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Mock The Week
Which of these five fine comedians is opening The Racist Door today, children?

Frankie Boyle: "Welcome to Mock The Week: After Dark. I'm Dara Ó Briain, and this...is my penis."

Hugh Dennis: "Yes, well it's... definitely stuck up there... we may, er... we may have to use the ferret."

Now in its seventh season, this British Panel Game is BBC2's equivalent of Have I Got News For You, with strong influence from Whose Line Is It Anyway (which isn't surprising, considering they were created by the same people). It involves only comedians and is hosted by Dara Ó Briain, an Irish comedian.

Originally slated as a general guest show, it has since evolved to make regulars of Frankie Boyle and Hugh Dennis—the latter using many catchphrases and impressions, and the former using the darkest of humour as often as possible—on one team; and Russell Howard and Andy Parsons on the other (the former rather whimsical, the latter very practical), with two guests, one for each side. The guests are usually English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish comics, but occasionally include American, Australian, and Canadian comedians.
Unfortunately for his fans, Frankie Boyle has decided to leave the show after a heart scare and won't be coming back for the recently renewed next two (8th and 9th) series. How well the show works without him will possibly determine whether or not these are the last two series.

Regular Games
  • "Headline News": The performers are shown a picture taken from a newspaper, with that newspaper's corresponding headline reduced to the first letter of each word, which they then have to decipher. Naturally, they have a little fun with likely letters of the alphabet, to the point where Dara sometimes has to rein them in.
    The Letters: T.F.H.C.
    (the players have been going on in the same vein for some time)
    Dara Ó Briain: "Let me give you a clue: the first three letters do not stand for 'This Fucker Has...'!"
    Hugh Dennis: "Is it 'That Fucker Has Cancer'?"
    Dara Ó Briain: "Stop saying fuck!"
  • "Spinning the News": Four of the performers, two from each team, do a mini-standup routine on a randomly selected topic. Dara tends to give the game odd (and topical) titles, such as "News Wheel...Of Death!", "Harry Potter and the Wheel of News", or "Danger! Danger! Subatomic Joke Collider!"
    • Originally, all six players got up, and if they were pronounced funny enough, they were allowed to go sit down at the desk. When all the players from one team sat down, they won. (This never actually happened, due to the following rule.) If When the game got down to the last two, one from each side, they had a tiebreaker on a single topic.
    • As mentioned, more recent series alter this, so that only four start; neither do the performers sit down, remaining in the game area. The last player is simply forced to use whatever category is left, rather than being allowed to give the wheel one more go or, as in the original version, go on a topic that's already been warmed up.
  • "If this is the answer, what is the question?": You know how Jeopardy! originated as an attempt to reverse the trivia format by giving the contestants the answers and have them provide the questions? This actually does that, as opposed to merely rephrasing the questions as answers and vice versa. Several categories such as "sport", "international news", and "the arts" are presented and one of the performers—usually one of the guests—chooses one, revealing an oddly-phrased or very oblique answer. The players then exchange joking questions before trying to figure out what the question actually is. The joking ones tend to be very elaborate.
    The Answer: "15 per second"
    Lauren Laverne: "How many pounds sterling is Simon Cowell paid to cut the cultural throat of our nation and drink its still-warm blood?"
    Dara Ó Briain: "...that's not what I have on the card."
    (the actual question: How fast were copies of the final Harry Potter novel selling on release day?)
  • "Scenes We'd Like To See": Dara Ó Briain suggests topics like "Unlikely things to hear on Blue Peter", and the contestants come in with funny suggestions. Probably the funniest, or at least most consistently funny, section of the show; Silent Hunter utilised it as a Message Board game. Very clearly "inspired" by Whose Line's "World's Worst" and "Scenes From A Hat" rounds.
    The Topic: "Inadvisable things to say in court"
    Andy Parsons: "How could she have seen my face? I was wearin' a balaclava!"
    On the topic of "Bad things to hear at work":
    Fred Macaulay: "Get off, you're shit."

