Show Discussion: I Literally Just Told You

By | December 15, 2021

Thursdays, 10pm,
Channel 4

The latest creation of Format Powerhouse (or at least, Person) Richard Bacon sees Jimmy Carr asking questions about things that have just happened in the studio for £25,000. It’s an observation and memory quiz basically.

What might be fun is that this interview suggests they’re going quite big on the meta, “we had real fun with the fact that anything can happen. You can have 15-second cameos, you can have false ad breaks, you can mess with people’s minds.” It also sounds like the grand final will have contestants setting each other questions: “I think the best bit of the show is the end round. I’ve never seen another game show do that, where you go, “Oh, you’re setting each other questions”” and I for one can’t believe we’ve all forgotten Mental: The Music Quiz already.

Counting against it: is there going to be enough here to sustain an hour? And it’s not usually a slot that C4 do amazingly well in. Watched it? Let us know what you think in the comments.

27 thoughts on “Show Discussion: I Literally Just Told You

  1. Chris B

    I know a lot of this is to do with Jimmy – but the past few weeks this has been giving me a lot of vibes of Distraction. Lo and behold when promoting this Jimmy said he felt like he was coming full circle as it reminded him a lot of it too.

    Good or bad? I dunno, I always liked it but I saw some recently and it hasn’t aged great. Certainly feels more like a Friday Night type thing but since the rise of Gogglebox and Last Leg there isn’t much room for things like this any more on a Friday – Catsdown tends to be Thursdays now when it’s on. Maybe this following the next series of Taskmaster might have been a better bet? Anyway I’m rambling. Fingers crossed!

    Reply
  2. Josh Reid

    It’s okay.

    It was a bit fast paced which was disorientating at the start, especially when they went straight into the show without a proper introduction. Nice to see Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

    Unrelated but it seems I’m not the only one but the contestants just felt a bit… fake? Especially Al who seemed like he was an actor. Not sure if it’s just terrible casting or if it’s all a sham.

    Was nice to see how they’d fill 60 minutes. I think overall we only had 2 ad breaks which is unusual for a show that long. Might tune in next week and see what’s going on.

    Reply
  3. Brig Bother Post author

    Extremely confusing show this. Not for its format, more I don’t get why it’s on at 10pm on C4 in 2021.

    Jimmy Carr actually very good playing as a relatively straight up host, which I always thought he should get more of after that Cats Does Deal Or No Deal special years ago. Wasn’t expecting to see Maggie Aderin-Pocock off of Sky At Night as a resident question writer! I also thought the questions, in the main, were pretty good – especially in the Money Maker rounds where there was a fun, unexpected tone to many of them.

    But I don’t really get who is going to tune in for it – there’s certainly nothing must-watch about it, there’s almost no edge at all, it’s certainly not funny enough, you could put it out at 5:30pm on BBC1 on a Saturday and it’d feel like a more natural slot. I grant it fills an hour better than I was expecting. I think it’s a shame it stopped being so meta quite quickly (I was actually expecting a proper fake ad break rather than what we got). Also I was rather surprised by the handbrake cuts in the early bits that pretty much assured a question on what was just said will be coming up.

    Like Quizness, there’s going to be a subset of people that absolutely dig this, but also like Quizness I expect that number is going to be quite small.

    Reply
    1. Brekkie

      Yes – the scheduling is odd. It is was played more for laughs with fairly insignificant prizes it might be understandable but this has fairly decent cash on offer and would fit at 9pm nicely. If they’d launched it off the back of Taskmaster the slot might sense, but feel like this could get a wider audience elsewhere. Maybe even see C4 get back into Saturday night alternative gameshows at 9pm.

      Agree though it filled the hour nicely – the format is almost built around the patter in between rounds so it needs the space to breathe. Only criticism is I think showing on screen what contestants are winning would help, but on the otherside also nice not to really know until the end of each round.

      Will save it as a weekly treat rather than binge it though. Baffling choice to frontload a show like this on All4.

      Reply
  4. Andrew Hain

    With a full episode under their belt, what is the complete format rundown which talks about how the £25,000 can be reached? There was a pilot done for a U.S. version for NBC and so far we have not heard any more word on that.

    Reply
    1. Matt Clemson

      Four contestants. No buzzers at all, it’s literally just Jimmy going down the line asking each of them question(s) in turn.

      Contestant and Jimmy intros, each with a gag, then straight in to asking each contestant in turn something about those intros. One question to each contestant (basically to set out the point), £250 each.

      Introduces Maggie and Emy, writing questions on the fly. Periodically throughout this there’s going to be random diversions occurring – mostly chat about the current question with them, although there’s also calling to video clips, or interviewing a random Eamonn Holmes in the audience, or getting a workout routine from Mr. Motivator.

