Whose Line Is It Anyway?/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Stephen Fry (yes, that one) has a very unique way of playing Number of Words (normally one of the harder games) here. You even see him counting off on his fingers a few times.

Fry: I'm going to count... to six.

  • Just about anytime Colin Mochrie opens his mouth on Whose Line Is It Anyway? he emits pure awesome. Too many times to mention.
    • One of his best must have been during the "Going Bald" hoedown, after both Drew Carey and Brad Sherwood had riffed on Colin's distinct lack of hair. The look on his face as he is about to deliver it just cements it:

Colin: People always kid me 'cause I'm losing all my hair / I can't really help it that I'm follically impaired! / It really is quite horrible, but my life is not through / I still get way more sex than either Brad or Drew! [1]

    • On the last season of the British version of the show, Colin makes an awesome crack at Clive in World's Worst.

"I'm Clive Anderson and I used to have no neck. But with new Neck Insert...Look!"

    • This Newsflash game is widely considered the show's single funniest game and the most awesome and heartwarming for Mochrie, if only for the line:

Colin: It all started with a badly-timed bald joke!

      • Which ironically makes it the best timed bald joke ever. Also, you can calculate to the second where it dawns on him.
    • "We're watching animal porn!" Colin says something stupid, realizes how stupid it was, and delivers a spectacular punchline to his own stupid statement... all in less than seven seconds.
  • Considering the unscripted nature of this show, a few Moments stem from the genuine unplanned accidents that take place. Special mention must be made here of Ryan Stiles, who accidentally shattered the neon light on Drew's desk with his head, and refused to break character until the scene had ended. Less damaging but equally Awesome 'accidents' include:
    • Colin turning around an impossible rhyme in Irish Drinking Song (Slept With An Ugly Woman), ending the song with an apparently random, but horribly sexist and yet fitting line. 'She looked like someone had beat her'...
    • Wayne and Chip are tasked with making up a Police song, and somehow both men get the idea to mimic early Sting's signature 'Eeee-yoooh!' at the exact same moment.
    • At the end of one Newsflash game. involving footage of numerous rats, Drew admits that he didn't get Ryan's reference to the early Michael Jackson song 'Ben', upon which Ryan and Colin start singing one line of the song. Again, at the exact same time. Crosses into Crowning Moment of Heartwarming in a way.
    • In one Film Dub game, Wayne makes the assumption that one person in the film is about to get violent. It pays off.
      • Even better, this follows a line from Ryan suggesting that the characters' outfits make them look gay. Right after he says it the other characters take off their suit jackets.
  • A not-as-accidental one: Ryan, Wayne and Chip find out during one Hollywood Director game that the Stomp style of musicals actually fit perfectly into the show's improvised format. The fact that the whole audience is clapping along by the end says it all.
    • In a similar vein, this Sound Effects involves Colin as a monk who sneaks out of a monastery for a night on the town, so Ryan sort-of-beatboxes a club theme with Gregorian chanting thrown in. It works.
    • And of course the infamous Y.M.C.A parody where Wanye and the others sing to a crowd member named "Howard". The tempo on the keyboard malfuctions and the songs suddenly speeds up with the whole troupe trying keep up.
      • And in the same game, Wayne manages to misspell Howard ("H-O-R-W-A-R-D!"). Throw in Howard's profession (designing closures for hazardous waste sites), Howard's enthusiasm and lack of rhythm, and the silly hats, and you have a perfect storm of hilarity.
  • The Newsflash game is known for its use of increasingly obscure footage that most people wouldn't even believe existed - yet Colin has not only guessed very closely each time, but in one case, gave the movie's exact name.

"Oh, it's so horrible!... right here, in the Valley!... of... the Gwangi!"

