I once accidentally bought a horse.
Would you believe that? I wouldn’t lie to you. But I know some people who would.
“Would I Lie to You” is one of my favorite in a genre of television programs that thrives in the UK but is nearly nonexistent in the US. These are comedy panel shows, in which comedians and celebrities participate in nominal competition with the primary aim of giving us all a good laugh. WILTY features team captains David Mitchell (not that one) and Lee Mack, who host guests taking turns reading statements about their lives that are either true or false The other team then interrogates them to uncover the truth. The anecdotes are frequently outlandish, like the horse story I stole above from comedian Kevin Bridges, and lead to opportunities for Lee to share his witty quips and for David to launch into angrily eloquent grants.
The success of these panel shows seems largely dependent on this alchemy of personalities. On the surface, Lee and David seem to share very little in common. Lee grew up working-class in the north of England and David presents himself as erudite, perhaps even posh, a graduate of history from Cambridge. Lee is brazenly outgoing and David seems uptight and reserved. But they both have an ear for the truth and, more importantly, silver tongue for humor.
WILTY isn’t the only game in town. Panel shows abound, one for every conceit. Mock The Week features quizzes over current events in a delightfully irreverent tone. QI, which nominally stands for “Quite Interesting”, has a general weekly theme centered on the series alphabetical letter: Q being the most recent, with examples being Quintessential and Queens. The host, originally Stephen Fry until Sandi Toksvig (you might know her from Great British Baking Show) donned the mantle in 2016, presents trivia questions on a variety of obscure history, science or other topics. The guests are penalized, not mainly for wrong answers, but for obvious or boring answers. Several minutes are allotted for each question so that the guests can turn the trivia over from every aspect, trade japes and finally allow someone, be it a guest or the host, to elucidate a fact that is quite interesting indeed. (Get good example)
Both adjacent to this format and at its apex is Taskmaster. In this gonzo program, Greg Davies portrays the eponymous role as his supposed assistant, Alex Horne, assigns tasks to a panel of comedians and celebrities. Some tasks include: move a from boulder as far as possible within one hour, camouflage yourself so that you cannot be seen in a photograph examined by the taskmaster, and cheer up a retired traffic warden. The tasks are both so bizarrely specific and yet openly phrased that it’s a delight to see whether the contestant will wholeheartedly rush into the task, obeying every letter of the law, or find a loophole that makes all the other contestants looks like fools. Either can lead to glorious success or humilating defeat. During each episode of taskmaster, the panel of guests review their performances of the tasks along with the taskmaster and Alex, seeing one another’s attempts for the first time and allowing the taskmaster to judge and score them. Here again the alchemy of personalities is paramount, when we see the banter among the contestants and the occassionally cruel taskmaster.
There is quite a list of other panel shows. 8 out of 10 cats, a show of surveys and statistics, and its bizarre spinoff, 8 out of 10 cats Does Countdown, where the hosts of the original program play on the long-running UK favorite game show Countdown, a game of word jumbles and rapid arithmetic. Here, nearly all of fun is watching the banter amongst the panel, because no one is really here to win the game. Still the math specialist Rachel Riley and the masterful lexicographer Susie Dent play their roles expertly until it’s time to take the piss out of host Jimmy Carr a little.
I would be remiss if I left out a panel show that does not air weekly, but approximately annually. And that’s the Big Fat Quiz of the Year. Each year near New Year’s, host Jimmy Carr brings on three teams of two, primarily comedians, to answer trivia from the year. The quizzes divided by category, such as current events and sports, and always includes questions from a few special guests: the youngsters of Mitchell Brook Primary School put on a play about current events, news host Jon Snow gives a straightfaced report over events referenced in the lyrics of a popular song, and the actor Charles Dance reads solemnly from a ridiculous passage in a celebrity autobiography. If you don’t know these people are, that’s fine. Solemn old British men doing silly things is still funny. But it’s the guests that truly make Big Fat Quiz so enjoyable. Recurring favorites of mine are Richard Ayoade (IT Crowd), Noel Fielding (IT Crowd and Great British Baking Show), and David Mitchell (Mitchell and Webb Look, WILTY). Big Fat Quiz has had some expansions including the Big Fat Quiz of the Decade, Big Fat Quiz of the 80s, the 90s, and the 00s.
Living in the States makes it somewhat hard to catch these shows. Most can be found via specialty subreddits, like r/panelshow. You can find others on YouTube. Taskmaster, in particular, now has an official channel. You can catch up to season 4. Legally!
Now, your task: Explore some of the best unscripted comedy available.
Your time starts now.
What I’m saying is I like me some tea. But there’s one I always go back to. Twining’s Irish Breakfast Tea.
gild the truth 