Music, laughs and bad language (Never Mind the Buzzcocks)

Member Name: thehud

Product:	Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Date:	01/10/02 (135 review reads)
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The quiz programme played for laughs. There's been a few of those over the last ten years or so. You know what I mean, Have I Got News For You, They Think It's All Over, Shooting Stars, even (God save us) TV Addicts with that despicable little creature with naff pullovers, Noel Edmonds.

HIGNFY is probably the pick of them with the quick witted repartee and cutting one liners from Deayton, Hislop and Merton, and endless surreal off the wall blind alleys, but a pretty good second place would be taken up by the music version, the endlessly enjoyable Never Mind The Buzzcocks. The manic genius of Bill Bailey has recently progressed on from being an occasional, mad eyed guest to one of the resident captains in place of the bizarre approach of the Irishman, Sean Hughes, but outsize stand up comedian Phil Jupitus as the other skipper and the cutting wit of Mark Lamarr as the host remain the other regulars on the show.

Bailey looks to be a pretty good sub for Hughes, with the same bizarre approach to the world of the buzzing cock as his predecessor, and the relationship between the three main protagonists is nearly as good as that we get on HIGNFY.

Each week, Jupitus and Bailey are joined by a couple of guests each, usually drawn from either music or stand up comedy and the secret is not to take things too seriously, because none of the guests do. In fact, they're not in the slightest interested in the outcome of the contest, just in outdoing each other in the piss taking stakes.

Lamarr is a spiteful, cynical and pretty mean master of ceremonies, and many of the guests have had to put up with some fearsome mickey taking. In fact, his approach is much nastier than anything you get on HIGNFY, and he's often overstepped the mark more than is advisable. Hislop once got a pretty ferocious dressing down from the late Paula Yates for his attacks, but baldy Ian has got nothing on the Fifties dustman, Greasy Mark Lamarr.


Anyway, the format is very similar to what you get with HIGNFY and They Think It's All Over, with a series of rounds, with the most distinctive bit where the teams perform instrumental versions of well known songs without the aid of words or vocals, just Bobby Ferrin type BUM BUM Crashes. Some of this gets pretty funny at times, particularly when some of the more intellectually challenged members of the pop fraternity are booked to appear.

Never Mind The Buzzcocks, a neat pun on the old Sex Pistols album title, is one of the more consistently funny programmes on the BBC at the moment, but is confined to the backwaters of BBC Two for the most part. It deserves a prime time switch, but probably wouldn't benefit from the move, as it would probably have to clean up its rather smutty act.

I love the programme and everything about it, though I don't mind admitting that it's a bit of a blow to see Hughes disappear, because his dry and rather acidic approach was always a highlight.

Never Mind The Buzzcocks is normally featured at 9 as part of an array of comedy talent, currently appearing on Monday nights, leading us in to the twin peaks of Coupling and the supreme triumph of fly on the wall comedy, The Office.

I'd advise you strongly to catch this little combination while it's still around, because they don't tend to hang around too long. The Office is the best of the three, but Buzzcocks is a wonderful hors d'oeuvre.

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