Laugh Out Loud! (8 Out of 10 Cats)

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	8 Out of 10 Cats
Date:	25/06/08 (289 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Show, Hilarious Cast & Wildly Funny.

Disadvantages: None!

When I heard that Big Brother was coming back on for yet another series I actually quite glad that there was something to liven up Friday night television. Then when I heard that the two Big Brother shows on a Friday night were going to be broken up by 8 Out of 10 Cats I was overjoyed! The show first began back in June 2005 and advertises itself as a topical panel show which takes on the form of a game show in a sense with two competing teams.

The show is based on opinion polls from the past week that have been carried out by Harris Poll whereby the two teams have to decide what answers the public gave to various polls that are all to do with what's going on in the media that week. These opinion polls can vary from what's the most popular talking point among the public this week to true or false questions about various claims or stories in the media and the public's opinion of them.

The Main Stars

The show is presented by Jimmy Carr who is more commonly known as a comical genuis. There are then two opposing teams, one led by Sean Lock and the other by James Manford who is a new addition to the show this series. Arguably Jimmy Carr is the main star of the show and often comes out with some of the best jokes, he's not only responsible for introducing the teams and the guests but also acts as the game show host so plays a crucial part.

Each week there are four different guests on the show with two of them joining each of the two teams. The guests are often quite well known celebrities or people that are famous at the time of filming the show, previous guests this series have included David Walliams, Vic Reeves and Raef from The Apprentice television show. Often the guests do have a comedian background although this does not seem to be a necessity to appear on the show.

The Show Set Up

The show runs for thirty minutes although this is lowered to about twenty five minutes due to an advert break halfway through it. The show begins with some comical points from Jimmy Carr, often on facts that he's read about that week but he takes quite a humourous look at them by often having a humourous interpretation of them, quite different to what is actually meant by them I'm sure. Each show will then follow the same format and has four different rounds which are:

What are you talking about? - the polling organisation has asked the public what they have been talking about during the week and the teams have to guess the top five answers.

Pick of the Polls - the teams are given four pictures to pick from and are given a poll based around that picture, they're also from stories that have been in the media that week.

Believe it or not - the teams are given a statistic and have to try and guess if it is true or false, often they're quite bizarre topics that have been asked to the audience before filming began.

And the Winner is... - the teams are given a question from a poll and then have to guess what came on top of that poll.

Each round lasts about five minutes on average and at the end of each round Jimmy Carr will announce who is in the lead. As the show is heavily edited to make it fit into the required time slot sometimes the points don't always quite match what has just been shown. Although the main point of a game show is to earn points the teams often try to come up with the most gags and plenty of banter goes on between the two teams and Jimmy Carr during each round as well. I'd say that I certainly watch the show for the entertainment value rather than the quiz show appeal of it.

Trivia

The show's title comes from the Whiskas advertising slogan that "8 Out of 10 Cats prefer Whiskas."

My Opinion

I absolutely love this show and it's one of the few shows that can actually get me laughing out loud while watching it. The topics that are often touched upon are highly controversial and the guests are never afraid of saying what they really think or what others are often too afraid to say. The pace of the show is quite fast due to there being so much to cram in to the twenty five minute show but the gags do come through thick and fast for the duration. I think the show is just the right length really as any longer and the gags may get a little stale or it may drag on a little.

The cast is what really does make this show so brilliant, Jimmy Carr is absolutely fantastic and his sarcastic humour and satiric wit really does shine through with his somewhat questionable morals. James Manford is a new addition to the show this series as one of the team captains and so far has really impressed me with his quick humour which is remarkably similar to that of Peter Kay. Sean Lock is also great as a team captain and his stand up comedy past certainly comes into play on this show. The guests keep the show fresh and give a new lease of life to each episode, although they do often bare the brunt of the regular cast's jokes on a weekly basis!

Arguably this show won't quite be to everyone's liking and I should point out that if you're sensitive to any sort of rudeness then it's probably not one for you. If you've seen Jimmy Carr's work before and enjoyed it then you'll love this as it takes on the same sort of humour as depicted by him when working alone. Some of the jokes are quite controversial and some almost border on what could be classed as discrimination or just plain old nastiness but it's these qualities that make this show so addictive and so good to watch at times.

Despite it clearly being a pre-planned quiz show the humour does work quite well and the cast are convincing enough to make you think that they've just thought of these hilarious jokes. Often when comedy is pre-planned I think it appears a little static and runs more like a script but that doesn't appear to be an issue with this show at all. The job of the three main cast members is to ensure that the guests are never safe nor free from ridicule while on the show and I think it's this main factor that makes the show such a roaring success in my eyes.

If you do want to tune in then I'd highly recommend it, 8 Out of 10 Cats is screened on a Friday night at 10.00pm on Channel 4.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A quiz show presented by Jimmay Carr.