So, some brief thoughts on last night’s Mock The Week, post-Frankie Boyle.
The first thing to notice is how much of a hole has been left by the Scottish comedian. It was always going to be interesting how they’d cope without him and in the end it turned out that the results were mixed. The main problem was that Boyle provided such a contrast to the other types of comedy being provided by the rest of the panellists that it automatically feels a bit blander without him. His cynical, pessimistic, outspoken, and sometimes non-PC style of comedy is something that seemed to really keep the others on their toes and gave them something to bounce off. In theory, you’d hope that his departure would be compensated if the line-up of guests were good enough.
Judging by last night, it already has its work cut out. It was a very mixed panel. You had the good (Mark Watson, who seemed to get more of a look in this time around), the bad (Patrick Kielty, who has never been funny), and the downright weird (Milton Jones, who was far too random for my liking but I understand that he’ll have his appeal). Indeed, the show was only really carried by two of the regulars – Dara O’Briain and Russell Howard. I laughed more at their jokes than any of the other people on the show.
If this is how the series is going to run for the next few weeks then it might prove to be really frustrating. If you have a comedy show where only half (or less) of the regular cast are providing the majority of the laughs then you start to have problems. Having said that, next week has Sarah Millican, John Bishop and Chris Addison joining the cast, so it might be better. Either way, last night feel decisively odd.
