School of Comedy

GB

Comedy
English     7.9     2009     GB

Overview

School of Comedy is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was turned into a television show after a successful run of review shows at the Edinburgh festival. The cast is entirely made up of children much like in the popular musical Bugsy Malone which creator Laura Lawson often references to in interviews about the show. The show comprises sketches involving a very diverse group of characters; from a lesbian couple in 1940s war-time Britain, to a pair of South-African security guards. The show is unique from other comedy sketch shows because even though the show's content is mature enough to need to be shown after the watershed, the roles are all played by teenage children of ages 11 – 15. The show ran for two series' on E4 from 1 October 2009 to 18 October 2010. The show has been credited with starting the careers of both Will Poulter and Jack Harries. Poulter has gone on to star in films such as Son of Rambow, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and We're the Millers, while Harries has gone on to start a YouTube channel named "JacksGap", which currently has over 2 million subscribers and has made Harries both well-known and popular on the internet.

Similar

Blue Collar TV is a television program that aired on The WB Television Network with lead actors Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy. The show's humor dealt principally with contemporary American society, and especially hillbilly, redneck, and Southern stereotypes. The show was greenlighted on the heels of the success of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which the series' three lead actors toured with in the early-mid-2000s. It was created by Fax Bahr and Adam Small, in addition to J.P. Williams and Jeff Foxworthy. Blue collar is a US phrase used to describe manual laborers, as opposed to white collar for office or professional workers. Fellow Blue Collar Comedy Tour costar Ron White declined to star on Blue Collar TV due to a fear of being typecast as "blue collar." However, he guest-starred on many episodes of the show. On his 2006 comedy album, You Can't Fix Stupid, White jokingly cited his own lack of work ethic as a reason for not participating more on the show. Unlike most sketch comedy programs, each episode of Blue Collar TV was generally centered around a theme, which Foxworthy revealed at the start of each episode. Themes included "Food", "Kids", and "Stupidity", among others, with Foxworthy generally performing a short comedic monologue based on the theme. Most sketches in each episode featured at least one of the three Blue Collar Comedy Tour veterans in an acting role, but the second season saw more sketches featuring the 6 other cast members exclusively.

More info
Blue Collar TV
2004