      First “Money Maker” round. These are general knowledge questions, although each is in the disordatordother format, hence still having the “we’re giving you the answers in advance” theme. Five questions per player, each with the same options, for instance “Great British Bake Off, Gogglebox or Naked Attraction”. Again, £250 each. Some banter after some of these questions, may well seed future questions. Maximum prize at this point, £1500.

      Memory round; lowest cash at the end of the round leaves. £500 per question, Jimmy asks one question to each contestant in turn, and cycles through the group three times. Could be up to £3000 after this.

      Next up, Jimmy calls to an ad break and reads a viewer competition… except that’s fake, and the next round will be on things that happened in it. Presumably this is different each time. £750 for right answers. Only once through the group. £3750 a this point

      Another Money Maker round, same as before, now at £750 per question. Five questions again per contestant, so could be up to £7500 from here.

      Cut to the leaderboard to see where people stand, a bit more chat with contestants which again might seed more questions.

      Another memory round, once again £1000 for each question, with the lowest winnings being eliminated afterwards. Three times through the group…. and then one final time at £2000.
      Total winnings per player when they’re down to two players, £12500.

      Final round, penalty shoot-out where the players *select* the questions they’re going to present to one another. Final prize fund is both finalist’s winnings together, hence £25k.

      Reply
  5. Chris M. Dickson

    Enjoyable but a bit repetitive. It left me concentrating on the show far more than on most game shows I watch, which made for a more engaging hour (er… and five minutes) than many. It’s a pity that they signalled most of the best gags in the publicity beforehand; if these hadn’t been expected in advance, they would have been a very amusing little twist. Let’s hope they don’t do essentially the same gags every week. Good use of a fictitious phone number, too.

    Reply
  6. Brig Bother Post author

    490k 4.4% for episode one which somehow feels low but more than I was expecting. For reference, Richard Bacon’s Cancelled doc the week previous did half of that.

    Reply
  7. Oliver

    I thought this was interesting, largely because it was so different –
    it felt very distinctive in concept, production, editing and tone, with the show being a lot less C4 comedy oriented and much more straight gameshow and far more tense and intimate than I expected.

    I can see this being a sleeper hit.

    My biggest issue was the same as Josh – some of the contestants seemed a little fake, especially Alan who seemed like someone putting on a character. I can’t imagine them getting outright actors following past TV controversies but over-zealous casting and production pushing people to play to the audience doesn’t seem out of the question.

    Reply
  8. Malcolm Owen

    In short, the format works, if it’s a little bit repetitive and sometimes slightly less slick than it needs to be. It’s a great idea, but I fear series 2 will lose some of the charm, such as the fake ad break skit.
    Episode 2, on 4OD, is a far better introduction to it than episode 1, really. Amazingly dingbatty, and with extremely great meta moments, caused in part by the contestants being… well… not great…
    Seriously, give EP 2 a try. You can tell Carr’s given up the will to play it vaguely straight by the end, and is in tears for a few questions from the absurdity.

    Reply
  9. Brekkie

    Well the scheduling made sense tonight – really felt like a Jimmy Carr show that belongs after the watershed. The funniest hour of TV I’ve seen in some time – it’s almost Gotcha-esque in how the hour plays out. Indeed perhaps more potential in pushing it in aa more absurd direction moving forward.

    Reply
  10. Realeo

    Episode 2 has to be some of the funniest TV I have seen since the pandemic starts. It’s also on YouTube for non-Brits.

    Given how Jimmy Carr blew up in exasperation at how useless the contestant is, I can’t help but wonder whether he’s a better fit for the weakest link.

    Reply
  11. Steve Williams

    I watched episode 2 last night and, yes, it really was quite something – I can certainly see the point above about it resembling a Gotcha, indeed if it resembled anything it was probably DLT’s never-ending quiz.

    Carr was really brilliant in it, so quick-witted. And the very end where he said the title of the show in the most exasperated fashion imaginable was absolutely perfect. Brilliant fun.

    Reply
  12. Simon F

    There’s a celebrity version on tonight (which probably means the intelligence of the contestants will improve greatly.)

    Reply
  13. Brig Bother Post author

    767k last night apparently. They’ll be happy with that!

    Really baffling why they chose that first one to lead with.

    Reply
    1. Brandon

      I think the first one was chosen as a gentle introduction to the format, so you’re not trying to understand the rules while all hell breaks loose.

      Reply
  14. Kniwt

    Calling attention to Episode 4, with a bizarre surprise twist. Lots of tabloidy coverage of what happened, but I haven’t found anything that explains the timeline of how events transpired.

    Reply
    1. Chris M. Dickson

      …with a new host, after Jimmy Carr announced he’s going to tell a career-killing joke and then actually did so, or will this too blow over?

      Reply
        1. Alex Richards

          It wouldn’t surprise me if it was already in a previous stand-up show that Channel 4 had already shown.

          Reply

Leave a Reply to Andrew Hain Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.