We have some more MSM reviews of the number 1 show on Amazon UK, Last One Laughing UK S1.
First up – one from March 19th popped up, by something called The Reviews Hub – London. The reviewer had only had 2 shows to watch on preview and seemed pretty underwhelmed.
Chortle only awards 3.5 stars but gives a bit of insight into why, as the 29th country to make a version of this show, it works well – because we have a panel show tradition and everyone knows each other as both friends and work colleagues. It does rather over labour the point that everyone has been on Cats Countdown. The roll call of people that have circulated through the around 170 episodes must just about cover all of UK comedy (plus some Americans, Australians, Canadians etc.).
The Express covered LOL on the 22nd and this is a positive one (although taking a lot of its content from The Mirror, it would seem).
LadBible published on the same day and it’s odd to see the reviewer describe it as a “reality show” (I wouldn’t classify it as such – although Jimmy has said it has a smattering of reality about it). Much of the review is describing, in great detail, Harriet Kemsley’s joker performance. Ultimately it doesn’t say whether they liked it or not.
Yahoo’s Digital Spy went with the angle of it being full of “Taskmaster favourites” (which kind of returns to the point, above, about Cats Countdown – our top comedians cycle around ALL of our panel shows). It mentions that LOL UK was only held off the number 1 spot by Reacher (which had held top position for almost 200 days).
The Coventry Telegraph decided to expand their review (which is really just announcing what the show is about) to cover a number of old (VERY old) negative stories about Jimmy’s life.
An interview with Jimmy, Lou Sanders and Roisin Conaty was released by The Times on March 22nd. Snippets of this were yanked out to create more “negative” stories:
- Daily Mail (as usual) used it as an excuse to bring up the 3+ years old Holocaust joke. They don’t print the FULL text of the joke, just up to the part that completely changes the context.
- Daily Mail (again) this time expanding on RC and LS saying that there were some “wrong ‘uns” on the circuit.
- The Mirror also goes for the Holocaust and 9/11 jokes. It also says that Jimmy “took a page out of Peter Kay’s book” by ejecting a heckler. Like he’s not had to eject hecklers before in the last 25+ years of standup.
- The Independent also goes to the Holocaust joke and, again, don’t show the full context.
Most of the British press have a stock of “Jimmy Carr terrible man” stories that they rehash over and over. Once you’ve spotted it…it gets really tedious.
Mumsnet had a discussion thread and, when I looked on the 24th, the responses were very positive.
Finally, on the 25th, the Daily Mail couldn’t ignore the show’s success any longer. Saying (probably through gritted teeth) that “the show has proved a roaring success with viewers, shooting to number one on the Prime Video UK chart just five days after its release”.
In conclusion…
At the end of the day – critics in general have had their day. When was the last time you read a review and it changed your mind about whether to watch a movie / TV show / live gig etc.?
What matters now is the buzz on social media and the viewing charts. It’s a hit – whatever they choose to write about it.
As PT Barnum said “there is no such thing as bad publicity”.
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