Ben Elton: If ratings matter, Hitler was right – and Twitter would pan Shakespeare

Way to Godwin up TV, Ben.

Ben Elton reminds me a lot of M. Night Shyamalan. He’s done a couple of really good things, and everything else is average, yet he keeps persisting and it’s never his fault, it’s always the things around him.

The 384,000 that tuned in were just being reminded of your self-absorption.

Give it up, Benny boy.

Dear Mr Elton – ratings are used by advertisers so that a TV station can afford to run their business. I know you’re a “creative type” and might not understand how business works, but ratings do actually matter.

I was a big fan of Elton’s past work, I remember Saturday Night Live being essential viewing for my peers. Unfortunately that was in the late eighties and I (and my peers) have moved on somewhat. I watched this last night as I really wanted it to be good. I found Elton’s stand up limited but acceptable, but the ‘sketches’-surely comedy should define its self by the ability to raise a smile- a funny wig and tired observation does not a sketch make. Embarrassing and patronising, even in a country that has no real legacy of home-grown comedy itself.

Sure, Ben Elton Live isn’t a great show. I don’t like it and I haven’t met anyone that does but I don’t understand all the abuse. People not only state that they dislike him but tear him to shreds in these public forums.

Poor guy just tried to create a show that people would enjoy. It didn’t work and now he gets crucified. He tries to defend himself and gets crucified again.

Lighten up.

I understand this Ben Elton is extremely creative, talented and has achieved highly acclaimed and outstanding work to date. LIve From Planet Earth seems a bit forced, a bit strained delivering live comedy. Ben Elton is constantly pleading with the audience to stay around, ‘dont go to bed, stay up!’ ‘take a sickie’ and wrapping up the previous sketch with ‘just a bit of satire there for you’ It does get a bit draining and well, forced.. Its all feels like it’s churned out on a production line, there is no flow or personality to the show thats warming or draws the audience in.
Audiences/viewers dont want to feel like they are doing a favour by watching they want to be engaged, entertained and lose track of time. Get lost in the sketchers, in Ben Eltons infectious live ‘stand up’ character, but the past two weeks have failed to deliver this.
I wonder if I would feel this way if i was sitting in the audience? and not in my living room.

@tobyhemming I think you mean “Saturday Live”, the UK comedy show, not SNL. Pretty sure Ben Elton wasn’t involved in the US show.

Ben, it just wasn’t funny.

I am a huge fan of some of Ben’s work – I could recite the entire scripts to Blackadder 2 – but really, this was bad. Really bad. Taken out the back and shot bad.

Simon
http://www.TwoCentsGroup.com.au

It was just not funny.
He made a joke about can laughter from America that got laughter like someone was sticking a gun at the head of audience.
I lasted 4 minutes.

The jokes may make Ben laugh, but they continue to be a miss with mainstream Australia. However, saying that, I still believe that his show as a whole is a great idea, and maybe as time progresses the show will find its rhythm and niche. Although niche in my opinion is the issue. This show really should have been on GO, as Ben states himself, he’s always been niche BBC2 etc etc. On GO. the pressure is off, and everyone can have a little more fun!

Ben Elton, It’s hardly original. Hardly a new cast. Hardly funny. Hardly entertaining. Hardly worth watching. A rehash of Prue and Trude, Kylie Mole etc. With the some boring cast from years ago.

How about talent like Dave Thornton, Oliver Clark, Tommy Little, Celia Pacquola, Tommy Dassalo, Jess Harris etc. A new and exciting, talented wave of genuine and interesting talent!?!

If this is all Planet Earth has to offer, then book me on the next rocket to Mars.

After missing the first ep I had to tune is last night to see if it was as ghastly as people made out. It was.

Although the intro was quite funny, and the Gillard skit made me chuckle, mostly it was cringe-worthy. The skit with the two teenage girls was ridiculously unfunny, as was the one with the two chardy-drinking snobs. Made me wonder if they bother testing this before inflicting it on a broadcast audience.

I look forward to more eps of Two and a Half Men.

The show is rubbish. Surely Ben could find political “satire” back home to make. I’m thinking something hilarious about massive budget cuts and furious students?
Maybe have a laugh at the Tories calamitous collapse in the polls?

Aaron, when did M. Night Shamamsdlfamdlaskfjasld do anything good?

I thought it was quite actually.

@Ben – Sixth Sense is generally considered a good flick

Oh please, so many shows are cancelled before there is a chance for the audience to develop an affinity with it.
Luckily Channel 10 didn’t kick The Circle (ok, not prime time but similiar circumstance) when the show didn’t rate from the get go. Now it does very good numbers for the timeslot.

Elton did himself no favours when he sledged everything “Australian” in the ads leading up to his show.

He bagged out Cricket, bbqs, beer-drinkers to name but a few. I know he call Perth home currently, but whilst Aussies can poke fun at themselves…i think they find it hard to take from someone with such a thick English accent- especially when Australia were being thumped in the ashes.

That said, as long as he doesnt start sledging Mexico like those Top Gun oafs i’ll be a loyal viewer.

Go the storm and go the Kellyville Burritos in this week’s final!

Hi! My name’s Baz! And me and my mates thought that TV just wasn’t now! Right? I expect, like us, you’re not into all that stuff your “old man’s” into! Right! So! We just thought we’d have a program for us! Right! And this is it! Nozin’ Around! Yeah, N-O-Zed! Zed for Zap! It’s a program for young adults, made by young adults, and concentratin’ on all the subjects that young adults are into! Like, unemployment! Maggie!

Sadly the Australian audience is far less sophisticated than the British audience and Ben’s wit and humour just flies over the heads of these people who prefer to watch Two and a Half Men and Packed to the Rafters. Says it all about the population really.

