History Series / BritainsGotTalent

* TheFaceless: 2016 gave us Boogie Storm, a group of six dancers wearing [[Film/StarWars Stormtrooper helmets and armor]] that completely obscured their faces. They also never spoke during their audition, so the judges couldn't even confirm genders.

''Britain's Got Talent'' is an [[Main/{{ITV}} ITV]] TalentShow where people perform talent acts with the aim of winning a public vote and perform in front of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor HM The Queen]] (for the second series HRH The Prince of Wales) at ''TheRoyalVarietyShow''. Each contestant performs in front of three or four judges. The judges have three/four buzzers and can push them if they want the act to stop. All buttons pressed- the act stops. Tolerated primarily for the ridiculous and often hilariously bad auditions and the inevitable scathing responses.

* InstantWebHit: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk Susan Boyle]] found fame when the YouTube video of her performance racked up 100 million views in just nine days.

** Lampshaded when Boogie Storm first auditioned in 2016. At the start of their audition, Amanda pointed to Simon and asked them, "Do you work for ''this'' Dark Lord?"
** It must be mentioned that Simon loved them so much, he gave them the Golden Buzzer.

* BerserkButton: Simon does not like seeing terrified puppies. And during a segment on Britain's Got More Talent, he walks away after realizing the puppy he was given was very nervous.

* Louis Walsh (2010-2011); one of Cowell's co-judges on ''TheXFactor''; not a regular judge on this show, but occasionally shows up when one of the other judges is ill or otherwise busy. Since series 8, his position as the substitute judge in the auditions has been taken over by Creator/AntAndDec.

** Issy Simpsons is another nine-year-old whose schtick doesn't only consist of performing magic, but also bossing around all the judges. She even manage to scare ''Simon'' with one of her audition tricks.

* BadassAdorable: Nine year old Jesse-Jane [=McParland=] got all the way up to the finals with her incredible martial artists routine and her child-like charm.

* ChildProdigy: Issy Simpsons from Season 11 is a 9-year-old Magician whose acts holds up against all the adult magicians who have appeared on stage before her, managing to advance to the grand finals, and becoming the runner-up of the season (which is a very high standing for a magician, which was first achieved by Jamie Raven in 2015 and surpassed by Richard Jones in 2016).

* Louis Walsh (2010-2011); one of Cowell's co-judges on ''TheXFactor''; not a regular judge on this show, but occasionally shows up when one of the other judges is ill or otherwise busy

The two hosts of the show are Creator/AntAndDec.

* BrokenStreak: 2016 was the first year that David [[spoiler: used his golden buzzer on an performance where none of the judges buzzed the act.]]

'''''Britain's Got Talent''''' is an [[Main/{{ITV}} ITV]] TalentShow where people perform talent acts with the aim of winning a public vote and perform in front of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor HM The Queen]] (for the second series HRH The Prince of Wales) at ''TheRoyalVarietyShow''. Each contestant performs in front of three or four judges. The judges have three/four buzzers and can push them if they want the act to stop. All buttons pressed- the act stops. Tolerated primarily for the ridiculous and often hilariously bad auditions and the inevitable scathing responses.

* AwesomeMccoolname: One series three contestant was named Adrian Pirate. Unfortunately he didn't live up to his name; his act consisted of him randomly riding in on a motorbike, before getting a chainsaw and slicing up fruits impaled on sticks. He didn't even model them into shapes or anything, he was literally just cutting randomly. After swiftly being dealt three "no"s from the judges, he ran off waving his arms in the air like a madman. Nothing involving talent was even attempted.

* TheRunnerUpTakesItAll - Susan Boyle has a multi-platinum album, and everybody just ''assumes'' she won Series 3 thanks to MemeticMutation, but...

* {{Anticlimax}} - Many viewers reacted with outrage at the producers' decision not to allow dancers Michael Moral and Razy Gogonea both through to the semi-finals (initially they only put the latter through) on the grounds that their acts were too similar. Eventually, Simon Cowell intervened and personally had Moral invited back to the last semi-final to let the public decide who was the better act. When the episode aired, Moral put in a sloppy, amateurish performance that saw him finish third-bottom in the night's voting, while Gogonea's showstopping performance saw him through to the final, where he finished fourth overall.
* AsideGlance - Stephen Mulhern does these on ''Britain's Got More Talent", mostly along the lines of "Have you ever wanted to see... (aside glance) No? Me neither." It may sound repetitive, but they are quite funny when you see his face.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking - In 2013, impressionist Francine Lewis performs this three times in one act

* AwesomeMccoolname - One series three contestant was named Adrian Pirate. Unfortunately he didn't live up to his name; his act consisted of him randomly riding in on a motorbike, before getting a chainsaw and slicing up fruits impaled on sticks. He didn't even model them into shapes or anything, he was literally just cutting randomly. After swiftly being dealt three "no"s from the judges, he ran off waving his arms in the air like a madman. Nothing involving talent was even attempted.
* BadassAdorable - Nine year old Jesse-Jane [=McParland=] got all the way up to the finals with her incredible martial artists routine and her child-like charm.
* BigNo - Stephen Mulhern shouts one at the start of a live Britain's Got More Talent. He rather shakily emerges on roller skates [[note]]as a ShoutOut to a wacky contestant who was eliminated[[/note]] and can be heard yelling at David to stay away. HilarityEnsues.

