Mock the Week

Updated on Nov 25, 2023

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Unlikely things to hear in a quiz show mock the week series 9 episode 10 preview bbc two

Mock the Week is a British topical, satirical celebrity panel show, that was created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, the same people responsible for the comedy game show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Performers deliver answers on unexpected subjects on the spur of the moment—although accusations of scripting have been made by other comedians. It is made by independent production company Angst Productions, and made its debut on BBC Two on 5 June 2005, with the show's theme song being "News of the World" by The Jam. The show has featured a variety of different stand-up performers, some being part of the show for several series as a permanent fixture, with host Dara Ó Briain and comedian Hugh Dennis having appeared in every episode since its debut.

Old episodes currently air on Dave, and this is frequently mentioned on the show.

Format

The general format of the show involves the host subjecting the panel, which consist of two teams of three performers (referred to as panellists), to a series of rounds in which they either answer questions on various news topics from the previous week of news, often with them giving improvised comedic answers, or performing comedic challenges based on a subject(s) provided to them (e.g. Healthcare). News topics range from major international news stories to regional news items from within Britain, with the show sometimes including photos and quotes related to the news articles used on the show. All episodes are approximately 30 minutes long, with each series featuring at least one compilation episode containing the best moments of a series, rounds that were not broadcast, and outtakes that occurred during filming. While most games are done around a large desk, to the left of it in the studio is the Performance Area, a large stage area with a large TV screen that is normally used for stand-up and improvisation challenges, primarily Scenes We'd Like To See. In addition, a smaller stage next to the desk is used and referred to as the Press Pit, often used in the round Between the Lines.

Although the show acts like a game and has a winning and losing team, the entire show exists mainly to provide starting points for improvised comedy routines rather than to function as a serious competition. Specific scores are never referred to, with the actual points won never stated by the host; current host Dara Ó Briain always ends the round by stating that he has given "the points" to the team he judges should receive them. In episode 11 of season 6, Dara admitted that winners of each round and point allocation was not based on anything specific, and viewers should "stop e-mailing in." Along with the scoring system, neither team has, in effect, a team captain (Hugh Dennis is sometimes referred to as such in publicity material), with such a distinction never being made on the programme itself.

Permanent panellists

Throughout the show's history, until Series 15, Mock The Week has consistently had at least two permanent comedian/stand-up performers within its panel that have been regulars on the show, with at least one found in each team. While there have been a total of six performers to date who have performed regularly on the show as a permanent panellist, only Hugh Dennis, who has always been part of the "left" team of the show, has appeared regularly in every episode since its debut (except the special episode that was part of David Walliams' 24 Hour Panel People). The following list the performers that have been permanent members from their debut to their departure from the show:

Frankie Boyle – Part of Left Team. He joined in Series 1, and remained until Series 7, where "other television commitments" led to the BBC announcing on 2 October 2009 that he would not be returning for another series.

Rory Bremner – Part of Right Team. He joined in Series 1 and left in Series 2.

Andy Parsons – Part of Right Team. He joined in Series 3 and remained until Series 14, whereupon his departure from the show as a regular was announced on 19 October 2015.

Russell Howard – Part of Right Team. He joined in Series 4 and remained until Series 9, although he was not present in the latter half of the series, and officially left during Series 10.

Chris Addison – Part of Left Team. He joined in Series 10 during the latter half, having been a regular guest on the show, and remained until after the first half of Series 12, whereupon it was announced he would be leaving due to involvement in a project being filmed in the United States.

Guest panellists

Along with at least one or two permanent members, the panel often consists of guest performers, some of whom have had frequent appearances on the show. The following have appeared multiple times on the show as a guest panellist (up to 7 October 2016, not including the 2011 Comic Relief special):

a. ^{^} Appearances made before becoming a regular panellist.
b. ^{^} Made an appearance in the Comic Relief 24 Hour Panel People special, along with Doc Brown, Daniel Sloss and David Walliams.

Rounds

As part of the general format of the show, performers take part in a mixture of quiz-styled games (often described as "rounds"), in which they answer with comedic responses or made-up, on the spot answers, perform stand-up comedy, and partake in improvisational games. Games that feature are either regularly used, occasionally used, or were retired after a while.