I dont know what it is, but it is not comedy. ben has reached the point where he obviously cant tell the difference satire and farce.

Ha! Now he’s equating himself with Shakespeare.

Ben, if you’re looking for a reason why people loath you so, look no further than thine self.

If this show had hired writers it would be amazing.

The production execution is flawless. It’s too good. It feels less live than Hills’ new prerecorded show.

The cast are talented actors and their performances are spot on. The only problem is that the performances are spot-on to unfunny writing.

They obviously have the resources to produce something great. The only bad decision is letting Ben Elton write everything. No one person can do what he’s trying to do well. It’s crazy.

If they scouted the best comedy writers in Australia and delivered as accurately as they have with the cast, the show would be captivating.

Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 explored the idea of a ‘genius’ writing every sketch of a live sketch show. Even in the world of fiction they ended up having the character hire some new young writers to solve the problem.

It’s such an easy solution. Elton can still do his monologues and give the thumbs up or down to sketches. It would still be his show.

I am a MASSIVE fan of Ben’s books, and his brilliance was my main reason for tuning in, shame on me. I think what he was trying to go for was a Good New Weekish – minus the game – type comedy which in theory and with his political knowledge would have been great, unfortunately as many have said before me, it felt flat and forced, especially the two teenage girls skit, Something that my 75 yr old grandfather would chuckle at with a “ha ha that’s exactly what kids are like these days” comment but in reality just shows how completely out of touch he is with the Australian public – hire some young guns – watch endless episodes of GNW for tips and try again otherwise, I WILL be going to bed.

like watching a high school revue, cringing over bad jokes poorly delivered and horribly overacted. Is it just me or was Girl Flat a reworking of the young ones with bad actors.

Two and half men is the worst show in the world makes me wanna sit and stair at a wall for an hour I would be much more entertianed. But I think I’d rather watch it then ben Elton live. So many more talent humans out there who deserve the money to make shows that could out shine that any day!

Was hoping for s good show but it’s just not funny, not even by accident. There’s a (sounds like a guy) laugh that is so repeated and loud it really does sound like a recording on repeat because it’s identical every time and very forced. Bitch and moan all you like Ben about the tirade of abuse and comments but they wouldn’t be posted if your show didn’t suck really badly. I noticed that the – well lets be kind and call them actors – had to keep referring to the characters they were portraying in the rock star girl flat whatever the fuck it was supposed to be, purely because no-one would know who the hell they were if they didn’t. That speaks volumes in itself. It was as funny as getting your balls snagged on rusty barbed wire.

Bring on Charlie Sheen!!

Tuned to see the predictable mea culpa and got shakespeare as shite! Hmmmm….Ben needs a writing staff..Matt Albie he ain’t.

Sadly I cant say that there is much stuff out there that is better than Ben’s show in Australia. Will Anderson is annoying. Hill’s is ok, but a tad boring. The best stuff (comedy wise) is imported from the UK.

Ben Elton is very talented; agreed you either like him or you don’t. The blunder here in my mind is Ben rolling this out on channel Nine. 7, 9 and 10 audiences wouldn’t find anything funny that has a hint of satire in it.

If Ben had ran this on ABC, he might have had a better response.

As for TV ratings in Australia. How accurate are they? Who is monitored and why? I don’t know anybody who has their television monitored – does anyone else?

If the Twitterers thought Ben was crap a second time round, why were they watching for a second time and were they being picked up by the monitors…?

Channel some of the funds into writers. Move the one of sketch into linked sketches so that we can used to the characters. This can work you just need variety. There is a plethora of comedy talent in Australia and this could be the channel for their writing. Can’t be all stand and can’t be all sketch in the m iddle somewhere.

The best barometer of all for comedy is laughter. In the whole show, the laughter was barely audible, and there were cringeworthy durations of silence in which several “gags” were passed off to no reaction.

Perhaps the most woeful was when the lady “interviewer” character (still in-character from the ANZ ads, apparently) told the audience “settle down!” when there there was bored indifference to a “naughty” double entendre – as if doing that meant there had been the hoped-for but missing uproar.

Oh, and bosom jokes featuring Nigella… please… did this guy actually write “Blackadder”? Only to return to the lamest form of 70s Benny Hill-esque humour he has formerly decried?

FAIL.

Okay up front. I work for Ch9. So I have a degree of bias. But I really think this has enough legs in another format to be something a bit special. Not sure if in this day and age you can carry this kind of production cost in off peak. But I really do think that it could be a good vehicle for a Thursday, Friday and Saturday 22.30-2300 show. A welcome to the weekend showcase of some comedy talent that could also be interview light entertainment. A middle ground between news and entertainment with licence to dance in both studio’s. Never been a Ben Elton Live fan. He is a funny acidic writer but just doesn’t make the perfoormance leap for me. But in Australia you have a wealth of comedy talent that could use this vehicle even long after Mr Elton stops driving.

Thats why we have an on off button on the remote and t.v.
I really am fed up with how people can be such critics , leave the man alone and get on with your life.

Hi Norma,

Fair to say that people were using that off button. The problem with that is that when people press it, Nine can’t charge their advertisers.

Cheers,

Tim – Mumbrella

Hi Tim

Agree with comments, but this is what it’s all about.
THE ALL MIGHTY DOLLAR and they must have seen the preview shows to see if they were worth their advertising or not. It would surprise me if they had blinkers on or had a gun pointed to their head

John W makes the best point here, sketch comedy needs to be written collaboratively.

I’m sad that this has gone as I’m sure given time we could have seen some good new talent nutured through this show. Might have just killed the goose that laid the goilden hoges.