The Panel returns!

Milktrolley

Yup! The Panel's back - Season 5 starts on RTÉ Two on Monday night (October 16th)!

So long as they stop deliberately trying to find a gender balance it should be good. Equality's grand, but nobody should have to put up with Geri Maye or Fiona Looney trying to be funny.

Still looking forward to the new series though. Any thoughts?

Kojak

I'm also looking forward to the new series.

As long as they don't have that Fiona Looney on it - she'd be more suited to Questions and Answers than a comedic show as, IMO, she's about as funny as Pat Kenny. :mad: :mad:

Pigman II

Agreed. There's no funny women around so stop trying to force the issue. They should just get Aoife Ni Thuairsig back again to sit there smiling, looking pretty and displaying her ample baps.

Women should be seen and not heard and nowhere is that more true than in comedy.

wba88

Cant wait. I agree with milktrolley aswell. Still a great show though the only dissapointing thing is the season goes so quickly!

The Bollox

Kojak wrote:

I'm also looking forward to the new series.

As long as they don't have that Fiona Looney on it - she'd be more suited to Questions and Answers than a comedic show as, IMO, she's about as funny as Pat Kenny. :mad: :mad:

ah now come on, Pat's not that bad!

I loved it when the show was live, it doesn't seem as good when it's recorded, still am looking forward to it tho, Andrew Maxwell is a legend!

sudzs

Kojak wrote:

I'm also looking forward to the new series.

As long as they don't have that Fiona Looney on it - she'd be more suited to Questions and Answers than a comedic show as, IMO, she's about as funny as Pat Kenny. :mad: :mad:

Dunno about that..??

Have to say she made me laff the time Ulick O'Conor was on and she said to him "..bet you're glad your surname isn't McGee!"

zuutroy

Can't see how anyone likes it. The wit is about as sharp as a blunt thing. Beats me how Ed Byrne, Neil Delamere or Colin Murphy have comedy careers....A poor man's have I got news for you.

Kojak

sudzs wrote:

Dunno about that..??

Have to say she made me laff the time Ulick O'Conor was on and she said to him "..bet you're glad your surname isn't McGee!"

Right, but that was once and how many times was she on. If its a political show (like Q&A) then fine, but she seems to think that what she's saying is funny when it quite evidently isn't.

It a comedic show, not serious debate. The show is, in my mind, there to pull the p1ss out of whatever it can.

DublinWriter

Marts wrote:

ah now come on, Pat's not that bad!

No, he's worse.

But it's touching to see that at least one person on the island think that he deserves half-a-mil a year and that big pad out in Killiney.

He wouldn't even have made it as a regional newsreader in the UK.

Goodshape

Pigman II wrote:

Agreed. There's no funny women around so stop trying to force the issue.

Yer' one who played Miss. Doyle (the name escapes me) is quite good as I remember.

Good to see it coming back anyway. I thought they cancelled it.

Rb

Great to see it back and fully agree with the above posters re: they should stop attempting to find a gender balance for the sake of it and ditch the unfunny rags they've had on it in the past.

Milktrolley

Usually they have a good enough bunch but Andrew Maxwell is a bit too full of himself for my liking.

It was definitely better when it was live, less PC I think as well. Was it the drunk guy roaring his head off at Joe Duffy that put an end to that?

OFDM

PLEASE GOD - NO FIONA LOONEY

Aoife Ni Thuairsig or Grainne Seoige for scenery, or else Pauline McLynn, who is remotely funny and has good baps to boot!

ScruffySlayer

not a fan of this myself but my friend/flatmate is. Is there a repeat at some other time so i can still get her to go out monday nights?

Milktrolley

ScruffySlayer wrote:

not a fan of this myself but my friend/flatmate is. Is there a repeat at some other time so i can still get her to go out monday nights?

Friday night at 12:45. That time will vary each week, and there's no guarantee that it'll be repeated every week either.

Gráinne wasn't too bad I thought. At least she didn't overly try to be funny, sometimes she just naturally was. Plus, when she tried to be intelligent she actually was. Same can't be said for some of the other contributors like Fiona Looney et al.

OFDM

Sadly there were no repeates last year when Aoife Ni Thuairsig was a guest (as opposed to a panelist) and her breasts almost fell out of her blouse when she leaned over.

