House of Fools

Five minutes into the pilot episode I wasn't too sure if I would like this new sitcom from Reeves and Mortimer, but it soon had me laughing out loud and by the end I was left wanting more. It's typical Reeves and Mortimer humor and won't be to everyone's taste.

The supporting cast are all very funny characters. Julie, their sex hungry neighbor,played by Morgana Robinson is hilarious; I wouldn't object to living next door to her. I'm curious as to how others will receive this sitcom but If future episodes are as funny as the pilot episode I'm sure I'll end up watching the series more than once. Great stuff!!!

What I see when I watch this program is 2 middle aged men with no particular skills or ability who have probably failed at any attempts at any sort of career and have resorted to bottom of the barrel easy-to-write gags with no character based humour at all.

I probably sound like somebody who's 'no fun' for saying this, but when I think back to shows like The Extras, It's always sunny in Philadelphia and South Park I laugh.. When I think back to this show I'm going to think 'How sad..'.

The setup for this show comes in form of 10 second lines for each character which are sung in such a way as to make us think "oooh how random and fun!" - My understanding is that one of them owns a flat, the other one is just there for no reason - and Matt Berry (doing his usual character) turns up every so often.

If you've seen 'the extras' by Gervais and are familiar with 'when the whistle blows' - this exact show is more or less what they are making fun of... However I doubt they would have known back then just how bad a BBC sitcom could get!

Only reason it gets as high as a 2 is because of the godly Matt Berry, otherwise its just unfunny chaos masquerading under the guise of surrealistic tv. Can't fathom what motivates the actors to assume what they're doing onscreen could somehow be considered even faintly amusing much less comedy.

I read through some of the less favorably reviews on here and feel they may not fully understand what the show is about.

Vic and Bob are never what they seem, and either is their humor. If people watched the recent Christmas Special, they will realize that House of Fools is not only a Sitcom, but a little bit of a parody on sitcoms.

I really enjoyed House of Fools because it really bough together a lot of elements and styles of comedian in a gorgeous 30minute time slot- I instantly fell in love with the characters, Vic and Bob are Vic and Bob, but a little less surreal and convey themselves more as people rather than slap stick comedy characters.

For fan's there are brief moments of nostalgia as Vic and Bob write in some of their more memorable lines from previous shows. I did show this to my partner who isn't from the UK and who has never seen Vic and Bob and really enjoyed a good 30minutes of fun that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Vic & Bob try their hand at a conventional studio sitcom for the first time and it's chock full of their particular brand of indulgent strangeness. There's a ghost of a farcical plot which holds each episode together but mostly it's weird tangents, odd riffs, bizarre chatter and surreal asides rather than an actual thing. It's a trifle awkward at times but the surrounding cast are game and the whole thing feels like a Shooting Stars riff spun out decadently into a whole other format. For non-fans it's probably inexplicable and off-putting but for devotees like myself this brief two-year thing is like bottled joy. Not to mention the effort V&B put in to spotlight character comedians they like throughout - with the set walls bedecked with Vic's paintings the whole thing feels (like everything they do ultimately) that it's something just for them that magically we get to see. Glorious.