That Mitchell and Webb Look: Difference between revisions

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''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' is a [[The BBC|BBC Two]] [[Sketch Show]] starring [[David Mitchell]] and Robert Webb, best known for their characters Mark and Jeremy in [[Britcom]] ''[[Peep Show]]''. Run from 2006 to 2010. Recurring characters tend to be limited to one series, although some (such as [[The Full Name Adventures|The Surprising Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar]]) have run for longer. The sketches are occasionally intercut with [[Faux Documentary]] "[[Two for One Show|behind-the-scenes footage]]" of the comedians, featuring much [[Lampshade Hanging]] and [[Self-Deprecation]], and [[Zig-Zagging Trope|zigzagging]] between mocking and playing up their respective [[Smart Guy]] & [[Man Child]] personas.

=== This show contains examples of: ===

* [[After the End]]: The Quiz Broadcast takes place after "The ([[Apocalypse How|vaguely defined]]) Event" which caused [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. (Remain indoors)

* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: During the "history of Numberwang" sketch, it is revealed that Colosson the Numberwang robot has gone insane and wants to destroy everything that isn't Numberwang.

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: See [[Playing Cyrano]] below.

** The Inebriati sketch has Webb's character exclaim "Yes! I got that guy off that vicious sex murder, even though he obviously did it!"

** There's also "Speedo", a hybrid of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' and ''[[Shark]]'', a former defence barrister now working prosecution. When asked why he defended known rapists, he replied:

*** He does, however, then say that he was only joking.

* [[Anachronism Stew]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTchxR4suto "Posh Dancing"] puts conga lines and freestyle disco into ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.

* [[And Man Grew Proud]]: An awful lot of knowledge appears to have been lost barely two and a half years after The Event.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Parodied in the backstage show:

* [[As the Good Book Says...]]: One ''The Quiz Broadcast'' sketch has the Test Card Girl writing "Revelation 6 13 15" [[Freeze-Frame Bonus|on the blackboard]].

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains." <br />

(remain indoors) }}

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The doorbell replacement product, a cannon that fires small dogs at your window with a note attached to their collar. If you visit multiple people in one go, you may need to carry more than one dog.

* [[Bad Boss]]: Hennimore's boss is not really mean-spirited or a bad man, but he never fails to give Hennimore two simultaneous tasks with instructions so confusing that no one could possibly handle both without screwing them up in the most comedic way possible. Needless to say, [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* [[Berserk Button]]: The TV Realtor ''really'' doesn't like non-white...[[Does This Remind You of Anything?|bathroom suites.]]

* [[Bitter Wedding Speech]]: A sketch has a best man slowly screwing up a wedding speech and disparaging the wedding, and then trying to fix it ineffectually

* [[Black Comedy]]: All the Quiz Broadcast segments, and a few of the one-offs too.

* [[Bond One-Liner]]: Parodied in one of the [[Camp Gay|Party Planners]] sketches, in the middle of an extended [[What the Hell, Hero?]] aimed at Bond.

'''Webb:''' "A piercing bore"? There's no such expression!<br />

'''Mitchell:''' Well, right ''next'' to the railing was a rock crusher. It's pretty clear he'd wanted to say "what a crushing bore" but missed and was making the best of a bad job... }}

* [[Exact Words]]: Numberwang's "Sudden Death" round.

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: Parodied in the 'Mad Scientist' sketch, where the Giant Death Ray is aptly named... but not for the reason the President of the United States and the head of the US Army think, which prompts this reaction when they discover it's not quite as lethal as they expected:

* [[Facecam]]: "The Surprising Adventures of me, Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar!"

* [[First-Name Basis]]: The final sketch of the show, which features Dr. Watson visiting an aging, senile [[Sherlock Holmes]] in a nursing home, Holmes addresses Watson as "John" in his final speech, [[Tear Jerker|where he admits that he knows his mind has gone, but he can not do anything about it.]]

* [[Going Native]]: In a garden center.

* [[Government Conspiracy]]: Parodied in a series of sketches which deconstruct conspiracy theories around Roswell, the Moon landing and Princess Diana's death, lampshading the inherent ludicrousness of them by having a trio of government spooks play them perfectly straight.

'''Agent 2''': Absolutely. [[A Simple Plan|It's so simple]]. No messing around with [[Professional Killer|poison-tipped umbrellas or snipers]] -- [[British Royal Family|we just get a chauffeur drunk]].<br />

'''Agent 1''': ''Slightly'' drunk.<br />

* [[Indecisive Parody]]: Obviously they couldn't end the episode where they heartily take the piss out of [[Sudden Downer Ending]] with a genuine example, so they parody it instead. The ''next'' episode ends with a proper one, with an elderly [[Sherlock Holmes]] [[Ironic Hell|descending into dementia]].

* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted hard in The Quiz Broadcast when the host asks the contestants what they wished they had learned prior to the event.

'''Host:''' Yes, the world would be a different place... if some of the children had survived... }}

* [[It Never Gets Any Easier]]: word for word, on a [[Did Not Do the Research]] medical show, when a doctor has to... [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|pull off a plaster]].

