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DMs Are Open

DMs Are Open – Series 1 – Episode 2 – Sketches

Really struggled this week.

Just as the deadline was looming I read that there was some ‘confusion’ over who called the meeting between Sue Grey and the PM. That got me thinking into perhaps old BoJo was trying to use some sort of hypnosis to confuse and make people do things.

This was a 1 draft, no re-writes. As I’m sure you can tell! But I want to brain-shit these out otherwise I’d submit nothing.

Now I had even less time if I wanted to find another sketch. Blasting through the news sites and twitter, something else did catch my eye. Jeremy Clarkson’s daughter got married. That got me thinking about how he could do the ‘father of the bride’ speech like reviewing a car. I think I got lost while typing but another sketch written and submitted.

I really liked the concept but, as always, my desire to write far exceeded my ability to write funny!

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DMs Are Open

DMs Are Open – Series 1 – Episode 1 Analysis Series 1 Episode 1 – Analysis

I attempted to get 2 sketches, 2 one-liners and 1 voice note into the show. I didn’t get anything in this week’s show. Never Mind!

Start how you mean to go on – so I thought I’d do some in-depth analysis of the first episode of DMs Are Open.

DMs Are Open Summary

DMs Are Open is a weekly topical comedy show which accepts user submissions for oneliner jokes and sketches. The BBC do pay for all broadcast user submissions.

Analysis

You may have seen my analysis of NewsJack episodes so I’ve tried to keep to broadly that structure. Things are a little different as DMs Are Open isn’t a ‘Topical News Satire’ show, but is a topical news show. Its also ‘new’ so I think the producers are also looking to find their own way on how this goes forward.

I’ve listened to the broadcast and I’ve tried to analysis what content makes the show.

First of all, I do not include the opening dialogue in the stats as this isn’t something that members of the public can submit to.

Secondly, there is no released details on who has written what, but occasionally they do tweet out who wrote what. If I had to guess, these are staff writers/invited writers who are paid to write for DMs are Open rather than people who have, that week, submitted 2 one-liners, 1 Voice Note and 3 sketches.

Thirdly, this is my analysis. The assumptions I make are mine, as are the conclusions I come to.

Breakdown Count Time Sketch 9 (11?) 15m56 Oneliners 11 2m15 VNs 5 1m15

There we have it. About 19 and a half minutes of the show can be submitted by members of the public. This is about 2 minutes less than a submission to NewsJack. I will stop the NJ comparisons as more episodes of this are released.

The structure of the show was 6 sketches, then all 11 One-liners, then another 4 sketches, then we had the 5 Voice Notes before the final sketch. I’ve included the ‘headspace’ sketches separately as they appeared separately in the show. If you take them as just one sketch, there were 9 sketches in total.

Sketches Topic Time Mental Health Awareness Week 1m30 Sketch Wagatha Christie 2m30 Sketch Small Murder Mystery 2m15 Sketch Disney ++ 1m50 Sketch Headspace for Nihlists 50s Sketch Highway Code Novels 1m55 Sketch Headspace for Pagans 20s Sketch Elon Musk submissions 50s Sketch Russian Eurovision 2m22 Sketch Headspace for Scientogists 4s Sketch

Milleniam Care Home 1m30 Sketch

I hate writing sketches – I’m forever moaning about it. I occasionally do it (I submitted 2 sketches this week) as its important to do the things you hate. Previously, for NewsJack analysis I would search for the news stories to see when they were ‘topical’. For the first episode I think thats a bit too much, but also, most ‘seem’ current. MHAW, Eurovision, Wagatha Christie, are definately ‘current’ enough. I couldn’t find anything on Headspace, and Disney ++ didn’t seem topical at all – but the producers liked it enough to include it.

The golden rule would be to ‘write funny’ and not worry so much about the ‘topical-ness’ of a subject.

One thing I’ve found strange is that no-one on Twitter (obviously the ONLY social network!) has tweeted about having a sketch included in the first show. Seems very strange when most people do shout about getting stuff included.

