TV Burp

Once a rich source of popular television comedy, I.T.V. seems to have thrown in the towel. The jewel in its crown in recent years has been 'Harry Hill's T.V. Burp' in which the eccentrically attired Mr.Hill pokes fun at the week's television. He would not be the first person to do this; the B.B.C.'s 'Saturday Night Clive' had Clive James up to the same kind of mischief in the early '90's.

Harry Hill is the nearest we have right now to a Spike Milligan or a Kenny Everett in that he also uses surrealism as the basis for his humour. Of course he is helped by the sad fact that British television in the Noughties is a bad joke, and thus a perfect target for comedy. Try watching a soap opera with the sound off ( the grimaces and leers of the cast are hilarious ) and you'll see what I mean! Quiz shows and documentaries also come in for similar ribbing.

One of my favourite moments was when Harry did 'If...British television continues to get worse' in which he led an assault force against the television studios where much of the pap we have to endure is made. There's an unmistakable anger lurking behind the gags. Rather than get mad, Harry has decided to get even. He has fashioned a good show simply by laughing at the bad ones.

the choreography, mannerisms and silliness of this show, make even the people who don't watch the shows he's talking about laugh. i'm not saying there aren't parts that i don't laugh at. but there are at least 10 good giggles per show. and for someone as cynical and husk-like as myself, that is an incredible achievement! it's harry hill himself that makes the show. if they continued this without him (whatever reason) it just wouldn't be the same.

another achievement is that the show is completely family friendly. i think this is even on at Saturday early evening? good lord! i mean, have you ever even so much as smirked at any other show being shown at this kind of time? well, yes, i have, actually. you know what it is? "you've been framed". and before you write me off because of that, before harry was presenting that particular show, i absolutely HATED it! if he can make you've been framed seem even slightly funny, then he's a total comedy genius! no wonder this keeps getting renewed. it's one of the only funny things left on TV

I'm rather sad that tomorrow (27th November, 2004) is the end of the current series of Harry Hill's TV Burp. Now, I can't call myself a great fan of Harry Hill, but I classify his comedy as a bit hit and miss.

In this show, he takes moments from TV shows (in Britain) and makes fun of them. For instance, Hill might say, 'Let's see the man who chews his coffee.' an then we'd see a clip of a man from some soap opera taking a sip of coffee and then chewing away as if he was eating rock cakes!

On the other hand, some things don't appeal to me. But I do find TV Burp a great Saturday tea time thing. It ranks quite highly on my list of current comedy, and if you are a fan of Harry Hill or TV bloopers style things, you will enjoy this unique blend of humour.

I was pretty fond of this at the time. I think a large part of the humour depended on your knowledge of UK Soaps, especially ITV ones. Like a lot of Harry Hill's stuff this was (largely) family friendly, slightly surreal and very silly. The TV series had a large team of talented writers including Stand-up comedians John Moloney and Chris Addison and David Quantick (who provided additional material for Brass Eye, On The Hour, Spitting Image). I think largely what killed it off was the tight deadlines (if I remember rightly this was broadcast weekly) and the fact the writers would need to sift through hours of TV to find a 20 second funny clip. For something like Emmerdale you are looking at 2 hours worth footage a week, now imagine that across multiple channels, then there's issues of licensing the clips, getting special guests etc. Frankly it must have been the equivalent of pointing your house to work on. All that said I got some big laughs out of most episodes and thought it was good twist on the overused clips show format.

For anyone curious the compilation TV Burp Gold DVDs are a good place to start and very cheap often costing less than £1 each. But be warned some it is a bit dated given they are referencing TV and pop culture from nearly 10 years ago.

For four years Harry Hill has been consistently funny making fun of TV and re-editing things to look different. A hero in my eyes, as in the last year i've started doing the same, but no one can do it as well with the best deadpan, well almost, and quick witted comic timing around. His innovative views of TV shows and little sections of them, like this week when dot from eastenders steps out in front of a taxi, and he edits it with footage taken in which he hits a doll mildly resembling the same person, making it so funny and unexpected that it'll make you laugh for half the episode, but by then you'd have seen thousands of other jokes in similar vein or better, so you'll be laughing for a week, which is when the next episode was on.