Latest news with #LastOneLaughingUK
Daily Mirror
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Last One Laughing's future decided by Amazon as host Jimmy Carr speaks out
Last One Laughing had fans all over the country in stitches when it aired earlier this year, and now Jimmy Carr has spoken out about the hit Prime Video Show's future Prime Video's Last One Laughing was a hit when it came out earlier this year. It saw 8 Out of 10 Cats star Jimmy Carr assembled ten of the UK's top comedians in one room with one impossible challenge: Don't laugh. However, in a twist, the host set them a challenge of making each other laugh, although they couldn't chuckle themselves. Although the comedian's couldn't laugh - the audiences were left in stitches. The first series saw comedians Richard Ayoade and Bob Mortimer in the final, and it looks like fans can look forward to yet another hilarious final as the show has been recommissioned for a second series. Speaking about the future of the show, Jimmy said: "I'm absolutely delighted that Last One Laughing is coming back for a second series. I think what's happened is someone high up at Amazon has clicked 'subscribe & save' on Prime Video and, hey presto, we're back in business. "I'm so pleased people had as much fun watching the first season as we had making it. Can't wait to bask in the reflected glory of the next 10 comedy legends taking on the challenge." The second series will see Jimmy returning to the hosting seat alongside a new line-up of comedians which will be announced in due course. Filming is due to take place later this year with the series launching in 2026 on Prime Video worldwide. Last One Laughing UK is the latest adaptation of the successful Amazon Original series from Japan entitled Documental, created by and starring Hitoshi Matsumoto and owned by Yoshimoto Kogyo and has been a hit around the globe. So much so that the format became the most watched title of all time on Prime Video in France, Germany and Italy, and had hugely successful local versions in over 20 territories. Last year's final saw Richard and Bob climb onto Merry-go-round ponies while Bob read from his joke book. However, Richard soon realised that he had made a grave error by allowing Bob to perform jokes. "What I now realise I'd done was essentially sign up to be in goal and just have someone take penalty after penalty after penalty," he said. "I had nothing and he was on a horse opposite me with a pocket full of material," the IT Crowd star said. It was Bob who eventually took the win, with fans claiming the show was the "best piece of comedy they'd ever seen." They're sure to gain a whole load of new laughs with series 2! Until then, fans can catch up with series 1 over on Prime Video.
Sydney Morning Herald
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘You're kind of squabbling': The work-life balance when mum and dad are comedians
They're a busy pair. Raskopoulos – who stars in the Australian version of The Office – has built a huge cult following with his award-winning solo stage work as well as improvised Bear Pack shows with Thank God You're Here regular Carlo Ritchie, which they are performing as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival. Meanwhile, Pascoe is an author, a regular on TV and radio panel shows in the UK, has also starred in and written sitcoms and can be seen in Prime's recently released Last One Laughing UK. How do they juggle it all? 'The diary is the most precious thing in the world, and you're kind of squabbling over time, and whoever gets there first – doesn't matter what the thing pays or how big it is, you know – they have first dibs,' Pascoe says. 'We both have suffered a couple of times with disappointment, but you just have to sort of take a big deep breath and go, 'This is what every single parent in the world is doing'.' Pascoe had no plans for marriage before crossing paths with Raskopoulos. She was on a post-break-up dating hiatus when they met at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2015, although they did not get together until he moved to London a few years later. Then came their 2020 wedding and IVF – amid the turbulence of the COVID pandemic – that produced two children. Little wonder Pascoe's show I Am a Strange Gloop, at the Enmore Theatre on Saturday, reflects on her life journey over the past few years. 'When I was having to think of a title for the show, I was thinking a lot about where 'myself' was because I had just been completely destroyed by three years of sleeplessness and other people's bodily fluids,' Pascoe says. It is also riffing on US cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter's 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop, which examines the sense of self. Her interest in sex and evolutionary biology formed during high school psychology classes, then fully blossomed when she gave up her day job to try comedy almost 20 years ago and realised she had a lot of time on her hands. 