The Cambridge Geek

Sketchtopia

[UPDATE - 15th April 2020]: Back for a second series now, more sketch comedy, satirising a fairly hefty number of recent political events. Some of these include using Piers Morgan for advertising ("he did an angry tweet and our sales doubled!"), the conversations of people living in Brexitland (rats for tea and no medicine), and many of aspects often grumped at for being "woke" etc.

You'll probably find this one a bit Marmite-y for that reason, with where you sit on the political spectrum likely having some impact on how much you might enjoy it. There's a lot of references to cultural events, and a certain heavy-handedness in its dropped anvils.

[ORIGINAL - 6th April 2018]: Given the title of this, I had been expecting something along the lines of Sketchorama, which had a range of different sketch comedy troupes giving their best. However, it's actually positioned as a more diverse Absolutely, being a consistent sketch troupe who take a satirical view of society.

I admit, I had a little panic with the very first sketch, which did a relatively close recreation of an early Goodness Gracious Me concept of Indians visiting the poor impoverished Britain, but the remainder of the sketches held up well.

It's positioned really nicely, running the line between cognizance of the difficulties of BAMEs and the hypocrisy of the activist "woke" generation. Best example? "All coffee is racist!"

Also nicely avoided most of the cliches of Brexit and its slightly racist overtones, striking mostly new ground, with a particularly fun look at the flight of a romanian to the UK.

The weakest part thus far is probably the punchlines, with what should be a nice finishing peak to the sketches tending to flop a bit. There's often far funnier material in the middle sections. Still, it's hardly going to ruin the series. Definitely one I'm going to listen to the rest of.

Score:
Score 4

Tagged: Radio Comedy Cast Sketch News/Political