Mitchell & Webb - a warning from history

I think Mitchell & Webb are very funny. ‘That Mitchell & Webb Sound’ on Radio 4 was brilliant.

The TV show, however, is shit. Why? Not because they aren’t funny. Not even because many of the sketches are rehashes of the radio show - I was actually looking forward to seeing some of them work on the TV.

The reason that ‘That Mitchell & Webb Look’ is shit, is because some TV exec has decided to put a laughter track over the top of the entire show, rendering any humour completely null. How can they have got it so wrong that they think that the people who will want to watch Mitchell & Webb need to be told when to laugh?

It reminds me of the episode of M*A*S*H thay the screened when I was a kid with the American laughter track still attached, and everyone wrote letters of complaint to the BBC (well, obviously not everyone, 65 million people writing letters would probably stop the Royal Mail from delivering letters effectively). It turned out that the BBC normally removed the track, but someone forgot that week. Ah memories from the 80s.

Anyway, I am really, really, bitterly disapointed. I hope someone works out why no one tunes in next week and does something about it.

Written by exmonkey on September 14th, 2006 with 3 comments.
Read more articles on General.