Have I Got News for You/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acceptable Targets: The Liberal Democrats, and before them the Social Democratic Party; anyone voting for them was treated as drunk or mad.

Alexander Armstrong: There's no time for the proposed 10% increase in cider prices, so great news for people in The West Country, who are free to resume to local tradition of getting so smashed out of their skulls they end up voting Lib Dem.

    • Along with the show's usual targets like Jeffrey Archer or John Prescott.
    • Eric Pickles seemed to have been the generally agreed-upon joke fodder for season 40, Prescott now being elevated to the House of Lords and no longer on the Labour front bench, and Pickles being in government and being even more rotund than Prescott at his peak.
    • To stop a flood of potential entries for this moment, as long as you are not horribly disabled/have had some seriously extreme accidents or misfortune and have not been a major douche about it, you are this. And even then, depending on the contestants...
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: With the news that the 2011 series would be back on Friday nights.
    • Of course, the rotating guest presenters may cause this from time to time (don't like X? Wait, Y is on this week?)
  • Archive Panic: As of 2012, 42 seasons have been made, most of which have not been put out on DVD.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Paul's fantasy of him skipping through a field with Ian during an Odd One Out in Series 19.
    • The line of can-can dancers that cross the set after Angus assures the audience that crossing to BBC 1 won't change the show.
    • In the same vein, Angus reads out a complaint that the humour on the show is too clever, followed by an undercranked Benny Hill-style moment where all the contestants chase a woman in a sexy nurse's outfit across the set.
  • Colbert Bump: Boris Johnson, again—he became famous enough to become Mayor of London because of this show.
    • Lampshaded by Paul Merton frequently, remarking "His plan worked, so he won't be coming back".
    • As Dara O Briain puts it: "If I knew that's what you get from hosting Have I Got News For You, I wouldn't have settled for Mock the Week."
    • Many people have appeared as a panellist before being upgraded to the host's chair.
    • For a non-person example, one episode featured a signed photograph of Ian Hislop on eBay that had attracted six hits and no bids. One week later, it had attracted a maximum bid of over £110.
    • Politicians sometimes take a gamble to try and get the same success Boris has. Unlike him, however, they are often not that successful.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood once sent a letter to Hislop asking HIGNFY for an apology over some controversial jokes made in the previous week's show. The first line of the letter (which Hislop read to the audience) was "Although I did not see the programme in question..."
  • Dude, Not Funny: One episode featured an Odd One Out round in which Mother Theresa was surrounded by various dictators. Angus Deayton mockingly referred to Mother Theresa as winner of "the all-Calcutta shrivelled-walnut-lookalike competition". Ian Hislop called him out on this.

Ian: Obviously the best target. Milton Friedman, Saddam Hussein... yeah, let's get Mother Theresa! Shrivelled old walnut -- what's she ever done?

    • A series 40 episode had the panel (led by Jimmy Carr) decline to do a round called "Spot the Chinaman."
    • Paul has a minor Running Gag of calling the audience out whenever they react to a Dead Baby Comedy joke by starting out with a Dude, Not Funny groan but then it turns into laughter and applause.
    • As a rule, the commentary for the first DVD shows Ian and Paul both reacting in disgust to a child being hit in the face by an acrobat's kick (which was accidental).
    • A Cornish MP objected to a joke made by Andy Hamilton ("Why was there confusion in Truro?" "Isn't there always, they're Cornish") in the William Shatner-hosted episode.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: In S11E02, the panel cracked jokes about Princess Di observing a heart operation:

Ian: It's a bit ghoulish, isn't it? You wonder what Diana's going to do next. Road accidents? "Let me through, I'm the Princess of Wales!"

    • Made even worse by the fact that Dermot Morgan, who died of a heart attack, was on Ian's team that week.
    • Also in S10E01, Ian mocks Paula Yates for complaining about the media while courting it:

Ian: It's terrible, bloody media intrusion. Look the camera's here, Paula! (Points at the camera)

    • Not in the same league as the above examples, but every time Paul needles Angus, it's quite clear in hindsight that he wasn't kidding, even though the audience laughs when he does it.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: The joke about Iain and Duncan Smith being identical twins running a political party got even more amusing when that actually happened in Poland—they became President and Prime Minister. (And now a Funny Aneurysm Moment now that one of those twins was the highest-profile casualty of the 2010 Polish plane crash).
    • The running gag about Angus shagging Merton's wife Caroline after Angus was reported to have paid a Caroline Martin (Paul's real last name) for sex.
    • A lot of jokes about sex/drugs made to or by Deayton while he was host take on a different tenor watching them now.
    • Countless jokes over the years about the Lib Dems never being able to get into power, when they finally managed it in 2010 (as part of a coalition government).
    • Inversion (but not really Harsher in Hindsight) -- in one episode Deayton criticised the BBC leadership, then added "and tune in next week to see this programme on its new home at 4 AM on BBC 3". Quite funny now, but much funnier back then as there was no BBC 3.
    • Hardly hilarious, but as she was an old woman... during the 2008 U.S. presidential race, Frank Skinner speculated about what would happen if Barack Obama's grandmother died the day before the election.
    • In the second ever episode (broadcast in 1990), the What Happened Next round has footage of Joe Biden, and Deayton points out that "of course, what happened next for him was that his career came to nothing, nobody voted for him and he never achieved high office".
    • Series 16 episode 3, after Angus has read out a "fascinating fact" about Sean Connery that was found uninteresting:

Paul Merton: I don't know where we'd be without you, Angus. BBC 1, perhaps?

Ian: I'm glad you didn't shave, Paul.
Paul: Why?
Ian: (laughs)
Paul: Do you like me like this?
(beat)
Paul: (pulls down collar of shirt, reveals shoulder) Fancy a bit?

    • And Paul, on seeing a picture of Ian:

Paul: I'd be happy to be kissed by him. I think he's gorgeous. ...Who is it?

    • Then, of course, there was the episode in which they planned their civil partnership..
  • Jerkass Woobie: Angus very briefly became this when Christine Hamilton brought up his controversial private life.
  • Never Live It Down: If you're a guest that has done something wrong, such as "accidentally" announcing a General Election early, or claiming quite a bit on expenses, then Ian will call you out on it. No exceptions.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Piers Morgan is not popular for his appearance. Others who arguably earn this status include Louise Mensch/Bagshawe or guests who are simply too eager to laugh at themselves/ don't understand they're on a comedy and not a serious political programmes.
    • Also David Shayler, especially as far as Paul Merton is concerned, who felt that his appearance via a satellite feed didn't work as it made it difficult to maintain 'comic timing'.
    • In terms of guest host scrappies, Liza Tarbuck was deemed to be such a poor guest host that she was the only one to be left out of a Best of the Guest Hosts compilation entirely. Her appearances as a guest aren't so bad, but her hosting...
  • Unpopular Popular Character: Inverted with Swampy—when the viewers voted for their least favourite guests on The Official Pirate Video, Ian and Paul seemed surprised and upset he was on the list.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Have_I_Got_News_for_You/YMMV?oldid=1540062"