Recently (within the past year) I have become obsessed with British game shows. And not your typical game show, but ones hosted and performed by comedians. It started out with watching 8 out of 10 Cats on Amazon Prime but they only had 2-3 seasons. Most of these shows are like Whose Line when it comes to points as they don't really matter. You're tuning in to laugh.

I think they are downright hilarious and have added a little brief description next to the name. Almost every single episode is available on youtube.

8 out of 10 Cats - Hosted by Jimmy Carr - Panel of comedians talks about current events. Has the least amount of transferability to an American audience cause they mostly talk about British current events.

8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown - Hosted by Jimmy Carr - Panel of comedians compete on Countdown. Countdown is a daily British gameshow that has to do with a word game (you get 9 letters and try to come up with the longest word) and a numbers round (6 numbers are given and a target number is generated. Using those 6 numbers and addition/subtraction/multiplication/division you have to get the target number or as close as possible). Rachel Riley, the lady who does the numbers, is very nice to look at by the way. The late great Sean Lock is a captain and so is the very funny John Richardson.

Would I Lie to You? - Hosted by Rob Brydon - Lee Mack and David Mitchell (from Peep Show) captain two teams of comedians and/or celebs. 3 v 3. Different rounds and they each read a card they pull from a stack in front of them claiming something and the other team has to determine if they're lying or not. Sounds dumb, but Lee Mack and David Mitchell are hilarious. This might be my favorite show of the bunch. If you decide to watch, as I highly suggest, skip the first two seasons as they are hosted by someone else. Rob Brydon is very talented and funny, which I believe starts in season 3 or 4. (Currently on Season 16 I believe.

Big Fat Quiz of the Year/Everything - Hosted by Jimmy Carr - This only happens twice a year and is an hour and a half long pub quiz type show that pits 3 teams of 2 comedians each. They answer questions from Music, Movies, TV, Current Events, etc. Easy to put on and "watch" while on your phone and look up for a laugh here and there.

Taskmaster - Just started watching this but it might supplant Would I Lie to You if it keeps hitting like it has the first two seasons. Greg Davies hosts and gets 5 comedians to compete in a season long competition by completing crazy tasks. It's so hard to explain, you just have to watch it. You won't be disappointed after the first episode or two. Downright hilarious.


All of these shows are still currently airing while having a plethora of old seasons to watch. Most have about 7 seasons to watch. All of these game shows recycle the same comedians so you end up getting to know them pretty well if you watch them as much as I have. Does anyone else watch these and have any recommendations?

Yes, I spend way too much time on YouTube watching these shows. Taskmaster was my gateway drug into this genre.

Taskmaster is my favorite. Every series I think the next set of comedians can't possibly be better than the previous but keep getting proved wrong. Although if I had to pick one series it would be 4.

Taskmaster is really good. Really funny to see some of the crazy things they come up with to get around the rules.

Oh and anyone who is interested in watching, just know that British tv have much different censoring than American tv. Pretty much anything is allowed outside of C

Sponge said:

---

Taskmaster is my favorite. Every series I think the next set of comedians can't possibly be better than the previous but keep getting proved wrong. Although if I had to pick one series it would be 4.

---

That's good to hear about it not losing it's firepower. Joe Wilkinson is my absolute favorite of the normal bunch, and series 2 was my favorite so far. Such a good group with Joe Wilkinson, John Richardson, Katherine Ryan, Richard Osman, & Doc Brown.

Hard to imagine what comedians they're gonna go thru after knocking out so many of the ones I know.

My favorite Taskmaster seasons are:

Series 2: Jon Richardson, Katherine Ryan, Joe Wilkinson, Doc Brown, Richard Osman
Series 4: Lolly Adefope, Hugh Dennis, Noel Fielding, Mel Giedroyc, Joe Lycett
Series 7: James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Phil Wang, Kerry Godliman, Rhod Gilbert
Series 11: Charlotte Ritchie, Jamali Maddix, Lee Mack, Mike Wozniak, Sarah Kendall

Series 7 is my personal favorite but all of these are top notch.

Not game shows, but I used to like the OG crew from Top Gear. Watching Clarkson's Farm now and laughing my ass off.

Clarkson's Farm is awesome. There's a couple series of James May going to different countries. The first is James May: Our Man in Japan, the second is Our Man in Italy.

There's a pretty funny scene where he goes to a custom cologne maker. They made a commercial for the fragrance as well:

In.

May's cooking show is also good. Especially how they include banter with the behind the scenes chef. They already filmed a second series which should be out this year.

This is a pretty funny scene from 8 out of 10 cats. This is just a special one-off little gag they did, the shows aren't normally like this. Sean Lock was a treasure

I laughed so damn hard at this.

This isn't a game show, but has anyone here seen the British comedy Mind Your Language? It's on Amazon Prime for no additional charge, but there's ads.