History YMMV / HAVEIGOTNEWSFORYOU

* BaseBreaker:
** Angus Deayton. Depending on your viewpoint. There are those who think the Deayton years are untouchable and superior in quality, whereas there are some who think the guest-hosted years allowed for more variety and gave the show a much needed shot in the arm.

** To quite a few people, Godfrey Bloom, although see BaseBreaker.

** Angus Deayton. Depending on your viewpoint, he was a good part of the show or it got better after he left.

-->'''Alexander Armstrong''': There's no time for the proposed 10% increase in cider prices, so great news for people in UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry, who are free to resume to local tradition of getting so smashed out of their skulls they end up voting Lib Dem.

** Sadiq Khan MP is an odd example. His appearance on the show was generally regarded as subpar (and not in a SoBadItsHorrible way, just simply boring). However, he did gain some lost approval back by donating his programme fee to charity. It's probably also a curious note that after his appearance(s), his public profile has improved enough that he eventually even got elected as Mayor of London--much like Boris Johnson, but with less of the ill will.

* CringeComedy: The 6th episode of Season 54 hosted by Victoria Coren-Mitchell (normally a fast wit and host herself) has a remarkable amount of IncrediblyLamePun-themed punchlines (ex. using {{Music/U2}} song titles to refer to Bono's tax evasion allegations) within the host's teleprompter dialogue, to the point that [[{{Corpsing}} she herself was struggling to keep a straight face saying it]]--eventually joining in with some of her own. Even Paul Merton was incredulous at how the quality of dialogue went down by the end of the episode:
--> '''Paul''': "We're not finishing on that note are we?! That's done forever, that is!"

** One of the few cases where you can't make a joke about a group is in the case of abuse victims, as Creator/JimmySaville and Max Clifford have proved. Time will tell if this extends to Rolf Harris as well.

** Sadiq Khan MP is an odd example. His appearance on the show was generally regarded as subpar (and not in a SoBadItsHorrible way, just simply boring). However, he did gain some lost approval back by donating his programme fee to charity.

* CringeComedy: The 6th episode of Season 54 hosted by Victoria Coren-Mitchell (normally a fast wit and host herself) has a remarkable amount of themed IncrediblyLamePuns (ex. using {{Music/U2}} song titles to refer to Bono's tax evasion allegations) within the host's teleprompter dialogue and punch-lines , to the point that [[{{Corpsing}} she herself was struggling to keep a straight face saying it]]--eventually joining in with some of her own. Even Paul Merton was incredulous at how the quality of dialogue went down by the end of the episode:

** At one point, Alexander Armstrong discusses a party he ended up at where people such as Tony Blair were present, which caues Ian to snark "well, that cleaned it up". He follows this up asking whether certain people such as Harold Shipman (a real life DeadlyDoctor and SerialKiller) or Creator/JimmySavile (now a known paedophile) livened it up with entertainment such as karaoke.

*** Another disturbing and meta example was a [[http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/rogerb/jokes/HIGNFY.txt hoax transcript made in 1999]] brought up in the same episode purporting to be the record of some unsettlingly angry outtakes where Paul Merton furiously accuses Savile of paedophilia, raping children in his caravan, and intimidating them to stay quiet. At the time it was pretty much nothing but a distasteful joke, but now each one of these charges has been pretty much confirmed it has become far more disturbing.

** Some of the older jokes about Max Clifford are less funny to some, since Clifford was convicted of paedophilia in 2014.
** Also in 2014, Rolf Harris was convicted of paedophilia, making his appearance as a guest host considerably less funny - not least because the episode contains references to virtually everything he's known for (from a "Cartoon Club" based round to leading the audience in a rendition of "Two Little Boys") and is a reminder of how much cultural history a serial sexual predator was part of.

** The running gag about Angus shagging Merton's wife Caroline after Angus was reported to have paid a Caroline Martin (Paul's real last name) for sex.

** Countless jokes over the years about the Lib Dems never being able to get into power, when they finally managed it in 2010 (as part of a coalition government).

** One of the few cases where you can't make a joke about a group is in the case of paedophilia victims, as Creator/JimmySaville and Max Clifford have proved. Time will tell if this extends to Rolf Harris as well.

* SoBadItsGood: Some of the guest hosts are this, especially BorisJohnson and Creator/BrianBlessed. Easily flustered and/or unable to read the scripted material from the autocue convincingly, and yet never anything less than hugely entertaining to watch.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The Norwegian adaptation of this this show, titled ''Nytt På Nytt'' has consistently been Norways's most popular TV show for several years.

