TV Review – Blunder, Channel 4, Friday, 10.35pm

By mofgimmers on December 11th, 2006 11 comments

Blunder Last Thursday I found myself in the middle of London with a nosebleed walking through that tornado. I couldn’t get back to the North because mother nature thought that it would be a good idea to stop all the trains from working. So I did what any other sensible person would do and proceeded to get blind drunk and wait until the next day to wait for answers.

So, Friday came with a hangover, a scrap to get on the train North, and generally feeling tired and emotional. Comedy was what I need to cheer me (and my liver) up… so first stop was Channel 4′s new comedy sketch show, Blunder.

Yes, Blunder came along, and I recalled Anna’s views on the show, and though ill of the idea of sitting down with this programme. Then I thought to myself… no no no… have an open mind Gimmers… it might take a while to bed in. Then it dawned on me. It doesn’t need time to bed in at all… because it’s rubbish.

Whilst I love David Mitchell, I can’t help but wonder what on earth he was thinking catching the Blunder Bus. It’s a useless show which makes me wonder if Mitchell has got some hefty mortgage payments that need making or someone from the show has some dirt on him, forcing him into playing a bit part in a terrible sketch. The show as a whole is a simple enough thing to grasp. A group of comics that you recognise from somewhere (but you’re not quite sure where) rattling through sketch after sketch after sketch without too much thought or humour. Blunder has been hyped up so much that it was nice to actually get a look-in on the show, but instead of it being nice because I liked watching it, it was nice to have a bit of closure. The amount of times I’ve had to watching the advert that says "poppadom… poppadom… poppadom" was enough to kill me mentally… so when I saw it on Friday night, I breathed a huge sigh of relief knowing (or should that be hoping) that I’ll never have to see it again.

Before I go on with the rest of my review, I’ll just tell you that this morning, I read all the comments on our previous article on this show, and how a very wise thing was hidden amongst them all. A wag called Gurd Prepostlethwaite wrote "This show is a brown trout. P.S.Channel 4, please give me my own show as I believe I have about as much talent and humour to offer as these performing monkeys, if not more. Thank you." Truer words ne’er spoken. If I worked for Channel 4, Gurd would get a job based solely on the name Gurd Prepostlethwaite… I’ve read the name 10 times now and it still makes me laugh more than an entire episode of Blunder. Anyway… where was I?

Ah yes, slagging off Blunder. The show is at best dire, and at worst, offensively bad. It is typical of the nonsense that is shown on Channel 4 at the moment. The creators have seen Brass Eye and it’s biting satire and thought "AAAH! So it’s OK to make jokes about paedophiles now! Ace!" Well, no it aint bub. You see, where Chris Morris makes a social comment about the way in which sexual offenders are almost glorified in tabloid newspapers and plays half-witted do-gooding celebs at their own game, Blunder merely has two child abusers in a swimming pool saying "bugger". Pathetic and about as edgy as do-nut.

There is a theory that if you gave an infinite amount of primates an infinite amount of typewriters, one of them would eventually write the whole works of Shakespeare. Well, one can only assume that this was one of the simians first attempts at slapping big dumb fists on a keyboard. Whoever wrote this and whoever commissioned it… stick to picking ticks off your partners back eh? In short, Blunder is the poorest thing I’ve seen since Coupling… and that’s saying something. [Mof Gimmers]

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Category: Channel 4, Comedy, TV Reviews
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john McGrath

Oh my god , how terrible is this show.I watched some of it the other night…..I was astounded by its unfunniess…..I was myself hungover watching it and thought maybe It was just me.But no. Ive just read the above review and it hits the nail on the head.Some sketches, if you can call them that, beggar belief….you would not see poorer quality on late night Tokyo cable TV.How on earth did it make it onto british tv. It must be somekind of experiment on the public or something….maybe the Dharma initiative are behind it.
http://www.badgraffiti.blogspot.com/ mof gimmers

Ooooh! Don’t set the conspiracy theorists off!

Blunder is a show that has a somewhat prophetic title and I can’t imagine a second series being commissioned… thank goodness

Mof Gimmers
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Malibu Man

Blunder is the funniest thing that’s come out of Channel 4 in a long time its a lot better than that shit ‘The IT Crowd’. You should enjoy Blunder, you should sit down and watch it at 10:35 with a drop of malibu because malibu you see it makes you randy and I’m a randy bugger. Blunder makes me randy.

Send me your comments, I’d prefer it if you were female. If you don’t like Blunder then “No”, “Oh blow”.

