Mitchell and Webb are Back!
September 14, 2017 1:44 PM   Subscribe

Teaser to the new series starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, named Back.

Episode 1 was just pulled from YT, but Ep 2 is still up, just to give you a taste (less than legally).

Christ, what an asshole previously did a fantastic run-down of the best bits of this glorious British comedy duo, taken from their previous comedy programmes, That Mitchell and Webb Look, That Mitchell and Webb Situation, and Peep Show. To which I only add one of my favourites, The 3rd Person Caesar.

There is a previouslier with some great stuff in the discussion (main link no longer works).

Also, Mitchell and Webb did the "Get a Mac" ads that ran in Britain. And then they did the Arse Store.

Some consider David Mitchell a national treasure. (those are THREE YT links filled with comedy gold).

On a tangent, his wife, Victoria Coren Mitchell, won $400,000 in a game of poker.
posted by Laotic (36 comments total) 39 users marked this as a favorite
 
David Mitchell is an international treasure. No hoarding his goodness, please.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:06 PM on September 14, 2017 [9 favorites]


Ambassadors with Mitchell and Webb is great too.
posted by Keith Talent at 2:09 PM on September 14, 2017 [8 favorites]


Sorry, Abehammerb Lincoln, I'm not British, so I'm not hoarding anything, but I didn't want to go that far. David Mitchell is no Hitchens yet - that would be international treasure level for me...
posted by Laotic at 2:12 PM on September 14, 2017


Sorry, that's not Numberwang.
posted by briank at 2:14 PM on September 14, 2017 [19 favorites]


This new series was filmed in my neighborhood. The pub in the Teaser is this pub: The Prince Albert. All the locals here are excited.
posted by vacapinta at 2:15 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


I still love the explorers series they did. bringing up the fact that our Queen's never done it seems a bit personal, they might not want to know. It's all about who has the captain's hat you understand!
posted by Carillon at 2:27 PM on September 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


I'm confused, I watched "3rd Person Caesar" and didn't see a Sir Digby Chicken anywhere.
posted by rhizome at 2:30 PM on September 14, 2017 [7 favorites]


Now we know.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 2:34 PM on September 14, 2017 [10 favorites]


This is thrilling news.

Christ, what an asshole previously did a fantastic run-down of the best bits of this glorious British comedy duo, taken from their previous comedy programmes,

Equally thrilling. I didn't know this FPP existed! Woo hoo!

I'm sorry. What kind of people are you?
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:37 PM on September 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


The updated "are we the baddies" where Hans & Friend fall through a time portal to 2017 America is going to be great.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:39 PM on September 14, 2017 [13 favorites]


A couple of weekends ago, I encountered a family friend who was extolling the miraculous vitality of her evangelical pub church meetings. Communion dispensed on those wooden platters you (inexplicably) get burgers on these days! I didn't know they were a thing until then but the comedy potential was immediately apparent - as was a very great deal of the rest of the encounter.

So, this whole project has the ring of meticulous close observation. I'm not sure I'm quite ready.

(of course I am)
posted by Devonian at 2:43 PM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Finally, a group of like-minded people gathered in one place who can help me solve a mystery.

I can swear I once saw a Mitchell and Web skit in which they were in a car on their way to a vacation. There were women in the car as well. The character Web was playing said he had to go to the bathroom, but was reluctant, or such. He finally relented when given a bottle, and proceeded to drop his pants as though he was going to shit into the bottle.

I'd be quite grateful if someone could post a link to that skit. I'd love to see it again. It is one of the funniest skits I've ever seen.
posted by the matching mole at 3:07 PM on September 14, 2017


And - aha! - series created and written by Simon Blackwell, of Thick Of It/In The Loop/Veep/Peep Show fame. (And very much more besides, check out his work if you're ever feeling dismal about how crap comedy is today compared to your personal golden era. He is, of course, a worshipper at the Altar of Milligan in the House of Hancock.)

Which confirms it as a closely observed documentary barely disguised as a black comedy.
posted by Devonian at 3:18 PM on September 14, 2017 [6 favorites]


Oh! John Macmillan, who played Ronald in Chewing Gum, is in this.
posted by maudlin at 3:22 PM on September 14, 2017


the matching mole: “Finally, a group of like-minded people gathered in one place who can help me solve a mystery.

I can swear I once saw a Mitchell and Web skit in which they were in a car on their way to a vacation. There were women in the car as well. The character Web was playing said he had to go to the bathroom, but was reluctant, or such. He finally relented when given a bottle, and proceeded to drop his pants as though he was going to shit into the bottle.

I'd be quite grateful if someone could post a link to that skit. I'd love to see it again. It is one of the funniest skits I've ever seen.”


Well, I googled "Mitchell and Webb shit in a bottle," and this was the first result. It's not a Mitchell and Webb sketch, but it seems like what you're looking for, I guess.