* BunnyEarsLawyer - David is this: he acts like a campy, goofy poof a good deal of the time, but when it comes to judging, he gives genuinely fair critiques to contestants and is more balanced than the harsher Simon or the nicer Amanda and Alesha.
* ButtMonkey - David is often the subject of mockery from the others, especially on Britain's Got More Talent.
* CampStraight - David Walliams, the happily married judge who likes to refer to "my Simon" and championing CampGay acts such as the Show Bears and the Sugar Dandies.
* CanonDiscontinuity - Two acts in the first season were put through in auditions, and then put through to the semi-finals, but mysteriously vanished from the line-up before the live shows started, replaced by two previously eliminated. Both turned out to have dubious legal dealings, and were quietly kicked off the show. In fact, at no point was their departure ever mentioned on screen, so viewers were left a bit confused.

* CloudCuckooLander - Quite a few of the contestants come across as one, such as Lorraine Bowen.
* CutenessProximity - Amanda will often squee at cute animals that are brought onstage.
* DeadpanSnarker - The judges tend to be like this towards the ridiculous acts, especially Simon.
* {{Determinator}} - David J. Watson, the only person to date who has auditioned for the show on four separate occasions. He [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9E0m3Q0SR8 first appeared]] in 2008, where he did political impersonation act that was hilarious for all the wrong reasons, then [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctZCyXbl9iA showed up again]] in 2010 where he performed a bizarre mix of ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'' and ''Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy''. His [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAL4Gyknf-o appearance]] in 2011 saw him try to pull off "magic trick" that didn't really amount to anything more than a high school science experiment. In his most recent attempt in the 2013 series, he brought back up in the form of two colleagues, one of whom seemed not very enthusiastic in being there. His act involved a small comedy sketch where David pretends to drill through a wall and into a person, who then 'comically' spins around. This was achieved by having one guy arc the top half of his body over the wall, and then the other guy waves a pair of fake legs. It was as bad as it sounds. Only David Walliams seemed amused.
* DistractedByTheSexy - Simon on a regular basis. Anytime there is a pretty woman on stage he can't stop grinning, and the cameras show him blatantly checking them out. So much so there is a video called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8xsZB2GO-M Britain's Got Pervert]]...

* DragQueen - Simon Cowell half-jokingly asked auditionee Tracy Lee Collins to come back in a dress. He did, and the results were [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PN6D8Y_eg0 pretty awesome, actually]].

* EpicFail - James Boyd's act was to try to beat the world record for the number of Ferrero Rocher chocolates eaten in one minute. The record was seven, and he managed... four. To make it an even more spectacular failure, Ant tried the same act backstage and beat him by eating five in the same amount of time.

* {{Fangirl}} - If you're a attractive young man without a shirt on, expect a yes from Amanda.

* FanDisservice - A couple of times, a few auditionees may strip off various amounts of clothing, with varying levels of attractiveness. For one example, a middle-aged man tried to perform a strip act with a chicken codpiece on. Suffice to say, he was buzzed off in short order.
* FlatYes - Happens when Simon disagrees with putting Mamma Trish (a goofy, heavyset drag queen with an... interesting routine) through; he votes no, but is vetoed by Piers and Amanda, which leads to this exchange later:

* FunnyBackgroundEvent - [[https://youtu.be/Y8vjtBjoPfc?t=4m1s This moment]] from a semi-final in 2015. Keep your eye on the table in the background.

* HopelessAuditionees - In between the good acts, you'll get these.
* IneptTalentShowContestant - Half the fun of the show to some people is watching these.