Malibu Man
JRU

well i think your review of all comedy programs on this site a utter garbage and that the people who review them have no sense of humour because all the people i know like blunder note we are all teenagers aged 16+. And then older people who watch stuff like the houses of parilament all day to see whats happing because you have nothing better to do because you are offended by everything!!! LISTEN GRANDAD TIMES HAVE CHANGED!!! And you sense of humour is out-dated
Swiss

I quote JRU

“well i think your review of all comedy programs on this site a utter garbage and that the people who review them have no sense of humour because all the people i know like blunder note we are all teenagers aged 16+. ”

Given your spelling, punctuation and grammar, I sincerely doubt you’ve hit puberty, let alone 16. If you enjoy puerile, ignorant, lazy crap like this “comedy” I was subjected to recently by a friend (purely, by the way on the basis it would be ‘the crappest thing you’ll ever see’), I’d suggest you simly sit in a room, staring into a mirror and make fart noises for the rest of the week – it’s likely to be funnier than ‘Blunder’ and will save the more discerning amongst us (ie. those who didn’t only learn to walk upright this morning) having to be subjected to this steaming pile of horseshit.

Listen to me, sonny – have you ever heard of Daniel Kitson, Rich Hall, Armando Iannucci, Rob Newman, Mike WIlmott, Chris Morris, Bill Bailey, Dylan Moran, John Oliver, Andy Zaltzman? When you’ve extended your comic appreciation beyond laughing at your own bodily function, then maybe you can discuss it on an internet forum.
http://badgraffiti.blogspot.com/ mof gimmers

Brilliant. Thanks Swiss.

Mof Gimmers
TVScoop.
Gurd Prepostlethwait

Message to JRU

“And then older people who watch stuff like the houses of parilament all day to see whats happing because you have nothing better to do because you are offended by everything!!!”

I am most definitely one of the OAPs at a grand old age of 26 who this comment is directed at, but JJM, I’m afraid you are mistaken. You see there is room for purile comedy, I like purile comedy, however the emphasis should really be placed on comedy. And there is little of it here, certainly no sophisticated purile comedy.

Unfortunately these guys have tried to make a show by the numbers, created what they think will be memorable and witty catch-lines, characters that will be impersonated ad infinitum in the playground/round the office water-cooler, and tried writing long sketches involving them. You see, 26 year olds are not much different from 16 year olds, except basically we have a better grasp of what we enjoy after experiencing many different tastes, and less tolerance for what is basically shit. But although you may go around saying “oh blow” I cannot class that as a good sketch, because although that may be a memorable and witty line, the rest of the sketch is atrocious. And that stops me from finding it amusing. Especially when I imagine the OAPs who wrote it glugging over the page trying to create a response in a manupulation of the viewer. In this context this show actually offends me.

If you want to catch a more witty, amusing, quotable and all-round entertaining a brand of comedy from a bunch of original earthy comics, check out The Fast Show. It was probably before your time (!), but this is basically the blue-print Blunder used. Except in The Fast Show, they kept the quick set-pieces short and funny, providing a luminous and ecclectic set of comedic sketches. And yes, 10 years later I would still find it funny, and can still quote those characters. The characters were also incredibly well defined.

Oh and cheers for the mention Mof, If Chanel No. 4 get in touch send them round my gaf.
http://badgraffiti.blogspot.com/ mof gimmers

Gurd.

The pleasure was all mine. Blunder is a diabolical show, and one gets the feeling that the pro-Blunder comments were written by members of the Blunder cast who (deservedly) have far too much time on their hands.

Mof Gimmers (aged 28)
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Gurd Prepostlethwaite

That’s an interesting point. I have heard rumours that negative comments were mysteriously deleted from youtube comments. And should point out that it was “the man” who posted those clips on there in the first place.

On youtube there were also a lot of generic positive comments to Bunder clips posted by suspicious generic usernames too.

More evidence of Channel 4′s dualism. On one hand a champion of the independant and vessel against corporate commercialism, and on the other a massive commercial bandwagon, using commercial viability as a basis for awarding a show to some fuck-heads with terrible material.

Oh dear. A bunch of suits who don’t understand the difference between what’s funny at the Fringe and what works in a weekly sketch show. Has anybody seen Big? That bit where Robert Loggia meets Tom Hanks in the big toy shop? Yep…
Magnus Hanesblickenson

I should like to echo the points rasied by Gurd. Having posted one or two critical but by no means offensive comments on YouTube, I return a few days leter only to discover ‘Comments have been disabled for this clip’.

I have to say one thing to the Blunder boys – lads, you laid this steaming great turd on our dining table, so don’t get offended if one or two members of the party feel the need to vent their spleen about it. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the television studio.
johnner

I couldn’t believe David Mitchell had anything to do with this abomination.Franco Franco the Cypriot singer? A fucking rip-off of Steve Coogan’s Tony Ferrino character from 1996! How Coogan didn’t sue C4 is unfathomable.At least three of Blunder’s “characters” were stolen from the Fast Show,ie,the girl who speaks comedy= Colin Hunt,Malibu Man=The Duke of Wimbim,Edgar Ford the morbid pensioner=Unlucky Alf,for fuck sake C4,we’ve seen it before!