Yes but in The Games you want the celebs to take it seriously. That's the point. If anybody is funny then it usually comes naturally.

If a celeb is just fannying about on that show to get cheap laughs then they just annoy and waste a space on the show.

I think that Mel is playing it safe.

She is doing a comedic act to save her ass

I agree with you lulu g that the comedy is often very hit and miss.
When it's too contrived it just puts me right off.

Mel was planning that falling over gimmick all day. Some people reckon it was the height of comedy genius. All it was was falling over on purpose.
It was just a gimmick of a stunt. It didn't take the genius of a comedy brain to think that one up, any of them could do that if they wanted.

Look at it this way. She keeps ending up in the bottom three, so the easy route is to go for the easy gimmick to stay in.

The funniest people I've seen on Fame Academy to me are when they tend not to realise that they're being funny.
The self aware pre-planned stuff often doesn't come across as funny to me as the performer thinks it is.
Sometimes I like the comedy when it's just a quirky routine, but the Gina Yashere approach just leaves me cold.
I just get irritated by people on telly who just try too hard to be funny and resort to obvious tricks to grab attention. It's often by being very loud and doing pratfalls.

The people I've found more funny on Fame Academy are people like Ade Edmundson who did quirky routines, but still tried to do a good performance. Or Reggie Yates who didn't know how bad he really was as a singer but still put his heart into it and threw himself into it.

There's people with real humour who have a twinkle in their eye, and then there's the cynically laboured tricks where somebody will try to pull a laboured stunt out of a hat.
Mel's fall to me was about as funny as Rowland with the comedy breasts.
It was mildly amusing to me, but nowhere near as 'hilarious' to me as some are making out. I've even heard the word 'genius' casually used again as it often is where reality TV shows are involved.
She just fell on the floor, that's all.

I found Shawn much funnier the other night simply because he was trying really hard and we'd been led to expect a very emotional tearful performance, but when he sang and it was woefully out of tune I found that very funny. Probably because it was real.

The comedy on this show has had mixed results as far as I'm concerned. Often they either try too hard to be funny and it just looks like it's done in a more cynical manner just relying on the gimmick factor to get votes, or something just comes across as natural or from the heart or even from a spontaneous personality.

Now that others have left the competition I think that Mel will be championed as the 'funny' character, even when she's not that funny, and it'll be rammed down our throat how hilarious she is at every opportunity.
Just like others have been given their personas to be promoted, like it's suddenly in the script that Colin is supposed be a Rebel and will be given rebellious songs and his VT will show him slagging off Richard or something to exaggerrate this made up rebel character.
It's alright if you like that sort of thing, but it's just far too scripted.

Who says it has to be about anything?
Why not just go with the flow and let performances speak for themselves and see what comes of it?

How do you make more comedy if the people aren't that funny? How do you make the singing better if the people aren't that good? If the answer is you can't, then you need to be more relaxed with what the format of the show is about.

This is always a problem for me with these comedy charity things.....people try waaay too hard to be seen as funny.
It's like the harder they try, the less funny they get.
It's Red Nose day and people feel the pressure on them to try to be funnier than they normally are.

Needless to say the results are often pure wank.

Once you say it has to be this, or it has to be that, straight away you're eroding the spirit of what makes something funny and it ends up becoming the same old formula.

People on Comic Relief does Fame Academy I've often found funny when they're just naturally been themselves.
Once they put on a 'Look at me, aren't I wacky and madcap?' I just want to throw something at the telly.

I don't care if they aren't the best singers in the world. I just hope to see good performances.
The night before last was dreadful because almost all the apparent funny ones (Mel Included) just stood on the spot and sang lyrics as though they were speaking words from an autocue. If these people are relied upon to be funny then I think they're onto a loser there.

I don't think it's a good idea to say that a performer has to be this, or has to be that, it has to be comedy or it has to be serious singing. I like there to be a bit of a mix of both if possible and just like it if the performers are less restricted to caricatures.
I think it's this pigeon-holing of what personas the acts are supposed to portray that has led to the erratic and just plain bonkers judging.
If Shaun is criticised for not singing from the heart, then I believe that other acts should also be judged accordingly. I don't think it's right for the judges to say 'Oh we'll let you off because we say you're funny'.
Last edited by Alrightmate : 11-03-2007 at 03:18

I think she is funny, I really do but you can have enough of that and want a bit of a voice..

I tend to agree with JTW, Alrightmate and lulu g. Mel doesn't have a bad voice but the forced humour is a bit grating and she's really just hedging her bets. Her voice can't be criticised because she's "so funny"

I wasn't that much of a fan of Ruby Wax either TBH - perhaps comedy singing just isn't my thing.

Because if its neither funny or good singing who in their right mind would watch it?

Its difficult to think of a great comedian who isn't contrived and works out what they are going to do and rehearses it - Chaplin practiced every fall, Laurel and hardy did too, Eric Morecambe was scripted, Ken Dodd has his books of jokes........Of course Mel will work up an act. You couldn't improvise on a live TV show anyway - the camera needs to know where to be looking.

