“Not very sophisticated, but it’s funny”
Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper had appeared on Radio 4 to explain why a youth radio station increasingly wanted listeners to watch certain moments as well as hear them. He used Innuendo Bingo as an example and faced the difficult task of describing the feature to a more formal audience.
His summary was devastatingly efficient: it involved clips containing double entendres, people holding water in their mouths and, essentially, something that was “not very sophisticated, but it’s funny”.
Scott loved it. Years of trying to explain the programme had finally been reduced to the perfect line, and the phrase immediately became the show’s unofficial slogan.
Friction gets less wet than expected
Drum-and-bass DJ Friction took on Chris in Thursday’s Innuendo Bingo. The build-up promised “drum and bass in your face”, but compared with some recent contests he escaped surprisingly lightly.
That did not mean he stayed dry. Clips from television and radio still delivered the usual direct hits, while Scott enjoyed having another Radio 1 specialist presenter submit to a feature that made considerably less sense when explained aloud.
The possibility of staging a live Innuendo Bingo began to appeal to listeners too, with Big Weekend suggested as a suitably ridiculous future venue.
Scott discovers Gogglebox
Scott had also found a new favourite programme: Gogglebox. He knew he was late to it, but the simple idea of watching selected families and couples watch television struck him as unexpectedly brilliant.
The show fitted his long-standing fascination with other people’s reactions to popular TV and immediately threatened to displace Meet the Russians in his affections. That replacement would not last long.
Are you trying to have it off with me in Serbian?
Chris decided ordinary phrasebooks were insufficient preparation for Scott’s weekend. A Serbian-speaking friend recorded phrases and Scott had to decide whether each speaker was flirting with him or insulting him.
The game, provisionally titled Are You Trying to Have It Off with Me in Serbian?, taught him very little useful vocabulary but gave him a way to distinguish affectionate Serbian from Chris’s accompanying thrash metal.
One phrase asking for five million dinars sounded worryingly romantic to Scott. With only days to go before filming, this was the level of linguistic preparation he was taking to judges’ houses.
—
COMMENTS