I'd pay money for screen caps of that...

optiplexgx270

Was at it there tonight:

Neil Delamere - funny fecker
Colin Murphy - meh apart from being slagged about his youtube video (can be good but i dono i dont like him for some reason defo wasnt at his best this evening)
Anna Nolan - jeasus christ speak for god sakes then again you aint funny so keep it shut.
Ed Byrne - again funny guy was trying too hard at points though but on a whole a really funny guy

Topics:
Bertie getting abuse
2 fellas who stole the boat in hollyhead were getting slagged breifly (not there)
Rakie begin taken the piss out of
Poor chris deburge

Talked about this (youtube seems to be down):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=De5z4yBzqBc&search=cillin

Played a sesame st. video off youtube (goodfellas funny)

Jack L was on and sang - twice (something about forgetting to press record on the cameras)

and some lenster rugby fella young like 22-27 im guessing.

lostexpectation

optiplexgx270 wrote:

Was at it there tonight:

Neil Delamere - funny fecker
Colin Murphy - meh apart from being slagged about his youtube video (can be good but i dono i dont like him for some reason defo wasnt at his best this evening)
Anna Nolan - jeasus christ speak for god sakes then again you aint funny so keep it shut.
Ed Byrne - again funny guy was trying too hard at points though but on a whole a really funny guy

ohmygod the unfunny woman syndrome is back!!!

SoupyNorman

God awful show, although its good an effort is made in promoting our Irish comediens apart from Ed Byrne. I would like to run him over with me car.

Morgans

sudzs wrote:

Dunno about that..??

Have to say she made me laff the time Ulick O'Conor was on and she said to him "..bet you're glad your surname isn't McGee!"

Possibly the greatest evidence for the prosecution. She was being taken to school by the ascerb Ulick, and that was the best response she could come up with. I also liked the way Hook took Kathryn Thomas apart "that's the best rugby question I've ever been asked by a travel presenter". Think that might have been on the first season.

They really should hone the searches for funny women. Affable does not equal funny. If you are not funny, dont take the 200quid or whatever they offer you to be on, if you are intellegent enough, dont try to be funny when you are not. If you are not intellegent, you should be ripped to shreds by those who are....for taking the money.

Faith

I wish I was watching it right now. Damn UK tv!

Rb

Thought tonights episode was great, very funny.

Didn't catch the name of the female panelist, brutal as always though but thankfully she sat back and let the real comedians do their thing.

Big Nelly

She was woeful, isnt that the muppet from BB or something. The lesbian?

Did they edit out what Darcy said about women rugby players because I couldnt hear it? must be gone hard of hearing or something!!

optiplexgx270

Left out a good bit as usuall including ed's bit about how hard it must be for "recovering pedos" at halloween) friends mentioned it before we went in that he said it last year and he was giving out about editing and started that speil. Quite funny.

Baby4

This post has been deleted.

the_batman

Big Nelly wrote:

Did they edit out what Darcy said about women rugby players because I couldnt hear it? must be gone hard of hearing or something!!

He said it alright!

Colin Murphy said, "theres loads of women who play rugby now" and Gordon D'Arcys response was "Have you seen the women who play rugby?"

Dara O'Brian offered him a shovel to dig his way out of it.

Big Nelly

the_batman wrote:

He said it alright!

Colin Murphy said, "theres loads of women who play rugby now" and Gordon D'Arcys response was "Have you seen the women who play rugby?"

Dara O'Brian offered him a shovel to dig his way out of it.

Oh yeah heard that bit, thought after he said Have you seen the women who play rugby? he said something like "fat pigs" but maybe was just me

BaZmO*

rb_ie wrote:

Thought tonights episode was great, very funny.

Didn't catch the name of the female panelist, brutal as always though but thankfully she sat back and let the real comedians do their thing.

Anna somethingorother. I didn't think she was that bad.

I thought it funny though that on a couple of occasions she made a joke about something and got no laughs but then one of the lads took what she said, changed it a bit and had the audience roaring with laughter. I suppose it's just a case of - Women Know Your Limits!!!

I thought last nights episode was extremely funny. I loved the bits about Bertie.

Big Nelly

BaZmO* wrote:

Anna somethingorother.

Anna Lesbian

BaZmO*

Big Nelly wrote:

Anna Lesbian

Haha that's the one!

daymobrew

Dara said that someone added loads of stuff to his IMDB.com bio, but it seems to have disappeared. He was really appreciative of the additional, outlandish material.

Nice career chioce, Anna Nolan.

Milktrolley

Baby4 wrote:

This post has been deleted.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, it's repeated on Friday. Worth seeing again, it was a brilliant show thankfully.

Had a look at Dara's profile just after he mentioned it last night. Can't believe he's only 34!

