Glenn Reuben on the state of sketch shows

It’s been argued that the sketch show is dead, although David Mitchell disagrees, saying: ‘No one ever says the sitcom’s finished’ (but they do, frequently, and erroneously). I’m not sure it is… but one thing that would have contributed to its demise are repetitive characters. So let’s hope they, at least, are dead.

Take a look at the current Nationwide adverts, promoted by various Little Britain characters. About three years ago, the third series was met with lukewarm reviews, more so than the second series and definitely more than the first series. Add to that a live stage show and a US version and endless merchandising, and it's not hard to see why people are sick of he creations of Lucas and Walliams.

There is only a certain number of times that people can hear ‘No but yeah but...’ and ‘I want that one’ before they are reaching for the earplugs. As much as you can invent new situations for them (Lou and Andy in a pub; Lou and Andy on the beach; Lou and Andy watching the England squad training), there's only so far you can go.

This was all effectively parodied in an episode of Extras, when Andy Millman saw how the audience to his When The Whistle Blows sitcom showed up wearing generic T-shirts with various popular comedy catchphrases, incuding his own ‘You’re ’avin a laugh!"’

I wouldn't mind so much if the characters popped up only twice a series, but even three times can be a bit excessive. Mitchell and Webb aren't exactly innocent either: just how many ways can you present Numberwang effectively? It seems writers are either unwilling or lazy to continually come up with original situations.

But perhaps inevitably sketches end up feeling familiar. John Cleese once claimed that he felt the Pythons were repeating themselves by the time their third series came around, and only stayed because he felt obliged to.

Still, at least the Pythons and others like the Not the Nine O'Clock News team were original week in, week out. Nowadays, of course, branding is far more important, so many of these throwaway jokes can't be marketed and slapped on to pencil cases, lunchboxes and clothing as easily as a catchphrase can. And I'm glad that comedians do get recognition for their creations, but these are not sitcom characters.

Lecturers and writers can extrapolate as much theory and as many Freudian meanings as they want to from the Dead Parrot characters, but disgruntled customer Eric Praline will remain nothing more than a creation for that sketch and that sketch only. You couldn't extend him to cover a whole series full of a ceased-to-be hamster, a demised fish or a rabbit that had gone to meet its maker. [Editor’s note: Eric Praline was, in fact, used for other Python sketches, including singing Eric The Half-A-Bee; though he was not a recurring character with the same catchphrase]

But some try, and partially succeed. After Ted and Ralph had an extended Christmas special, other Fast Show characters had their own shows and sank without a trace (Billy Bleach, Swiss Toni, going against the very idea that the show was ‘fast’). Conversely, Chewin’ the Fat gave birth to Jack and Victor, which led to Still Game, one of the funniest sitcoms in recent years. The difference between them and, for example, Vicky Pollard, is that they were much more rounded and loveable, and could easily support further episodes if required.

Yet for once, I'd like to see a successful sketch show which didn't rely on the same jokes and characters every single week, which forced its audience to be a bit more intelligent and watch the whole sketch develop instead of mindlessly repeating a catchphrase ad nauseum. Then we could say that the sketch show isn't dead. It's just resting.

Published: 12 Jul 2010