BERT: Best Comedy. Let's just let that sink in for a moment. "Best Comedy". Not funniest - because there's always going to be someone who finds Beached Az hilarious - but best. Best means funny - despite what some Ricky Gervais fans might have you believe, cringing in embarrassment isn't the same as laughing - but it also means a lightness of spirit, a willingness to just have fun, and the ability to actually craft jokes that go beyond catchphrases and lines you stole off Twitter. And with the bar now set relatively high, it gives me great pleasure to give this award to...
It's about bloody time Clarke & Dawe won this. Whatever praise we could give here would be dwarfed by the magnitude of their achievement. They lift the level of public discourse by their work, they do it every week, and they're damn funny doing it. It would be physically uncomfortable for us to be any more excited by the prospect of new episodes of their sitcom The Games in 2011, and the fact that DVD releases of their 7.30 Report work look like becoming a regular fixture on the nation's calendar can only be cause for prolonged celebration. In short: they're piss-funny. Review with Myles Barlow is a tricky one, because it's a one joke show that all but wore out its welcome in its first series. It's a testament to the skill and talent of those involved that the second series not only built on the success of the first, but managed to make basically the same joke seem even funnier the second time. We might not be clamouring for a third series, but we are excited to see what they do next. Santo Sam & Ed's Cup Fever! was a sport show that non-sports fans could enjoy. That's not exactly something you could say about every other sports show in the country. Maybe being hosted by people who didn't think sports comedy began and ended with cross-dressing helped? Guess we'll need to see another show like it to be sure - and sadly, shows this funny don't come along anywhere near often enough.
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