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Behind the Scenes: Hit and Miss

That Mitchell and Webb Look 2009 Season 3 Episode 2

SKETCH-O-VISION

A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.

The setup

Between takes, David and Robert argue over whether their sketch show really needs to keep deliberately including bad material.

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Community rating

– / 10

The premise

Here’s the bit.

Seated in director's chairs on a garden set, David reads out a planned running order for the series that is nothing but an alternating pattern of hits and misses. Robert doubts the idea is worth the effort of writing and filming so much deliberately weak material, and David defends it as what viewers expect from a sketch show. When Robert wonders whether they could try something different, David argues that dropping the gimmick would only invite a new line of criticism, and the exchange ends with a pointed jab about how smug the pair are accused of being.

The funny people

Meet the cast. 2

David Mitchell

Himself

Robert Webb

Himself

Say it with us

Highly quotable.

It's a sketch show, it's got to be hit and miss, that's what people expect.

Ah, clever. And people call us smug.

Behind the scenes

The people who made it.

Jonathan Dryden-Taylor
Writer
David Mitchell
Writer

ScriptEnglish · 17 turns

Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors.

00:00
Okay, so running order for the show, I was thinking hit, miss, hit, hit, miss, miss, hit, miss, hit, miss, hit, miss, miss, hit, hit, miss, hit, miss.
00:19
What do you think?
00:21
Are we definitely going for the whole hit and miss thing?
00:24
It's a sketch show, it's got to be hit and miss, that's what people expect.
00:27
It is quite time-consuming, writing and filming all the misses.
00:31
It almost feels, you know, a bit pointless.
00:34
Well, it's the other writers I feel sorry for,
00:36
the ones who have to, you know... Write the hits. Yeah.
00:39
Yeah, well, tough ones who get their own show.
00:41
But, I mean, still, we've done two hit-and-miss series now.
00:45
Can't we go for something different?
00:47
Look, if we didn't perversely include
00:49
about 50% deliberately unamusing material,
00:52
then people would have to think of something else to say, wouldn't they?
00:54
What, like we're too self-referential?
00:56
Ah, clever.
00:58
And people call us smug.