“Big up Keir Starmer,” said a British prisoner who was released early from prison last month. “Well, he said more than that,” joked Charlie Brooker, that week’s host of Have I Got News for You. “But his sentence was cut short.”
Muffled laughter and protest. “Very well,” said John Hislop, former captain of the long-running British panel comedy show. When a moth was seen flying around the studio, Paul Merton, the other captain, joked: “I think it jumped off the script. “
Have I Got News for You, halfway through its 68th series, is a British institution. At best, the franchise is still biting and stingy. But institutions, no matter how successful, attract dust. More than a handful of his 600-plus episodes have come across as a bit bland, with a sharp satire that delivers off-the-cuff comments and snappy comments.
When Have I Got News for You finally began airing in the US in September, its producers had a golden opportunity to take risks, do something different and stand out from the crowd.
In the UK, the series airs on Friday nights on BBC One, a mainstay on the national broadcaster’s main channel, but hardly supporting innovative comedy. Its transatlantic cousin has been broadcasting Saturday night on CNN: as close to prime time as a midday concert in a subway station.
American television satire is ripe for disruption. The newest host of the networks’ four late-night talk shows has been on the job for nine years. Even on cable, Comedy Central executives spent a year choosing The Daily Show’s “new” host, choosing Jon Stewart, its previous host for 16 years, until 2015. Those shows (especially The Daily Show under Stewart) is still fun, but rarely feels new.
Have I Got News for You made a quick call by hiring Roy Wood Jr., a former Daily Show correspondent who was the keynote host at last year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, to be was the host for the USA., and chose actors Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black as team captains.
The people behind this series say it “fits like a glove” with CNN, the home of breaking news coverage and real roundtable discussions. I’m not so sure. In the first episode, a panelist asked if a penguin with more than 200 chicks knew Nick Cannon.
A pre-show announcement was added in time for the second episode to air. “This is CNN,” he begins. “But also a little NOT CNN.”
Earlier this year, the network promised a “smart, silly, thoughtful and bold take on the week’s news”: an American remake of a British show inspired by the relentless news cycle of the past decade, from multiple Brexit and Boris Johnson policies. a stunning rise for a government that fell in less than two months and an already reliable stream of gaffes under Keir Starmer.
USA at Have I Got News for You seems less connected to real news. Sure, he covers the latest twists and turns in the presidential campaign, but last weekend, 10 days before Election Day, reporters found time for a segment showing how Meryl Streep almost changed her name once, and Greg Gutfeld’s apparent love for NWA.
The week Trump cut short a campaign question-and-answer session to dance and move for 39 minutes on stage, Have I Got News for You devoted only 15 minutes to the campaign. The rest of the program explored Elton John wearing old knees as a necklace, how Pope Francis once worked as a weaver, and the controversial plots of Who’s Your Caddy?, a 2007 feature film set at a country club with Big Boi and Lil. Wayne.
Those looking for a political joke (not an unreasonable request, given that millions are going to the polls) may be disappointed. The highlights of this series are some of the rounds, from the reasonable joke of host and former Congressman Adam Kinzinger for saying he looks like Tom Cruise, to the panel criticizing Wood for commenting past stripper lotion.
A few failed jokes include: Recalling how Kim Kardashian received a ceremonial crystal key to open a bathroom in Times Square, Wood called it “the fool’s key” which was last week, but luckily these are very few.
Before the show aired, Black expressed the hope that he would have room to grow into another beast. Chemistry and trust rarely appear out of nowhere; They are built, over time.
While the original Have I Got News for You (which Wood will host next Friday) has faded with time, its young American cousin hasn’t had enough time to find its way yet. This week, he was asked if the show would be extended beyond the current season, a CNN spokesperson said he had “nothing to share”.
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2024-11-03 18:37:00
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