Sketch Showcases Saved by Serafinowicz

Last night I watched The Peter Serafinowicz Show at 9:30pm on BBC2. There were many funny moments. This was almost certainly the funniest amongst them:



You laughed, didn't you? At least snickered a bit. Admit it. In that video, you saw the man himself delivering not only an extremely convincing impression, but keeping an absolutely perfect sense of comedy timing and also doing the best maniacal laughter you've ever heard. What's more, it's a slightly outdated pop culture reference, but you don't really need to have any former knowledge of it to appreciate the sketch. Aside from that, there was also flawless editing, brilliant support from another actor (note her masterful response to the gun being revealed) and the noticeably euphoric lack of a laugh track.

Now, imagine that but stretched over the course of an entire episode of a sketch show.

Yes, it was the first episode, so the cream of the crop will have been picked for it especially, but it's still the most promising first episode of a sketch show to emerge since The Mitchell and Webb Look. The supporting actors were brilliant without exception, the direction communicated the gags perfectly, and Serafinowicz himself is a constant joy. And let's talk about that in more detail.

Fans of Serafinowicz's early BBC collaboration with friend Robert Popper will find his success here to be no surprise. The show, Look Around You, was an exquisitely-rendered parody of 70s science programmes for schools, and never let the concept get in the way of the constant flow of gags. Witness this, for example:



Ha, ha. Classic. Not only did Look Around You escape its ten-minute remit to attain a full second series of half-hour episodes, it also amassed an impressive array of comedy guest starts, including director Edgar Wright's only two extended acting appearances: here and here. Serafinowicz also wrote the electronic music for the show under the pseudonym 'Gelg'.

Since then, Serafinowicz has continued to star in small roles in the funniest joints in town, but failed to land the kind of starring role he deserved. This finally came in the form of a skit released on the internet featuring a fictional entertainment network called O! Hollywood News. In it, every character but the announcer was played by Serafinowicz himself, uncannily impersonating such stars as Al Pacino, Paul McCartney and, most eerily accurately, Alan Alda. It got a fair bit of attention, which gave him the pull to finally push for his own Big Deal, finally revealed as The Peter Serafinowicz Show.

In this new project, collaborating, unlikelily, with indie humour cartoonist Michael Kupperman, Serafinowicz has crafted a beautifully demented slice of sketch wonderment that should be seen by all. If only to see how roundly he beats the tar out of other, lazier sketch writers that have proven so successful of late. Even the inter-sketch bumpers, showing Serafinowicz in a white suit cavorting mindlessly before a giant neon sign bearing his own name, are funny. And it took far too long for that name to find its way up to that marquee.

Maybe they had trouble spelling it.

Anyway. Be part of the solution! Watch The Peter Serafinowicz Show!

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'Beat' Nick does properly love Peter Serafinowicz, yes.