The Pun

Hoodwinked

By Brianna Summers ⋅ April 20, 2006 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

When host Marcus Jones bounded on stage to warm up the audience with a few ballsack jokes, he set the comedy bar pretty low. Yes, late night comedy does tend towards the cheap and smutty end of the spectrum, but I held out hope that things would improve once the game began. My optimism was unforgivingly shattered as Hoodwinked, a so-called ‘cross between ‘Blankety Blanks’, ‘Spicks & Specks’ and nothing else you’ve ever seen (!!!!) - got underway with all the energy of a wet blanket.

The ‘all-star rotating panel’ looked like they didn’t want to be there, and the lack of chemistry between them was replaced by a dull hum of animosity. Ribbing between Charlie Pickering and Fiona O’Loughlin appeared all but light-hearted, and the awkwardness grew as the show progressed.

I felt sorry for Jones, who often had to force laughter in order to create an illusion of joviality and to prevent jokes from falling flat. The crowd was incredibly unresponsive, apparently only vaguely amused by the bumbling banter and stagnant pauses. In fact, the audience became largely irrelevant as the comedians engaged in a game of one-upmanship of backhanded dinner party discourse. To be fair, the contestants occasionally struck improvisational gold, but it was never enough to fill the venue with laugher.

Several people walked out during the opening night of Hoodwinked’one can only hope that in the future, games can muster some semblance of on-stage chemistry and that copious amounts of alcohol are included in the ticket price.