Friday, 19 April 2013

BBC Three's For The Win: Is It Winning?


After a hard day at college, I decided to allow myself a bit of 'chill time' before starting my revision. Browsing through the On Demand catalogue, I came across For The Win in the Comedy & Entertainment section; I had never heard of the show but it was only 30 minutes long and there was nothing else that caught my eye, so I decided to give it a go.
Half an hour after finishing the episode, I still feel quite dazed and confused over my opinion of the episode. I didn't raucously laugh out loud, and I only sniggered a few times, but I never felt a compulsion to switch it off. Does this mean I enjoyed it?

For The Win is a "helter-skelter ride" of ridiculousness which is kind of funny but also a bit disturbing. It stars Lizzie Daykin, Sam Fletcher, London Hughes and Thomas Nelstrop, all unrecognisable names to me but all proclaimed to be the best new talent on the comedy scene. It also stars Rich Fulcher, who you may recognise from The Mighty Boosh (maybe that's why it's so bonkers).
The first real laugh from me was when the Come Dine With Me music appeared during Jesus' Last Supper, and the modern twist on Judas' betrayal (he only gave Jesus a score of 3). Talk about a culture clash. The exaggeration of society's obsession with reality TV was brilliantly satirised, and much appreciated by me, through the sketch of Embarrassing Bodies On Ice. Although it sounds revolting, we all know we'd watch it!
As with all sketch shows, there was a bit of 'blue' to appeal to the simpletons (that'll be me then). A pair of intellects philosophically stroking their chins in thought turned into homo-eroticism as their chins extended and took more of a phallic shape. Ooh-er. I did laugh though.
I was reminded of the Gap-Yah man from YouTube (if you don't know what this is, check it out here) during the London Trader sketch; just the general exaggeration of a  'posh arsehole' brought it to my mind. I like the Gap Yah videos, and I quite enjoyed this too.
As you can see, there was quite a lot I enjoyed from the episode despite not laughing out loud much. It was a bit too quirky to love but I did enjoy it and would watch more episodes if they were available. Unfortunately, from my research on the BBC website, it looks like this episode is a one-off, and was shown at ridiculous times in the night so it's unlikely that there will be a follow up. But I've included a link to watch the episode at the bottom of this post, so check it out and let me know what you think!

Watch the episode on iPlayer here.

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