** The joke about Iain and Duncan Smith being identical twins running a political party got even more amusing when that actually happened in Poland -- they became President and Prime Minister. (And now a FunnyAneurysmMoment now that one of those twins was the highest-profile casualty of the 2010 Polish plane crash).

** Louise Mensch, née Bagshawe, did not prove popular during her two appearances. In the former she simply isn't funny. In her second appearance, she rants against the Occupy movement as being largely comprised of hypocrites owing to InsaneTrollLogic [[note]]she accused the protesters of all being {{Soapbox Sadie}}s who hypocritically supported capitalism's flaws simply ''for buying coffee'' from Starbucks once or twice- none of them knew about Starbucks at the time in terms of tax and in some cases they were simply using the toilet[[/note]]. This made her the topic of an epic rant, mostly from Paul and Danny Baker.

** In terms of guest host scrappies, Liza Tarbuck was deemed to be such a poor guest host that she was the only one to be left out of a Best of the Guest Hosts compilation entirely. Her appearances as a guest aren't so bad, but her hosting...

-->'''Chris:''' [[TheCasanova Well, uh... that's]] [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre The Chrisy Special!]]

** One of the few cases where you can't make a joke about a group is in the case of paeodophilia victims, as Creator/JimmySaville and Max Clifford have proved. Time will tell if this extends to Rolf Harris as well.

** Inversion -- in one episode Deayton criticised the BBC leadership, then added "and tune in next week to see this programme on its new home at 4 AM on [=BBC3=]". Quite funny now, but much funnier back then ''as there was no [=BBC3=]''. Arguably funniest of all now that BBC3 has moved from a broadcast service to an online-only one which nobody watches.

** Inversion -- in one episode Deayton criticised the BBC leadership, then added "and tune in next week to see this programme on its new home at 4 AM on [=BBC3=]". Quite funny now, but much funnier back then ''as there was no [=BBC3=]''.

** Some of the MargaretThatcher jokes may come across this way, given her death and the fact that so many were made only a matter of days after she died. They're in poor taste, but arguably funnier ''because'' of that.
** At one point, Alexander Armstrong discusses a party he ended up at where people such as Tony Blair were present, which caues Ian to snark "well, that cleaned it up". He follows this up asking whether certain people such as Harold Shipman (a real life DeadlyDoctor and SerialKiller) or Creator/JimmySaville (now a known paedophile) livened it up with entertainment such as karaoke.

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vILQhDGO8Xg This]] clip from [=S32E04=], in which Ross Noble jokes about Jimmy Savile chasing terrified athletes, while demanding "a bit of hows-your-father" (sex). Pretty funny at the time, but after September 2012 when revelations of Savile's Sex abuse of underage girls became public, this turned very, very dark.... yet still pretty funny.
** [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrk76a_hignfy-s17e07-jimmy-savile-diane-abbott_fun Episode S17E07, when Creator/JimmySavile appeared on the show.]] A number of offhand jokes and comments made by him are pretty disturbing in hindsight. An example is him being "feared in every girls school in the country", in reference to his failure as a wrestler. Given many of the sex abuse accusations stemmed from his visits to girls schools, this becomes far, far more sinister.

* HarsherInHindsight: BorisJohnson's appearances ultimately led to him building up enough of a public profile that he became Mayor of London, which was still funny if a little terrifying. It stopped being quite as funny when he became one of the leading campaigners for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum on the matter, and his presence was credited as what ultimately swung it for the Leave campaign to win, throwing the country into a total meltdown of which Johnson subsequently washed his hands when he withdrew from the Conservative leadership contest. (It is widely believed that Johnson actually wanted the ''Remain'' side to win and was using the whole thing as a massive XanatosGambit to become Prime Minister which backfired on him.) Several of the show's writers and producers, as well as Paul Merton himself, have openly stated that they regret their part in Johnson's rise to fame.

** Some of the Margaret Thatcher jokes may come across this way, given her death and the fact that so many were made only a matter of days after she died. They're in poor taste, but arguably funnier ''because'' of that.
** At one point, Alexander Armstrong discusses a party he ended up at where people such as Tony Blair were present, which caues Ian to snark "well, that cleaned it up". He follows this up asking whether certain people such as Harold Shipman (a real life DeadlyDoctor and SerialKiller) or Jimmy Saville (now a known paedophile) livened it up with entertainment such as karaoke.

