To date I have never considered YouTube as something akin to television. For me YouTube is too chaotic and anarchistic to be seen as analogous to traditional broadcast television. And yet this is what I find most fascinating about the medium; the fact that anyone could post video content about anything onto the platform (well at least confined to YouTube’s content policies, of course). In addition to this YouTube is adorned with some of the Internet’s most recognizable features, like the user comment section and the search box. To me there is a rather subtle revolutionary aspect to the search box that I still feel is largely understated and unappreciated. For embedded within this particular feature is a novel idea; that one has the ability to seek and find the content that they wish to consume. On the Internet one is not merely relegated to consume what is offered to them by the corporate administrators of the medium. The search box allows the Internet to take a modest step away from the latent, idle passivity that TV would demand. Simply put Internet content is meant to be found and discovered in ways that TV content is not.
When one combines this with the fact all of its broadcast content is continuously accessible, YouTube dares one to embark on exploratory ventures far more than traditional TV ever could. There is an expansive, boundless feel to the medium that in its cultural conquest has successfully swallowed up content from traditional TV itself. And this includes TV content from other parts of the world that I might not have recourse to watch in any other manner. One such show would be the UK’s Smack the Pony.
Based on all the clips of this show that have been uploaded to YouTube, I’ve been quite impressed with the creativity that was clearly present in the writing process and with the unassailable quality in how such material was performed. And while the Architects sketch may not possess the same daring, cleverness, or surprising twists as some of their other sketches, it still offered a great example of how this comedic troupe could execute a modest concept to perfection.
Early in the sketch it’s clear how well the performers handled the small nuances of the material. For instance when the only male character in the sketch, played by Darren Boyd got chided for his unimaginative, pedestrian design, he later attempted to show more spirit with a line that drew a casually awkward, yet meek response from Doon Mackichan. This firmly established the proper comedic tone for the sketch, which was later maintained by Boyd’s manic almost diabolical fit of laughter, not to mention Mackichan further disheveling her hair at the mentioning of zeppelins and Sally Phillips banging her head on the desk at the group’s rejection. But of course when it came to the physical acting of this sketch Fiona Allen’s work really stood out here. Allen essentially played the straight woman who had to react to all the absurd nonsense that she was subjected to. Allen’s initial cheerful smile, quickly gave way to more stern, authoritative glances, before ultimately becoming visages of utter bafflement mixed with a tinge of terror at the herculean task that she was given. The only bad thing about Allen’s performance was that she didn’t get much dialogue to work with and this sketch was wonderfully written.
The premise had Allen cast as an engineering consultant whose apparent job was to curb the whims of a group of architects played by Mackichan, Boyd and Phillips. The sketch essentially satirized people who are so desperate to think ‘outside the box’ that they end up abandoning all earthly logic. This notion was established rather efficiently during a short dispute over gravity, for which Allen’s character correctly surmised that the best approach would be to simply grab the box herself and comically demonstrate the concept.
Beyond this the writers showed a real commitment towards capturing a ridiculous level of buffoonery on the part of the architects. While I liked an early line “Since the mistakes of the past will somehow be rectified by the presence of Jo our engineering..” with Mackichan placing an appropriate emphasis on the word ‘somehow’, the sketch really hit its stride following the gravity debate with seemingly line after line that offered a solid comedic punch. The dialogue was also delivered with great timing and plenty of charm. The highlights of this latter discussion in which the architects indulge in an absolutely preposterous concept include Boyd’s declaration of a “brain wave”, a term that demonstrated a lame attempt at hipness, followed by his stammering prior to the vapid suggestion of using non-exploding vessels. There was also good humour in Phillips’s guesses of sugar pumps and whales, which seemed oddly detached from the notion that such would be suspended in the air to support a building. The humour in the sketch was unrelenting and yet well developed and well earned, so much so that Phillips herself couldn’t resist cracking a smile prior to the discussion of the car park. It even continued as the group shifted to a technically possible, albeit completely inane alternative, with the camera panning away amid talks of chocolate desks. Smack the Pony as one of the best sketch TV shows to ever exist? Yeah, I think that’s very feasible.