'The IT Crowd' to return for finale special

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/05/07/the-it-crowd-finale-chris-odowd/

by Sujan • 13 years ago

156 61 13 years ago

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LarryMade2• 13 years ago

I guess they were finally able to turn it off and then on again.

forlorn• 13 years ago

Damn it, I though it's buried forever.

Nrsolis2• 13 years ago

The IT crowd, for me, is one of those happy accidents in television where the writers, producers, and actors all manage to capture the humor of a subculture without patronizing it. When I saw the first episode, I knew that these folks had done something special and I'm quite tickled that they are bringing it back for even a single episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ

Nrsolis2• 13 years ago

One of my favorite skits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=UC4vz6I...

sjclemmy• 13 years ago

Brilliant - I've love that gag.

megablast• 13 years ago

The exact opposite of the Big Bang Theory.

UnoriginalGuy• 13 years ago

Kind of the same thing as BBT.

A lot of people just don't find BBT funny, which is a reasonable opinion to have, but they both manage to poke fun at their respective sub-cultures.

The IT crowd subculture is generic "IT support." The subculture of BBT is the pseudo-intellectual crowd who took biology 101 and are now experts in everything "science."

As I said, I would never begrudge anyone who doesn't find BBT funny (it rarely is!) but let's not pretend that IT crowd is somehow magically different, it is just better written.

adregan2• 13 years ago

Big Bang Theory is not a very funny show. It does appeal to fans of Dharma and Greg though (like my mom).

The only consistently funny show I would recommend is Archer.

tripzilch5• 13 years ago

The IT Crowd has 24 episodes, BBT has 134 and is still running. IMO that makes them kinda hard to compare.

And weren't the earlier episodes of BBT a bit different? I seem to remember they had more "hard" science/tech jokes that actually made sense (jokes that seemed like they would be quite obscure without an exact/tech background).

So, what if BBT had squeezed their ideas into a smaller amount of episodes?

Of course one could say that it was exactly that choice, that makes the one better than the other. And I'd have to give you a sort of kind of "yes, maybe". Because I don't know, sometimes the UK format series are a little bit too short (indeed, like The IT Crowd!!), but some US format series go on for way too long[0]. I would hope there is some optimal middle road.

(but then maybe not, the first example that came to mind of mixing US/UK serial styles was Torchwood: Miracle Day, the worst of the series, IMHO. There may be better examples I'm not thinking of right now, though)

[0] How I Met Your Mother being a prime example. If only they would push it a little bit further, and then some more still, so it would turn back upon itself in a somewhat post-modern sense, by actually making the viewers just as bored as the "Kids, ..." at the beginning of each episode, their inner voices silently screaming at Ted to get to the bloody point and finish up the story already. This would of course kill the ratings, but they could sell the show to Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries where anti-humour is still appreciated :-P There is time ...

orangethirty3• 13 years ago

BBT makes fun of nerds and geeks (without mentioning Science itself). I still watch it, because you gotta be able to laugh about yourself.

Now, the IT Crowd, along with Futurama, are shows that celebrate nerds and geeks. Our quirks, our good parts, and our bad parts. But its not us who are being made fun of, but the world around us.

SolarUpNote• 13 years ago

I checked out the Pirate Bay's top 100 section the other day, and was astounded to see that The Big Bang Theory was the top TV show.

A lot of sitcoms aren't funny, but Big Bang Theory is like being held down by your older brother while his spit drips on your face.

Maybe it's supposed to be ironic? Like it's so bad it's good?

In high school my friends and I had bad-movie nights, where we'd do our own Mystery Science Theater. Is it like that? Do friends get together and smoke pot and have a Big Bang Theory marathon where they make fun of how terrible the jokes are?

Just trying to understand.

lutze2• 13 years ago

Is it bad that I can still recite that number from heart?

Rhetorical question, of course it isn't!

phlyingpenguin• 13 years ago

It's /definitely/ not my password for anything super important...

anonymous4• 13 years ago

It's funny how the number is both really long and sort of easy to remember due to the repeating patterns.

jiggy2011• 13 years ago

I thought that the first season was much better than the others. The first seemed full of unique humour that captured the frustrations of IT support rather well, the subsequent seasons seemed to just move towards generic sitcom territory.

