Never Mind The Buzzcocks
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Never Mind The Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game show with a pop and rock music theme produced for the BBC and usually aired on BBC TWO. The title is a play on the Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks album along with the band "Buzzcocks". The show is infamous for its dry, sarcastic humour and scathing, provocative attacks on the pop industry.
Format
In the show, celebrities (usually comedians or musicians) are given tasks, such as guessing which song introduction their team mates are attempting to recreate (with no instruments or props) and guessing which of three implausible stories about a popular musician are true. The show has been running since 1996, presented by Mark Lamarr and featuring regular team captains Phill Jupitus, Sean Hughes (until 2002) and Bill Bailey (since 2002).
Rounds
The first round of the show has varied over the series. Some of the rounds featured are:
- Connections, where each team must work out the unlikely connection between two musicians.
- Sorry No Refund, where each team must guess the real reason, out of three given, why a musical act cancelled a gig.
- Indecipherable Lyrics, where each team must work out the real lyrics to a song.
- A round where the teams are asked to give the origins of the name of a musical act.
The second round is the "Intros" round, where each team is given two or three songs, that two of the team must convey the intro of, by humming, singing, etc, so their teammate can guess.
The third round is the "Identity Parade", where each team is given the name of a musician, and must spot him or her in a line-up of usually five individuals. Most of the time the individuals could plausibly be the musician named, but there have been some notable exceptions; for example, a semi-regular member of the line-up is a black man, called 'Appleston', who never seems to blink or show facial expression. He is present regardless of the appearance of the hidden musician. He was once included in a lineup for The Nolan Sisters. On another occasion, Jupitus walked up to him, fell to his knees and demanded "What do you want from us?".
The final round is "Next Lines" round, where each team is given a lyric from a song, and must give the following lyric. Each team must attempt to give as many following lyrics as they can within a time limit. A regular feature of this round is a guest musician on either team being given lyrics from their own songs (and not answering correctly).
Since the first series of 2005, Mark Lamarr introduced a new round after the quiz has ended. Lamarr tells the audience punchlines which weren't used during the show.
In 2005, an Australian version was broadcast on the ABC called Spicks and Specks.
External links
- UK Gameshows Page: Never Mind the Buzzcocks (http://www.ukgameshows.com/index.php/Never_Mind_the_Buzzcocks)