'And I remember thinking, number one, use your time well, and number two, have interesting things to talk about on stage. It's very easy with stand-up to slip into those two-dimensional views of things … researching into evolution and things, I just felt like it kept me interested and interested a lot of my audience as well,' Pascoe says. Loading That interest spawned two books about those subjects: Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body (2016) and Sex Power Money (2019). Her 2023 novel Weirdo and 2020 sitcom Out of Her Mind, which she wrote and starred in, canvassed similar issues, but she may be a little bit ahead of her audience with the title of her new show – nobody gets the Hofstadter reference. 'Now I'm gonna have to start putting out reading lists before I tour,' she says.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jimmy Carr to host new entertainment show based on popular Reddit forum
Jimmy Carr has signed up to host a new comedy entertainment show based on one of Reddit's most famous subreddits. Am I The A**hole? is inspired by the famed Reddit forum of the same name, in which users post anecdotes about their behaviour and receive judgement from fellow members about whether they're in the wrong or not. The subreddit, which is often abbreviated to AITA, has amassed 24 million members since 2013 and the most outrageous posts often go viral on on social media. In the new show, members of the public will come before host Jimmy and a panel of two guest comedians to ask "hilarious, controversial and downright shocking" questions about their behaviour. Each of the eight episodes will "cover everything from jaw-dropping relationship disputes to the pettiest of family squabbles" and feature stories that are "guaranteed to split opinion". The Last One Laughing UK host will discuss each question with his fellow comics before passing the final judgement on whether the contestant is the "a**shole" or not. "Seems odd that anyone would ask me to host a show about a**holes. I should be grateful, but I feel a little insulted. I guess I'm an a**hole. Well, it takes an a**hole to know an a**hole so I'm the right man for the job," Jimmy jokingly said in a statement. "I'm very much looking forward to being Comedy Central's Proctologist in Residence. There are an impressive number of a**holes in our country and they're finally getting the recognition they deserve on national television." A pilot of the show was previously filmed with Rob Beckett as the host. It has not been revealed why he has been replaced by Jimmy. Am I The A**hole? will be executive-produced by the subreddit's creator Marc Beaulac. It is set to film in late spring and air on Comedy Central later this year.
The Guardian
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Nothing beats Bob Mortimer! The irresistible comedy that could just save Amazon
As you can probably tell by spending any time on it, Amazon Prime Video is in trouble. Citadel, its $300m Russo brothers-produced international spy thriller series, was met with widespread indifference. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a show that will end up costing Amazon a billion dollars, is destined to go down as one of the worst investments of all time. Everywhere you look, the platform is wall-to-wall duds. And yet there is one glimmer of hope. The sole scrap of buzz Amazon has generated in months comes in the form of a cheap little reality show. Last One Laughing UK has been all over social media for the last couple of weeks, clipped up and shared across TikTok, Instagram and X. And this is down to its deceptively simple premise: a bunch of comedians sit in a room together and try to make each other laugh. If they laugh, they're out. That's all there is to it. Last One Laughing UK has summoned some genuinely funny people for the show, among them Richard Ayoade, Bob Mortimer, Lou Sanders, Daisy May Cooper and Joe Wilkinson. You can see why they were so eager to sign up, too, because the show is about as low stakes as you can get. It follows the loose Big Brother format, where everyone has to share a common area. But the entire show only represents a six-hour commitment for them. They made multiple episodes of television in less time than it takes to watch The Brutalist twice. Even ignoring the quality of the final product, that's an extremely efficient way to go about business. The show presents the contestants with a chance to recycle some of their old material. Most of the viral clips have revolved around Bob Mortimer, who performed a magic act first seen on The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer 30 years ago and sang some songs he posted on social media during Covid. The fact that these routines not only found new life on LOL UK, but also pushed his fellow contestants to the brink, is testament to Mortimer's talent. But Mortimer isn't solely responsible for the LOL UK highlight reel. Richard Ayoade's shockingly