I did enjoy tonights episode. But matt forde is the worst comedian i've seen

When Zoe Lyons isn't the least funny person on the programme you know you're in trouble

Although I'm not all that bothered by him (or at least I thought I wasn't) I did miss Andy Parsons this week. Always enjoy seeing Ed Byrne and Milton Jones though.

Surprisingly I found Zoe Lyons to be the funniest of this episode. It's probably the first time I've found her funny. In fact, it's probably the first time I have found any woman funny on Mock the Week.

But everyone else was terrible. Milton Jones was awful. I usually like him, but he was absolutely terrible. Not just due to a lack of funny things said, but due to actively saying unfunny things. Matt Forde might as well not have been there. Ed Byrne and Josh Widdicombe were reasonably good, but it was balanced out by all the unfunny things.

I didn't think much of the audience, a bit slow on the uptake of some gags , Achilles heel.
Not going for some of the silly punny gags, having rewatched a couple of episodes from Series 5.

Didn't think we'd see Zoe Lyons in this again, heard her interviewed, might have been Radio 4's Comedy club
She said she didn't like it last time and her face hurt from sitting there with a rictus grin.

I thought this week's as pretty good. Plenty of laugh out loud moments. Why are people so negative about the show these days? It's still good value.

As for the Zoe Lyons negativity, she's a good stand-up and I think she does OK on the show.

Josh spoils everything he is on apart from The Last Leg. Matt Forde is fit but not that funny. The rest of them were fine. I'm not a massive fan of Hugh Dennis but he's there as always.

I used to love this show but sadly it's gown right down the pan. I think this started when Frankie Boyle left the show. And Dara who was only ever mildly funny is now the worst comic ever. He just rambles on and on about non funny stuff and doesn't know when to stop. His very un funny Greek stuff the other week and his eye patch stuff is an example of just how bad he has got now in my opinion. I think the BBC should axe this show now.

In your opinion. He doesn't spoil everything for everybody.

Hugh Dennis is still, and always has been, funny on MTW.

This is like saying HIGNFY isn't as good as when Angus hosted it. Frankie Boyle hasn't been on MTW for years. His leaving took some of the edge out of it, but a lot remains.

Dara was only ever mildly funny in your opinion. Hard to imagine how you ever liked MTW if you never liked him much. Other people find him funny, strange as it may seem.

The BBC should not axe this show now just because you don't like it. There are a lot of shows on TV I don't like but I don't expect them to be axed.

I thought it was a good show. Not the worst i've seen. Probably not the worst of this series.

Forde was the quite one this week but he's a realtive newbie so will probable need a couple more spots to get the feel of it, the same with most of the newer guests.


Personally couldn't see what Widdecombe did wrong ???


Ed & Dara make a good double act.

BIB Here is an idea, jack it in, don't watch it anymore, don't read or contribute to threads about it.

I haven't watched Have I got News for you, regularly, probably since it changed channels.
I get temped by the trailers because of someone on it, but I never seem to get round to downloading it.
I don't what Ten Cats does Countdown or The Last Leg, now either.
I don't find either program as objectionable as you seem to find this either, I just went off them.
Just jack it in.

True, but that's actually kind of a problem. Firstly they tend to monopolise things too much- it's supposed to be six comedians, not two comedians and four bit part players. Secondly they do tend to get into in-jokes that only they understand. I'm sure that thing that happened to them when they were 18 was really, really funny but it's not quite so funny 20 years later in a room full of people that weren't there at the time.

They\'d be fine if they could stick to the format of the show. But they don't.

Exactly. When it comes down to it people are saying they don't like certain comedians. Nothing new there then.

I thought this week's was one of the best this series. Everybody's opinion on that will be different.

Ed and Dara's riffs have been spectacular. Also the jokes from the panel at Dara's expense come thick and fast. His Hawking interview hat for example.

Something about Widdecombe I don't like/find uneasy, doesn't prevent him from coming up with good lines now and again.
Matt Ford, the same, James Acaster really is getting on to becoming a big irritant and finding himself muted.
That said, this is my personal 'thing', I'm not going to analyse it nor make a big hoo haa about them irritating me.

I don't have to wait long for a gag from someone else anyway, I'm not watching them in stand-up.

I know nothing of Dara's outside work (I know it exists, before someone lists it), but it doesn't prevent me understanding the jokes.

Hard to believe how I ever liked MTW. Well Dara didn't used to be so un funny and he didn't used to ramble on about unfunny stuff I also loved Frankie Boyle. But for me now I hate when Dara gives them a topic and they all chip in with something and then they start doing in jokes that only they get and it goes on a bit and I just feel like saying to them stop move on please some of use are board now. I still think this show has had it's day as it's not as great as it once was. I also feel HIGNFY sways from being good to bad and isn't consistently as good as in it's hay day back in the mid to late 90's.

BIB notice the laughing, that's because others get the 'in joke' that you're not getting.
The dud jokes that don't fly in the studio get cut, or as Ed Byrne said this week they had to keep his 'Big Ins' joke, that didn't work, to lead in to Dara's joke that did work.

only the super-high postcounters can display oblivious irony in the space of two lines like this

That's not always entirely how it works. For example, laughter is 'catching', if you see two people laughing at something you're actually likely to start laughing yourself, even though you didn't get or maybe didn't even hear the original thing they were laughing about.

There's a famous very old piece where two comedians - I think they might be Flanagan and Allen but I stand to be corrected - basically just start laughing at each other with no joke to start at all. They keep it going and eventually most of the audience is laughing as well, even though there's actually nothing to laugh about.

TBH, there wasn't actually an 'in joke' issue on the show this week but Ed and Dara did go into a couple of long sequences that the rest of the panel didn't really join in with. Which is fine if you find Ed Byrne funny. I kind of do, but he's not the best guest they can have.

I would have been happy to see Byrne as a permenant replacement for Boyle.

Though I guess having two extra seats (Howard and Boyle) gives them more scope.

Problem is there that people tune in and say they've never heard of this comedian and he/she is terrible because they're not used to the format and the comradery of the regulars.

Josh Widdicombe is a fat ginger little p...k, with the most annoying laugh in Christendom. I refuse to watch any programme when he's on it.

Not while Jimmy Carr still lives.

I didn't get Sarah's reference to 'Is it raining, I hadn't noticed' someone give us a clue, as to what film it's from I can probably research it from there.
'Baby in the corner' is one that I had to research ages ago.

That reminds me I've never seen star wars hasn't been on TV for ages, I guess that's been dropped, still good on Radio IMO.

^ It's a quote from Four Weddings and a Funeral.

OK cheers, never seen the film, only notable for Charlotte Coleman's inclusion.
Maybe I should watch it just for her.