Commenting on TV comedy is outside my normal comfort zone. Sometime in the last 20 years comedy became very earnest and arty and right-on and reviewed in newspapers – I suspect that whole ‘comedy is rock’n’roll’ thing at a football arena with David Baddiel in the mid 90s, or whenever it was, was the turning point: suddenly comedians gave names to their tours, like albums, and suddenly arenas became ‘the new working men’s clubs’, and smug gits were effing and blinding all over sneery TV panel shows. Any time I hear that stuff I think with sadness about a man from Liverpool who told a joke about German aeroplanes (Fokkers) on the Des O’Conner show in the 80s and who never worked again on TV. I often wonder if that guy watches these panel shows today and thinks, ‘I died for you all, you Fokkers’?
But I digress. I’ve watched the most recent three episodes of Tracey Ullman’s show called, well ‘Tracey Ullman’s Show’ on TV and it looks like its taken a great deal of time, effort and budget. And yet I’m not sure I smiled even once. Is it me?
Gatz says
Based on seeing one and a bit episodes, she will take one mildly amusing observation and repeat it until you have no idea why anyone could have found it amusing in the first place. I quite liked the first episode’s Rupert Murdoch (an unrecognisable Ben Miller) choking on food while being ignored by his family, then recovering so they can all fawn over him with faux concern. She makes a little talent go a long way.
garyt says
” She makes a little talent go a long way.”
Who doesn’t nowadays? Television is full of people who would love to have a pony with more than one trick attached.
Jeff says
“Ja, but zees Fokkers vere Messerschmitts!!”.
Cracking gag, I remember it well, Colin.
And I completely agree about Tracey Ullman’s Show; I enthusiastically started watching my first episode the other evening and turned off after <5 minutes, bewildered by how dated, pointless, and massively unfunny it was.
garyjohn says
Stan Boardman was the man responsible for the Fokker gag on the DOC show though it wasn’t an original and was even alleged to be trotted out on occasion by legless flying ace Douglas Bader, notwithstanding the fact that Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer. (Da Jerrrmanz flew Focke-Wulf’s).
And it didn’t result in Stan being barred from the telly – quite the reverse, the ‘controversy’ made his name and ensured a TV career which continues to this day and includes both his children.
Friar says
He’s good on a bike too.
Black Celebration says
I Had the same thought about David Walliams and Friends. The Harry Enfield one was good, but the others – oh my. Thing is, I really wanted to like it and Walliams is naturally funny – but this show is terrible.
But Tracey Ullman is funny – I haven’t seen her new things, but it doesn’t sound too promising. A funny person is only as good as the cast that surround them and the material they have to deliver.
Mike_H says
Haven’t watched this series.
I had a foreboding that it was going to be rubbish so I have been avoiding it.
Looks like I may have assumed correctly.
I have embraced my inner curmudgeon and I generally avoid comedy these days.
It has indeed got way above it’s station over the past few decades and gone from “Just A Bit Of Fun” to Another Branch Of The Entertainment Industry, separating punters from their cash as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Meanwhile: Cheap shots. Cruelty for it’s own sake. Repetition. Sniggers rather than laughs. Expectations at an all time low. No thanks.
Moose the Mooche says
It’s an established pattern. Someone gets famous in the US…. work dries up over there… they come crawling back.
Coming soon to the BBC: Craig Ferguson, and that Lord Haw Haw Oliver feller from the Daily Show.
Arthur Cowslip says
Alan Cumming has already appeared!
Mike_H says
I don’t think Tracy is “crawling” back. She’s a mega-rich Media Entrepreneur these days.
She’s back here just for the recognition. Trouble is, it’s not very good judging by the few clips I’ve seen.
The Gentrification Rap down there ⇓ is a prime example.
Pass.
count jim moriarty says
John Oliver is doing fine with his show on HBO, Last Week Tonight. Shown on Sky Atlantic over here.
