Never Mind
19 10 2005It’s not often I feel like the license fee is actually worth what I’m being gouged for. Yesterday, Josh, Al, Nikki and I went to see Never Mind the Buzzcocks being filmed, and for a change it felt like the money we’re basically taxed for each year actually did go to something worthwhile. For too long I’ve been paying the BBC money for shit TV that I barely ever watch (though the website is almost worth it, to be fair). In this instance, I was paying the BBC for the change to go and view live comedy that was far funnier than anything they’ve ever actually broadcast in their miserable lives.
I’ve been a big fan of ‘Buzzcocks for quite a few years now, so when I went on the BBC site to see if they had any Jonathon Ross tickets and instead ended up finding ones for Buzzcocks, I wasn’t exactly disappointed. I think I threw in the request some time around the start of August, for four tickets, and I chose them for October because I knew it would break up the post-Tenerife, gig-less month. Then I promptly forgot about it entirely until they sent me an invitation to a “My Family” recording which made me wonder just how the hell the BBC got my address anyway. I’d just about rememebered when the Buzzcocks tickets themselves hit the mat.
I can say, quite honestly, that it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. You know how it gets when you wish they’d stop making jokes just so you can rest your face from laughing so hard? That’s what it’s like from start to finish. Mark Lamarr is a comedy genius, and I think that if anything, 9 years of episodes has just made him more visceral. He spent most of the 2 hours joking about masturbating over charlotte church and insulting the audience. He managed to make offensive comments directly about every racial and social minority, and for that matter, majority. An example of this would be how he re-recorded a joke to make it broadcastable by changing the word “holocaust” into “war.” The fact that he’s publically funded is probably the biggest joke of all, in fact. I wish the show was on more, so that I could get more tickets and go again. He simply is that funny.
The guests were Katie Melua, Holly Willoughby, some american comedian whose name I forget and Darren Hayes (the guy out of Savage Garden) - I’m unsure if I spelt all those right but I can’t be bothered to check. He reckons the recorded episode, while bieng one of the last, is actually going to go out first, and should turn up around the end of this month. I’ll be damn interested to see how they get half an hour of material out of the two that were filmed, but I suspect you’re going to hear a lot of the “clean” jokes which someone would come up with after about 20 minutes of swearing, such as Bill Bailey’s otter documentary stuff, or Lamarr’s bee-man.
It took up most of the evening to do, we got there at 6, queued, got ushered out because they had a fire drill, queued again, then got put into the studio where the recording lasted just over 2 hours, then we came home and got some food on the way back. It highlights one of the more immediate benefits of living in London - we can go see that get filmed, and still be home well in time for bed. I’m definitely taking advantage of this ticket scam more often, though I honestly doubt much can meet the quality of this time.
Other observations before I get the hell to sleep:
Bill Bailey is much slimmer than you’d expect.
Phil Jupitus is much fatter than you’d expect.
The outtakes of any episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks would be far funnier than any episode of the series could ever hope to be. Unfortunately, not only is the material it would contain unbroadcastable, it’s almost illegal, and at teh very least would result in civil litigation.
Gavin Rossdale is a bizarre target for ridicule, but after what we heard I won’t look at him or Gwen Stefani the same way again.
Ah, goddammit we tried to get tickets for that, but my friend had no luck :(. That said, we did see Jack Dee’s latest being filmed for the Beeb earlier this year but I doubt it was as good. I would have loved to have heard Lamarr in his element.
Tha man’s a total genius. I felt sick from all the laughter. Bill Bailey was the funniest of the others, but even he was far behind Lamarr. I think I’ll make a regular habit of looking for tickets, though, it was a pretty cool way to spend an evening even before you account for how it was free. Jack Dee’s not a bad result, though, at the moment it seems to be restricted to like, celebrity spelling games, the weakest link, and outtake clip shows. A definite example of where the license fee should not be going.
Happened to find this by searching on the net. I was in the audience for this too, I was with the two women that the wam up woman made a big deal over with the birthday gift. Did you happen to take any photographs at the end of the filming?
:)
great read
this is going to be a good show on monday 31st
I didn’t take any photographs, didn’t even cross my mind to take a camera really. I did take a photo on my phone before the stuff started, but it’s not especially good quality and you can’t really make out much. The warm up act woman was surprisingly good, I was expecting something less funny. I remember the birthday gift stuff too, obviously ;-)
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing this on TV. I’ll be keeping a copy, mainly to remind me of the jokes they didn’t put in. ;-)
Hello, you may already be aware of this, but if you are not, here is a link for the NMTB tickets page from the BBC’s website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/whatson/tickets/shows/buzzcocks.shtml
If you click it now, the page will say “Sorry, we can’t find the page you’re looking for”, but if you look in say, December, January, August or September, [the months prior to NMTB being broadcast] it will give you a list of recording dates when tickets are available. Save you a journey down to the BBC ;) It’s just a matter of checing periodically.
Interesting read by the way, there are several blogs from people who have been to a recording and they all enjoy the ‘full’ version. I must get off my backside one day and make the effort myself.
Regards.
It’s so bizarre the comments here - I went to see the filming ages ago (a good couple of years at least) and remember nearly wetting myself with all the gags and how completely unbroadcast-able the whole evening was. I too remember wondering how the hell they were ever going to get 30mins of broadcast out of all the smut, insults, swearing etc etc! A completely top night and glad to see that, unlike other shows they have kept the format largely the same and are still enthralling studio audiences!!!
Couldn’t agree more with “for a change it felt like the money we’re basically taxed for each year actually did go to something worthwhile”
I keep meaning to check for tickets for this again but so far have not been lucky. Guess it’s a bit selfish of me to want to go see it again and detract from allowing other people the health benefits of spending a whole evening laughing your a*se off! (and no, my bum does not look big in this!) (ooops, sorry wrong show!)