Any of you who have read Pish over the years will know I’ve had my beefs with Channel 4, but last night they sunk to a new low by broadcasting “The Fhonejacker”, without doubt the worst comedy show I have ever seen on British Television.
You have to ask why Channel 4 even exists these days.
Given that its part publicly funded and has a public service remit, questions must be asked about why the channel is so desperately failing to deliver.
In terms of quality programming, it has been taken over by channel Five, which has to be totally humiliating. In fact, Five is starting to take prestige programming like cricket coverage away from 4.
These days, Channel 4 gives us little more than American imports, cheap, poor quality factual programming and out-dated reality pap.
Take this Comedy Lab offering last night as an example. I understand that Comedy Lab material isn’t always going to be conventionally funny, and that in many ways, that’s the point.
But throw a rock in any primary school playground and you’ll hit a child funnier than the guy who put together this travesty.
The programme featured a guy doing prank phone calls to “unsuspecting” members of the public.
The problem? Ever single person he called was savvy to his pish the second he came on the phone.
What ensued were a series of cringingly unfunny exchanges between this talentless buffoon and people annoyed to find themselves having their time wasted by a tit.
Oh yes, and he managed to come up with a character so witlessly racist Jim Davidson would have baulked at the prospect of performing it.
I had always been under the impression that getting a show on the tele involved talent, hard work and persistence but it turns out I was wrong.
Apparently all you have to do is come up with a hilarious “darkie” impression and participate in a practice most people grow out of before they get pubes.
Now I know, eh? Seriously, a new, all-time broadcasting low.
5 comments:
LOL - did you mean to say those thins out loud? Overtaken by channel 5? Are you SERIOUS? Hello... listen (ding dong) yeah, that's a bell... the educated UK would rather wipe there arses with the contents of channel 5 than accept that channel 4 had been overtaken by it... Come on... you come across as some kind of Sun or Express reader (or BMI flier for that matter!)
Don't you just love irony? Ross, you clearly form no part of the 'educated UK', judging by your shoddy grasp of grammar.
You've also failed to offer an argument. Having a point is the very foundation of discussion. So back to you Ross. Let's see if we can hear that, um...bell, next time.
Thanks for commenting Ross. I suppose it is a bit outlandish to say that 5 has "overtaken" 4 but I was trying to point out that 5 are improving which can't be denied, and that 4 has been on the slide for some considerable time, to the point where commissioning editors no longer seem to know what they are doing.
This view is supported by the fact that the vast majority of CE staff were sacked and replaced around about January amidst something of a creative cull at the station.
Take a look at the schedules and seriously tell me that 4 are producing the same volume of quality programmes they were 10 years ago. The quality of imported programmes and movies has dropped as well.
A few years ago, you’d have expected to see a decent bit of cinema on 4 on a Sunday night, now you are far more likely to get something like “10 Things I Hate About You”.
Nothing wrong with that in and of itself; it’s just not 4s remit. It seems to me that 4 are chasing a demographic already catered for by 5 in that sense, probably in response to 5s increasing popularity.
I’m not championing entertainment based broadcasting, I’m just wondering why channel 4 are lowering their standards.
but five also gives us little more than American imports, cheap, poor quality factual programming and out-dated reality pap. And Trisha.
Uh hu, that's their remit. That is what they are supposed to be doing. It's not what Channel 4 are supposed to be doing. The point of creating E4 was to have a dedicated entertainment channel, so why is dreck like "King Of Chavs" turning up on the main channels schedules?
For the gazillionth time, I'm not holding up Channel 5 as any great example of a brilliant TV station; I'm asking why a channel created to be essentially a slightly hipper version of BBC2 is broadcasting crap on a regular basis.
Am I not being clear?
In any case, we're way of the point of the post, which was that "The Fonejacker" is awful.
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