BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd

Subject: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: olddude
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 10:58 PM

I have a dish and we get this British comedy called the IT Crowd
maybe because I have worked with folks like that forever but it is the funniest show on TV. I can't stop laughing

anyone else seen this
it is great

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 11:20 PM

Do you have a URL?

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: olddude
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 11:49 PM

IT Crowd

here is the episode I just watched on TV

bullies on the bench

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 12:22 AM

Thanks for the links. I enjoyed the youtube, clicked on the other to catch up and watch a full episode only to be told i have to live cross the pond to do so.:-<

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: olddude
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 12:29 AM

Dang
Kat I will tape some episodes for you and send them out to ya
absolutely bust a gut funny ...

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Rowan
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 01:14 AM

And it gets better, too. It's been on Oz telly for a couple of series.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 05:21 AM

I watched the first series. Forgot to keep watching after that. It was rife boy humour, but still very funny.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: wyrdolafr
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 06:29 AM

The IT Crowd has an actor in it called Chris Morris who plays Denholm Reynholm. It's possibly the worst thing he's done as a performer - I wasn't keen on Nathan Barley either - but I'd seriously recommend his earlier work to anyone interested in satire and social commentary who isn't already familiar with it.

The Day Today and Brass Eye series are still, in my mind, amongst the funniest things ever shown on television. I've a feeling they're not that well-known abroad but I think it's they are fantastic alternative to what is usually thought of as 'British comedy'. Even though they're almost 15 years old now, I think they stand-up really well. Clever, funny and 'near the knuckle'.

Chris Morris at Wiki
Brass Eye
The Day Today

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 06:40 AM

Mighty Boosh, Peep Show, and The Office for me.
And whatever happened to Adam and Joe ?

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: wyrdolafr
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 07:04 AM

Well, Adam Buxton from 'Adam and Joe' is in the IT Crowd as a supporting character, which takes the thread back to the original topic!

He also did quite a bit a bit in 'Time Trumpet' a few years ago - pretty good often surreal satire - along with Richard Ayoade (amongst others), who incidentally plays Maurice Moss in the IT Crowd!

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 07:31 AM

Quite a few Boosh links in The IT Crowd, not least Richard Ayoade, who originally played Dixon Bainbridge and later plays the shaman Saboo, and Noel Fielding of course, who seems to have vanished by series 3. Matt Berry's Dixon Bainbridge is revisited to quite grotesque effect in Douglas Reynholm. Berry did the sublime (but ignored) Snuff Box a few years back in tandem with Boosh stalwart Rich Fulcher - the funniest thing on TV since Reeves & Mortimer's Bang Bang.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 07:54 AM

Matt Berry also kicks it musically:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipoVdL2g6PY

Genius!

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 08:11 AM

Heck, I've been laughing at IT people for years -- and I'm not talking about television.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: wyrdolafr
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 08:11 AM

I really enjoyed Snuffbox myself - although my appraisal isn't quite as high as yours, Insane Beard. I think Berry seems to get passed over far too often compared to a lot of his contemporaries, and I don't understand why, as you point out yourself, Snuffbox got ignored. At least some people watched it though, I don't know many people at all that saw the God-rock spoof AD/BC (again, has a lot of the Boosh-related people in it &c).

I've often wondered whether Boosh would have been as popular if Fielding didn't have a 'Jackie star pin-up' appeal to a lot of the female fans (maybe some male ones too).

I like comedians that do music but I think Berry's a bit of a one-trick pony in that a lot of what he does is pretty similar when broken down to chords and melodies. When it comes to comedy-music one trick ponies, I much prefer Matt Holness. Merriman Weir was amazing.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: wyrdolafr
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 08:17 AM

As there is thread drift already, I'd like to proffer 'Down The Line' as the funniest British comedy I've heard in a very long time. Again, something that seemed to pass most people by, even though there's a lot of big-ish comedy names attached.

