Good comedy should always have a victim – even if the victim is the person telling the joke. From Only Fools And Horses taking the rise out of Yuppies, to Pulling savaging the crisis of being a thirtysomething, comedy always works best when it has something in the crosshairs.
And the latest thing to come dishing up the kickings is Popatron and, well, it might just be the best thing on television at the moment.
See, comedy is in a funny place at the moment, with many alternative comedians becoming the thing they rallied against in the first place, appearing on screen like some guffawing gentleman’s club and others far too keen to appear offensive as some lame protest against a perceived mothering state. However, tucked away in the Saturday afternoon hangover slot is a show that treads the line of absurdist silliness and ravaging the world around it.
A lot of comedy writers have taken their eye off the ball, focusing on tried and tested things that won’t ever get anyone’s dander up. Look at Peep Show – a hugely likeable programme, yet, one that is only as silly as real life. The IT Crowd and Miranda both take the real world and make it trip over a hatstand.
While these shows take the plaudits, some cocky young upstarts have gone about flicking the fingers up at everything and doing it at the expense of those that pay their cheques. Popatron is withering look at the world of television, where no-one gets off lightly.
If this was the late ’90s or early 2000s, this show would have been slapped into the listings at a peak-time. The television execs would’ve thrilled at the impish humour and ability to poke fun at itself. However, it seems that television has become austere and unwilling to take risks at times when the advertisers might want to spend their money.
Maybe this is why Popatron has been tucked away at 12.50pm, every Saturday? Even so, thanks to iPlayer, you can stop wasting your time wishing there was something great on, because Popatron is here to give you a dose of daftness, as well as give us some much needed sarcasm.
In the show, the collectively brilliant cast, tear strips from Yoof TV shows, with T4 and Popworld getting the biggest portion of bloody noses. Rick Edwards must watch this show and feel his cheeks burn (unless, of course, he’s just too thick to realise that they might be lampooning him).
Fact is, this notion than T4 is the only viable youth programming on-air is long gone. There’s a stench around it that feels like a world that has collapsed in on itself, like a septumless nose crumpling from too much cocaine. And still, the assembled pretties pass themselves off with self-effacing sarcasm, not realising that they’ve turned into the thing that they were hired to be the antidote to.
Which is why it is wonderful to see Popatron coming along and mocking these bovine brained gits with everything they’ve got.
The ugly, needy ambition is all there, mixed in with glassy-eyed idiocy and the listless, jaded mutterings of people suffocating under the weight of their own bullshit. We always need satire and we have it, slotted into the BBC’s ‘Switch’ slots.
There’s a definite sense that Auntie doesn’t realise what it has on its hands here, just like the way people must have wondered what those working on The Frost Report were all about. Popatron isn’t exactly comparable to The Frost Report, but there’s something about this show that feels similarly fresh and invigorating.
With shooting completed on the first series (a handful still to air over the coming weeks), we must collectively cross our fingers that this gets recommissioned. Oh, and BBC – put it on in a slot where everyone can see it. You’ve got a potentially great show here – don’t fuck it up or chicken out like you did with Pulling.
Okay?
Popatron is snarky, witty and a reason to be well and truly cheerful.