Also doesn't seem terrifically funny? But there's no arguing taste I guess.
posted by koeselitz at 3:35 PM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


(Also I can't imagine David Mitchell being in a sketch like that and doing anything but protesting loudly and saying everyone was being disgusting.)
posted by koeselitz at 3:36 PM on September 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


That's exactly the skit I was thinking of, koeselitz. Thank you very much!
posted by the matching mole at 3:41 PM on September 14, 2017


(Also I can't imagine David Mitchell being in a sketch like that and doing anything but protesting loudly and saying everyone was being disgusting.)

I take it you've never seen Peep Show.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:51 PM on September 14, 2017 [5 favorites]


Fans of Mitchell and Webb outside the UK might like to keep an eye on these two subreddits:

https://www.reddit.com/r/panelshow/
https://www.reddit.com/r/notapanelshow/
posted by HoraceH at 3:55 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Just popping by to say "yay!!!!!"
posted by UltraMorgnus at 4:34 PM on September 14, 2017


squeeeeeee
posted by palomar at 4:48 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


David Mitchell is no Hitchens

Thank fucking god for that.
posted by kenko at 4:57 PM on September 14, 2017 [22 favorites]


Sys Rq: "I take it you've never seen Peep Show."

Er. Well, I guess maybe Mark might cheer that kind of thing on if he felt pressured into doing so, but then wallow in self-loathing for hours afterward? Either way, he was a total neat freak and germophobe, he wouldn't have countenanced such a thing in a car near him without there being some pressure involved, I would have thought.
posted by koeselitz at 8:49 PM on September 14, 2017


https://www.reddit.com/r/panelshow/
https://www.reddit.com/r/notapanelshow/


Sounds like someone needs an introduction to set theory.
posted by sebastienbailard at 8:58 PM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Er. Well, I guess maybe Mark might cheer that kind of thing on if he felt pressured into doing so, but then wallow in self-loathing for hours afterward? Either way, he was a total neat freak and germophobe, he wouldn't have countenanced such a thing in a car near him without there being some pressure involved, I would have thought.

Peep Show exists to destroy Mark through his own horrible choices, somehow he would have been the one to do it and the person whose approval meant the most to him in that episode would have been witness to it or found out.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:06 PM on September 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Other familiar faces/voices in the cast: David Mitchell's character's uncle is played by Geoff McGivern (the original radio series Ford Prefect in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), and his ex-wife by Olivia Poulet (Emma Messinger from The Thick of It -- another terrific show co-written by Simon Blackwell). It took me a bit to place the uncle's voice in the clips linked above. Anyway! I'm excited.
posted by rallumer at 9:20 PM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Robert Webb just wrote a memoir about masculinity. I've heard an interview, and the extracts released are funny, sad and wonderful.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 10:40 PM on September 14, 2017 [8 favorites]


I recommend reading David Mitchell's memoir, Back Story, back-to-back with Robert Webb's. I listened to the audiobook of Webb's recently, and then went back to the audiobook of Mitchell's. The books are very different --although they're both independently great, funny and touching and thoughtful -- and their lives have been very different, but I really liked hearing them one after the other. It gave me a real sense of their friendship and their different-but-complementary angles on comedy. Plus it's fun to listen to their faintly different versions of how they met and what the other one was like at the time.
posted by Aravis76 at 11:39 PM on September 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Truely, Vectron smiles upon us with this new TV series! By Vectron, we are in a golden age of televisual comedy. Hail Vectron!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:56 AM on September 15, 2017 [4 favorites]


Sorry, Laotic, but David Mitchell is leaps and bounds above Hitchens, mostly because he's not a thinly veiled racist and apologist for Western imperialist hegemony.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:35 AM on September 15, 2017 [7 favorites]


Saxon Kane, man writes some of the best, most well-thought out books in the history of philosophy, and do you call him Hitchens the Philoshoper? Nooo. But he fucks one sheep...

Joking aside, I have no idea where your hatred for Hitchens comes from or why you would call him those names. You probably did not read any of his philosophical work, I suppose? Maybe he stepped on your little toe somehow?
posted by Laotic at 12:27 PM on September 15, 2017


9/11 broke Hitchens' brain. I thought this was common knowledge, but yeah, it's a goatfucker scenario.
posted by rhizome at 12:35 PM on September 15, 2017 [3 favorites]


Back, you say?!
posted by Navelgazer at 1:23 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


No, not North Wales, don't be ridiculous. South Wales!
posted by lkc at 2:11 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


All right, let's not bicker and argue about who killed who, and let's enjoy some more of the comedy.
posted by Laotic at 2:30 PM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


some of the best, most well-thought out books in the history of philosophy

Um, what? Look, I'm not saying that Hitchens wasn't intelligent, but I don't think you'll find many departments of philosophy that consider him at all significant in the "history of philosophy." Guy was a pop-philosopher, a public intellectual, not a serious scholar or philosopher.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:36 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


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