* [[Juxtaposition Gag]]: The Quiz Broadcast and Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar are both versions of this.

* [[Kill the Ones You Love]]: At the end of the "Avocado Bathroom" sketch, the husband kills his (pregnant) wife because she's revealed that she not only doesn't mind an avocado bathroom, but quite likes it.

'''Mitchell:''' I couldn't live with it! }}

* [[Kill the Poor]]: One sketch was based around contemplating this as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owI7DOeO_yg an easy solution to revitalizing the economy.]

* [[Maximum Fun Chamber]]: "[[Tempting Fate|Come on, what's the worst torture story you've got?]]"

* [[The Mean Brit]]: [[The Weakest Link|Anne Robinson's]] hosting persona is parodied in "Hole in the Ring".

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]/[[She Cleans Up Nicely]]: Sarah Hadland. Take note of her appearance in the Quiz Broadcast sketches as "Sheila" and then in season 4's "Dog Poker" and "Reports Mode" sketches. She also plays the Agatha Christie villainess in the [[Evil Is Sexy]] example above.

* [[Mood Dissonance]]: The "elderly [[Sherlock Holmes]]" sketch, in which Holmes' obvious mental deterioration -- and Watson's equally obvious desperation to pretend for his sake that nothing is wrong -- is played for laughs... until Holmes, in a moment of lucidity, [[Tear Jerker|reveals he knows only too well what's happening to him]].

* [[Nobody Poops]]: "No one goes for a piss in ''[[Star Wars]]'', you can watch the whole of ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' and no-one brushes their teeth, and in ''[[Lost in Translation]]'', nothing happens. [[Take That|At all]]."

* [[Noble Bigot]]: Of all people, ''Jesus'' is called out on this for his racist attitude to Samaritans.

* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: deconstructed with the [[Evil Genius]] trying to persuade a contractor to disregard the impracticalities of his plans.

** Later on, the fully-compliant [[Trap Door]] (complete with flashing red light, warning alarm and fencing off of the area) gives the [[Board to Death]] guy in the chair plenty of time to escape.

* [[Not Using the Z Word]]: Them.

* [[Obviously Evil]] and [[Those Wacky Nazis]]

'''Nazi''': Hans... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}JEle_DLDg9Y Are we the baddies?] }}

* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: Parodied in the Inebriati sketch. "Were you just hiding behind that pillar?"

* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: Them, from the Quiz Broadcast. It's never made clear if these cannibalistic former humans are zombies or just atrocious mutants, but they are unquestioningly [[Nightmare Fuel|terrifying.]]

* [[Overshadowed by Awesome]]: Deliciously [[Exaggerated]] in the sketches about the Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit duo.

'''BMX Bandit''': "Well. I think the thing is, that your ability to summon a horde of celestial super-beings at will... Is making my BMX skills look a bit... redundant..." }}

* [[The Perry Mason Method]]: Speedo, parodying American legal dramas.

Perp: Yes, yes, whatever you say! }}

* [[Playing Cyrano]]: A sketch revolved around Cyrano himself popping up to help a man woo a woman in the modern day. However, the man in question is a [[Dogged Nice Guy|sensitive, good-natured fellow]] and the woman is, well, a slapper. Cyrano's advice is to be brash and offensive, and downright insulting, which the man in question takes only grudgingly -- [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|but it works perfectly]]. As the scene progresses, he realizes that he has absolutely ''no'' interest in going out with a woman who actually likes being treated that way. Cyrano convinces him to go on anyway, since at least he can sleep with her tonight. Eventually the man refuses to continue, but Cyrano keeps shouting out the lines for him, and jams a bag of cocaine into his hands, which the girl mistakes for his continued efforts and she drags him inside.

* [[Please Don't Leave Me]]: Ginger to Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar when he is 'poisoned' by a cloud of poisonous gas (read: candyfloss).

* [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]]: Not political correctness, but the backlash against it, is parodied in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnKk6lb0YVI a sketch] where some people organizing a church panto are told they can't include "traditional" scenes like dwarves being gassed and Cinderella fellating a horse, and react as if this is hypersensitivity.

** "I'm afraid we're going to have to cut the dame rape scene."

** [[Pride and Prejudice|Mr. Darcy]] of all people gets a good one when he [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTchxR4suto finally gets sick of Caroline Bingley].

** A literal example from the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtWrRGExtg8&feature=player_detailpage#t=30s "Mrs Patricia Wilberforce Programme" sketch]:

'''Mrs Patricia Wilberforce:''' Oh, I do beg your pardon viewers, Mrs Compton didn't say "''fuck''" after all! }}

* [[Promoted to Scapegoat]]: Admiral Doenitz is thrilled to learn that he's been named the next ''Fuhrer'' after the death of [[Adolf Hitler]]. Unfortunately, his underlings have to patiently explain that this means ''less'' that he gets to implement his various ideas about pensions and the housing shortage and ''more'' that he gets to call General Eisenhower and surrender to the Allies.

