TV Burp

Each week Harry Hill comes to our screens to pick over the bones of the week in popular television. Looking mainly at the soaps, the popular dramas and various specials Harry looks for the more unusual touches that may have been overlooked by the casual viewer. Of course many reviewers will recognise this as the same technique used by people like Jasper Carrot and Chris Tarrant who do the same for adverts and television clips from around the world, so how is this better or cleverer?

Well, simply it comes down to your opinion of Harry Hill. Personally I think the guy is hilarious and his unique sense of humour is what makes this programme work. He rarely goes for the easy gag and he is genuinely imaginative with even the basic sight gags he does in regards things in the TV shows. Whereas Chris Tarrant's clips generally don't require much delivery, Harry Hill's jokes are more about his delivery and imagination than about the actual content of the clip and is never just 'oh look how funny other cultures are'. It does depend how much you like Hill of course but I find his unique sense of craziness to be a blessed addition to Saturday night line-ups that are normally full of derivative stuff that lack imagination.

One problem with it is that fans of Hill might not appreciate the fact that his humour has been watered down for a primetime audience. Certainly the heavy use of clips means that about a third of the 25 minute running time is taken up by the TV clips and this is not as good as Hill's other shows where he had the full running time, lots of characters and all sorts of craziness going on. But this is the price we pay for a primetime and we can just hope that he will get another show later in the evening to do what he does best and, until then, I'll be going to see him live in 2005.

Overall this is a very funny show that is lifted out of its ponderous unoriginal premise and made something much more inventive and off the wall than the usual Saturday night servings would allow us and, if he manages to get a wider audience for his fuller shows and crazy sense of humour then that can only be a good thing.

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.

Harry Hill came back in a great series in which he takes a funny and surreal look at the past week's TV. Just one image from Casualty or one scene in Emmerdale can be a comedy gem. It does seem he's making fun of certain people's acting and the scripts but everyone notices that about TV dramas. It will make you laugh out loud, something an ITV show doesn't usually make you do but ITV is getting better at comedy now with Hardware, Ant and Dec and Harry. So watch it, it's a great show.

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

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.