British tv show which shows endless clips of celebrities,
newsreaders and
politicians making mistakes,
fluffing lines, dropping things, falling over,
etc etc etc.
The clips are usually funny once, but as the shows are repeated constantly, they get very tiresome. Ironically, any celebrities featured get paid repeat fees, with the result that they could end up getting paid more for fucking it up than they would for getting their lines right.
Hosted by Denis Norden who, along with Jeremy Beadle and all other clip show hosts, seems to think that we want to listen to crap jokes in between clips.
Still, although it is terribly hackneyed now, this was actually the first ever incarnation of the outtakes format, which is sold all around the world. The creation of the show was amazingly fast. Norden came up with the idea in a studio canteen one day, phoned up Michael Grade, and got a meeting immediately. Norden told him the idea, and Grade asked how quickly he could have it - and that was it. Norden chooses all the clips himself, writes the show, and won't show a clip if the audience laughter is malicious. And even though I've just slagged it off for several paragraphs, if it's on and I see a clip, I'll usually laugh and start watching. Damn you, Norden!
The best clip I ever saw was of a man with a shockingly obvious comb-over hairstyle being interviewed. The wind kept whipping the comb-over off his head, so that it flapped around his ear, and he kept putting it back and pretending nothing was out of the ordinary. I have nearly died several times laughing at this clip, it sums up all that is ridiculous about this country. Dude! We can SEE the hair coming away! We know you're bald! Give it up!
Note for Americans: this is what you would call a blooper show, and Denis Norden is an older, less annoying version of Bob Saget. For some reason we don't call them bloopers here in England, although the BBC has a show called Auntie's Bloomers - Auntie is the affectionate term for the BBC that nobody except the BBC actually uses, and bloomers are old women's big knickers, here referring to mistakes. You know, when you explain it, it just sounds weird...
Useless Trivia Fact: Rod Argent, who co-wrote the theme music (as mentioned in the writeup below), was one of the members of The Zombies, of She's Not There and Time of the Season fame. I remember being quite shocked to see his name in the credits, and looked him up to see if it was him. It was (and is). That's showbiz, I guess.