Regular rounds

The following games feature in all episodes of Mock the Week:

Wheel of News: The game is a stand-up challenge in the Performance Area, in which a number of performers (often the guests) are tasked with doing stand-up comedy based on a subject that the "Wheel" of the Random News Generator lands on (i.e. Education). While in the first series, all six performers took part, between Series 2 and 8 this was reduced to four performers, then to three between Series 9 and 10, before being reduced to the current setup of just two guest performers doing the game since Series 11; this arrangement was aimed at allowing for greater screen time for those guests, in order to help promote them more as stand-up artists. Since Series 2, host Dara would often introduce the round with a name that sometimes referenced a recent event, with examples including Dara's Supercasino: Make-a-Joke Roulette, Four By One Joke Relay, and Don't Stop 'til You Get a Laugh, among others. Furthermore, the winner of the game between Series 1 and 2, was determined by a system in which Dara judged whether the audience had laughed enough at the routine, and decided whether or not the performer was allowed to sit down, with the first team to have all their performers back in their seats winning the game. If one player from each team was left standing, sudden death would come into effect, in which a random topic was picked and both players had to talk about it. From Series 3, this was changed to far simpler system of Dara simply deeming the team who got the biggest laugh to be the winner.

If this is the answer, what is the question?: A simple quiz-styled round for all performers to play, in which one of the guests is given six categories to choose from, covering topics such as sport, health, home affairs, world news, the environment, and politics, and are then given the answer related to the topic and asked to guess what the question is. Often the guesses by the panellists are of comical questions, which sometimes are not even on the topic its related to, with the host eventually calling time on their guesses by requesting the actual question. The round is not over after the answer is given, as the host and panellists often conduct discussions in relation to the question and the topic, most for comedy, and are sometimes asked further questions by the host on news articles that may not have relevance to it. The round often was played before the final round, but recently is often played as the first round of the episode.

Scenes we'd like to see: The final round of each episode, with all performers playing this in the Performance Area. Each team is assigned to either side of the stage and are given two unlikely scenarios stated out on the TV screen, with any performer who steps onto the stage having to walk up to the microphone provided, and needing to say their suggestion of something is unlikely to happen based on the given scenario, with the host buzzing them off when they are done. Examples of scenarios used on the show include "Things the Queen didn't say in her Christmas speech", "Unlikely lines from the final Harry Potter book", and "Things you didn't hear at the Olympics", among others, with some subjects repeated again in later series. The round was inspired by the game "Scenes From A Hat" from Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

Picture Of The Week: Panellists are shown an image and makes jokes about it, with the image connected to a news story that happened on the week of the episode's broadcast. The round replaced "Headliners" as one of the regular games of the show.

Occasional rounds

These games occasionally appear in some episodes, but not all, with those not used either featured as part of a series' compilation episode or released as part of a DVD extra(s). The reason these may not appear and be cut from an episode is either because of the language used or the highly politically incorrect answers the panel members give, at the time that the show was broadcast:

Between the lines: This round takes place in the Press Pit, with one performer impersonating someone in the news who is giving a press conference (often a politician), with another translating their words to detail what they are "really" saying. For much of its use, Hugh Dennis is the one stating what is "really" being said, while in the first two series, the impersonation was done by Rory Bremner and Frankie Boyle, with more recent series seeing Hugh partnered with a guest performer.

Newsreel: This round sees a performer shown a piece of news footage played with no sound, and acting out what each person is saying, although usually bearing no relation to what is actually occurring in the footage. Throughout its uses, Hugh Dennis has often been the only one tasked to play this game, with the round later renamed as "Royal Commentary" in which he provides commentary on a royal event. The round is similar in style to the game of "Film Dub" from Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

What on earth: This round sees the panel shown a picture linked to a world news event, and trying to figure out what on earth is happening within it. So far, the round has only featured as an out-take during clip shows, and has also appeared on the Too Hot For TV DVD.

Past rounds

These rounds were originally used in the show before being dropped (most were used in Series 1 and 2), or replaced:

Dating videos: Two performers, one from each team, is given the name of a famous person and tasked with acting as them in the Performance Area and pretending to record a lonely hearts ad in the style of that person. The other players are tasked with guessing who they are.

Ask the politicians: In the style of current affairs programme Question Time, two or three performers take seats in the audience and give out questions to the rest of the panel, each of whom answers in the style of a politician; often one acted as a spokesperson for Labour and another acted for the Conservatives, while Dara performed as the host of the "show".