It's a spoof of the likes of Talk Sport/Talk Radio (I think it's very specific to Ian Collins and Piers Hearnu, personally) with a lot of 'Fast Show' type names but a lot funnier than things like the Fast Show in my opinion.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: olddude
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 10:43 AM

If you worked for 35 years with people like Roy and Moss
you would be breaking a gut laughing ... trust me they do exist!!

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: robomatic
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 11:13 AM

I was introduced to the first year of it about a year ago. One of the main characters, probably Denholm, had a very unique voice which sounded quite familiar, almost "Rambling Syd Rumpo" although I know he wasn't. Could he have been in some BBC radio series in years past?

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: wyrdolafr
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 12:13 PM

If you do mean Denholm Reynholm, the actor who plays him (Chris Morris) has done a fair amount of radio over the years.

I mentioned The Day Today in an earlier post in the thread which kind of developed from a radio version of the same kind of thing. The Steve Coogan character, Alan Partridge, more-or-less developed from that and The Day Today where Chris Morris' anchorman character would bully and demean Partridge on a regular basis.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Les from Hull
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 12:35 PM

The radio version was 'On the Hour' currently being repeated on Radio 7 details here.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Les from Hull
Date: 05 Feb 09 - 12:39 PM

We have Graham Linehan to thank for 'The IT Crowd'. He was also responsible for 'Father Ted' and 'Black Books', which makes him the best TV comedy writer in the world, ever.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Amergin
Date: 21 Nov 09 - 05:45 AM

The IT Crowd may be found on Netflix online....been laughing my arse off....have worked with people like Moss and Roy.....and know plenty of people as clueless as Jen...

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 21 Nov 09 - 07:16 AM

I worked for about 30 yrs in IT support & I'm here to tell you it's all true!

We use to "borrow" a very large and heavy TV from the training dept. to watch stuff on night shift. Naturally somebody dropped it down the stairs.

A poor guy (without cash) rang up in extremis just before Christmas to report his ATM card eaten. I tried to calm him down while the rest of the shift fell about laughing, the bastards.

Somebody thought there was an intruder and rang the police. They released a dog which charged down the corridor, unfortunately only finding one of the shift leaving the toilet - bit his bum.

And you really do tell folks to turn their equipment off then on again!

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: robomatic
Date: 21 Nov 09 - 11:23 AM

I liked the IT Crowd and would recommend it but its humor is pitched at a narrower level than "The Office" (either side of the pond) so don't expect too much and you will enjoy.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: Alice
Date: 21 Nov 09 - 11:30 AM

The show I can't stop laughing at is
GLEE.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 21 Nov 09 - 01:17 PM

I am more into the family comedy with dark leanings

Out Numbered

Wish I could remember to watch it when it is on.

there should be a BS thread dedicated to favourite comedies from all over with relevant youtube selections.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Nov 09 - 05:06 PM

There's a Christmas Special of Outnumbered promised, and a third series coming up in the New Year.

I suspect Virginia's difficulty in getting to catch the episodes was pretty common - I suspect there was someone in the BBC who didn't like it, because the bizarre timetabling of the shows was surely designed to put people off.

It's a brilliant show - and so in its different way was The IT Crowd (and I believe another series of that is on the way). And that got tucked away in hard to find spots, while crap like Little Britain was hyped away like mad and given the best time slots.

Any one in the UK can watch all the IT Crowd episodes from all three series on Channel 4 on demand. Unfortunately there is no equivalent where you can get Outnumbered at present, so far as I know.

Subject: RE: BS: can't stop laughing the IT Crowd
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 22 Nov 09 - 07:51 AM

Little Britain was ok (for shock factor) the first series. Then it was same old same old. Same reason I lost interest in Catherine Tate show. Too formulaic.

Why does the BBC do that? Hide the intelligent comedies and put the unsellable stuff at eye level. Oh! Just answered my own question.

Outnumbered - Airport Hell

I really liked Jam and Jerusalem 1st series, but didn't see all of it. Maybe because I couldn't predict when it would air.

Wait through the first few minutes for wonderful scene young village doctor and patient former primary school teacher.
Jam and Jerusalem