  • Chip's killer Snagglepuss impression during a Weird Newscasters, finishing by running off and leaving his stool rocking just like in a Hanna Barbera cartoon. It's pretty much impossible to tell if that was deliberate. The only way it could have been better is if he actually got Colin to crack up afterwards; as it is he still needs a few seconds to regain his composure, something he's usually doing to everyone else.
  • Awesome for Wayne and for the show's musicians - watch the back and forth between Wayne (singing in the style of Louis Armstrong) and the trumpet player here.
  • One round of Weird Newscasters had Chip, as a gameshow announcer, inadvertently sabotaging Colin's Theme Naming shtick by calling out his actual name. Which doesn't stop him.

"Iiiiiiintroducing COOOOLIIIIINN!!!!"
(Beat) "...Welcome to the 6 o'clock news, I'm Colin Themarines."

  • After the director stops a sketch from being about Hitler, all the performers run with it for the rest of the show, sneaking references to Hitler into almost every sketch. Drew gets into the act by keeping a list of all the things it's apparently more okay to make fun of than Hitler.
    • Apparently the list includes Native Americans and bouncing boobs.
      • Video here - the "up yours" to the director at the end is great.
  • The crowner for Colin could have been that one game of Greatest Hits where he joined in on all of the dancing.
  • Ryan said that his best time on the show was when he gave a passionate kiss to Florence Henderson.
  • Sid Caesar's guest appearance. It's great to pay tribute to a comedy legend, but when he came on stage, he looked a little worse for wear. Then he breaks out into the greatest round of Dubbing the show has ever seen.
  • Brad finds words that rhyme with the name Naroshi.
  • Wayne working the word pachyderm into a song.
  • One game of Greatest Hits featured Wayne and Josie having to sing in the style of GILBERT AND SULLIVAN. But really, all of the songs are just awesome.
  • Colin Mochrie is Captain Hair!
  • Wayne's absurdly high note at the end of this game of Greatest Hits.
  • Once when Wayne, Ryan, and Chip were playing Motown Group: Wayne and Chip turned in their usual brilliant musical performances; Ryan, who's usually so-so at the musical games, busts out w/ a phenomenal bass verse, stealing the scene from Wayne and Chip.
  • Stephen Colbert's appearance. He was hilarious throughout but his CMOA was probably Foreign Film. The fake language was German and since Colbert actually speaks German every line he said was an actual German phrase including a line from one of Hitler's speeches ("Heute Deutschland, morgen die Welt!"/"Today Germany, tomorrow the world!").
    • Wow, good thing the director didn't speak German...
  • A nice pair of zingers between Colin and Wayne during a game of World's Worst TV Advertisements.

Wayne: Order Colin Mochrie's guide to dialects in different countries! You get French, "HALLO!", Spanish, "HALLO!", Indonesian, "HALLO!"
Colin: Order the Wayne Brady surfboard- with a butt big enough to sit on!

  • The episode with Robin Williams as a whole, mainly because everyone else managed to hold their own paired up with a truly manic man like Robin Williams.
  • A game of Expert (obviously from the show's early years) had "taxidermist" as the suggestion for what Ryan was an expert on. Greg is then faced with the task of interviewing an unresponsive Ryan, who spends the entire game completely motionless. He doesn't flinch. He doesn't blink. He never once cracked a smile until the buzzer sounded. Even on repeat viewings, it's a mesmerizing, awesome performance.
  • See the Josie Lawrence "faux-Albanian" clip. That was Jim's very first time on the show, where he got the idea to follow the trend of taking potshots at Josie. And he pulled it off.

"Sheep come in lots of different sizes. Little, middle and big. I like stroking the big ones... Some of those sheep play really hard-to-get..."

Drew: (reading) "Things You Can See From The Moon Other Than The Great Wall of China."
Kathy: "Hey look, those are Ryan's shoes!"

    • One round of Song Styles has her effectively humping Colin and Wayne in the chest - and Wayne loves it!

Drew: "I gotta say Kathy Greenwood, that was some of your best work!

    • She actually got a playing of Party Quirks completely right. Because it's a special occasion for Kathy, Drew gives her 3000 points.
  • The game of Party Quirks where Colin is obsessed with confirming everyone's gender. His total commitment to this role is what sells it. Definitely Crosses the Line Twice.

W

  1. ↑ Colin is married. Brad and Drew were not at the time.
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