Prime Minister's questions: One team played as the British Prime Minister and their front-bench MPs, while the other team played as the Leader of the Opposition and their front bench MPs, with the host taking on the role of the Speaker of the House of Commons. Both teams are given a rather trivial news story to debate, but would treat it as if it was the heavyweight issue of the day, with the game usually evolving into a series of puns that saw each team attempting to continue the chain (for example, while referring to farming, "I take it you're an expert in the field", "I have ploughed that furrow" etc.).

Bombshell phone calls: Two performers, one from each side, each play as a famous person having a telephone conversation with each other, in which one of them would drop a bombshell during the conversation, with the other having to give out their reaction to it.

Headliners: Played by all panellists, and often used to begin the show, both sides are shown a photo of someone famous in the news. They are then given the initial letters of a newspaper headline connected to the photo and asked to guess what the headline is, with guesses often being comedic suggestions before one of the panellist gives the correct answer, after Dara prompts them for it. Guests, such as Michael McIntyre, have admitted they often struggled to come up with a headline that fits and gets a laugh as a result (In one episode, Michael's best effort was "Brown Orders Tree Explosion"), while furthermore, as was evidenced on the "Too Hot For TV" DVD releases, a hefty percentage of headlines pitched (mainly by Frankie Boyle) were not suitable for broadcast. The round was later replaced by "Picture Of The Week".

Controversy and criticism

On several occasions, Mock the Week has been the source of complaints, due to some risqué comments made by the panellists and the show's extreme use of profanity (in particular Frankie Boyle). In one episode recorded in 2007, during a segment called "What The Queen Didn't Say in Her Christmas Message", Boyle made the comment: "I am now so old that my pussy is haunted." This led to the BBC's director general Mark Thompson being challenged about the comments on Newsnight. Boyle later quipped "That was three years ago. If it wasn't haunted then it certainly is now."

In 2008, a larger controversy arose following another comment made by Boyle regarding swimmer Rebecca Adlington. Boyle stated that "she looks like someone who's looking at themselves in the back of a spoon". Since leaving the show, Boyle has criticised both the show's production team and the BBC Trust. He claims that the show did not cover enough major news stories and was too restrictive on his risqué comedy act, as the producers and the BBC Trust were afraid of "frightening the horses". The lack of female guests on the programme has been the subject of complaints in the letters page of the Radio Times. Jo Brand, while criticising the male-dominated genre of comedy panel shows, said in 2009, "I don't do Mock the Week any more and neither do some male stand-ups I know who have tried it once. We just don’t like the prospect of having to bite someone’s foot off before they let us say something." In 2013, former panelist Rory Bremner stated his reasons for leaving the show, saying: "I felt that there was a new and highly competitive and quite aggressive tendency there and felt uncomfortable. But I've since found out that very few people have felt comfortable doing Mock the Week." He also criticised the way comedians like the late Linda Smith were treated by new comedians, who "are like prize fighters".

Official merchandise

A DVD, Mock the Week: Too Hot for TV was released on 26 November 2007. It contains almost three hours of material, including three extended episodes from series five, containing scenes that were considered too rude for broadcast. The three extended episodes are titled, 'Putin, Henman & Konnie Huq', 'Nuts, Pies and Nim Nim Nim' and 'Money, Sex and The Lib Dems'. Mock the Week: Too Hot for TV 2 was released on 9 November 2009. Again, the DVD contains the main 'Too Hot For TV' feature with a compilation of unseen footage, plus three extended episodes from the series archives titled, 'The Anal Lube Show', 'The Leg Show' and 'The Hedgehog Show'. The extended episodes have a total of more than 40 minutes of unseen material. Audio CD versions of both DVDs are available. Mock the Week: Too Hot for TV 3 was released on 8 November 2010. Like the previous two, this DVD features an hour-long smut reel and three extended episodes titled 'The Elves and Testicles Show', 'The Prisons and Other Dodgy Stuff Show', and 'The Johnny Blowjob and Bird Flu Show'. Boxtree has published four tie-in books. The first, Mock the Week: Scenes We'd Like to See, was published in August 2008, and the second, Mock the Week: This Year's Book, was published in September 2009. A third book in paperback, Mock the Week: 1001 Scenes We'd Like to See, collected the best of the first two books, and another all-new book, Mock the Week: Next Year's Book was published in September 2010.

References

Mock the Week Wikipedia

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