Call it a recessionary side effect, but there are more comedy panel shows on TV than ever. A different spin on the cheap and cheerful format can currently be seen on nearly every channel. There's Jimmy Carr's statistically driven 8 Out of 10 Cats, Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker's all-new TV-themed You Have Been Watching and (confusingly) Steve Jones is hosting another cliptastic classic-telly wheeze, As Seen On TV, starting next week.
But way ahead of the rest in terms of ratings – and I'd argue comedic quality – is swaggering sharp-suited gag-off, Mock the Week. Currently on its seventh series and hosted by likably droll Irish comic Dara O'Briain, it's ostensibly another inky-fingered news quiz in the mould of Have I Got News For You. Except it isn't really.
It's a brutal and often cruelly competitive comedy war of attrition where ambitious comedians all but bellow over each other to get their Gordon-Brown's-glass-eye gag away.
Even sick-minded star turn Frankie Boyle – who incidentally quit his post as a Daily Record columnist last week after the Scottish tabloid refused to print his raft of Michael Jackson gags – has confessed that some episodes are "like a fucking bloodbath."
His fellow panellist Hugh Dennis put it more delicately: "It's like a game of tennis that's all serve – you never get to put a return in!" Jo Brand recently wrote in the Guardian that she balked at the show's willy-waving, male-dominated battle atmosphere. Having visited an episode being recorded, I can attest that it's a strangely tense, surreal atmosphere where steely-eyed comics rarely crack a smile.
One round even requires competitors to win a race to a microphone in the middle. They might as well dangle a BBC presenting contract above a blood-spattered bear pit, toss in some rusty weapons and be done with it.
It's no secret that panel shows are heavily edited, but watching the two-hour-plus recording of a 30-minute show that night, I saw smiles through gritted teeth, voluble speculation about which quips would be edited out, and one comedian throwing a strop at O'Briain (very much the schoolteacher in the room) after he didn't get enough time in a segment.
But then I also laughed more than I had at a comedy night in years. Because the reason Mock the Week is so preposterously competitive – every guest is a professional comedian – is also the reason it's so successful.
For better or worse, it's the closest TV gets to the squirmingly tense say-anything danger of live standup. It also gives talented but relatively unknown comedians like Mark Watson, Stephen K Amos and Zoe Lyons a chance for regular telly time.
I know for a fact some UK comics abhor it, but I think it's a force for good. What do you reckon? Do you like Mock The Week's gladiatorial gag zone, or do you prefer shows like QI, and Would I Lie to You, that mix in friendly banter with the steady stream of funnies?