I can't see the claim that falling down literally or otherwise isn't funny - its the basis of most humour. Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy made their careers literally falling down so its difficult to argue that it isn't funny. Its also not the falling down but the getting up that matters - Arthur Lowe gets 20 million viewers being knocked down and getting up - as indeed did Frank Spencer. Its difficult to see any difference with Ade - his every move was rehearsed and more were worked out by Kevin - he only difference so far is that they have spent less effort on Mel's props. The alternative is Big Brother where people laugh at people being strange just like they used to queue up for the bearded lady - here its Tara being quirky.

Its not clear what they are up to with stories. Angellica is being turned into Reggie. Mel is Ade - she has more variety and sings a bit better (though Ade had no voice for most of the last CFA) . Beyond that though its all Tara and the anti-judge candidates. They don't really need Colin as the anti-judge candidate as they already have Fred, Angellica and Ray - it just spreads the anti-judge vote. The laxy answer is to keep the bland ones with big votes to get the money and then assume Tara will provide some story but its unlikely to attract a lot of people who turned in last time to hear good singing or watch the last comedian survive almost till the end.

Mel is out!

and so am I!!

the fun has gone and now the bores are left...its hardly worth my time anymore (except for maybe tara!

She was robbed esp against Colin too.... Tara all the way now

scandal she was so entertaining. Now we can all be bored to death

Another scandal. What ambitious students voting out the main threat.

As much as I didn't want Mel to go out tonight, she has been in the bottom three several times already, so she can't realistically be regarded as the main threat.

Weel, if this was a negative vote, then Mel would have been a first call-out for sure. But in this case, Tara would have been in the bottom 3.

This series is so odd no one knows. Shaun and Tricia ought never to have got to the bottom 3. The volatility suggests only the anti-judge vote is voting in any great numbers. Once it got to the end we would have had bad singers and, unless they get better, dull ones because thats all we have in there apart from Tim, Mel and Tara . Mel's problem would have been /may have been that Tara will/did take all the comedy vote.

No one has worked it out but the correlation between who goes first and who is in the bottom 3 is very very striking so far..

I'll really really miss Mel...I always enjoyed her perfomances and she was a great character in the house. Definitely deserved to stay tonight but she took it brilliantly and her interview on BBC3 was great.

Mel should not have gone

Saves a lot of time watching the classes. Mel and Tim were the only people who really worked out interpretations with Carrie and worked out any creative performance with Kevin. Most of teh others are still trying to get the basics right or not adding much with David.

May as well just watch the odd second show now to see how long the appalling and the appallingly dull singers last. I usually vote for the singer I like best but as there isn't one and they have got rid of the comedians too - which was the fallback position - it leaves no one to vote for.

Odd because CFA usually gets both comics and good or better singers to its last 4 when other shows can't get their best people there -Dancing On Ice managed to get its best three to the final at the last minute but this one has totally jumped the shark by half way through.

mel, roland, tim - none of them should have gone. Has everyone forgotten it's comic relief??

They've even forgotten its a singing show and a TV show that needs performances. Mel sang well - her classes got far more comments of beautiful from Carrie than anyone else I watched. She was adding as much comedy to her singing as Tara is adding emotion and its a matter of taste if you think Tricia sounds better - Angellica clearly doesn't. Tim was one of the best two male singers even if you like and include Shaun. They were/are the only people to perform complete acts like Ade in the last series.

Its all suspiciously intentional. The people on first have been in trouble with the public vote all series - Tim, Mel, Shaun and Tricia all end up in the
bottom three there and so did people who went early on normal FA - so why put Mel there yet again? Did they want her to go or think Shaun wouldn't be there and two of the bad singers would?

Mel was one of the best tonight, and her performances have certainly been Comic Relief literally. Its a shame when dull acts such as Tricia and Angelica are stuff in there.

I thought Mel would go really far, maybe even to the Final as her last few performances have been the funniest and really well sung.

Ah well, as long as Ray wins its happy days.

I was dissappointed that thanks to run ins with the judges, certain people stayed in ahead of Mel...hard to imagine me watching much of it now.

I was disappointed in Angellica...

I am convinced there is an element of "yesterday's voting" in this (similar to that which was perhaps seen in Strictly Come Dancing) - becaise the phone lines are reopened after the eviction, it it quite possible that a number of people vote based on the performance that they have seen in the last show. Therefore Shaun's performance on Saturday (which was rather lacklustre/bad) lost him votes counted against the Sunday eviction, whilst last night (which was much better than before) might actually get him more votes for tonight. In other words, some of the voting is 24 hours adrift.

If you see what I mean .......

I like Angellica and Ray but they should have been in the bottom 3 last night along with Fred.

Mel was great and so entertaining..if i had been voting last night as one of the students i would have saved Mel over Colin.