I think it went downhill when they brought Matt Berry in, as too much screen time was just devoted to him doing silly things.

zcam• 13 years ago

True there are a few gems in the other seasons though: like the piracy Ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg

pessimizer• 13 years ago

I agree with you, but I love Matt Berry doing silly things. Losing the "straight" Chris Morris did wacky-sitcom everything up, though.

tripzilch5• 13 years ago

Especially the earlier episodes with Chris Morris in it :) Not that the other characters weren't good, I just enjoyed the spark of absurdism he brought to the show--but WHAT an exit! hahaha

irtefa• 13 years ago

Been waiting for this for a while now

sergiotapia• 13 years ago

I'll never forget the first time I saw this show. It was 3am, had insomnia for some reason and saw the episode "Gay! A Gay Musical"[1]. I laughed so hard I cried and woke up my wife, it was fantastic! Just utterly brilliant! "I'm disabled..." has become sort of an inside joke with my brother because of this episode.

I'm glad they're bringing it back for one last run, it certainly deserves it.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TQJILoFd5o

marknutter• 13 years ago

"Gay! A Gay Musical" is by far my favorite episode. Really solidified the quality of the show for me.

rplnt• 13 years ago

It was a great episode indeed. I think was the only good episode of the second season. I didn't even bother with 3rd season after that. First one is a classic though.

darrenkopp• 13 years ago

I really liked the episode where Moss is trying to get an iPhone from one of those crane games. "No Jen, I'll be getting an iPhone without giving any money to Apple. I'll be living the dream"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPqk_eKwVLY

igravious4• 13 years ago

For me my fave scene is Chris Morris and his fondness for Teams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGFGD5pj03M

"Well it's just not working out"

---

I once sent this link round our tech department after a team motivation email from management, it helped me hold on to my sanity.

sneak• 13 years ago

I deal with enough miscalibrated sperglords on a daily basis that the absolute last fucking thing on Earth I'd do in my small amount of free time is willingly watch a sitcom wherein they are depicted accurately.

tobylane• 13 years ago

That's British humour. His previous work included a bunch of priests - one eager, one dopey, one very drunk. It's not three copies of Joseph Gordon Levitt.

anonymous4• 13 years ago

> sperglords

> 2011 + 0b10

> spilling /g/ memes on hn

i shiggydiggywoo

cobaimelan• 13 years ago

Best scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJXww8aizAM

mig39• 13 years ago

Did you see that ludicrous display last night?

igravious4• 13 years ago

What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on so early?

tnuc• 13 years ago

I always enjoyed their take on piracy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg

fpp• 13 years ago

Great news and really looking forward to see it.

Will not be that easy for them to be as successful again, but there is certainly still enough to laugh about in corporate IT today.

Just remember how much time has changed since their first series was aired and how much influence they had - "Have you tried turning it off and on again" is basically a common term in UK English today and almost everybody will know today that you wont break the Internet when you type Google into Google ...

[comment approved by the Elders of the Internet]

anonymous4• 13 years ago

"have you tried turning it off and on again" was popularised by windows 95 and having to turn it off and on again when something failed. Or when you changed your IP. Also, the day there's nothing left in corporate IT to laugh at is the day we have neither corporations nor IT any more. I'm expecting some smoking hot episodes about clouds.

slig• 13 years ago

If you enjoy that kind of humor, be sure to check Father Ted and Black Books.

desigooner• 13 years ago

A shout out to Black Adder is warranted here.

oneeyedpigeon3• 13 years ago

"Blackadder" is a very different beast from the others mentioned, all of which are written / cowritten by Graham Linehan, who has a very specific surrealist style. Don't get me wrong: I do think Blackadder is brilliant!

rmc3• 13 years ago

Father Ted is a great, and shockingly accurate, satire of Ireland. UKians might not get that at first...

shimfish• 13 years ago

I had the good fortune to contribute a few of the alternative subtitles for the first season DVD. Unfortunately, I don't think anybody noticed them, even with a BB writeup. http://boingboing.net/2006/11/15/it-crowd-dvd-has-sub.html

'The IT Crowd' to return for finale special

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