Video Diary - Recent Clips

September and October have always been our 'best' time for video making. This isn't a coincidence, it's timing. Usually, we're done with the Live show and all its intricacies, the daily edits of well trodden ideas that make just a percent of difference here and there. We're resigned and confined to what we have, so to speak, having long since given up trying to resuscitate the creative abandon that passed away on the operating table sometime mid august. Now, the weekly videos, previously thought of by us much like a hospital consultant would think of her public patients when the private work is stacking up: Necessary to keep the job in the long term but only getting 20% of our expertise.. and if some of them die then well so be it -- okay, okay, okay, look I know that's an unfair analogy. I got carried away. It was baseless and cheap.  Hospital consultants work really hard and that was a... look, I know what I said, but I... Look, some of my best friends are hospital consultants... so.... WELL ACTUALLY, I'm a hospital consultant so I can say that. OH DIDN'T KNOW THAT? Yeah, ophthalmology um hum.. yep, study of the optham,  yes its just above the pelvis, on the right, yeah I had mine removed. 

Anyway the point is that we're back taking care of our weekly commitments, and experimenting on them, much like a hospital consultant would a pub-. STOP. Yes, in september and October, we have all the sharpness of three comedians who've been working on jokes for nearly three months straight. Pairing that with a new lease for life for the silver screen, or small screen or whatever the internet is called.. probably the sideways screen... maybe the cracked screen? and we're off. 

                                        "Large bras are funnier"

We've come in hot with our energy bill saving sketch ( I can never remember the name of sketches, and I'm not looking it up). This was a classic McCormack sketch, even if we forgot to include Anne in it. I can remember Foil saying "why have you got Anne's costume, we don't have anything for her" and I was bizarrely surprised, (having written large portions of the sketch). I kept it anyway, but couldn't find a way to include her, poor girl. The highlight of this process was definitely buying 'that' bra. I bought it in a store called dealz, which does some discount stuff and a bit of everything too. Look, I know it's 2022 and I shouldn't feel uncomfortable just searching through the bras section, looking at the sizes, checking their solidity, sniffing them etc. but I did okay, I did. So, I did laps. Basically, I wandered through as if I was heading somewhere else, stole a few furtive glances, narrowing my choice, floral. A few candidates remained, so I made another pass, this time with greater confidence, pausing briefly to run my hands through a few... academically of course. I had my sights on the pattern, now I needed the size. Now some of you may have noticed that Mary McCormack is not exactly the most buxom of broads, as they say in New York, HOWEVER, if I've learned anything from the carry on movies, large bras are funnier. Okay, there I said it. 

                                      "Foil got the overall blame"

Our priest at a job interview was next and this is an idea that had been germinating for at least a few weeks. I find that despite not having written a shred of comedy for the sketch for four weeks, an idea can still develop in the background of your brain so to speak. Perhaps this isn't true, because I don't exactly have any evidence for it, or memory of it happening, but look that's not stopped people before. I guess, it's just one way of explaining that the sketch as filmed was pretty much the first draft, with one or two extra jokes. That only happens with long term ideas. Myself and Foil made a balls of the filming of this, non stop laughing, if you haven't seen it, we have a patreon post that documents our opening take. I think Foil got the overall blame, which is just about fair, "just about" I say, I'm not doing any victory laps or anything. 

You've probably noticed our proclivity towards more topical items, much like hospital consultant dermatologist. This isn't a new way of writing, it's just we weren't' able to pull it off before. Writing topical ideas that are just topical and not funny (and there seems to be an endless supply of that online), is not something we'd like to do. Now, I know some of you may think that certain recent sketches weren't as funny as previous, but you're missing the point, if I may be so BOLD. Its that...okay how do I get this bold font off, it was funny for a second and now it looks like this sentence is particularly important, it really isn't. Or is it? No, no it's not, it's.. oh that's better. It's actually a bit of a downer when bold font disappears isn't it? Everything else that immediately follows sort of pales in comparison, literally.

WHERE WAS I?

                                         "A shameless grab for likes"

Ah yes, you see the sketches were intended to be funny, which is the point, ie, not a shameless grab for likes. Who wrote that quote above - it's misrepresentative

So, we went ahead and wrote two ideas based around the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Now, politics aside, I honestly think there is comedy to be found amidst tragedy. Not everyone agrees, and actually, that's okay - so long as it's not every week, which we've no intention of doing - I'm happy enough to tackle politics every so often, especially if an idea presents as funny."Funny is funny", as Genghis Khan once said. 

                 "This sentence isn't in the main body of the text"

That said, comedy can stray into a preachy tone if you're not careful and lose its outsider status. You can see that on some of the late night US talkshow monologues - or indeed some stand up comedy - they're just preaching to the choir - with no attempt at nuance  - I think they lose their credibility as commenters of the ridiculous, and just become an echo chamber for their audience.  The lesson is (for us) is don't try to divide and conquer, you need to attempt to make everyone laugh, even hospital consultants. 

Do Indian Immigration they said... it'll be fun they said...

This seems to have gone viral on facebook, maybe more than any other video we've done  - we've gained a whole host of new Indian fans, and also, well, some new (although markedly less) Indian enemies. Paul as always was just super. This sentence isn't in the main body of the text. He's a great laugh and honestly is so professional, he only needs three takes max! We don't work with many other people in any capacity, but it's always a pleasure to have him along.  Perhaps some of our new Indian fans have made it to patreon, if so, please make yourselves known, we're delighted to have you. It's definitely a goal of mine to bring the show to India. I'm not sure it would be a great business decision.... but then again who'll care about that when we're old- or when we stop touring! I guess we could stop anytime we like but we don't, much like a hospital consultant on a long shift dipping into the drugs cabinet for personal use.

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