成人快手

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Siobhan Synnot and Scott Bryan join Sarah-Jane Mee to review LOL: Last One Laughing.

Ten comedians. One rule. Do not laugh. Jimmy Carr has assembled ten of the UK's funniest people in one room and set them the challenge of making each other laugh, without laughing themselves.

It’s a popular format which has already aired around the world - including in South Africa, Canada and Ireland.

The British iteration features the likes of Bob Mortimer, Richard Ayoade, Daisy May Cooper and Sarah Pascoe.

But what do the team make of it?

Scott: "You might recognise this because this started as a show in Japan back in 2016 and the show is pretty much like Big Brother. Apart from that, if you laugh twice, you get a yellow card. If you laugh the first time, you get a red card."

Sarah-Jane: "You're not even allowed to smile and Rob Beckett's in there and even he said facially, he's going to be quite challenged by that because he always looks like he's smiling."

Scott: "Yeah, very much so. He's trying to just deliberately not smile for the first five minutes. And then there's also the case that when they start the game, everyone is trying not to talk with each other. So they're all walking and pacing around the room quite quickly.

“This show, I think they had an Irish version last year by Graham Norton, and it's practically in every country - Tunisia, Mexico, Colombia, Albania. And finally, it's come to the UK.”

Sarah-Jane: "We're the last to get it. Was it worth the wait?"

Siobhan: "America's still yet to get it."

Scott: "In the UK one - you've got Rob Beckett, Daisy May Cooper, Sarah Pascoe.”

Sarah-Jane: "It's a great line up, Scott"

Scott: "Yes it is, but I also think it's quite uninspiring. I sort of think to myself, well, these are all the people who end up being on every other comedy show on TV and it's nothing against any of these people. I'm a fan of many of these people, but it felt as if they’d just googled the word 'comedian'.”

Sarah-Jane: "There's a couple of younger female comics in there that I hadn't heard. I don't really watch a lot of comedy programmes and stand up. But again, like you said, the likes of Richard Ayoade, Bob Mortimer, Rob Beckett, you know those people. But there are a couple of female comics in there I didn't know that.”

Scott: “There are - Harriet Kemsley and Lou Sanders. I have seen them on other shows. I think Roisin Conaty and Jimmy Carr also observe in the next room, and it's a bit like a live Gogglebox.

“I think unfortunately, this is a show that was probably more fun to make than it actually ends up being on the screen. The idea is, if they are caught smirking or laughing, eventually they'll get removed from the game. And so there's just one left, who is the eventual winner.

“They do these little stunts where they make one of them perform on stage one at a time and see if everyone laughs. But apart from the odd occasion, I didn’t really laugh at all. I kept thinking, ‘Is this just a ‘me’ thing? Am I the only one who is not getting this? Or is it the fact that the comedy isn't really translating onto TV that well.

“It just ended up leaving me a little cold.”

Sarah-Jane: "I felt like they were funnier before the clock started.

"I've watched part of the first episode and as you said, it's a mixture of Gogglebox because Jimmy Carr's watching everything that goes on next door, trying to see if anyone's laughing and a bit like Big Brother, because they all come into the house, they introduce themselves, they bring a wheelie suitcase in and then a Countdown clock starts and it's up there in the corner, counting down six hours."

Scott: "Like 24!"

Sarah-Jane: "Yeah, it's just a mishmash of so many different things. And I felt like they were all funnier before the clock started."

Scott: "There are some moments in which you like so many performers on stage, I think Joe Wilkinson does this bizarre tribute to the RNLI and something happens at the end and there is this funny moment because you're seeing their reaction and they're trying not to laugh. But that was it really for me. Siobhan, what did you think?"

Siobhan: "Actually, I thought when they arrived with their suitcases, that must be their prop box."

Sarah-Jane: "Ah yes, Bob Mortimer went in there with one of those whistles."

Siobhan: "I thought his magic routine was one of the funniest things that I'd seen on the two episode that we were allowed to see. Look, I came to this with a slightly different approach because I had seen some of the Australian and Irish Last One Laughing - they were dreadful.

"I think the UK version was fun with a sort of a Taskmaster vibe of people improvising silly things but I think it's the effort not to laugh that made it quite compelling. I was watching Daisy Mae Cooper chewing the inside of her cheek and doing a lemon face, and Richard Ayoade apparently punching his own kidneys to stop laughing at Bob Mortimer.

"It's an interesting concept, isn't it? I'm intrigued to see who is going to make it to the final. I think Richard Ayoade is playing a blinder."

Siobhan: "I agree that there is something of the cartel in British comedy in that you think 'oh, it's the same mix of the people that we see doing Taskmaster, Outside with David Mitchell or Mock the Week’. And it says something, doesn't it, about the breadth of comedy on TV, because I can't believe that these are the only people available

"Prime don’t need to put a lot of money into Last One Laughing, so you can see why it's such a popular format; it's so cheap. You get all these comics in for about six hours and that makes four to six episodes. For the comics, the commitment is less than a day.

"If you think about the amount of money it costs to make Lord of the Rings, you can make about twenty episodes of LOL for the cost of one medium priced episode of Rings of Power.

"Yet still get the guarantee of interesting demographics that are very targeted, very localised. I think it's an interesting one to watch. I didn't mind it, and I'd certainly watch it late at night coming back from the pub, so it's a Must Watch."

Scott: "I love that that is a category of TV!"

Sarah Jane: "So it's a drunk watch for you, Siobhan."

You can watch LOL: Last One Laughing on Amazon Prime from Thursday 20 March.

But before all that, why not contact the Must Watch team with the shows you’ve been loving, loathing or lamenting on mustwatch@bbc.co.uk.

This week, the team reviewed Protection and Dope Thief.