Merton madness (Paul Merton)

Member Name: aardvarkx

Product:	Paul Merton
Date:	28/06/01 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Paul Merton, Paul Merton, Paul Merton

Disadvantages: Only one series of 6 episodes :(

Paul Merton is without doubt a highly under-rated comic genius. Ever since the first time I saw him on TV in Whose Line is it anyway, his extremely dry, sarcastic, spontaneous and bizarre style of humour cracks me up every time. In my opinion, one of his best television contributions is not his TV series, but his regular slot on Have I Got News For you, where he always stands out as a very individualistic and unique comedian, and contributes a very significant part to the show as a whole. While his gags may not be as numerous as other panel members, they are always filled with his own unique, crazy irony equalling that of TVs historical comedy greats like the two ronnies, morecombe and wise and so on.

However, this is not to say his one-off TV series Paul Merton 'the series' is not without its moments. Although some of the sketches border on the absurd and many will fail to appreciate Paul's wacky style of comedy, there are none the less some of the best comedy sketches I have ever seen, and usually within each episode of the series there was at least one piece of truly inspired comic genious.

The ones that spring to my mind immediately as standing out are the chess game train sequence, where two chess players on a train repeatedly go through a tunnel and cheat in ever more propostorous ways, the master of camoflague sketch, where an entire battleship is camoflagued as a row of houses (I think it was called HMS Atkins road) and the assassin who dives into a tiny childrens paddling pool full of water and emerges from a fountain.

I believe the entire series has so far been shown at least twice on TV, probably more.

I am eagerly awaiting Paul Mertons second series, does anyone know if Paul Merton will ever do it?

if you havent seen it already, and you like crazy, wacky comedy that is based on the truly surreal then you will love this.

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