Optional Games
  • "What On Earth?":
    Dara Ó Briain: "Our viewers at home are probably thinking, 'What's this game? I've never seen it before!' Well, that's cause we never fuckin' show it."
    • As Dara notes, very rarely shown on the initial broadcasts anymore (though occasionally making the "best of" or "too hot for TV" shows), "What On Earth?" is a simple game where the players have to come up with a humorous caption for a picture from the news. An example from the show's first episode, with a picture of President George W. Bush in the midst of a speech and the question, "What is President Bush thinking?"
      Hugh Dennis: "Gee, there's a lotta room in here...here...here..."
  • "Between The Lines": Almost always played by Frankie Boyle and Hugh Dennis these days, the game consists of one player (usually Frankie) giving a speech from a well-known figure, with the other (usually Hugh Dennis) saying what they really mean.
    Sandie Toksvig: (as Queen Elizabeth II): ...but there have also been times of incredible loss.
    Hugh Dennis: ...but there have also been times of incredible loss ("correcting" her extreme-RP upper-class accent)
    Sandie Toksvig: Lawss.
    Hugh Dennis: Loss.
    Sandie Toksvig: I lawst things.
    Hugh Dennis: My yacht. *she nods* My summer home. *she nods* Zimbabwe. *she nods*
    • The most likely reason this game is rare in modern episodes is that the show is supposed to feature two teams competing against one another (even though the The Points Mean Nothing...), and featuring a round that is only ever played by two members of the same team gives them something of an advantage. In addition, Hugh Dennis originally played this with Rory Bremner, the show's specialist impressionist (and who coincidentally was on the opposing team). Even then the game was very one sided because Rory always did the straight impression, while Hugh did the comedic interpretation and almost always got the points (which were awarded on the basis of which of them was the funniest).
  • "Newsreel": While silent footage from a recent public or televised event plays, one or two players (at least one of them usually Hugh Dennis) narrates or does dialogue (or both) as the people featured go about their business.
    Prince Philip: (at a tour of a police station, spotting officers waiting to meet him) Oh, my. It's the fuzz. No, no, I didn't know it was an osprey...

Past Games (series 1 and 2 only; mainly dropped because Rory Bremner, their best impressionist, left the show and all the games involved impressions to some degree)
  • "Dating Videos": A performer from each side was given an envelope, within which was a card they'd never seen before, and made to sit in front of a backdrop. On the card was the name of a famous person they had to pretend to be, recording a dating video.
    Rory Bremner: (as Nelson Mandela) I'm over eighty. I look like a pint of Guinness. But wait until you see "Nelson's Column"!
    Frankie Boyle: (As Michael Jackson) Hello. I'm sort of like a Scooby Doo villain. I hang around an abandoned amusement park wearing a plastic face.
  • "Ask the politicians": The show's tribute to the current affairs show Question Time. Normally two or three players went into the studio audience, and were often called on with excessively detailed or insulting physical descriptions; the others stayed in their seats. Dara of course played host of the show. Rory Bremner played a certain famous Labour politician, and Dennis was usually a Conservative. Guest Al Murray appeared twice as "The Voice of the Silent Majority", portraying a xenophobic and hardline-on-crime "regular person".
    Al Murray: "Speaking as THE VOICE OF THE SILENT MAJORITY...! Of course, having said that, I'm no longer a member..."
    —-
    Al Murray: "...I think we should go back to The Queen. And I'm not just saying that out of mindless loyalty."
    Dara "Why, then?"
    Al Murray: "I fancy her."
    —-
    Al Murray: "Speaking for the people who would have shot that burglar a third time...I wouldn't have done that. What I would've done is dug a pit with spikes, put a rug on top, they fall in — (holding imaginary rifle) BANG! BANG! BANG! WHO'S THERE? BANG!"
  • "Prime Minister's questions": For all the players. Dara would take the role of Speaker of the House of Commons, Rory would play a certain Labour Prime Minister, and the rest would do their level best to play members of the opposing or majority parties, depending on which side of the aisle set they were on. Given a rather trivial news story to debate, they were to treat it as though it were the heavyweight issue of the day.
    (Regarding some frogs having exploded in Germany, and the House reacting as though it was a terrorist threat)
    Hugh Dennis: "I would like to know how the government plan to catch these frogs trying to enter Britain and if they do, will they slam the toads in the hole?"
  • "Bombshell phone calls": The only game in this list to be played past the second season (once in the third), two players would pretend to be major world figures, one giving the other a call with a major revelation to make.
    Frankie Boyle (as Tony Blair, to George Bush): "You mean I left Cherie [his wife] behind?"

