Paul Merton's Sketch Comedy show borrows a little from Stand-Up Comedy, a pinch of weird-ass situations, and a healthy dose of inspiration from silent films. Also, lots of comedic monologues.
It stars him as The Protagonist and aired for the first time in 1991. It lasted until 1993. Other members of the regular cast include the comedic actors Robert Harly and Jonh Irwin.
This series provides examples of:
- The Big Board: In one sketch
, a gang plans a bank robbery this way, and as it drifts further from its origins they keep producing implausibly specific models to add to the map to illustrate their points. - Borrowed Catchphrase: One sketch ends with Caroline Quentin (Paul's wife at the time) singing "Je Ne Regrette Rien". At the end of the song, Paul tells her "That's not French — you'll have to do better than that." She addresses the camera with his catchphrase: "Innit marvellous?"
- Brick Joke: In one sketch, Merton explains that the inmates from the detention center in front of his house tunneled their way into his fridge. Then, they proceed to escape en masse. An indeterminate amount of time later, in another comedic monologue, an alien blob is telling him about the things he can show to him when it pauses to exclaim "Blimey! You've got prisoners jumping out of your fridge!"
- Chalk Outline: Parodied. A man struck by a falling object draws his own chalk outline around himself as he collapses.
- It Came from the Fridge:
- In one of the comedic monologues, Merton explains that he lives across the street from a detention center and that one of the inmates has made a tunnel to the back of his fridge. Merton has been kept up at night by the sound of prisoners escaping out of his fridge.
- In another sketch, he reveals that he is frequently visited by beings from outer space. Merton tells the story of how a blob showed up on his doorstep and started telling him that it could show him things beyond his wildest imaginings. Then, the blob exclaims "Blimey! You've got prisoners jumping out of your fridge!"
- Implausible Deniability: In one comedic monologue, the character explains how he's been falsely accused of murder, but the evidence is so against him that he never stood a chance: "Sure, the cops found me standing over the guy with a smoking pistol in my hand — sure, sure. Sure, I had the motive. I had the opportunity. I even remember killing him! But you must believe me, I didn't do it."
- Now You Tell Me:For 3 days and 3 nights we marched over open country, marching over mountains, marching under streams, from the Arctic Circle to the Sahara desert. We marched and marched and marched, until at last it was time to open our Sealed Orders.
[reads] "Don't march anywhere." - Sealed Orders: In a military sketch, Merton recounts how his unit marched over the countryside for 3 days, enduring all sorts of extreme weather and difficult terrains, before they were allowed to open their orders.
