That Joke isn't funny anymore

It was somewhere mid way through the second series of Little Britain that I stopped laughing. Up until then I hag giggled along at the naughty words and rude costumes but after hearing "I don't like it" from a gentleman in wheelchair again I realised what a stupid, ridiculous spectacle the whole thing was. Laughing at exactly the same joke over and over again placed in a slightly different conxtext is usually a habit reserved for the clinically insane but somehow David Walliams, Matt Lucas and Catherin Tate had made it socially acceptable for millions. I promised there and then never to watch a bad sketch show made for stupid people ever again. No longer would I sit and wait for an old woman to shout "What a fucking liberty!" or a schoolgirl to say "Am i Bovvered?". The brilliant and original Extras ,by comedy genius' Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant, made me realise that this was all a risible excuse for comedy and should be treated as such- just as Andy Millman's terrible When the Whistle Blows is within their second sitcom. (I've often wondered if anyone turned over when a segment from WTWB was being played during Extras, laughed heartily and was gutted when it ended and the real comedy began)

All of these things made me especially gutted when I heard that James Corden and Matthew Horne were working on a sketch show. After the intelligent and well written Gavin and Stacey this seemed like a step backwards rather than forwards, although it could be brilliant. What I am most scared of is another catch phrased based comedy with the same absurd slogan being shouted each week for no tangible reason. I sensed that Gavin and Stacey may be on the way to such banality during the Christmas special when the oft repeated "Oh...Whats occuring?" came dangerously close to catch phrase status. Hopefully it won't and will instead retain it's myriad examples of linguistic brilliance rather than pinning all of it's laughs on one phrase. But before that James Corden and Matthew Horne have to make sure they don't reverse the tide of good will they garnered for their good natured sitcom by squandering it on an dieing format and boring catch phrases.