Comedy Day

Today seems destined to be a day of laughter and general good spitritedness. This morning got off to a much better start than I imagined it would as I was due to meet my replacement dissertation tutor as the original one is going on maternity leave before the end of the term. I was slightly panicking because I seemed to be getting on quite well with this one and the meetings were informal and relaxed so I set myself up for the worst. Turns out that that was completely unnecessary as the new one is just as nice and the meeting was taken in all sorts of directions and tangents from dentists to a discussion about whether Google is truly evil or not. He even seemed to be impressed by what I had done so far which is always reassuring.

As a reward for the positive feedback, I decided to give myself some time off to catch up with the radio 4 comedies from the week, first the news quiz and then ISIHAC which this week featured a very long game of Mornington Crescent where the rules were challenged to a new extreme and Jack Dee (the guest host) went on an audio trip down into the basement to consult the rule book, which it turns out didn't mention the rule anyway. After that wonderful hour full of giggling, I had to get back to work and managed to get another big chunk of dissertation done despite the odd battles with Word over references and citations again.

Tonight was comedy night once more on BBC1, I missed the good old days when Thursday night was regularly filled with wonderful comedy shows and it seems that they have brought this time honoured tradition back (for the next six weeks or so at least).
First Up is Gavin and Stacy and a welcome return to this wonderful series. I will admit I didn't really get the first series when it was first broadcast (I was quite naive back then and the jokes would have passed way over my head) but watching it a second time before the second series was out put it firmly in my mind as one of the best sitcoms in a long time. One thing that was a shame though was that a lot of the funniest clips were already shown as teaser trailers which meant that seeing them for a second time slightly ruined it and I've noticed that happening with a lot of things recently and I wish they'd stop doing it. Okay fair enough so they are trying to promote the programme but maybe just don't put the funniest scene in the show as the trailer because that will inevitably lead to disappointment. If you show a mildly funny clip then when people watch it they will be thinking wow, that was funnier than I thought it was going to be. It's not even like this needed much promotion anyway, everyone is talking about it and it has won countless awards so people are going to watch it anyway.

QI next and this programme is by far one of the best comedy programmes ever made. As soon as I hear the first few notes of Howard Goodall's theme music I feel instantly happy. Combining the wonderful world of fact with the realm of comedy and you are set for a hit a factcom I suppose you could call it. Mr Fry and Mr Davies partnership as headmaster and pupil respectively is a match made in heaven and works flawlessly every time without getting old. The plethora of talented guests on the show always helps too and gives the show that edge that some panel shows lack. The only thing that saddens me about the format of the show is that one letter per series and one series per year means that they are highly unlikely to see the format through to the end of the show at Z. It would be nice if they could but surely they wouldn't still want to be doing it when they are in their late 60's early 70's. Who knows, maybe they will be the Bruce Forsyths and Nicholas Parsons of our generation.