The Good Doctor says
I watch very little TV these days, and my comedy fix comes almost exclusively from Podcasts – it strikes me there is a vast pool of comic talent out there but for whatever reason it can’t get near TV, and if it does, it gets the life produced out of it. TV commissioners need to take some risks and just trust some of these people to create something a bit special – that’s how we got the Goons, Python etc. They should Get out of the way, give someone like Josie Long, or Stuart Goldsmith or Pappy’s or Richard Herring or Robin Ince or Tony Law or (insert name of talented persons here) a crew, some cameras and equipment and some budget and let them get on with it.
Arthur Cowslip says
There is great comedy bubbling up fairly frequently, usually on the BBC. Rev, Uncle, Still Game, em, I’m sure there’s more, just can’t think.
And I know they’re light entertainment, not comedy as such, but Room 101 and The Graham Norton Show are highlights of my week and usually have the whole family in shared, uncontrollable laughter every week.
But, no, Tracy Ulman is not funny and has never been funny as far as I can remember. I think the burden of proof falls on those who say she is. Until I see something of hers that makes me laugh, I remain unconvinced.
johnw says
BBC? What about Dave? My favourites are the brilliant “Taskmaster” – a show that embraces the talents of a lot of the newer commedians and has finally found an TV outlet for the brilliant Alex Horne – and the sometimes frustrating, but always amusing, “As Yet Untitled”. My favourite newish BBC show is “Insert Name Here” despite being fronted by Sue Perkins although I’m sure it would be just as good on the radio. I’ll always give Graham Norton a very very wide berth, I just don’t get him, and that’s the thing about comedy, it’s not for everyone. I only watched Mrs Brown’s Boys once and didn’t even snigger but there’s clearly a huge audience for it that thinks it’s brilliant. It’s hard to argue.
Friar says
Couldn’t disagree more. The BBC lately has an unerring talent for missing my funnybone by a mile every time. Notable exception: Fleabag. I have an extremely bleak sense of humour quite a lot of the time and that show just hit the spot exactly.
Tracey Ullman wasn’t funny 30 years ago. I’m not sure why she’d be any funnier now, so I haven’t bothered touching this show with the proverbial pole.
SteveT says
Hi Colin, no its not you. I decided to catch up with last night on iplayer mainly because I heard an interview with her on 5 live.
Her Nicola Sturgeon impersonation is very good but the comic content of that sketch isn’t.
The rest of the episode I watched with the lady Uber taxi driver and blabber mouth Psychiatrist was utterly painful. Shan’t be watching any further episides that’s for sure.
Junglejim says
The short answer is no.
However, it’s more than that. She’s not merely unfunny – anyone can achieve that, even people with a good track record – but she manages to be actively UNFUNNY.
The key to this is probably the same thing that drove her to success over there in the first place – ferocious ambition & an obvious work ethic. She’s a decent mimic & generically good looking & I’d put my house on her ability to schmooze & work the room like a devil.
Doesn’t make her funny. Not even slightly.
I caught a glimpse of the show & all my prejudice was confirmed in spades. She’s working really hard, boy is she ever. The problem is , you can see the effort & that is fatal.
Sheer slog cannot create funny. Hard graft can polish & perfect good material so it seems effortless, but it can’t make something appear when it isn’t there.
It’s not fair perhaps to compare her to Peter Cook, but evn when he was wrecking himself, crabby & anti social & could barely be arsed to turn up for chat shows, he was funny to his core. Coasting & lazy, the antithesis of driven ‘ hard worker’ like TU, he could nonetheless have you in stitches. It’s a real shame he couldn’t do more & fulfill his full potential as he’d done earlier in his life when it all went swimmingly – BUT 30 seconds of him on form is worth 3 whole series of formulaic cack from a hack such as TU.
So, to sum up – she ain’t funny , & never will be.
