Comedy sketch shows

[entropy]

What happened to comedy sketch shows? They've died off since the 2010s. They seemed to be replaced by panel shows recycling the same comedians (du jour).

[vetrof]

Computer said ‘no’.

[hidetheelephants]

Sketch shows cost multiples of plonking a set in a studio and filming some funny people make an audience laugh while pretending to score points. Does radio 4 still have sketch shows? That's where they usually first appear as radio costs fk all to have sketch shows on.

[crofty1984]

Mitchell and Webb are not helping is the last one I can think of.

[hidetheelephants]

Handing a budget to people who made successful sketch shows a long time ago is not a sign the commissioning editors have their brave pants on.

[Petrus1983]

Have you watched the news lately?? Probably more muted than any other first world country. If we even are that.

[Super Sonic]

The fast show did so many sketches they actually used them all up.

[The Gauge]

I seriously think TV comedy died a few years ago.
In the 80's & 90's and 00's there were plenty of great comedy sketch shows, and also load of great comedy shows from Fawlty Towers, Young Ones, Blackadder, League of Gentlemen etc. Little Britain was probably one of the last sketch shows to be funny. But even if you didn't like some of them, you would love the others.
Then TV got scared by the PC culture and all comedy seemed to screech to a halt.
All we get now is repetitive panel quiz shows with the same bland & safe 'comedians' appearing on them all (see Romesh and Beckett).

Edited by The Gauge on Sunday 22 March 20:16

[Skyedriver]

The Gauge said:

I seriously think TV comedy died a few years ago.
In the 80's & 90's and 00's there were plenty of great comedy sketch shows, and also load of great comedy shows from Fawlty Towers, Young Ones, Blackadder, League of Gentlemen etc. Little Britain Wass probably one of the last sketch shows to be funny. But even if you didn't like some of them, you would love the others.
Then TV got scared by the PC culture and all comedy seemed to screech to a halt.
All we get now is repetitive panel quiz shows with the same bland & safe 'comedians' appearing on them all (see Romesh and Beckett).

^^this^^

[Warhavernet]

Little Britain probably finished off the sketch show, not because it was bad or unfunny, just the targets, the disabled, the gays, the trannies, and the grotesque characters were comedy waters the BBC thought best left unchartered.

[Wacky Racer]

[_Rodders_]

Just been to see Harry Enfield. Even 20 years ago they were being censored.

Paddy the peado priest was cut from Harry and Paul apparently.

He was hilarious BTW. I miss sketch shows. I grew up on Hale and Pace, Smith and Jones, Harry and Chums.

[paulguitar]

_Rodders_ said:

Just been to see Harry Enfield. Even 20 years ago they were being censored.

Paddy the peado priest was cut from Harry and Paul apparently.

He was hilarious BTW. I miss sketch shows. I grew up on Hale and Pace, Smith and Jones, Harry and Chums.

My brother wrote two sketches for Hale and Pace.

[bloomen]

The Gauge said:

All we get now is repetitive panel quiz shows with the same bland & safe 'comedians' appearing on them all (see Romesh and Beckett).

This format is cheap, zero risk, repeatable and infinite.

That's a far more convincing reason than PCness.

Commissioners are the most bone idle arse coverers of them all and a sketch show is a much bigger stretch.

A relative of mine pretty much watches nothing but these panel shows. I told her she had to turn them off when I'm around or I'll commit suicide.

Edited by bloomen on Sunday 22 March 23:55

[durbster]

Sketch comedy is still going but it's migrated to social media, which suits it pretty well. A lot of the old stuff makes its way onto the likes of Instagram and TikTok but people are making new stuff too.

The problem is it's so accessible that anyone can do it, so you get a handful of genuinely talented people doing good stuff and then a million others who are just copying other people's material. One of the many reasons I don't use TikTok is that you can see the exact same joke made by a dozen different people.