* LamePunReaction - One pun earned an impressionist the rare honour of being buzzed off before even being allowed to perform his act. He nonchalantly walked out on to the stage wearing a custard doughnut on his head, and when Piers questioned what it was doing there, the contestant replied "I've just been to the hairdressers, and I've got my hair in a bun." The judges showed their appreciation of this joke by all hitting their buzzers at once, and the hapless contestant left without having done a single impression.
* ManipulativeEditing - A specific example: Part of the reason the Susan Boyle story was such a runaway success was the brilliant editing of the clip that introduced her. For the first two minutes, she is set up as a classic [[HopelessAuditionees Hopeless Auditionee]]: they seem to find the most unflattering shots of her (the very first one we see is her biting into a sandwich); the background music is a slow, lumbering oom-pah-pah melody; she herself seems rather... quirky ("And that's just one side of me!", followed by a shimmy), if not ''quite'' as deluded as most HopelessAuditionees. If anything, the viewer would feel pity for this poor old woman who is about to embarrass herself on national television. [[SubvertedTrope And then, of course, she sings.]] Re-watching the audition (as many, ''many'' people did) gives the opening an entirely different tone: Boyle's unusual self-confidence is now perfectly understandable, and her quirks therefore seem more endearing. But it's clear that the editing is ''actually'' setting her up as the underdog: note the very large number of cynical reaction shots (one of these, the "[[FanNickname girl at 1:24]]", actually [[MemeticMutation gained notoriety]] because of this), and the way the goofy music suddenly disappears when Susan delivers her most heartfelt line: "I've always wanted to perform in front of a large audience". Needless to say, it all worked like a charm, and it became one of the biggest pop culture stories of 2009.
* MsFanservice - Amanda Holden is often complimented on her beauty.
* TheMeanBrit - Simon AND Piers. Granted, Piers is a little less negative than on ''Series/AmericasGotTalent''.
** JerkWithAHeartOfGold - However, Simon tends to be nicer to younger contestants, while Piers sometimes gives otherwise hopeless acts a chance to continue before pressing his buzzer.

* MundaneMadeAwesome - On the side of the contestants in the defense of their usually poor acts. In a meta sense, the need to play [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbS-Zhz31CA&feature=fvst Lux Aeterna]] or some derivative of otherwise [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome epic]] [[OminousLatinChanting music]] at [[OnceAnEpisode EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY!]]

* OddCouple - Simon Cowell and David Walliams, starting in 2012.
* RefugeInAudacity - In the "Interval Pub Games" sketch in ''Britain's Got More Talent'' (2012), the winner in the pub game between Ant and Dec becomes the "Top Ranker". Now, understanding what other word ranker sounds like, everyone proceeds to repeatedly chant "Ranker!" at the winner.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny - Frequently invoked by the judges, particularly with regard to dance groups. Even otherwise competent acts can get buzzed off near-instantly if they're regarded to be too similar to a previously successful act.
* SelfDeprecation - Constantly used on ''Britain's Got More Talent''.
* SoundtrackDissonance - The 2013 finale had an impressive performance by singers Richard & Adam [[spoiler: be interrupted by violinist Natalie Holt throwing eggs at Simon Cowell while they were still singing.]]
* SturgeonsLaw - A rare case where this ISN'T a bad thing. It could be argued that this is why the show is tolerated by audiences. They primarily want to see the crap acts, with the REALLY good stuff being a bonus.
* TalkingAnimal - In 2015, Marc Métral brought along his singing dog, Miss Wendy. Though it was actually a Ventriloquist act where Miss Wendy was wearing a mask used to make it look like she was talking.
* TransAtlanticEquivalent - ''Series/AmericasGotTalent''.
* WhatTheHellHero - After chanting, "OFF! OFF! OFF!" for the entirety of one (very bad) act, the audience booed loudly at Simon Cowell when he gave a damning review of the act. He turned to them and pointed out their blatant hypocrisy.

** Morgan is dubbed "Piers Moron" by ''PrivateEye'' as Ian Hislop has a long-standing feud with him, was actually sacked by the paper after running pictures purporting to show Iraqis being abused by British troops. That were in fact mocked up -- in the UK. Military commentators spotted errors very quickly.
** Morgan is probably the least popular man on British TV. Creator/StephenFry -- the most cuddly man in the world -- defined "countryside" as [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar killing Piers Morgan]] on Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue, and angry environmentalists say of [[TopGear Jeremy Clarkson]] "but he did punch Piers Morgan".

* MundaneMadeAwesome - On the side of the contestants in the defense of their usually poor acts. In a meta sense, the need to play [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbS-Zhz31CA&feature=fvst Lux Aeterna]] or some derivative of otherwise [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome epic]]
[[OminousLatinChanting music]] at [[OnceAnEpisode EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY!]]

* MundaneMadeAwesome - On the side of the contestants in the defense of their usually poor acts. In a meta sense, the need to play [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbS-Zhz31CA&feature=fvst Lux Aeterna]] or some derivative of otherwise [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome epic]] [[OminousLatinChanting music]] at [[OnceAnEpisode EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY!]]

* Louis Walsh (2010-present); one of Cowell's co-judges on ''TheXFactor''; not a regular judge on this show, but occasionally shows up when one of the other judges is ill or otherwise busy

* DragQueen - Simon Cowell half-jokingly asked auditionee Tracy Lee Collins to come back in a dress. He did, and the results were [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PN6D8Y_eg0 pretty awesome, actually]].

* Alesha Dixon (2012-present); singer, recently defected from ''StrictlyComeDancing''

** Morgan is probably the least popular man on British TV. StephenFry -- the most cuddly man in the world -- defined "countryside" as [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar killing Piers Morgan]] on Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue, and angry environmentalists say of [[TopGear Jeremy Clarkson]] "but he did punch Piers Morgan".