Serious About Comedy
Encyclopedia
Serious About Comedy was a British
comedy
discussion show on the digital radio
station BBC7, hosted by Robin Ince
. It was broadcast at 08:30 and 22:00 on Fridays, and 03:00 on Saturdays, in series of 12 editions long. It started on 12 August 2005. The second series started on 10 February 2006. The third series started on 18 August 2006 and ended on 2 November. Two editions in the third series were presented by Kevin Day. No reason was given for Ince's absence. Series four started on 16 February 2007 and series five on 24 August 2007, with the last ever edition being broadcast on 9 November 2007.
On each show, guests from the comedy world, such as comedian
s, comedy writers and critic
s talked about what was going on in comedy that week. They reviewed shows on television
, radio
and new DVD
and Audio releases.
Listeners could also contact the show to voice their opinions via the programme's website. Each week, some emails and posts on the BBC7 messageboard were read out by Ince. Also, members of the public could send in their own comedy recommendations. Several times, no-one sent in any recommendations, so they asked one of the Serious About Comedy staff to give theirs instead; this feature was dropped in the fifth (and final) series.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
discussion show on the digital radio
Digital radio
Digital radio has several meanings:1. Today the most common meaning is digital radio broadcasting technologies, such as the digital audio broadcasting system, also known as Eureka 147. In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized into zeros and ones, compressed using formats such as...
station BBC7, hosted by Robin Ince
Robin Ince
Robin Ince is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for presenting the BBC radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage .-Stand-up comedy:...
. It was broadcast at 08:30 and 22:00 on Fridays, and 03:00 on Saturdays, in series of 12 editions long. It started on 12 August 2005. The second series started on 10 February 2006. The third series started on 18 August 2006 and ended on 2 November. Two editions in the third series were presented by Kevin Day. No reason was given for Ince's absence. Series four started on 16 February 2007 and series five on 24 August 2007, with the last ever edition being broadcast on 9 November 2007.
On each show, guests from the comedy world, such as comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
s, comedy writers and critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
s talked about what was going on in comedy that week. They reviewed shows on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and new DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Audio releases.
Listeners could also contact the show to voice their opinions via the programme's website. Each week, some emails and posts on the BBC7 messageboard were read out by Ince. Also, members of the public could send in their own comedy recommendations. Several times, no-one sent in any recommendations, so they asked one of the Serious About Comedy staff to give theirs instead; this feature was dropped in the fifth (and final) series.