Anna Nolan was a bit pointless alright. As BaZmO* referred to, there was one point where she mentioned how unbelievable it was that Bertie's popularity has gone up, and how it could only happen in Ireland. Nobody made a sound, until Dara rehashed the statement to audience delirium. Then asking Gordon D'Arcy about Brian O'Driscoll - I'd say he's sick of people asking him about Brian!

I couldn't hear what Gordon D'Arcy said last night, but I had a look back.

Gordon D'Arcy wrote:

Have you seen the women that play rugby?!

That was all really. He didn't say anything about them being fat pigs - at least from what got aired.

lostexpectation

did anyone think jackl's smig was crooked?

Sandwich

lostexpectation wrote:

ohmygod the unfunny woman syndrome is back!!!

Yes indeed. It really is shocking that they cant find someone. But why keep wasting a spot and effectively reducing the panel by one person?

Just give up and give it to one of the plenty of witty men. (Not trying to sound sexist or provocative here, but I dont think Ive heard a good line from a woman on the show yet {the Ulick O'Connor one is an old one})

Like the show very much tho.

BaZmO*

I don't know why they don't have Maeve Higgins on, especially if they're always looking for a token woman panelist. She is actually quite funny.

Unless of course they're just looking for eye candy, something unfortunately Maeve is not. Having said that, neither is Fiona Looney or Pauline McGlynn (Is that her name?) for that matter.

Silver Rose

Ooh, was just going to suggest Maeve Higgins, she's hilarious, would be great if they had her on.
Have to agree, all the women so far on the show have been horrendous... Pauline McGlynn is slightly better than most, but still not brilliant, and annoying with her (not funny) anti-Church spiel.

SprostonGreen

I thought I saw on Entertainment Ireland that Maeve Higgins will feature this series. She is ok, but you can get a bit tired of her.

My favourite bit this week was Neil Delamere; "having a Minister for Finance without a bank account is a bit like having a slightly obese Minister for Health!"

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Kojak

SprostonGreen wrote:

My favourite bit this week was Neil Delamere; "having a Minister for Finance without a bank account is a bit like having a slightly obese Minister for Health!"

LOL, that was classic.

jos28

Did Dara get married during the summer. Can't say that I noticed him wearing a wedding ring before.

Tar.Aldarion

Just watched it there recently, it's ok I suppose, episodes vary a lot as to whether they are funny or not.

It is no QI anyway.

Rb

lostexpectation wrote:

did anyone think jackl's smig was crooked?

I noticed that actually!

Maeve Higgins is at most the best of a bad bunch, so I agree that if they're looking for a token female panelist it should probably be her.
Would also be glad if Andrew Maxwell wasn't on this series. All in all the first of this series was great imo, looking forward to the rest of them.

Milktrolley

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Just watched it there recently, it's ok I suppose, episodes vary a lot as to whether they are funny or not.

Some episodes can be crap alright, you're never guaranteed a good episode and it can vary. But most of the time it's either really good or excellent - the one's with Hector and Podge & Rodge we're hilarious!

Fenny

Does anyone know how much tickets are for The Panel? Been wanting to go to a recording for ages.

I'd love to see Maeve Higgins on it, though to be honest, anything - and I mean anything - is better than Fiona Looney.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Rb

The first half of tonights show is just finished, so far its been awful.
The guest, whoever she was, was crap and nearly everyone bar Dara has kept their mouths shut. Token female panelist included, shes only said one or two lines which is appreciated.
Quite disappointing after last week.

nicelives

David Lynch wrote:

Nice career chioce, Anna Nolan.

What is exactly the point of Anna Nolan?

They seem to be foisting her on us wasting the licence fee in the process.

Anna Nolan solves someones problem, big deal, scrapped that series. Then she was presenting Would You Believe and she didn't. It showed, big time on screen as she seemed to trivialise a lot. Then she's on the afternoon show and they scrub her from that. There was never any indication in any of her previous disasters that she was a comedienne.

What in God's name are they spending our money on her for the Panel? There definitely are funny women out there. RTE just aren't brave enough to premier someone who Channel 4 haven't filmed sleeping and eating 6 years ago in a game show.

mike65

Anna Nolan will, one day be hosting Liveline you wait!

Mike.

lordasriel

The guy with the red hair sitting near Ann is frickin rubbish

OFDM

There were a few good funny moments in the second half. Anna Nolan is good at keeping quiet which is what the female panelist should be all about. Let's hope for Aoife Ni Thuarisigigig next week though...