One-Liners

These were bunched together in the middle of the show. I also noticed they had a laughter-track added to them, where-as the sketches didn’t. Again with the NewsJack comparison but I think recording in front of a live audience (with the ‘occasional’ improvement to the laughter) really added to the character of the show. Without them, DMs Are Open felt a little dry.

The topics of the one-liners were as follows;-

Musk/Twitter Drug Stations Shit on Sofa Ketchup containers Moulin Rouge Neil Parish Married Cat Elizabeth Line Madonna NFT Vogue Cornwall McDonalds Russian

I didn’t time the individual jokes here, I’m not some sort of stat-loving saddo! But the whole section was 2 minutes and 15 seconds of the show.

Voice Notes

5 Voice Notes were broadcast. The iPod one was by far the longest, but it hit the 20 second max time that the producers asked for.

James Corden return Dr Who Name Jason Mamoa iPod Wembley Catering Lasagne

All Up-To-Date from what I could see…except the Wembley Lasagne one. Searches suggested this was from 2020 but that can’t be right! The producers loved it so the golden rule applies again 🙂

In Summary

I enjoyed flexing my writing brain again. NewsJack left a big hole and hopefully DMs Are Open can fill it. Please don’t take any of this summary as a criticism of any of the writers OR the people involved in the show. Its just looking at what they broadcast, both the topics and the times, what they appear to be looking for and things I think I can do to improve my chances of getting stuff broadcast*.

I think that they could lose 1 sketch and include another load of one-liners. Hopefully this balance will improve through the series. I’m also not sure how many Voice Notes they get so it might improve your chances of getting stuff broadcast if you do a Voice Note as you’ll have less competition. Its important you focus on the Golden Rule (Write Funny) and then worry about other things.

Hopefully the team over at DMs Are Open will share some stats on submissions. Another thing I noticed is that the Voice Note contributors get a separate acknowledgement (I’m guessing as ‘Voice Actors’) so we know who wrote the sketches/one-liners, even if we don’t know who wrote which individual ones.

My final note to the team making DMs Are Open is PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE….can you rename it for the 2nd series? Seriously people, did you not search the hashtag before deciding on a name? Even adding ‘BBC’ to the end doesn’t much improve the tweets that are brought back. This is ‘getting sacked from work’ levels of content so I am glad I’m not trying to search the hashtags from my work computer/phone (like I could with NewsJack).

What are your thoughts on the first episode of DMs Are Open? Let me know in the comments? Did you write some of the jokes? I’d be interested to know which ones 🙂

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NewsJack Series 24 Episode 4

Last chance saloon. I hope I can take these seriously! (I wont, but I am at least trying!)

BREAKING NEWS:

Greggs makes it first loss in 36 years – 14 million pounds. It turns out they haven’t been making the dough they expected. Piers Morgan brands Jedward ‘Talentless Clowns’. Failing to make a mark on a talent show, no longer on TV, and desperate for attention – Piers Morgan still continues to give his opinion on Twitter. Man loses £400k to bitcoin scam. To find out the rest of this story please email your bank account number, sort code and pin to the team here at NewsJack

I don’t know whether they like puns or not. But I love a pun so BN1 was going in! I also thought they’d be happy with a Piers Morgan joke but they were not. The Bitcoin scam joke is obvious but it was back in the news again. So I submitted (again).

GOOD WEEK/BAD WEEK:1. Its been a good week for Prince Philip who is now back home after spending a month in hospital after a heart procedure. Its been a bad week for bookies who now regret taking ‘those’ bets….2. Its been a bad week for women, who are having to protest and march to have their voices heard by government. Its been a good week for statues as the police are making sure they are all kept safe.3. Its been a bad week for The Mash Report after it is axed by the BBC.Its been a good week for NewsJack as although it is has been on for a 24 series, that is over 140 in dog years, the BBC has said that tomorrow it is taking it to its favourite beach, then it will have a big juicy steak for lunch, then in the afternoon it will be taken to go for what it is being told is a ‘lovely long sleep’ – where it will meet all its old friends ‘They Think Its All Over’, ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’, ‘Big Train’ and ‘The 99p Challenge’ – but most importantly, it wont be in pain any more. Sounds Ace! I can’t wait!