** [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrk76a_hignfy-s17e07-jimmy-savile-diane-abbott_fun Episode S17E07, when Jimmy Savile appeared on the show.]] A number of offhand jokes and comments made by him are pretty disturbing in hindsight. An example is him being "feared in every girls school in the country", in reference to his failure as a wrestler. Given many of the sex abuse accusations stemmed from his visits to girls schools, this becomes far, far more sinister.

*** Another disturbing and meta example was a [[http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/rogerb/jokes/HIGNFY.txt hoax transcript made in 1999]] brought up in the same episode purporting to be the record of some unsettlingly angry outtakes where Paul Merton furiously accuses Savile of paedophillia, raping children in his caravan, and intimidating them to stay quiet. At the time it was pretty much nothing but a distasteful joke, but now each one of these charges has been pretty much confirmed it has become far more disturbing.

* HarsherInHindsight: Boris Johnson's appearances ultimately led to him building up enough of a public profile that he became Mayor of London, which was still funny if a little terrifying. It stopped being quite as funny when he became one of the leading campaigners for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum on the matter, and his presence was credited as what ultimately swung it for the Leave campaign to win, throwing the country into a total meltdown of which Johnson subsequently washed his hands when he withdrew from the Conservative leadership contest. (It is widely believed that Johnson actually wanted the ''Remain'' side to win and was using the whole thing as a massive XanatosGambit to become Prime Minister which backfired on him.) Several of the show's writers and producers, as well as Paul Merton himself, have openly stated that they regret their part in Johnson's rise to fame.

* SoBadItsGood: Some of the guest hosts are this, especially Boris Johnson and Brian Blessed. Easily flustered and/or unable to read the scripted material from the autocue convincingly, and yet never anything less than hugely entertaining to watch.

** One of the few cases where you can't make a joke about a group is in the case of paeodophilia victims, as Jimmy Saville and Max Clifford have proved. Time will tell if this extends to Rolf Harris as well.

* HarsherInHindsight: Boris Johnson's appearances ultimately led to him building up enough of a public profile that he became Mayor of London, which was still funny if a little terrifying. Then he became one of the leading campaigners for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum on the matter, and his presence was credited as what ultimately swung it for the Leave campaign to win, throwing the country into a total meltdown of which Johnson subsequently washed his hands when he withdrew from the Conservative leadership contest. (It is widely speculated that Johnson actually wanted the Remain side to win and was using the whole thing as a massive XanatosGambit to become Prime Minister.) Several of the show's writers and producers have openly stated that they regret their part in Johnson's rise to fame.

** The show reporting that a disgruntled DLA employee had doctored TonyBlair's driving licence, changing his name to "Saddam Hussein AKA Twatface". This coming years before Blair led the war that resulted in Hussein's execution.

** Made even worse by the fact that [[FatherTed Dermot Morgan]], who died of a heart attack, was on Ian's team that week.

* SoBadItsGood:
** Bad guests usually fall into this, as the other panel will mock them. For instance, David Shayler, Swampy, Robert Kilroy-Silk, and Piers Morgan are some of the most hated guests ever, but their appearances are still entertaining because of the other panellists' reactions to them. Utterly dreadful guests are few and far between, and only the apocalyptically bad are capable of muzzling the comic potential of the other pannelists. Examples of such awfulness are Lisa Tarbuck and Neil Kinnock.
** Some of the guest hosts are this, especially Boris Johnson and Brian Blessed. Easily flustered and/or unable to read the scripted material from the autocue convincingly, and yet never anything less than hugely entertaining to watch.

** The public did not react well to Rachel Johnson, as she basically tried plugging her book throughout the entire show (for the record, Roger Moore did this twice as part of the scripted joke and it went down well), didn't get the joke several times, made several {{Incredibly Lame Pun}}s and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick defended the Daily Mail]]. Paul and Marcus Brigstocke didn't have time for her, and even RogerMoore seemed rather pissed off on several occasions. Then there was her getting at Ian for being a member of the Church of England and seeming to think that it meant that he was wrong on everything that related to the story on women bishops in the Church of England. The subject might have been controversial, but by the time she brought up Ian being a Anglican for the third time it started to look like a bigoted attack on Ian's beliefs.