This show contains examples of:
  • Acceptable Political Targets - i.e. anyone in politics. Some more than others...
  • Aerith And Bob - See also Small Reference Pools; the players are quite aware of the tropes of the fantasy genre, at least with regards to the most popular examples, and love poking fun at them when the chance arises.
    The Category: "Cut lines from a fantasy film"
    Greg Davies: "Hey, John. How's it going? Yeah? How're the kids? Great. Well, see you around."
  • Black Comedy - Blacker than the blackest black hole, times infinity.
  • Cluster F Bomb - When Frankie Boyle or the rare foulmouthed guest gets revved up...
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny - It's hard to decide, but Frankie Boyle's "Dalek Poetry Reading" or his infamous "cut joke" about Queer Eye For The Straight Guy are two top contenders.
  • Completely Missing The Point - The sensitive souls who watch it expecting a simple clone of Have I Got News For You and get a rather nasty shock the first time Frankie Boyle opens his mouth.
  • Crosses The Line Twice: Frankie Boyle almost every time he opens his mouth. Depending on your sensibilities, some of Hugh's lines may qualify (the suggestion for "Famous Last Words" of "Yeah Jackie, let's go in the open-topped car today!" being an example).
  • Cute Little Fangs - Look closely, Dara has them.
  • Dead Baby Comedy - An excellent example stems from an episode where the topic of Alexander Litvinenko, who died of radiation poisoning after being dosed by polonium-laced food and drink, came up. Frankie Boyle said that the British people obviously respected him very much:
    Frankie Boyle: "If you go to his gravesite, there's no weeds. *lets it sink in* In fact, there's no plant life for a mile around. And if you look, you can find all sorts of small woodland creatures who've just died of sadness, Dara."
  • Dude Not Funny - Inevitable, given the tone of some of the humour.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse - The camera crew seemed to like pointing out how even the other comedians were losing their shit during Stewart Francis's turn on Spinning The News.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait - Russell Howard.
  • Hurricane Of Puns - As much a target of the players' humor as used by them. While discussing a Viagra fraud case where the perpetrators had been arrested, Russell Howard noted he'd seen it on the news, and that the anchors started riffing on it:
    Russell Howard: " 'Sounds like a hard case, hur-hur.' 'They'll probably get a stiff sentence, heh-heh.' And then there was this moment where you could tell they got word to stop it; they kind of went, '*sigh, slump* Yeah, okay.' "
  • Lampshade Hanging - Each of the performers is quite aware of the others' style of humor, so when Frankie Boyle ragged on Dara for teasing that a British swimmer raising money for cancer should have planted a flag on the North Pole's continental shelf, people were surprised and asked him how it felt to take the moral high ground.
    Frankie: "It's all so bright up here."
    • It didn't last two minutes, as the topic lead into the joke quoted in Dead Baby Comedy.
      Frankie: "It's so dark and cold down here, Dara. I can just see the edges of your faces."
  • Mister Seahorse:
    Frankie: "Well, there's good news—you've had a baby; the bad news is, it's blown your cock off!"
  • No Fourth Wall - Dara often takes a moment to consider what the subjects of their jokes would think of them. For example, after Frankie mused on Rebecca Adlington's love life, Dara imagined her arriving back from the Olympics (where she won two gold medals in swimming, one in world record time) going, "Ooh, I haven't seen Mock The Week in four weeks! I wonder who they're tearing into - oh. Oh."
  • Real Song Theme Tune - "News of the World" by The Jam.
  • Refuge In Audacity - Frankie Boyle, frequently.