Never, in the complete history of time, would they use GWBW1. But its the last week so what the hell. 2 Might have been ignored due to the sensitivity of the situation, and I understand but I know a lot of people have been making jokes about statues now having more rights that women.

GWBW3 was a beauty! I loved writing it but see I had a grammar mistake early on. Damn me for not paying proper attention. With The Mash Report being axed AND it being the last show of the series I thought this would be a great joke to end on. Instead they went for this.

“Its been a good week for actor and activist Riz Ahmed who has been nominated for a best actor Oscar. Its been a bad week for British Right-Wingers who are worried about the prospect of another woke lefty getting their hands on a statue.”

Not only do I think my joke would have been better to end the show and the series, but also my joke would have been better to end the show and the series. 😀

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NewsJack Series 24 Episode 3

I’m struggling and it isn’t helping knowing I only have two epsiodes left to submit.

BREAKING NEWS:

Amazon opens Till-less shop in London where you pick up the items you want then just walk out the door. You can do the same at Asda, Tesco, and Waitrose as long as you can run faster than the security guards. A 9 year old boy passes his maths GCSE 7 years early, after homeschooling with his dad. His Dad hopes to pass them next year. Government ministers debate Full-Fibre broadband expansion. Home-owners are looking for a smooth deployment with little mess left behind.

Till-less shops were back in the news but I think this was a topic for jokes a few years ago. I went with this punchline. I liked joke 2 because it was silly and joke 3 because it is about pooooooo and I’m 14 years old. I didn’t think Joke 2 or 3 would have a chance. Joke 1 was a bit obvious but I went for it anyway.

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK: 1. Its been a bad week for a millionaire dad after courts rule he should pay £150,000 a month for his 4 year old daughter to have designer clothes. Its been a good week for his ex who was able to buy the complete school uniform from Asda and now has £149,980 left to spend on herself.2. Its been a good week for a woman in New York who discovered a complete apartment hidden behind her mirror. Its been a bad week for her neighbour who wants to know why she broke into her flat.3. Its been a good week for vaccinated people in the US as they can now meet without masks. Its been a bad week for vaccinated people in the US as they risk being confused with Anti-Maskers

GWBW1 has a joke somewhere. I didn’t feel I got to it but I wrote it anyway. It had a number of re-writes (rare for me) but nothing hit the mark. #2 I felt was a joke but the badweek punchline didn’t hit either. It was there, and funny, but was certainly lacking something. I never thought Newsjack would do this joke but I wrote it anyway. Gangsta4lif!

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NewsJack Series 24 Episode 2

Its a short series this time with only 4 episodes.

BREAKING NEWS:

1. Rishi Sunak is set to announce a £400 million budget for boosting the arts sector. This should be enough to pay for a pair of front row tickets to Hamilton
2. New coal mine plan could damage PMs reputation. Known for the dirt they dig up, ruining the english countryside and toxic emissions - the Prime Minister doesn’t worry about his reputation.
3. £1.6 Billion has been added to the Covid Vaccination program to support additional doses. After the deduction of introduction fees, bonus payments, referral fees, service costs and donations to the Conservative party, doctors are looking forward to being able to offer the vaccine to 10’s of additional people.

Joke one would be lost on anyone who doesn’t know that Hamilton was the hot ticket. And with everything closed, probably not worth wasting a oneliner on. Joke 2 I really struggled with as there is a much better punchline in there somewhere. I wont ever find it but it is there. I loved joke 3 and I think I’ve written jokes like this for Newsjack before – they never use them but it is the kind of joke you would hear on HIGNFY.

GOOD WEEK/BAD WEEK:IIts been a bad week for Londoners as the ‘affordable housing plan’ has been scaled back. Its been a good week for fans of seeing huge tower blocks empty as foreign investment companies are still buying!Its been a good week for a woman who found £185k of whale vomit while at the beach. Its been a bad week for my dry cleaners as the vomit on my jacket is pretty much worthless.Its been a good week for the company behind the ‘Zoom’ software as it predicts continued growth for 2021. Its been a bad week for Gillette with losses due to the continued growth of beards.

