Have I Got News For York
Venue: Vanbrugh College
Rating: * * * *
Last Wednesday, ComedySoc brought satire crashing onto campus with the self-proclaimedly triumphant return of Have I Got News For York.
After a pilot show at their fundraiser, 24 Hour Comedy (no sarcasm intended), the go-ahead was given for a full-blown series this term. With an audience of no less than 159 to impress, not to mention a fantastically popular format to live up to, expectations were high indeed. But far from being intimidated by their namesake, the comedians used it to its fullest advantage by shamelessly copying it.
For once, this was no bad thing. It provided a fully-fledged, and, more importantly, well-known structure into which York-based material slotted with ease. In tandem with this were loving parodies of the BBC show - led by smooth host Sami Hussain - featuring a famous lard-based incident and the verb “to lurpak”.
Team captain Jay Foreman was comfortably the sharpest of the troupe, and won the most laughs; though Hussain’s deadpan irony and opposing captain Liam Butler’s bemused ranting had them snapping at his heels. The odd-one out round allowed Foreman to slam joke after joke into the open goal of the Vanbrugh-Goodricke bridge, to great comic effect. A little while later Butler ranted entertainingly about the FTR, striking a chord with much of the audience and providing another of the successful setpieces of the night.
However, the same topic highlighted one of the problems with the show. By inviting YUSU Officer Sam Bayley onto the show as a guest, the team had obviously opted to mock the powers that be - just like having an MP on Have I Got New For You. At first this worked quite well, Bayley’s attempts to offer serious answers opening him up to ridicule. However, as the evening progressed Bayley began to be funny in his own right. The funnier he became, the more the others began to lose confidence.
One other downside was that not everyone was aware of all the stories used, leaving some spinning headlines slightly lost on the audience. The team also slightly over-used the guest publication; the word “carp” is funny, but perhaps not endlessly so.
A little more self-assurance will almost certainly come as the series progresses and accrues its own conventions, but to expect all the laughs of Have I Got News For York that its BBC inspiration delivers, with professional comedians, writers and an editing process, is insane. ComedySoc gave themselves a gargantuan task in actively chasing comparison with such a brilliant comedy institution; the fact that they did so well - on the very first night - is very impressive indeed.
John Rushton
And I was in it too in week one.
I particularly enjoyed the paper version of this article which has the picture just of me, despite being the only person in it not mentioned. Though I secretly suspect the picture is of the real star: The Lurpak.
Tom Fitz-Hugh
Well John, you were mentioned in the original article but unfortunately your name fell victim to editting; as you say, it seems the Lurpak was the real star.