aggressive pursuit of laughs was another standout moment. Joe Wilkinson's bizarre little Stars in their Eyes sequence was punishingly funny, as was the surprise appearance of Danny Dyer. There's also something really irresistible in watching people trying their hardest to quell a response as involuntary as laughter. Daisy May Cooper's attempt to shut herself down, which involved screwing up her face like she was trying not to breathe in a fart, is funny in itself. Judi Love often looked like a woman who'd swallowed a live grenade. Harriet Kemsley, who may well be the breakout contestant of the whole show, at one point looked as if she was having a nervous breakdown trying to stop a laugh from leaking out. It's weirdly thrilling to watch something as mundane as a cracking poker face. In truth, the UK is late to the LOL game. Like almost every other successful reality show, from Big Brother to The Traitors, Last One Laughing is a foreign format that circled the globe before arriving here – in this case, it's based on a Japanese show called Documental that first aired in 2016. Since then, versions have sprung up in 27 different countries, from Albania to Indonesia. Trevor Noah hosted the South African version, Graham Norton hosted Ireland's and Rebel Wilson hosted Australia's. For us, it's Jimmy Carr. There is an argument that LOL UK's success hinges less on the British sense of humour than a watertight format. After all, if it works in Russia – where it aired in 2023 – you suspect it can work anywhere. Last One Laughing UK has been compared to Taskmaster, but that isn't entirely fair. Taskmaster is an intricately assembled series that rewards lateral thinking, whereas this is essentially just people sitting around for a few hours. But it is nevertheless very funny. More importantly – unlike most Amazon shows – people are actually talking about it. It must be strange being an Amazon executive this week. You spent all that money on Lord of the Rings, but it turns out that people far prefer the sight of Bob Mortimer sitting on a squeaky chair. What a world. Last One Laughing UK is on Prime Video now.
The Independent
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Bob Mortimer called a ‘national treasure' after hilarious clip goes viral
Bob Mortimer has been labelled a 'national treasure' by fans after a clip from his latest show, Last One Laughing UK, went viral. Mortimer, 65, is one of numerous comedians taking part in the show where the contestants have to spend six hours with each other without laughing, otherwise, they are eliminated. The other comedians involved are Daisy May Cooper, Joe Lycett, Judi Love, Rob Beckett, Sara Pascoe, Lou Sanders, Joe Wilkinson, Harriet Kemsley and Richard Ayoade. The Amazon Prime show is hosted by Jimmy Carr and Roisin Conaty. Mortimer, whose other credits include the game show Shooting Stars and Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, has quickly become one of the breakout stars of the series after the first four episodes were released on 20 March. One of his performances in particular has gone viral, amassing more than 2 million views on Instagram alone. In the clip, Mortimer performs a very low-budget magic show soundtracked by the Queen song 'A Kinda Magic'. He begins by appearing to make a tea towel levitate by using a concealed shoe and coat hanger before cracking an egg into a handbag. Seconds later a toy chick emerges from the handbag, which sends Carr and Conaty, who are watching in another room, into hysterics. Throughout the performance, Mortimer whispers: 'It's magic.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bob Mortimer (@realbobmortimer) The likes of Cooper, Ayoade and Wilkinson struggle to contain their composure during Mortimer's show, doing everything they can to stop themselves from laughing. The clip has now been shared across social media with many people praising Mortimer's very silly and very funny brand of comedy. 'This man is a national treasure,' said one fan after sharing the clip. Another person, perhaps sympathising with the other comedians, wrote: 'I lasted about 4 seconds before I started laughing.' A third wrote: 'It's only a matter of time before we call you Sir Robert Mortimer. I've watched this magic class masterclass a dozen times. Epic stuff!!' The show which first began in Japan in 2016 - where it is called Documental - has since been adapted by numerous countries including Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, South Africa and Brazil. Mortimer has faced health issues in recent years having undergone heart surgery in 2015. He was forced to use a wheelchair while shooting the seventh season of Gone Fishing amid a health crisis that left him unable to walk. Mortimer first opened up about his ongoing medical issues in September 2022, revealing that he had shingles, a skin infection that causes a painful rash and is caused by the varicella-zoster virus – the same virus that causes chickenpox.
