Monday, September 21, 2009

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Over the weekend, my kids and I have been watching clips of 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' on Youtube. If you don't know what that is, you're really missing out! 'Whose Line' is, in my opinion, one of the best variety shows ever produced on tv.

It started out in the UK and went on to become a big hit in the US. On the US version hosted by Drew Carey, there are three regulars - Wayne, Colin and Ryan - with a recurring guest star. What's so clever about the show is that it is one big improvisation act. The stars play a series of games thrown at them without preparing any scripts. I'm always so amazed by their ability to think on their feet. The results are always side-splittingly funny - Lesley-Anne and Andre were laughing so hard they were crying.

I have so many favourite moments but thought I'd share just a few of them here.

This game is called Sound Effects - Drew picks two ladies from the audience to provide the sound effects for Ryan and Colin (he always picks the shy, mousy ones so the comic effect is amplified!) Here, Ryan and Colin are a couple at an amusement park, Colin is the pregnant wife.



This game is called Stand, Sit and Bend. Three people play this and one always has to be standing, one has to be sitting and one has to be bending.



One of the really mind-blowing parts of the show is the ability of the stars to make up songs on the spot in any style. Wayne is a master at this. This game is called Greatest Hits. Colin is my favourite - he just cracks me up!



This one is Questions Only, where the stars have to speak only in questions. Brilliant!



This last one I'm including because it's Andre's absolute favourite. He can't stop watching it and it triggers the same delicious giggles everytime. It's also called Sound Effects but this one, Ryan provides the sound effects for Colin.



Channel 5 is currently showing reruns of 'Whose Line' at 1.30am every weekday. It's a sad reflection of the low intellectual tastes of Singaporeans that such shows have to be relegated to the zombie hour. Thank God for Youtube! The show can be quite risque at times so I would be selective over which clips to let your kids watch. But if you want a good laugh, nothing beats this show.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We love this show too! But just cannot understand why it is always showing at wee hours.....even with the come back, they are going to have it at 1.30am!!

There are a lot of good documentary shows but dunno why they have to put them after 9pm, like Brainiac, Mythbuster, Fight science, Earth from above.

Chris

monlim said...

Chris: If you ask Mediacorp, they'll always give you the lame answer that it's based on audience nos. And forcing local dramas down people's throats. That's why you get crappy, low-standard local dramas at primetime while emmy winners are relegated to midnight. Of course at that time got no audience numbers lah! And people wonder why the Singapore standard of English is so appalling, evidenced by the video of a recent beauty pageant winner :P

Anonymous said...

Mon, this is really hilarious. Thanks for sharing. :)

qx

Jo said...

Great show ! I remember watching the UK series during my university days. Personally I feel that the UK series is better than the US one ... but I'm more partial to British shows. It's like Britain's Got Talent is a lot better than America's Got Talent. I wonder why they don't show the British versions here :P

Jo

Anonymous said...

It probably comes on in the wee hours of the morning because it is not meant for children. At least a lot of the episodes I have seen aren't.

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