but very funny

I agree and combined with their OTT CVs, is the essential humour of the show, I am surprised we have a thread pointing out what has been obvious since series 1.

What is the disguise, where did it ever resemble a serious business activity?

I agree with the OP. I find it hilarious and love to watch it. The only other reality show I can think of that made me laugh like this one does was Jimmy's farm.. the first series where he was trying to start off his farm made me howl laughing at his townie attempts at farming.. The apprentice is well directed so that you get the stoney looks and errors nicely highlighted for our enjoyment! Bless 'em

I still maintain they should have gone with Lee's idea of greetings cards for aliens.

Margaret's head in hands had me laughing.

Simon assembling the mini trampoline the year before last and his strategic positioning of it's legs whilst doing so, and then jumping up and down on it

Ah last series was brilliant, nothing can top it.

The Dad's Army analogy works to a point. SAS as Captain Mainwaring - man of action, a relative success from unadvantaged roots, a man with a high opinion of himself, the pompous leader who often gets it wrong. Margaret and Nick as Wilson the quiet, neutral, nicely spoken, well educated, but sometimes cutting, more clued up provider of good advice. Then you have the Apprentice contestants - the panickers like Jones with lots of ideas that don't make much sense, the spivs who are admired like Walker was but usually don't get the job, the stupid boys who sometimes do get the clerks job with SAS too. Add on a few devious Frasers and lots of Sponges to fill in the gaps. I also suspect the tough females don't get the job as SAS is as afraid of them as Mainwaring is of Mrs Mainwaring.

It also works as a carry on film

Sir Alan - Syd James
Margaret - Joan Sims
Nick - Kenneth Williams
Frances - Barbara Windsor
Interviewers to select the last two candidates - Leslie Philips, Hattie Jacques, Peter Butterworth
The Apprentice - Jim Dale
Runner up who falls in love with Jim Dale - Liz Fraser

It certainly has editors and camera people that know how to make an entertaining show!

The beauty of the show is that the tasks appear to be so simple...in-fact I`am sure the BBC have a pre-arranged list of contacts for the teams to aid them.....and yet without fail they always seem to cock it up in some way......(with a few note-able exceptions)......and as has been stated already, the BBC certainly know how to edit those mistakes to make the candidates look like fools......But at the end of the day the BBC selects contestants who can`t help but big themselves up and that only means one thing......you can`t help but laugh when their knocked off their perch and brought down a peg or two.

It's a comedy show alright, but I don't see any disguise whatsoever...

Love it

I love this thread.

Let's keep it permanently on page one just to remind everyone that its just an entertainment programme.

What about that clown 'pitching' this week when she hadn't a clue what the product actually was?

Lindsay's 'Secret Signals' idea in Series 1... she ignored her team and her focus group because she thought it was some new amazing product when it actually sucked!! It has to be my favourite episode of the Apprentice ever. I was in stitches over how delusional the project manager was that she thought the signal cards would be a hit with the kids!

That clown would have been Kate Walsh. Currently pitching questions to people on Channel 5, again with little idea what to say. Though I'm sure she has 'heard' of some of them. Maybe some producers got 'good pitcher' and 'good picture' confused.
To be fair, there were bigger clowns as it turned out.

When I first starting watching it, it was definetly pure comedy for me. And the biggest clown was Syed.

For me the thing that hooked was Saira and Paul bickering constantly. You know you don't behave like that if you want to be taken seriously (well not at work But at least they appeared to have brains in their quieter moments. Yeah, and then came Syed! How do you deal with someone who appears to be a surreal world of their own, a world where they are already the annointed one.

IMHO The Apprentice does carry a lot of real business advice, but it's the comedy that makes it stick in the mind. It's far more effective than those business training videos John Cleese and others used to make because TA is a lot funnier.