GWBW 1 is probably too ‘London’ and I’m not sure if the punchline is that punchy. Always the way with me. #2 is autobiographical having vomited up a new jacket’s sleeve. Needs a shorter punchline. I liked number 3 and thought I was in with a shot. Reader, I was not in with a shot!

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Consoling Myself

Consoling Myself – Episode 1 – The Atari 400

The first episode is now available on Apple Podcasts! Woo-hoo. You can search for it on there and subscribe, or you can listen via the link below.

In fairness to the truth, the Atari 400 was my brothers, I think. But seeing as we lived together at the time and I was allowed to play on it AND it is the earliest gaming memory I have, I’m including it.

I have gone and purchased all the consoles I’ve ever owned in my life and the Atari 400 was a hard one to find at a reasonable price. I ended up buying an Atari 400 and an Atari 800XL which were bundled together as ‘untested’. Luckily for me the Atari 400 worked. It did need a bit of a clean-up though!

You can listen to the first episode by clicking ‘play’ below.

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Consoling Myself Podcast

I’m trying to branch out a little and have decided to create a podcast. Its called ‘Consoling Myself’ and you can find it on Apple Podcasts or on Acast.

Its about all the video games consoles I had growing up.

Good podcasting ‘pod-iquette’ (is that even a thing?) suggests you should launch a trailer before you go live with your first episode so this is the trailer.

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Newsjack Series 20 Episode 4

Another week, another Newsjack submission.

I’m chatting with some of the guys from the last comedy course I did and sharing my writings with them. I’ve been doing it to help encourage them to write and show them what I’m writing.

Here are my submissions this week.

ONELINERS BREAKING NEWS:

A police detective faces the sack after farting in front of colleagues. She denies the accusation saying, “It’s a load of old guff”. Housebuilders Persimmon’s annual profit has topped £1billion. Or £800million if you pay cash and we ignore the VAT. Lewis Hamilton is on Day 5 of the F1 testing. Soon he hopes to test the other function keys

I thought these were quite fun. My comedy-writing group chums felt that the F1 joke was a good one. My concern was I’m certainly not the first person to do an ‘F1/F1’ joke but I thought I’d give it a go for Newsjack. The housebuilder one was a bit lazy but I liked the headline it was from .

The fart joke – there had to be one. Finding that news article was a godsend. I liked the joke.

NEWSJACKIPEDIA:

No-gotiating – Presenting the same deal back to the EU and asking them for more concessions knowing that they will refuse.

a Cheeky Nandos – a photo opportunity to pretend that you and your new friends are just like normal members of the public.

Katie Price – The financial cost of drink driving.I really liked the ‘No-gotiating’. The rest were a bit rushed as I struggle with these.

GOOD WEEK/BAD WEEK:

Its been a bad week for The Independent Group as people analyse the group dinner they had in a Nandos.But it’s been a good week for Ed Milliband as everyone has now forgotten about his bacon sandwich face. Its been a bad week for Kepa Arrizabalaga who refused to be substituted in the Cup Final.Its a good week for me at work as I’m about to try refusing anything my boss asks me to do. Wish me luck! Its been a bad week for black cab drivers as they lose their court battle to cancel Uber’s licence in London.But it’s been a good week for Prius car salesmen, phone-mount manufacturers and people who make plastic seat covers.

Struggled with the good week/bad week as well. The Uber joke – I had the link to the black cab drivers but couldn’t think of the opposite to make it a joke. What I ended up with was rushed and didn’t feel right.

What am I doing making a joke about Kepa Arrizabalaga? I know nothing about football. I liked the concept for this joke but, once again, I didn’t feel it ended correctly.

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NewsJack Series 20 Episode 3

This week I sent in some good week/bad weeks.

