No pressure on Harry Hill then, as this much anticipated ninth outing of his television satire series returns to ITV1 and as he mainly responsible for keeping comedy alive on a channel that previously had a solid range of sitcoms and sketch shows. It’s perhaps ironic maybe that although most of the material is based on awful reality series’ or bland soaps TV Burp is still one of the best things on telly and the highlight of a rather fastidious Saturday night line-up across the board.
But enough of all this waffle; without further ado, bring on the wall!
The X Factor on Harry Hill's TV Burp
It’s X Factor season and as ever there’s much amusement to be had by this image obsessed singing monstrosity, last year Hill wheeled out his Eoghan Quigg “vote for me” face and a recurring feature “The Many Faces of Louis Walsh”. As the series has yet to get into swing there’s very little to pick up on, leaving Hill to mull over the try-outs for the live finals which included Sinitta’s bizarre entrance costume.
All the other regular segments are back: the ironically titled TV highlight of the week (Stephen Fry putting on a wetsuit on Last Chance to See), the pre-break fight, that originally started as a scrap between characters or personalities and has since evolved into ridiculous surrealism, this week pitting Sanskrit words himsa and satya (referencing The Three Lives of Ghandi on BBC Two) against each other and the final song featured two contestants from Living in the Dark on er, Living.
Harry Hill Bring on the Wall
TV Burp is the perfect vehicle for Hill as his witty observations make even the most mundane clips funny. He also has a knack for visual jokes from the knowingly lame “Fry in my soup” joke to Stacey's unrealistically deep pockets on EastEnders, made funnier by it fell apart a bit towards the end. The writing team need commending for not only wading through reams of terrible TV but coming up with these nicely crafted routines to a tight deadline.
Also, over the years he’s even managed to make an obscure, tacky self-help show on BBC Three called Freaky Eaters into a well known event with his constant mocking and toothless yells of “chippy chips” or “sausages” when the accompanying clip reveals the root of their restrictive diet and addiction. Sadly that’s not on at the moment.
But Hole In The Wall is back. Yay! But without the unintentionally hilarious Dale Winton. Boo! So Hill states he refuses to watch it again given that replacement host Anton du Beke, of Strictly Come Dancing racism row fame, doesn’t say the catchphrase with the same punch and frankly isn't as funny as he thinks he is.
TV Burp is Perfect Saturday Night Comedy
It’s great how an intelligent, well-written send-up of television has managed to achieve mainstream appeal, but of course that’s down to Hill’s cheerful personality and odd jokes that have broad appeal. More surprising is how it actually took the heads of ITV several years to realise that its former late-night, graveyard slot was slightly unsuitable for a show with family-friendly humour that clearly needed prime time exposure.
TV Burp isn’t the only thing that’s made Hill the face of Saturday night comedy as he has also taken the incredibly tired and ridiculously plain You’ve Been Framed, where home videos of people falling down are played repeatedly for laughs, and with his enthusiastic narration making it the success it was in the Beadle years. Well, in spirit at least.
Any problems with TV Burp? Yes, The X Factor advert that flashed along the bottom towards the end distracted attention just when Hill was in full flow. Although it was helpful as a “please remember to turn off your sets” reminder.
Harry Hill’s TV Burp is on ITV1 every Saturday at 7.30pm.
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