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REVIEW: Those clinging to the distant memory of the heady and anarchic Kiwi television days of the ‘90s and noughties, when sports comedy shows like Sportscafe and Game of Two Halves were appointment, prime-time viewing, should definitely check out The Big Fat Quiz of Sport (7.30pm, Thursday, August 10, TVNZ 2).
A themed spin-off of the slightly more-than-annual Jimmy Carr-hosted celebrity challenge, it sees the English funnyman put three teams-of-two through their paces over a series of rounds designed to…exploit the glaring gaps in their knowledge of sporting endeavours for cheap laughs.
To be fair, the sextet know exactly what they’re in for – and are pretty much unashamed about their general disinterest in anything requiring anyone to don lycra or, move faster than walking pace. For while Dane Baptiste once gained a karate belt in his youth, team-mate Roisin Conarty’s claim to fame is “eating a whole jar of pesto from the jar”.
As for the others, Tom Allen “once watched a football game”, Kerry Godliman had prepared by “googling sports” and Judi Love’s claims her greatest achievement was “getting on top over the age of 40 – with bad knees”. Yes, despite the early start time, this is more than a little un-PC.
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Teaming up with Joel Dommett, Judi Love steals the show on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
As she has done on her appearances on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Taskmaster UK, the Loose Women panellist can’t help but steal the show. Whether it’s realising a question was read by Stephen Fry five minutes after it happened, asking Carr if he’s “hard work done”, noting that “sweat is just fat crying”, or wondering what the UK national anthem is – she is a constant source of laughs.
It’s just lucky though that Carr is up to task of having to respond to some of her more left-field responses, meeting that last one with the quip that, “it has just had a remix”. “We have gone so woke, we’ve now got a male queen,” he adds, after someone mistakenly calls it by the previous name it held for 70 years.
Not to be outdone, Allen speaks for a generation when he asks, “am I the only one who thought Bjorn Borg was in Abba?”
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Rugby players Alex Cuthbert, Dillon Lewis and Will Joseph dress up as famous sporting figures from the past on The Big Fat Quiz of Sport.
But while the laughs come thick and fast, so do the interesting questions. You’ll learn about the bizarre, regular practice that the Tour de France only outlawed in 1965, the prank that England football team pulled on the press at the 1998 World Cup, the insulting gifts that Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King swapped before tennis’ Battle of the Sexes and where and how Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline first became a sporting anthem – one now heard at events all around the world.
There’s also footage of three of the worst-ever renditions of the Star Spangled Banner, appearances from Big Fat Quiz regulars Charles Dance (reading a particularly salacious chapter from a sporting biography) and children from Mitchell Brook Primary School and an icon whose picture donned the walls of many teenage boys’ (and older men’s “dens”) bedrooms in the late ‘70s and throughout much of the next decade.
While I certainly wouldn’t advocate going back to the decidedly questionable laddish antics of Game, it does make you think that a Kiwi version of this (with the right mix of modern-day comedians) could go down an absolute treat, especially in this jam-packed year of World Cups.
The Big Fat Quiz of Sport will screen at 7.30pm on Thursday, August 10 on TVNZ 2. It will also be available to stream on TVNZ+.
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