Harry Hill's TV Burp: Difference between revisions

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''Ear cataracts?''

The United Kingdom's answer to [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] and/or [[The Soup]]. The series run from 2001 to 2012. Comedian Harry Hill goes through television programmes that had been shown that week, often [[Soap Opera|Soap Operas]] or one-shot documentaries, and lampoons them - for weak acting, bad writing, or general WTF-factor. It's a highly [[Affectionate Parody]], though, with lots of silly facial expressions, cuddly Radio 4 innuendo and episode-long [[Running Gag|Running Gags]]. [[Once an Episode]], two characters, concepts or something which Hill finds particularly notable would have a slapstick fight on stage.

 

 

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* [[Adam Westing]]

* [[Affectionate Parody]]: The vast majority of his mockery of programmes is done in this manner, which is doubtless the reason why so many programmes' actors play along and appear on his show.

* [[Ascended Extra]]: Knitted Character, literally a ''prop'' from ''Eastenders'' for a few episodes before becoming a fully-fledged character on ''Burp''.

** One could potentially extend that to include Peter the Knitted Duck from the series 9 in-programme "show" "The K Factor" (an [[Affectionate Parody]] of [[The X Factor]] featuring knitted things). Peter's even [http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=296427219705&start=10&hash=bbe3c8eaed3cb9b9d5ead8c7c0861b2b#!/group.php?gid=296427219705&ref=ts got his own FB fan group]!

** Lampshaded in one episode where Harry claimed that whatever he says on that camera is inexplicably funny.

*** ''Soup!''

** [http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/promotions/pr3744bcc35ce7410024862c7ece4649/details.html Weekend First] [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context|is not available in advance to holders of advance tickets. Tickets can be upgraded on the train, subject to availability.]]

* [[Biting the Hand Humour]]: Generally at the expense of home channel [[ITV]]- although the first episode where the studio changed to be filmed at [[The BBC|Television Centre]] liberally sprinkled mockery of a BBC show with comments about the licence fee.

** Bonus points for the number of times things in programmes manage to work ''themselves'' into running gags.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: There's only one way to find out - FIGHT!

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: The show took several years to settle its format. For example, there was more emphasis on sketches, and the 'fights' could happen at any time and they showed one side winning, whereas in later series the 'fight' always happens at the end of part 1 and we don't see who wins due to the advert break.

* [[Face Heel Revolving Door]]: The Knitted Character turned on Harry for replacing him with [[Replacement Scrappy|Mr Fuzzy]]. At the end of the series, he showed up to help Harry.

* [[Grand Finale]]: The show more or less wrapped up in the last three minutes when Cheryl Ferguson confronted Harry over the portrayal of her [[Eastenders]] character, Heather, on the show. Cue a cover of "Someone Like You" by Harry, Cheryl, Heather, Kitted Character, Wagbo and Amanda Lamb. It seems almost like any other ending, however, the credits played a [[Solemn Ending Theme|solemn piano version]] [[Tear Jerker|of the theme]] followed by a [[The Stinger|stinger of "It's Over" using a clip of Phil Mitchell in a recent EastEnders episode]].

* [[Ho Yay]]: [[Invoked]] between Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and a swimmer.

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: The Knitted Character. They got a different one and his [[Unexplained Recovery]] is lampshaded.

* [[Long Runners]]: Has been running for over a decade.

* [[Mood Killer]]: Harry will often do this to some [[Narm]], often by being [[Captain Obvious]] to a rhetorical question.

* [[Overly Long Gag]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTHw0lM7O0Q Ear cataracts?], as mentioned above and many others like watching an old extra walk across a room.

** This is also used to point out something from another show that ''wasn't'' a gag, but still remained Overly Long, such as the prizes in [[The Gadget Show]]'s phone in competition.

* [[Parrot Exposition]]: The famous "cataracts" and "ear cataracts" sketches. It was about Val from ''[[Emmerdale]]'' finding out she has cataracts and all of the characters who are there at the reveal repeat the word "cataracts?" over and over again. Later she's accused by a man for getting upset over a misunderstanding and she asks if her ears have cataracts as well. Both times Harry asks "[ear] cataracts?" and telephones somebody which starts a chain of characters or presenters repeating the word(s).

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Dropped on the 2004 series when God strikes Jeremy Bowen for doubting Noah's Ark, saying "Don't fuck with me, Bowen!". This was when the show was still in the [[Darker and Edgier]] late-night slot, compared to the latter [[Lighter and Softer]] Saturday night prime-time slot it's probably better known to be shown at.

* [[This Is Unforgivable!]]

* [[This Trope Is Bleep]]: A wildlife presenter looking for king penguins was changed, with the addition of a few well-placed censor bleeps, into a wildlife presenter looking for "***king penguins!"

* [[Ventriloquism]]: A common gag is for him to interpret the voiceover on nature programmes as being the ''animals'' speaking.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?|What The Hell, Harry?]]: Harry is quite adept at the [[Comedic Sociopathy]]. His treatment of The Knitted Character has raised quite a few eyebrows.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:British Series]]

[[Category:TV Series]]