New "Funny You Should Ask!" coming this fall

[vtown7]

Perhaps I'm older school - still using my DVD recorder and loving it!

[MikeK]

If you can't wait another week for "Funny You Should Ask" to premiere and you get Byron Allen's comedy.tv channel (281/1281 on U-Verse), my DVR says it's airing this Monday through Friday for an hour at 10 AM, 2 PM, 6 PM, 10 PM, and 2 AM Eastern.

[MikeK]

My thoughts about this...

Host:  Jon Kelley
Announcer:  As with every other Byron Allen show, John Cramer
Theme:  "Happy" by Pharrell Williams (Hey, another entry for the theme songs with lyrics thread!)
Game:  As was described to me by a friend, it's "Hollywood Chairs"--Hollywood Squares without the annoying scaffolding and gridwork and 2/3 of the celebrities.  Two contestants agree or disagree with answers given by 6 comedians, all of whom on this episode are name comics including Louie Anderson, Bill Bellamy, and Howie Mandel, a trio of former game show hosts.  (Comedians on the second episode shown on comedy.tv are Jon Lovitz, Loni Love, Tim Meadows, Caroline Rhea, Tom Arnold, and Anderson.)  Round 1 was one question per comic, alternating between contestants, at $100 apiece.  Round 2 plays the same, but with the stakes upped to $200.  Round 3...wait for it...the game's the same, but for $300 a question!  The person with the most money plays the bonus round for an additional $5000.

The bonus round consists of three questions.  Three right answers gets the cash, with less than perfection worth nothing.  The first question has 3 comics giving answers, one of which is right.  The second question has 4 possible answers.  The final question has 6 possible answers.  There are also gag answers in the round, for better or worse.

My thoughts:  Jon Kelley is so dry that I need an IV of saline, maybe due to the game's repetitiveness.  The comedy is there, albeit with comedy veterans.  The comedy level will never confuse anybody with "Hollywood Squares."  Will this show continually get well-known comedians who are funny, or will we be treated to young comics that aren't very funny?  The 10:30 PM time slot here should aid me in getting to sleep.

Misc.:  The show promoted a web presence at http://funnyyoushouldask.tv/, but it's not active yet.  I'm guessing it won't roll out until the show officially debuts in a week.

[Sodboy13]

Ah, Jon Kelley. Perpetually thinking he's good enough for Hollywood, perpetually proving he's not good enough for local news in Chicago.

[PYLdude]

Lovitz and Meadows you'd figure would be regulars due to past association with ES, no?

[BrandonFG]

Lovitz and Meadows you'd figure would be regulars due to past association with ES, no?

That's what I'm thinking too. Wouldn't be surprised if a few of the other ES sitcom stars or even Byron himself appear.

Although Mike's list is pretty solid (B-list?), I imagine there will be a few others from "Comics Unleashed" of about 10 years ago.

[TLEberle]

Game:  As was described to me by a friend, it's "Hollywood Chairs"--Hollywood Squares without the annoying scaffolding and gridwork and 2/3 of the celebrities. 

So no broken-up word puzzle or triangles with numbers at the points? Are the questions at least of the kind where you could pry a zinger out of the comedians?

/In Seattle it looks to be on at 8:30 in the morning, so that's telling in a way.
//I liked Jon Kelley on The Mole: 2008 so I guess that makes me the entirety of his fan club.

[Matt Ottinger]

Game:  As was described to me by a friend, it's "Hollywood Chairs"--Hollywood Squares without the annoying scaffolding and gridwork and 2/3 of the celebrities. 

So no broken-up word puzzle or triangles with numbers at the points? Are the questions at least of the kind where you could pry a zinger out of the comedians?

That's the entire point of the exercise.  The comedians are there to give funny answers to the questions.  It's Hollywood Squares without tic-tac-toe and everybody's Paul Lynde.

[MikeK]

The celebrities on the first episode were Howie Mandel, Sheryl Underwood, Louie Anderson, Bill Bellamy, Natasha Leggero, and Tom Arnold.  It's definitely a good B-list, with everybody a veteran of game shows in some capacity--I mentioned the 3 hosts earlier, Arnold and Underwood were on "Celebrity Name Game", and Leggero made a number of appearances on "@midnight".

One concern I found while watching the reruns is that every question in the bonus round has a joke answer and it's always the last choice given, i.e. (paraphrasing) "Experts believe Abraham Lincoln suffered from what disease?" with a joke answer of "a hole in the head."  Realistically, you have a 50:50 chance on the first question, 1 in 3 on the second question, and 1 in 5 on the last.

Speaking of reruns, for those who have comedy.tv and missed the episodes at 10 AM, fret not!  The other airings throughout the day are the same two episodes.  I'm pretty sure that's the MO of Byron Allen's networks; at least that's the case with Justice Central, the one Entertainment Studios network I don't have blocked on the cable box*.

*Unblocked comedy.tv last night strictly for this show.**
** Highly considering putting the block back on after this week.

[BrandonFG]

If I'm not mistaken, Natasha Leggero appeared on Pyramid last year and contributed to an abysmal Winner's Circle performance.

/It also included a very un-PC clue for "Things You Hit"

[SuperSweeper]

If I'm not mistaken, Natasha Leggero appeared on Pyramid last year and contributed to an abysmal Winner's Circle performance.

/It also included a very un-PC clue for "Things You Hit"

That was Natasha Lyonne...who is definitely not a comedian.

[BrandonFG]

Just looked her up on Google. Definitely had my Natashas mixed up.

[TLEberle]

Until I read it twice, I did to.

[BillCullen1]

Lovitz and Meadows you'd figure would be regulars due to past association with ES, no?

That's what I'm thinking too. Wouldn't be surprised if a few of the other ES sitcom stars or even Byron himself appear.

That's just what happened on the first show aired in NYC on Channel 55. The host is stiff as starch but the celebs make this watchable for me. But really, $5,000 as top prize in 2017?

[Matt Ottinger]

That's just what happened on the first show aired in NYC on Channel 55. The host is stiff as starch but the celebs make this watchable for me. But really, $5,000 as top prize in 2017?

No one is watching this for the money, just for the funny.