Review: Last One Laughing UK

If you’re at all a fan of British comedy like I am, when you hear that there’s a comedy show with Rob Beckett, Daisy May Cooper, Richard Ayoade, Sara Pascoe, Joe Wilkinson, Harriet Kemsley, Judi Love, Joe Lycett, Lou Sanders and Bob Mortimer, hosted by Jimmy Carr and Roisin Conaty - aka the cream of the crop in comedy - you’d be so excited.

Especially when the premise of the show is that they are all trying to make each other laugh.

That’s called Last One Laughing UK and the first series just finished.

I absolutely love all of their comedy. There’s not one unfunny or even moderately funny person in that show.

And yet, the show didn’t work for me. Maybe it’s the setup; their job is to get each other to spontaneously laugh so a lot of the comedy doesn’t really translate through screen. Maybe it’s the editing; it’s jumping from small thing to another and only a couple of moments made me laugh. Given the runtime (6 x 30 minutes) and the amount of funniness in the room, I expected to laugh out loud all the time.

Most of the laughing in the show happens when people who have already laughed their way out of the competition laugh at the things that happen in the room. And sometimes it feels a bit forced which I guess is due to the editing and the jump cuts from the room to the backstage.

I mean, I don’t hate that I spent a good 3 hours watching some of the funniest people on the planet. But I did expect a lot more laughing.