** The Daily Mail is an easy target, owing to [[InsaneTrollLogic their]] [[SarcasmMode highly prestigious]] [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer take on things]], to say nothing of their [[KickTheDog rather cruel]] [[DudeNotFunny articles]]. Mentioning that you like or work for the Mail is a very easy way to become TheScrappy for the rest of the panel, most of the time.

* DudeNotFunny:
** One episode featured an Odd One Out round in which Mother Theresa was surrounded by various dictators. Angus Deayton mockingly referred to Mother Theresa as winner of "the all-Calcutta shrivelled-walnut-lookalike competition". Ian Hislop called him out on this.
-->'''Ian:''' Obviously the best target. Milton Friedman, Saddam Hussein... yeah, let's get Mother Theresa! Shrivelled old walnut -- what's she ever done?
** A series 40 episode had the panel [[EvenEvilHasStandards (led by Jimmy Carr)]] decline to do a round called "Spot the Chinaman."
** Paul has a minor RunningGag of calling the audience out whenever they react to a BlackComedy joke by starting out with a groan but then laughing and applauding.
** As a rule, the commentary for the first DVD shows Ian and Paul both reacting in disgust to a child being hit in the face by an acrobat's kick (which was accidental).
** A Cornish MP objected to a joke made by Andy Hamilton ("Why was there confusion in Truro?" "Isn't there always, they're Cornish") in the Creator/WilliamShatner-hosted episode.
** The first episode of Series 44 had an entire round about Jimmy Savile (which centred on the sex assault charges) and very few jokes were made, due to the general awkwardness of the situation. The next round was about Abu Hazsa, a preacher of fundamentalism and terrorism, when Graham Linehan said he didn't really enjoy making jokes about the man due to who he is, Ian Hislop said that compared to the last round he was comedy gold.
** A minor one that's nowhere near the Savile levels, but still pretty bad. Janet Street-Porter chose to out some unfortunate sod who had a "[[GagPenis mushroom in his pants]]". Of all the things to talk about, it just comes across as immature, something that nobody really wanted to know and above all petty, not to mention the unfortunate sod cannot defend himself.
** A few people may not find the Series 47 "jokes" about Max Clifford funny, given how he's been revealed as a rapist. Granted, they weren't really treated as jokes by anyone in the studio, including the panel.
--->'''Jack Dee''': (in response to Bridget Christie saying she didn't know any jokes that were suitable) [[KnightOfCerebus That's rapists for you]].

** William Hague, who hosted the show twice and went from being overtly hated to somewhat tolerated. It helped that from all hosts, he was perhaps the only one to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpY16SzdEGk William Hague out-wit Paul Merton, of all people.]]

** William Hague, who hosted the show twice and went from being overtly hated to somewhat tolerated. It helped that from all hosts, he was perhaps the only one to [[William Hague out-wit Paul Merton, of all people.]]

** While Jeremy Clarkson was initially a popular host, if obnoxious at points, the news that the BBC are considering letting him return as host in the future, after his assaulting a producer on ''Series/TopGear'', has split the base. On the one hand, some feel that he shouldn't be barred from the BBC altogether, whereas on the other hand some feel it sends the wrong message and implies he can easily get around ''Top Gear'' supposedly ending. As it stands, Clarkson dropped out of Series 49's lineup but is due to return for the autumn/winter series in 2015.

** Paul has a minor RunningGag of calling the audience out whenever they react to a BlackComedy joke by starting out with a DudeNotFunny groan but then it turns into laughter and applause.

** While Jeremy Clarkson was initially a popular host, if obnoxious at points, the news that the BBC are considering letting him return as host in the future, after his assaulting a producer on ''Series/TopGear'', has split the base. On the one hand, some feel that he shouldn't be barred from the BBC altogether, whereas on the other hand some feel it sends the wrong message and implies he can easily get around ''Top Gear'' supposedly ending. As it stands, Clarkson dropped out of Series 49's lineup but may be allowed to return later in 2015.

* FanNickname: Episode six of series twenty-three is known as, by everybody, the "Angus Deayton Scandal Episode". Episode two of series twenty-four is known as, by a lot of the core fandom, "Angus' goodbye", or some variation.

* NeverLiveItDown: If you're a guest that has done something wrong, such as "accidentally" announcing a General Election early, or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Duncan#MPs.27_expenses_2009 claiming quite a bit on expenses]], then Ian ''will'' call you out on it. No exceptions.

** Also in 2014, Rolf Harris was convicted of paedophilia, making his appearance considerably less funny.