Sniffity says
Still, if not for her, we wouldn’t have The Simpsons – and I have to confess I prefer her version of “They Don’t Know” to Kirsty’s original.
chiz says
This is funny and clever. “Would you like to rap challenge me? I listened to Grandmaster Flash at university.”
https://youtu.be/9GuYwBry824?t=57s
Colin H says
I disagree: it’s very clever – but it’s not funny. That’s the type of sketch I was thinking about in the OP. I can see how much work went into it but, as Jungle noted above, a spontaneous observation by a drunk Peter Cook has more ‘heart’ and humour in it than hours of Tracey’s painstakingly clever pastiches.
Leicester Bangs says
I love it. What a return. As with any deft comedy there’s a mix of the quick-and-funny (the woman whose dying wish is to have spent more time on Instagram), the less-funny-but-insightful (the sketch above) and, in the case of the sketch about the woman whose controlling, elderly mother refuses to let them leave their flooded house, something in between.
The writing is good, the impersonations are excellent and no, it’s not HILARIOUS, but then it’s satire and satire often isn’t. On its own terms, I think it’s brilliant.
Carl says
I’m with you and the others not funny.
My wife and I sat through the first part of the new series and as others have said barely raised a smile between us.
It reminds me of that series Emma Thompson had years ago. Everything is underdeveloped. I’d suggest that they need to start developing the sketch ideas they come up with. It seems to me they get an idea and rather than seeing it as a seed to be developed and nurtured the producers/scriptwriters think it’s enough in itself.
Moose the Mooche says
Didn’t the sainted Emma end up telling off the studio audience for not laughing enough?
Might be where Stewart Lee got it from.
Martin S says
TV comedy for me is very hit and miss these days. I’m currently really enjoying about five years worth of “Still Game” on Netflix. This passed me by when it was first on back in the day.
I’m also really enjoying the current series of “Not Going Out”. Its an age old format that shouldn’t work but absolutely does. Well written and great supporting cast.
My current gripe with stand up comedy is how ridiculously crass and cruel contemporary comedians can be. I just watched Jimmy Carr’s latest stand up show on Netflix and I wonder in what world his material is considered “right on” and ok, whereas the likes of Bernard Manning / Jim Davidson is not. I don’t buy the claim that contemporary comedians are being cruel in an ironic way so its ok to do so. The targets may have changed but ultimately cruel laughs at the expense of others is just lazy writing.
Oh and Tracey Ollman. That thing she did in the early 80’s with Lenny Henry (Three of a kind?) was kind of ok but the world has moved on somewhat since.
metal mickey says
I’ve not seen the new Tracey Ullman show as I’ve never ever found her funny, and from the sound of it there’s nothing here to change my mind…
Unfortunately, the default TV format for comedians these days (in the UK at least) is panel shows, which I tend to loathe (even the old standbys of HIGNFY and QI do nothing for me these days), and most of the comedians themselves seem barely worthy of the name, though I do enjoy Dara O’Briain when he starts improvising (less so when he sticks to his script…)
Stewart Lee’s my favourite working stand-up, though I think he’s gone as far as he can with the deliberate longeurs now – perhaps being off TV for a while may help… and yes, as as already been said, there’s very little more subjective than comedy and what makes us laugh… something which appears made for me (e.g. Fleabag) leaves me totally cold, yet trash like Murder In Successville had me laughing like a drain… and if you’re wondering who likes both Stewart Lee and “Miranda”, then that’s me (though her live show was execrable…)
Gatz says
It might be giving QI another go. It has been revived under Sandi Toksvig, who has brought the focus back to the interesting information rather than the contestants’ acts, which became more and more tiresome towards the end of Stephen Fry’s tenure.
muffler says
The BBC’s had a decent run recently imho – Fleabag, Uncle, Witless, People Just Do Nothing.
Can’t stand Ullman myself, but comedy is hugely subjective and the BBC ( or any channel ) needs a spread of styles and voices to help connect.