Line #50 Characters/HaveIGotNewsForYou


1	This page covers the three main regulars over the years.
2
3	!!Creator/AngusDeayton
4	* AbsentMindedProfessor: His onscreen persona can probably best be summed up as this. Deayton often had an air of authority that was somewhat let down by a very airy forgetfulness that was exploited by his co-stars for comedic effect.
5	* CaptainObvious: Typically, this was the brand of snark he employed towards guests.
6	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Nowadays is probably best remembered as having been the ButtMonkey for which Ian and Paul endlessly mocked. As such, it can be surprising for new viewers to go back and witness the many times that Angus got one over on Paul and left him at a loss for words.
7	* GeniusDitz: Despite having read languages at Oxford, comes across as the most airy and scatterbrained of the three.
8	* DeadpanSnarker: Perhaps not as prolific as the other two, but Angus is still notable as one of the very few people who could routinely outfox {{Series/Paul Merton\|TheSeries}} in a battle of wits and leave him at a loss for a comeback.
9	* FascinatingEyebrow
10	* HumiliationConga: He went through one after his prostitute/honey trap/cocaine scandal broke.
11	-->"Welcome to ''Have I Got News For You'', where this week's loser... is presenting it."
12	* LeanAndMean: Perhaps not as mean as the other two, but still mean and certainly more lean.
13	* SophisticatedAsHell: He would sometimes explain who a modern pop group was to Hislop by describing them as a "popular beat combo", a reference to a possibly-apocryphal but well-known story about a judge in the 1960s who was informed about Music/TheBeatles in this manner.
14	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: With Paul, in a production sense. In an interview on ''Parkinson'', Paul stated he never liked Angus, and felt that losing him was "not a big deal."
15	* VitriolicBestBuds: With Ian, though the scandal seemingly put a strain on things between them.
16
17	!!Ian Hislop
18
19	* ArchEnemy: Robert Maxwell and Piers Morgan, the latter of whom appeared in Series 11, Episode 06. The former supposedly drowned falling out of a yacht.
20	* CharacterExaggeration: While Ian undoubtedly came from a posh background, his being out of touch with everything is a gag on Paul's part.
21	* DeadpanSnarker: Though unlike Paul and Angus, Ian is more BritishStuffiness and KnightInSourArmor.
22	* ManOfAThousandVoices: Parodied with a RunningGag in the latest series, with all of his impressions of people in the news (from Pakistani villagers witnessing the death of UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden to Cheryl Cole) sounding exactly like Yorkshire playwright Creator/AlanBennett.
23	* SophisticatedAsHell:
24	** He claims complete ignorance of popular culture, making questions about -- or occasional appearances by -- pop stars more entertaining.
25	** Occasionally he will subvert this for laughs by displaying surprise knowledge of popular culture, to which Deayton would reply with [[FascinatingEyebrow "That sounds dangerously modern, Ian."]]
26	--->(''sentence with a blank: "____ would have been surprisingly avant-garde for rural Highbury"'')
27	--->'''Ian Hislop''': Signing Thierry Henry.
28	--->'''Paul Merton''' (''into the ensuing silence''): I think he's been taken over by a robot. (''to Ian'') You murderer! What have you done with him? [[OutOfCharacterAlert You've made a fatal mistake there, Ian Hislop would know nothing about football!]]
29	* TeamDad: More than one contestant has jokingly called him 'Dad'.
30	* VitriolicBestBuds: With Paul. Also with Angus, though the scandal seemingly put a strain on things between them.
31
32	!!Paul Merton
33	* AuthorAppeal: Paul is an expert on Music/TheBeatles and silent films, which occasionally comes up. He is also a railway expert (his father was a UsefulNotes/LondonUnderground driver) but that doesn't.
34	* BookDumb:
35	** Paul likes to bring up that his only qualification is a CSE ungraded in metalwork. He points out on the DVD commentary that he cannot in fact make a trowel, despite one of his lines in Series 5, Episode 8.
36	** In Series 13, Episode 7, Paul guesses some missing headlines from ''Hot Dip Galvanising'' a guest magazine about steel-working.
37	--> '''Paul:''' New Bessemer converter?
38	--> '''Angus:''' You seem to know a lot about this.
39	--> '''Paul:''' I did metalwork! I know the theory, I just wasn't any good at the practice.
40	--> '''Ian:''' You didn't have a Bessemer converter in your home...
41	--> '''Paul:''' I had to make one for homework!
42	--> '''Ian:''' But they're about as big as this studio, aren't they?
43	--> '''Paul:''' Yeah, ''[[YouDoNotWantToKnow don't tell me about it!]]''
44	** In general, Paul may have come from a lower-class background than Ian or Angus, and has fewer qualifications, but is a very intelligent guy.
45	--> ''"It's only when I come on this programme that I realise that I know stuff!"''
46	* CaptainObvious: He likes to combine this with the OverlyLongGag occasionally. For example, in an episode just before the 2002 World Cup:
47	-->'''Angus''': Which match do they think might erupt into violence?
48	-->'''Ian''': England-Germany.
49	-->'''Paul''': Yes, there's a history of conflict between the two countries. In fact they fought two major wars, one between 1914 and 1918, and the other between 1939 and 1945.
50	** One Picture Round in series 48 saw Ian and his team-mate Roisin Conaty make a RunningGag of buzzing in and giving the most obvious, brief descriptions of the pictures as possible. (They won the show by a large margin as a result of this.)
51	-->[''A picture of a man looking puzzled outside Tesco appears'']
52	-->'''Ian''' [''buzzing in'']: Tesco!
53	-->'''Paul''' [''after laughing and [[FacePalm Face Palming]]'']: Well, we can't compete against knowledge like this!
54	-->[''Later, after this has been going on for a while and the next image is one of the Queen'']
55	-->'''Ian''' [''buzzing in'']: It's the Queen.
56	-->'''Roisin''': We are on ''fire''!
57	-->'''Andy Hamilton''': We - we can't compete with this! They're out of our league!
58	-->'''Paul''': Somebody must have told them!
59	* DeadpanSnarker: The biggest one on the show, helped by his general [[TheStoic stoic]] persona.
60	* LiteralMinded: A favorite joke format of his. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HD4HChwG3Q Here's an example.]]
61	* ManOfAThousandVoices: He genuinely does do different voices, but generally just a few stock ones: the main ones are his 'posh rich idiot' voice (''[[VerbalTic donchaknow!]]''), his throaty LondonGangster voice, and a disreputable American gold prospector voice.
62	* RummageSaleReject: Some of his more questionable outfits. Ian once accused him of wearing 'the top half of a gorilla costume'.
63	* TheStoic: His deadpan nature makes him seem this, although as the years have gone along he's opened up a bit in terms of laughing.
64	* TeethClenchedTeamwork:
65	** With Angus, in a production sense. In an interview on ''Parkinson'', Paul stated he never liked Angus, and felt that losing him was "not a big deal." (In later interviews and his autobiography he seems better disposed towards him.)
66	** With David Shayler in Series 19, Episode 1. Shayler was on his team via television in Paris, which caused issues with comic timing. Paul eventually got pissed off, turned the monitor off, shook hands with the front row of the audience and borrowed a newspaper because he was just that hacked off.
67	** With Robert Kilroy-Silk in Series 27, Episode 8. Robert's racist remarks (the whole reason he'd been in the news) had already put him in bad standing, but his constant interruption and general {{jerkass}}ery caused Paul to '''flip his lid''', screaming for Robert to "shut the fuck up" repeatedly.

Context Characters / HaveIGotNewsForYou