ONELINERS

BREAKING NEWS:

Network Rail have asked for £80 Million to protect the train track from the sea at Dawlish or otherwise travellers will have to use the congested roads. A company spokesman has said, “Its my way, or the highway.” The artist Ai Weiwei has hit out at being censored in his latest project. A Chinese Censorship Official has said, “Its my way, or the Ai Weiwei.” The US government wants to ban the use Huawei in their IT infrastructure, instead using their own US brand electronics. A US Government Official has said that America has two options, “Its my way, or the Huawei.”

I wrote 2 & 3 and then decided that i’d have to find something else to make a trio of ‘my way or the high way’ jokes. I didn’t think the NewsJack team would use them. They would have had to have used all 3 or none and I doubted they’d use all 3. I was right!

I did write a 3rd joke that wasn’t in the theme.

“The UK’s only manufacturer of display fireworks has gone into administration. It was thought it would go out with a band, but turned out to be a damp squib.”

Much more a NewsJack joke. But they’ll never use it now I’ve not sent it in!

NEWSJACKIPEDIA:

A Funny Tinge – The shade you go after using inappropriate words to describe people of colour. Border Walling – The excuse you make to your partner so they let you go out drinking with friends. A made up state of emergency. Hondaring – To pretend you don’t want to leave a situation when secretly you’ve wanted to go for ages.

They must have got a million ‘Funny Tinge’ jokes and I didn’t want to be left out!

Another wall reference from Twon? Surely not.

Hondaring – I liked this. They didn’t. They were wrong!

and now for the good week/bad week.

GOOD WEEK/BAD WEEK:

It’s been a bad week for Netflix Fans as neither Jessica Jones or The Punisher gets renewed. But it’s been a good week for everyone else who have two less series to pretend they will watch when their friends recommend them. It’s been a bad week for Wolves as they have been drawn against Manchester United in the FA Cup Quarter Round. But it’s been a good week for Wolves as all they had planned was running around in a pack and howling at the moon. It’s been a bad week for People of Colour as Angela Smith describes them as having ‘a funny tinge’. But it’s been a good week for Crayola as were just about to release a new crayon and weren’t sure what to call the colour.

I couldn’t find a way I was entirely happy to word the first one.

2. I liked because it is silly.

3. Fancied using ‘funny tinge’ again. So sue me.

Nothing got broadcast.

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NewsJack Series 20 Episode 2

Another Week. Another NJ Submission

ONELINERS

BREAKING NEWS:

Taxi Drivers to face criminal record checks. Concerns have been raised that police will find copies of Milli Vanilli’s “Girl You Know Its True” or Kajagoogoo’s “Too Shy”. The Government is being sued for rushing through a contract of £14 Million for Seabourne Freight to supply no ferries. They should have come to me, I’d have supplied them with no ferries for just £10 million. Roughly 1.8 million complaints to the council about unemptied bins in the last year. Roughly 1.8 million votes between leave and remain in the Brexit Referendum. Co-incidence? I think not.

Taxi Driver joke – I spent longer than I should have trying to decide on dodgy albums. Just before submission I swapped them round as I felt ‘Kajagoogoo’ needed to go last.

I’m sure I’ve submitted somethign like the 2nd joke before.

I liked the 3rd joke. I am embelishing the truth a little as I think it was 1.4 million more people voted ‘leave’. It felt like a NewsJack joke but there was a worry they might not want to do something that supported remain. Turns out they didnt.

NEWSJACKPEDIA:

‘Farage’ – Something you flush down the toilet and it disappears but sometime later it re-appears back in the bowl. ‘Maypole Dancing’ – distracting people with a carefully orchestrated dance where, when you finish it, you end up exactly where you started, but tied up in tape you can’t escape. ‘Walling’ – An American act of self-harm designed to show the right-wing you mean business in keeping those foreigners out. (see also ‘Brexiting’)

Farage – funny.

Maypole Dancing. It was about her going back to europe to ‘renegotiate’. Only after I submitted I thought they might link it just to her dancing from last year.

Walling. I like this format (see also…) but Newsjack don’t. Their loss!

I’d not noticed the new section of goodweek/bad week. At least they have got rid of the numberjacks. Goodweek/bad week doesn’t work much better as a format (in my view).

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