* [[Rambling Old Man Monologue]]: Anything the snooker commentators say that isn't "That's a bad miss."

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: How the Incredibly Intimidating And Aristocratic Person Who Still Unaccountable Sells Clothes justifies being horrible to his customers:

** Also, the "Little Date" man, who gives these to women, reducing them to tears so they'll go out with him to feel better.

* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: The cannibalistic "Them" in the Event sketches have glowing red eyes.

** Cheezoid itself, a robot built for the purpose of determining what something smells like, was inexplicably given sentience that eventually led it to attempt suicide as a result of its incompetence at its intended function.

* [[Scandalgate]]: Rob refers to the original scandal as "Watergategate" on the grounds that, otherwise, what would you call a scandal about water?

* [[Scare'Em Straight]]: "If your children touch dirt, they'll explode."

* [[Service Sector Stereotypes]]: The Posh Waiter (cousin to the Scary Tailor and the Bad Vicar)

'''Posh Waiter:''' She's ''gone'', [[With Due Respect|sir]]. They've ''all'' gone, and we're ''back''. The incredibly posh people who are still unaccountably waiters...and I'm afraid we've changed the rules. }}

* [[Shallow Parody]]: They are more frequent in ''That Mitchell And Webb Sound,'' with some sketches parodying things like [[Batman]] or [[Pinocchio]] with little or no resemblance to the parodied material, but they do show up a couple of times in the TV version as well.

* [[Superpower Lottery]]: [[Reality Warper|Angel Summoner]] and [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|the BMX Bandit]].

* [[Surreal Humour]]: Numberwang's hilarity derives from the complete lack of sense, not just in the rules, but in ''everything''.

'''Julie''': No.<br />

'''Host''': Simon?<br />

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylz-uUIBuqY Reports Mode]

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: Done in the Dosh 4 Gold and Cash 4 Plutonium skits:

* [[Take That]]: A sketch about a comedian making a cup of tea for everyone in Belgium as the result of a bet, and as a result writing a bestselling book about his exploits, was a dig at comedians who did similarly unlikely things [[The Bet|supposedly as the result of bets]], such as Tony Hawks (played the entire Moldovan football team at tennis, hitchhiked round Ireland with a fridge) David Gorman (flew around the world meeting [[Name's the Same|people called Dave Gorman]]), and Danny Wallace ([[Yes Man (Film)|spent a year saying yes to everything]]).

** They delightfully skewer [[James Bond]] in their "Friends of Moneypenny" sketch:

* [[Talking to Himself]]: Played with. In a sketch Mitchell plays both a captain and a [[Hercule Poirot]]-esque detective who are on screen at the same time. Webb angrily enters the set, and demands a role, to which both(!) of the Mitchells answer that David is best at detective and captain kind of roles. As Webb retorts that it is just a bad excuse for Mitchell to fulfill his narcissistic fantasies, another Webb (in drag) enters the set and tells the first Webb that he is ready for [[Screw Yourself|their sex-scene]].

* [[Tear Jerker]]: After discussing the ending of [[Blackadder]] in the penultimate episode, the series 4 finale ends with a heartbreaking "sketch" featuring an elderly [[Sherlock Holmes]] with dementia.

** Made all the worse because it starts off amusing before becoming increasingly depressing and ending with Holmes and Watson in tears

*** The "Remain Indoors" Quiz Broadcast sketches have quite a few as well, as things become increasingly hopeless and the host's [[Stepford Smiler]] act starts to slip more and more. The finale has him quietly holding the blind last surviving contestant's hand as they face the possibility there's no one else left alive ANYWHERE after having seen the formerly-human cannibalistic Them all die for no apparent reason.

'''Host''': (Takes his hand) Yes. }}

**** Also "[[Blatant Lies|Sheila's fine, Peter. Sheila's]] ''[[Blatant Lies|safe]]''".

* [[They Look Like Us Now]]: Parodied - they ''really'' don't.

* [[This Ain't Rocket Surgery]]: A sketch has a neurosurgeon mingling at a party and boasting that what other people do "isn't exactly brain surgery". [[Always a Bigger Fish|Then;]]

* [[Tuxedo and Martini]]: Parodied with 'Agent Suave'.

* [[Typecasting]]: a sketch where a ship captain was being interviewed by a detective had David Mitchell playing both roles - when Webb [[No Fourth Wall|storms on set]] to complain about it, Mitchell replies "captains and detectives are my thing"

* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: The poisoning sketch.

* [[Harmless Villain]]: The poisoning sketch revolves around a man attempting to murder another with poison but becoming increasingly transparent with his attempts until finally...

* [[Historical Re Creation]]: The Early 1990s House, where you have to cope with 28k dialup.

* [[It's Been Done]]: Parodied with a possible inversion in the 'two writers' [[Seinfeldian Conversation]] sketch; the two writers seem to be setting one of these up, but from the way they eagerly begin to start typing once the 'original' idea has come together, it's suggested that they are either amazingly sheltered or that they're the ones who came up with the idea in the first place. Played straight in the final episode, where all their ideas get this response.