February 2015 Don't tell him, Pike

Dad's Army
"Don't tell him Pike." I dare you to watch this extract from the Deadly Attachment episode without laughing;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3SqxUomwk

Bluestone 42
Weak comedy, similar to the sensation of drinking orange squash that hasn't quite had enough squash put in it.
The opening's probably the only funny moment; when an Afghan driver's handbrake stops working and he's pulled out of a car before it runs over a bomb. The rest is trying to milk humour out of lice eating out the inside of a Scotsman with a high-pitched voice's penis. Tepid like the majority of BBC sitcoms at present.

Almost Married 
By Ben Cookson (Former Bournemouth University Scriptwriter)



Ben came into Uni to show us his comedy film and give us a few insights into the industry. He's very much into taking a shit situation in life, in this case cheating, and transforming it into a movie script. The result was a comedy, which, in its essence should have been a drama. I found the dumb, sidekick friend a bit gimmicky and reminiscent of your typical rom-com, whilst the moments of poignancy such as the main character trying to keep the secret of his contracted chlamydia from his wife. In fact, the only humorous moments lay in sparks of laddish humour, such as the opening (probably the best part) where they play paintball naked, inspecting each other's urine in the pub urinal, and drinking from a purple dildo. It seems that Ben had more a knack for creating moments of drama and empathy, which is why this shouldn't have been advertised as a Rom-Com.
I happen to like the occasional moment of grubby humour, but 97 minutes of it is unfortunately a but much. Very well directed and produced though, the shots flowed smoothly into each other and the camera angles were appealing to the eye. So I'd leave my rating here at 'Almost Funny.'

Movie 43



People say its the worst film ever made. I say it's not a film- it's basically a series of sketches by different writers, but some are side-splittingly funny.

They include;
-Bollocks on neck
-Will you poo on me?
-Having first period in front of guys

Any appeal to you?

January 2015 Less Cake More Excercise

Viz magazine, January Issue:

My favourite issue of Viz, though only my second so far. Packed full of dirty humour, a memorable article includes; 'Man calls the police after spotting a lion in the woods, but it turns out to be Beegees Singer Barry Gibb having a shit in a bush.'
'Less Cake More Excercise' also gets alot of laughs in how obvious but true it is.

This Mitchell and Webb Book By Mitchell and Webb
Packed full of humour, shockingly funny in its randomness, as in the above; 'Be Careful when Doing Something Stupid' with a picture of a man drilling in the bath.
Other articles include How to Cope with Nudists "who go on about what they're doing is natural" and an advert for Mitchell and Webb toilet roll; "Our Face, Your Arse!"

December 2014

Cardinal Burns, Double Act 06/12/14 4OD
After first seeing this sketch act perform a hilarious show at Edinburgh Fringe, I had to see their impeccable character comedy on 4OD.
Banksy is a character to remember, taking our cultural expectations and turning them on their head.


Bad Robots, By Ben Spiteri 06/12/14 4OD

Loved the prank in Bournemouth with the two 'Ride the Dinosaur' machines; The mother puts her daughter on the alternate one which works, then stops working when she places her on it. Such a simple idea, to take small technologies and mess with them, but very funny.
As writer Ben Spiteri explains;  “It’s like a hidden camera show mixed with a sketch show. A lot of our stuff isn’t horrendously mean. We are preying on natural frustration of self-automated equipment that companies want to make."
Other memorable ones included the intelligent Pub Quiz machine (where they made them think they'd won but fooled them at the last minute), my all time favourite being the Photobooth (making them stand on the seat and producing warped, cartoon versions of their faces.

Life: Ryan and James Comedy Sketch Show, Bournemouth University 05/12/14

After the unnecessary blind-folding of the audience, which Ryan insisted was integral to the show (and it wasn't - Paying for entry in the form of root vegetables rather than money was a good idea though, they're definitely going to have a good Christmas dinner), the show began, and was a pleasant surprise.
Despite too many long pauses, and many sketches having a lack of direction, there were some very funny moments they could have capitalised on more; The 'We've Had Every Conversation' sketch, where two blokes meet in a pub garden and realise they've said everything was my favourite - it builds so much on that socially awkward notion of being stuck for what to say, which was heightened by the Beckett/Pinteresque pauses this duo seem to rely on so heavily. At a deeper level it may also have been inspired by Life's bleakness in relation to the shows title theme, but I digress.
The desert island sketch, though also too long, was also memorable; When James made the suggestion to resort to Cannibalism, it gave the sketch dark humour twist and some kind of resolution, which others were perhaps lacking. Take the 'Shop' sketch series, where though the repetition of the James (The Shopkeeper's) directness "This is a Flower Shop/Barbers/Airport" was a good stylistic gag, it lost direction - there was something missing. It had set something good up, only to kill it in a minimalist way which both smacked of complacency and offered no pay-off or satisfying resolution.
The use of slidehow pics was an inventive way of showing setting, however; such as the pub garden, vinyard, or desert island beach. It's a clear that a lot of thought had gone into the production and the audience experience and that paid off in the end.