Tonight saw the launch of new comedy talent Morgana Robinson's self titled show. Because Channel 4 have, in my opinion, had a string of successes with their comedy outings recently (The Inbetweeners, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret) and only showcased them on their companion channels - E4 and More4 - the new show they've saved for the main channel ought to be something pretty special.
It wasn't.
I was a bit skeptical from the minute I saw the first advert of a seemingly mentally ill teenager dancing in front of the camera (see picture). It wasn't much bettered by a follow up advert starring a drunk has-been making a fools of herself. But I decided to give it a go anyway - like with music, often the singles realeased aren't the strongest tracks on the album.
As expected though, the rest of the show followed in the same footsteps. The characters we are introduced to are just recycled ideas from other more successful shows, and none of them really managed to make me laugh. The only one which stood out was the aforementioned 'Gilbert TV' skecth which I actually just thought was pretty sick. Despite the fact that it isn't very funny it just seems to laugh off the bear bating and anonymous bullying of vulnerable people on things like YouTube.
'But what about Andy & Lou from Little Britain?' you say? Well that wasn't Lucas & Walliams taking the piss out of a disables person, the comedy came from the way Andy manipulated and tormented Lou. The equivalent would have been Lou kicking Andy in his legs and laughing.
The only redeeming feature is her impressions; they are very well observed and benefit from being timely. The Cheryl/Dannii tarot sketch worked well with the current X Factor hype and Lady Gaga on her sit down mower received a chuckle. And, the only bit that truly made me laugh was the Fearne Cotton sketch - but she's pretty much a parody of herself anyway so it isn't exactly hard to do that right.
She may be very talented in terms of impressions, but the sketches and her own creations simply aren't funny. If this is the best she's got then lets be thankful that C4 have only invested in 5 episodes. This one just isn't for me.
The Morgana Show can be seen on Channel 4 on Tuesdays @ 10.35PM
It was ok, certainly the impressions weren't as good as other shows, but the BoJo impression was better than I was expecting (considering it was of the other sex) and the Fearne Cotton sketch was better than the one on the Impressions Show - but the sketches on the Impressions Show are far funnier.
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