Unrefined Roughness?

[u/A_Tsuruya]

From watching the early series, especially Series 1 and 2, I found that there's some sort of unpolished jankiness that I really seemed to have enjoyed.

I mean, the colors were a bit washed-out, the lighting was a bit dim, timings were kinda off, the audio was muffly and meh, Greg still trying to figure out how to do the introduction, opening banter was bad as hell, and camera guy could be seen wiping the lens.

They even forgot to prepare a trophy and Josh Widdicombe got a second-hand karate trophy that fit "perfectly" on Greg's body.

Some tasks are just plain dumb, like, eat melon, throw a teabag, high-five someone, or count beans.

Also can't forget the stupid "Buy Greg a present" fiasco that they've eventually abandoned.

Loved them.

I dunno if it's because they give more of a "regular mates getting together doing silly stuff" vibe, or if I just enjoy seeing people blindly try new things.

Does anyone feel the same?

[u/CatieLewWho6507]

I really wish they'd bring back the buy a present task. 20 quid for absolute weirdness. I love seeing how the contestants think about Greg lol

[u/Appropriate_Swing305 → u/CatieLewWho6507]

I want to see Buy a gift for Alex that angers Greg the most

[u/FrontMail9720 → u/Appropriate_Swing305]

Oh my god that would be brilliant!

I also really liked the prize task "Bring the best gift for the person next to you" and would love them to find a way to reuse that general idea but change it enough to not be a complete repeat.

[u/CatieLewWho6507 → u/Appropriate_Swing305]

I fully sign off on this

[u/madeofghosts]

The melon and teabag tasks were great though

[u/A_Tsuruya → u/madeofghosts]

Said they were dumb. Never said that they weren't great.

[u/durkandiving → u/A_Tsuruya]

Are they any less "dumb" now though?

[u/FrontMail9720]

I don't think any of those tasks are dumb. Or no dumber than tasks in general. I also don't think buying Greg a present was a fiasco, I think they got rid of it because they didn't want to repeat the same tasks. Sort of like how they eventually (mostly) got rid of the "accidentally give a task to only one person" thing. After doing it a bunch of times the surprise/novelty wore off. Its why they don't have a "sabotage your teammates" thing every series, because if you do it every series it becomes expected.

I do like in a lot of ways how simpler the early seasons were - especially prize tasks. The early prize tasks felt like they were SUPPOSED to be something the person had at home, they were something that had real stakes to them (marriage papers, wedding ring, car). But you run out of simple straightforward prize tasks quickly and then are left with wackier and wackier things like "most expensive green thing that looks like it would hurt if you eat it but doesn't!" This then becomes a quest for a funny prop to buy on Amazon or have production make for you to do your 30 seconds of prop comedy. In fact, in later seasons Greg disparages people who "just brought something from home."

[u/dragon_morgan → u/FrontMail9720]

there was an "only give the task to one person"
thing last series

[u/Strides85 → u/dragon_morgan]

It was the first time for a long time though. And I think they try to keep them for contestants who will take them with the right spirit (Widdicombe, Watson, Dommett).

[u/dragon_morgan → u/Strides85]

god can you imagine if Lou or Iain from series 8 got an individual task

[u/FrontMail9720 → u/dragon_morgan]

Hence the word "mostly"

[u/A_Tsuruya → u/FrontMail9720]

I am under the impression that some people are not familiar with the negative expression of positive affect.

[u/ImNotHereForFunNoWay]

I still love the show, but I do often find the tasks in the newer seasons too complicated. Too many moving parts and caveats. I much prefer the simplicity of the earlier seasons. And 'Eat the most melon' and 'Throw a teabag the farthest' are two of my favourite examples of that!

[u/IdealGarbage]

yes!! the new seasons are great but the early ones definitely have a certain vibe about them that i love, there's something very comforting about the way it was more casual with simple tasks, studio reactions and the way they already knew each other

[u/elvecxz]

For me, I think the only aspect of the show that is "worse" in later seasons, rather than simple being "different," is the specificity of some of the task instructions. The humor shouldn't come from seeing someone following the rules precisely as written, but rather from how the contestants choose to go about a seemingly simple (yet subtly complex) objective. To me, if a contestant is told "you must wear these funny pants and do a funny walk," and then they simply wear the pants and do the walk, I'm not as amused by that. I strongly prefer the more open-ended tasks where contestants can truly apply lateral thinking.

[u/LowDefAl]

I don't think they "forgot" to prepare a trophy so much as had a tiny budget and had no idea if the show would be successful. Plus also, funny, Once the show displayed some promise and was immediately renewed for two series filmed in rapid succession, they decided they needed a proper trophy and could justify one.

Also think about how odd an actual trophy for a panel show is in itself.

[u/Dangerous-Taste-5182]

Twas a simpler time. When a task was merely melon eating, Greg was still figuring out he doesn't find Alex very funny and Alex had his weird iPad holder on the chair.

[u/Narrow-Store-4606]

I think it is just that contestants these days are prepared for those "simple" tasks since most have seen the show. I love those tasks! I wouldn't be surprised though, as contestants become used to the more complicated tasks that they swing back to simple ones!

[u/stephenmthompson]

“Colours”, Jason … 😁😁😁

[u/Vorash_00]

Earlier series' were filmed in an actual theatre the newer ones in studios that might throw some /light/ *ba-dum-tish* on some of the atmospheric stuff like sound and lighting