C4's Blunder (10.00pm Thursday on E4, 10.35pm Friday on Channel 4) could not be more aptly named. Coming on the back of a small torrent of pre-publicity (well, it certainly got more than Dean Learner, whose final episode on Friday has been rather ungraciously shoved back an hour to 11.55pm, to make way for not only the Friday showing of this programme, but also for one of the new vehicles for the inexplicably popular Russell Brand), Blunder comes across like under-rehearsed collection of all the sketches and characters that were considered too shit to include in other shows.
The hit rate for jokes was about as close to zero as you could get without watching a blank screen. Honestly, I've seen episodes of Comedy Lab that were better than this.
One particular disappointment was the involvement of David Mitchell, but it could be argued that given his slight over-exposure recently, it was only a matter of time before he chose a genuine stinker.
Between the fart gags and jokes about gays, you've got to wonder how something like this slips through quality control. After all, it's not as if it features any major stars that might be holding a gun to Channel 4's head in order to get them to screen it, nor could cost of production be much of a factor, given that it looks like it cost about 8p to make the episode I watched.
I don't think there's ever been a sketch show that could be considered consistently funny from start to finish, but it takes a special kind of effort to turn out a show where nothing works.
In a rather unprecedented move, instead of screening it in some graveyard slot over Christmas like you'd imagine they would, Channel 4 have actually decided to 'preview' every episode on E4 the night before showing it on terrestrial telly.
Presumably the reason behind this is to give viewers a head start in wiping it from their memories.
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