    Frankie: "You can get Princess Diana Sat-Navs now, but all it says is 'Speed up, I think we can lose them.' "
    *Everyone groans, amused and/or appalled*
    Frankie (grudgingly) "That joke can go either way, if I'm honest."
  • Ripped From The Headlines - By its very nature.
  • Running Gag
    • Hugh Dennis - "Are you paying too much for your car insurance?", Showaddywaddy, "...sponsored by PowerGen", HIV and chlamydia gags, [Sir] Jimmy Saville...
    • Frankie Boyle - HIV and chlamydia gags, Kerry Katona's fertility and apparent penchant for cheap fatty food, Scottish savagery or primitivism
    • Russell Howard - Tatty-bo-jangles as a euphemism for breasts
    • Many episodes have running gags that everyone gets in on that last the length of the episode, but don't carry over. For example, "Nuts on the road" and "the Racist Door".
  • Slash Fic - Referenced—there's apparently slash of Hugh and Frankie—and (of course) mocked. Frankie was quite offended that his pubes were described as ginger, and when Hugh raised his arms in victory after being informed of his starring role, said, "I don't know why you're celebratin'; you're the receiver."
  • Small Reference Pools - Often subverted. Usually, Russell Howard will bring up a speculative fiction fandom, only for everyone else to get in an opinion on it, showing they are at least slightly versed. (There are sometimes even groups of fans in the audience.) An excellent example was when he discussed being in line for the last Harry Potter novel; they asked if he dressed up as one of the characters. When he said he hadn't, they continued that he'd missed a great opportunity to show up as someone else: "I'm sorry! I am Darth Vader! I wear this to all these kinds of things!" Russell finished by noting he should have dressed as a Sith Lord, waited in line all night, and when he got to the counter said, "The Da Vinci Code, please."
    • Played straight an awful lot of the time, such as in this entire segment where they reference precisely 3 fantasy works, each of which have all recently been turned into movies and are incredibly popular in mainstream media anyway.
  • Take That - Each episode consists of the opening credits, about twenty-seven minutes of this, and three minutes of jokes that aren't attacks on anyone or anything sprinkled throughout, then the ending credits. And considering the opening credits are mock newspaper or internet articles making fun of a large number of politicians/celebrities anyway, not even they are exempt.
  • Too Hot For TV
  • Too Soon
    • The seventh series premiered 17 July 2009, barely three weeks after 24 June. Guess who Frankie Boyle made jokes about?
    • Lampshaded by Dara Ó Briain - often, during his opening monologue, he would make a joke about, say, the assassination of JFK, and when the audience groaned would follow it up with a sarcastic, "Oh, too soon?" This was particularly noteworthy when one such joke about a tragedy that would count as one of the Oldest Ones In The Book got a groan from the audience, when moments earlier the audience had laughed merrily at jokes about Saddam Hussein's execution, which had happened that week.
  • The Points Mean Nothing - in fact, they only seem to be mentioned at all to keep up the pretense that it's a quiz show. Don't expect to hear how many points a team ever has.
    • One memorable example of this was an episode in series 2, where Dara awarded the points to a team that had not participated in the round at all ("Impossible to declare a winner in that round, because the two of you are on the same team, so I'm going to give the points to this team!")
  • Your Mileage May Vary - Frankie Boyle is either the funniest man on the show, or horrifically offensive. Or both. Or, rarely, neither.
    • There is still a little discontent in Ireland that the show is almost exactly the same as The Panel. Wouldn't sting quite so bad, but they stole our feckin' presenter.
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