I Literally Just Told You with Jimmy Carr

[Brekkie]

This started last week with the basic premise of the show is it's a gameshow (created by Richard Bacon) with questions set live during the show based on what is happening in the show.

The first show was alright - another Jimmy Carr vehicle, a pretty original idea and an entertaining enough hour, just oddly scheduled at 10pm on a Thursday night. The second show tonight though was a classic hour of Jimmy Carr - it literally almost broke him in the way I've only seen Sean Lock do so previously on CatsDown and just got funnier and funnier as it went on. The funniest hour of TV I've seen in a while - and if it had been made back in the 90s you'd have thought it was all a set up with Noel coming in at the end.

The moment of the night:
https://twitter.com/jimmycarr/status/147...0992354315

[all new Phil]

They definitely launched with the wrong episode. I watched last week and thought it was pretty terrible, only happened across it tonight and it was brilliant. Wasn’t intending to watch it again.

[Inspector Sands]

No I tihink they got the episode order spot on - episode 1 showed how the game works. Episode 2 shows it get totally broken. If it had been the other way round then everyone would have expected last night's situation to be the norm.

The most similar thing I can think to last nights is that 3rd or 4th episode of The Wheel where they used up every question and gave away nothing. Michael Mcintyre just stood there apologising for wasting an hour of TV

As I said on the Gameshow thread I'm really enjoying it, such a clever idea for a gameshow. I really hope episode 2 isn't representative of the rest, nothing could beat the sheer brilliant stupidity. The Richard Bacon mix up was bad enough, the Hitler questions were just :o

[Dogorilla]

I watched the first episode and thought it was decent but wasn't going to watch the rest of it (apart from next week's celebrity special which looks like an entertaining line-up), but I might have to give episode 2 a chance on All 4 based on this reaction to it.

[Johnr]

It takes a LOT to make me laugh and this episode had me in absolute stitches at several points!

I completely lost it right at the end when Jimmy asked 'how do you know you've won that much' for the contestant to point at the screen showing the win rather than saying the expected 'because you literally just told me' catchphrase to end the show naturally!

[Jamesypoo]

I caught this accidentally last night too having not seen the first episode. It was such a watchable car crash!

Highlights for me have to be the contestants simply not getting any better at the game even after things being spelled out to them and the completely random name check of Zeinab Badawi.

[Steve Williams]

As I said on the Gameshow thread I'm really enjoying it, such a clever idea for a gameshow. I really hope episode 2 isn't representative of the rest, nothing could beat the sheer brilliant stupidity. The Richard Bacon mix up was bad enough, the Hitler questions were just :o

Watched this last night, it was indeed quite remarkable. I can see the Gotcha connection as mentioned up there, indeed it feels a bit like DLT's never-ending quiz was contestants repeatedly getting questions wrong.

It is a clever format and I like how a lot of it is a show about the show, I loved everyone in hysterics at the question about the planet. Jimmy was brilliant in it, so quick-witted. I know there were some suggestions that episode one seemed a bit contrived and it was obvious what was going to be a question but that wasn't the case in show two because we had the interlude with Fred which, you'll note, didn't actually lead to any questions at all.

I completely lost it right at the end when Jimmy asked 'how do you know you've won that much' for the contestant to point at the screen showing the win rather than saying the expected 'because you literally just told me' catchphrase to end the show naturally!

I loved that bit, and Jimmy then getting to say it in the most exasperated fashion imaginable really was the perfect way to end it.

[Inspector Sands]

I know there were some suggestions that episode one seemed a bit contrived and it was obvious what was going to be a question but that wasn't the case in show two because we had the interlude with Fred which, you'll note, didn't actually lead to any questions at all.

I wonder if that was intentional or whether they'd deliberately dumbed down the questions by that point

[Dogorilla]

Celebrity special:

I thought Alex was a bit cheated in the final round. I don't know if he said the technical term correctly but the question wasn't very clear as to exactly what answer to give. But never mind, it's just a bit of fun innit

[Brekkie]

Yes, that did seem unfair considering Lorraine had earlier been deemed correct for saying something that meant the same as what Jimmy has said, even though she didn't remember the exact phrase. And IMO Alex's answer was closer to the answer to the question than what Lorraine gave as the answer. Was a fun episode though - after the gold of episode 2 following it up with the celeb special actually worked.

See it moves to Wednesdays next week though, so it's not being treated the best launching in the second half of December then being moved three episodes in. They really should cut The Last Leg short to free up some slots, and let Adam home to see his family.


Hopefully it gets recommissioned but wonder if it's the sort of series where it might have been best to film the second series before the first went to air. You'd think the fake ad break trick would have to go for starters.

[VMPhil]

I'm sorry to make a boring post about a question rather than the show itself - which yes, is a rather fun format and I like it! - but one of the multiple choice questions was what decade was the Game Boy released in (80s, 90s, 2000s). Now I'm not sure this is a fair question as the answer on the show was 80s for 1989, but the Game Boy wasn't released in the UK until September 1990.

[Gary Baldy]

Yes, that did seem unfair considering Lorraine had earlier been deemed correct for saying something that meant the same as what Jimmy has said, even though she didn't remember the exact phrase. And IMO Alex's answer was closer to the answer to the question than what Lorraine gave as the answer. Was a fun episode though - after the gold of episode 2 following it up with the celeb special actually worked.

See it moves to Wednesdays next week though, so it's not being treated the best launching in the second half of December then being moved three episodes in. They really should cut The Last Leg short to free up some slots, and let Adam home to see his family.


Hopefully it gets recommissioned but wonder if it's the sort of series where it might have been best to film the second series before the first went to air. You'd think the fake ad break trick would have to go for starters.

Yeah, I was thinking this- if it gets recommissioned, the fake ad break part of the format needs tweaking. Also noticed the ‘here’s the unique thing about I Literally Just Told You’ is the exact same clip each episode- it’s not Jimmy saying it from scratch each time.

I do agree Last Leg should cut down on their time slots- I feel it’s on too much to the point that it’s gotten incredibly stale. I get that it’s a cheap bit of post-pub TV and people might want a laugh when they come in, but it’s been a while since there’s been a new Friday night hit for C4 (Friday as far as I’m aware is the biggest night for them- it’s certainly the night I tune in for a laugh)- which is a problem with the modern TV landscape. Not many new light entertainment shows are coming through- and if they are, they’re in a poor timeslot.

[Brekkie]

Agree - it's gone from a weekly must watch to something still watchable but I probably miss more than I watch now. Seems to be at least 3x10 episodes a year now, so even cutting it down to 3x8 frees up at least six hour long slots, but I think two runs a year is enough to keep it fresh through to 2024. Similarly Gogglebox has gone from roughly 2x12 a year to 2x16 and a 1x8 Celebrity spin-off this year, and C4 have tended to put drama in the slot during the breaks rather than comedy or entertainment formats.

It's First Dates taking the Thursday slot next week, which easily could have aired on Wednesdays really. If they want to try and make Thursdays light entertainment focused too they need to be consistent about it, not just do it for Taskmaster and the odd series off the back of it.

[Brekkie]

Another dodgy question tonight...

This time admitted by the show itself, who paid the runner up the grand prize a few weeks later.

[CameronYoung]

I have a feeling for the final round they should double check the questions the contestants write to make sure such errors aren't made again (maybe they started doing that for the rest of the series?)