Show Me the Funny

  

Hosted by Jason Manford, Show Me the Funny, the UK reality show saw a battle of 10 comics for a prize of headlining a tour, bringing out their own DVD and cash. It's basically the UK version of the American show Last Comic Standing with its own pros and cons. However I think the subject works really well in the UK setting as opposed to the US because comedians are a staple on British television whereas in the US you have to have cable in order to watch comedians and they're not as known.  The format of the show, watching the comics go through tasks with only seeing bits of their routines made the beginning of the series a little boring. The judges and Manford were more funny than the comics which was not a good sign for the aspiring comics. I was originally excited for the show because Alan Davies was a judge and the guest judges were people I knew from watching QI. Most of the time its too much of the judges but this has got to be one of the only reality shows were I wanted to see more of the judges and host. I was a little skeptical of Kate Copstick as a comic comedian. I don't really understand the concept, comedy is such a wide range that I think it would be hard to properly evaluate a comic that other people think are hilarious but you just don't get their comedy. I guess there has to be a lot of value judgement or maybe there needs to be no value judgement. Either way she kinda grew on me but she was definitely taking up the 'Simon Cowell' position that every reality show has to have, apparently. My main complaint is that the routines were truncated. I think the show could have been approved if more of the routines had been shown/. At the beginning this was a show about comedians that wasn't particularly funny and the judges and host was the only reason for watching. 

The final episode was done live where the people voted instead of the judges which I though was a strange change from the rest of the show where it was the judges who had a say. Allowing each of the comics to have the full five minutes in the final was nice, although I think the final was a little too long and dragged on. Either the comedians needed longer sets, other things needed to happen in the show like guest stand ups from judges, or really the show just needed to be shorter. Manford did his best to keep things moving. His London riot jokes didn't seem to go down to well at the beginning but the audience eventually grew to like them.

The final allowed each of the remaining comics Tiff, Dan and Pat the full 5 minutes to perform instead of getting only snippets. Tiff went first and she had a great set. I laughed it was enjoyable but it wasn't really a stand out performance. Previous weeks I think she had better material and I think going personal was good but not good enough. She came last. Dan went second and I loved his set the best. I think it was well organized and funny although he did pause a lot which was a bit annoying. Dan was the one comic I've liked from the beginning and I was super disappointed when he bombed to the Welsh rugby crowd but I still wanted him to win and thought he had the best set of the final. Pat closed the show and still stuck with a little bit of warm up which I thought was good considering the last show where he did no warm up he didn't really do as well. However I found his material the least funny of the three and I hated him thanking everyone after every round of applause. It took away from performance and inhibited my enjoyment of his set. After all the votes were counted Pat came out the winner. It will be interesting to see who among the comics, if any actually become successful stand ups or if they merely continue playing to rooms above pubs. More importantly, will Show Me the Funny return? I'm not sure if it's got enough life in it to actually continue but stranger things have happened.