Rupert Uzzell enjoys a more intelligent brand of gimp.
You have a good idea what to expect when you go and see a show called Late Night Gimp Fight: an evening of juvenile, crude and depraved silliness. And that's exactly what you get.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with this, as long as there is wit and creativity also present. For example, the crudest sketch of the show is also the one I find funniest, but crucially, not because of the crudity. I'll demonstrate what I mean by describing the sketch, which shouldn't ruin the joke for anyone as it only works when seen live anyway.
It's a sketch which portrays a stag party listening in on the groom taking a phone call, with each member taking it in turns to make a dirty mime in response to what the groom is saying. However, one 'stag' then takes it to the most ludicrous of extremes by engaging in an insanely prolonged and detailed mime of entirely gay sex acts taken to the absolute max.
Inevitably, it's a highly explicit sketch, but I reiterate, this isn't what makes it funny. The humour derives from the absurdity of the situation; more specifically, from the bizarre juxtaposition achieved when the alpha-male setting of a raucous stag party is suddenly stopped in its tracks by one character slipping into an ultra-indulgent mime of the most extreme homosexual fantasies. Fantasies that are the antithesis of all that is alpha-male.
This possibly sounds like a rather pretentious analysis of what is in fact a very simple sketch. However, in actuality, what really makes a joke funny is rarely as simple as can sometimes appear.
There are a lot of good sketches in the show like this one, where the crudity is just part of the equation in a sketch that is actually funny because of a decent central idea. However, the problem with the show lies in the fact that the gimps don't seem to have realised that this is what makes their best sketches work. Consequentially, lumped in with the gems are some lazy and simplistic skits that only work on the basis that they are low and disgusting. Well gimps, if this was all that was required to create a decent comedy show, virtually every red-blooded male on the planet would be capable of putting one on.
The level of this misunderstanding about when they are at their best is most amply demonstrated by the terrible opening and closing song: a specially adapted rendition of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way.’ This features the gimps singing about having been born such depraved individuals. Fine, but what has this got to do with being funny? For some reason, they seem more pre-occupied with their market branding in terms of being perverse than they are in simply creating a good comedy show.
It’s a shame, as there is enough funny, well-performed stuff in the hour to make for an entertaining show. Let’s hope in future they focus more on coming up with clever and amusing ideas, and stop concentrating so much on the lazy sexual deviancy.
Late Night Gimp Fight are at the Pleasance Courtyard at 10:30pm until the 29th August.
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