No Signal! is a British sketch comedy show that aired on a weekly basis from 5 February to 9 April 2009 on FX. The show's humour was based almost entirely on satire of television, including channels, adverts and programming. Though general reaction was mixed, the show was considered successful.
No Signal! is set up like a regular Sky TV system with similar graphics and numerous channels, which are flicked through until the show ends, meanwhile showing the various spoofs of commercials, documentaries, etc. An odd take on pre-show disclaimers air before each episode, which suggests that at least another series of No Signal! will be produced. The set up is considered strikingly similar to The Kevin Bishop Show, which began the previous year.
Parody of: Men & Motors Channel 167 regularly shows Cop Swap, featuring a pair of paranoid American police officers, one of whom has a very coarse mouth. In the last sketch they kill the show's cameraman, accusing him of perversion due to the constant filming of their daily patrols.
Parody of: Sky Real Lives Shows on this channel have bizarre and often unsettling plots, such as a man trying to live an active lifestyle, despite only being reduced to little more than his head.
333 - The Deaf Channel
Parody of: The Deaf Channel 333 runs various formats of TV for people with hearing difficulties, e.g. Deaf Rap or Deaf Porn. The No Signal DVD also includes a deaf version of Gallows' In the Belly of a Shark as a deleted scene, which was meant to be included in episode 4 but was left out.
372 - Lard Arse
Parody of: Food Network Easy Chef is the only show on 372 shown to the audience. It features a traditional TV chef (possibly a parody of Jamie Oliver) or Delia Smith, who cooks mostly kiddy favorites like Baked Beans on Toast or TV Dinners, though he presents it in a way that would try to suggest otherwise. He claims to be friends with Gary Rhodes and Gordon Ramsay.
650 - Child Minder Channel
Parody of: CBeebies Channel 650 is seen running a spoof of the hit young children's show Tweenies called The Chavvy Wavvys, about an asbo-riddled & dysfunctional family comprising Chavvy Daddy, Chavvy Mummy, Chavvy Son and Chavvy Daughter. Most of the episodes revolve around Chavvy Daddie's antics which include (among other things) robbing himself to claim on his home insurance.
969 - Late Night Perv
Parody of: Babestation Late Night Perv seems to be the home of Granny Porn XXX, which is a parody of models taking up stripping to grannies stripping. The grannies often say stuff like, "When I catch you with my featherduster, you'll be amazed where I can put it!". It also shows 'Topless Scrubbers On The Phone'.
Adverts
In addition to the TV programmes, some of the flicks through the channel network show parodies of TV commercials such as dfs, Birds Eye and JML.
Radio Active is a radio comedy programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during the 1980s. The series grew out of a 1979 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show presented by The Oxford Revue and starred Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins, Michael Fenton Stevens, Helen Atkinson-Wood and Philip Pope. The first episode was broadcast in 1980, and it ran for seven series.
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows.
Second City Television, commonly shortened to SCTV and later known as SCTV Network and SCTV Channel, is a Canadian television sketch comedy show that ran intermittently between 1976 and 1984. It was created as an offshoot from Toronto's Second City troupe. It is a rare example of a Canadian show that moved successfully to American television, where it aired on NBC from 1981 to 1983.
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents..., which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others.
Jam is a British experimental black comedy sketch show, created, co-written, produced and directed by Chris Morris. It was broadcast on Channel 4 between 23 March and 27 April 2000. It was based on the earlier BBC Radio 1 show, Blue Jam, and consists of an unconnected series of disturbing and surreal sketches, unfolding over an ambient soundtrack. Many of the sketches re-used the original radio soundtracks with the actors lip-synching their lines, an unusual technique which added to the programme's unsettling atmosphere, and featured unorthodox use of visual effects and sound manipulation.
Muppets Tonight is an American live-action/puppet family-oriented comedy television series, created by Jim Henson Productions and featuring The Muppets. The series ran for two seasons between March 1996 to February 1998, originally airing on ABC, before later being aired and rerun on the Disney Channel. The show was a continuation of The Muppet Show, with Kermit the Frog and the Muppets running their own television channel and studio, only to request one of their own to run a new show to fill in a timeslot in their channel's scheduling.
Comedy Inc. was an Australian sketch comedy television series, which ran on the Nine Network from 19 February 2003 to 26 December 2007. The series was produced by Crackerjack Productions. It first premiered in February 2003 in the new wave of Australian sketch comedy shows being launched across the free-to-air channels along with Big Bite and skitHOUSE. Since the end of the series episodes have been repeated on the Foxtel cable channel, The Comedy Channel and during 2009, reruns were shown on Nine HD before the channel's closure.
Drawn Together is an American adult animated sitcom and television series created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein for Comedy Central. The show premiered on October 27, 2004, and ended on November 14, 2007, after three seasons and 36 episodes. The series is a parody of house-based reality shows such as The Real World, The Surreal Life, and Big Brother, and follows the misadventures of the housemates in the fictional show of the same name and uses a sitcom format with a reality TV show setting.
Acorn Antiques is a parodic soap opera written by British comedian Victoria Wood as a regular feature in the two series of Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987. Wood later adapted the concept into a musical, which opened in 2005.
The Glam Metal Detectives is a comedy show produced by the BBC in 1995. Shown on BBC2 on Thursday nights at 9, it combined sketch and sitcom elements. As with other shows launched in this timeslot, The Glam Metal Detectives attempted to innovate and combine genres. The show consists of a single series of seven episodes.
The BBC One "Rhythm & Movement" idents were a set of on-screen channel identities designed by Lambie-Nairn and used on BBC One from 29 March 2002 to 7 October 2006. They replaced the balloon idents, and spelled the end of the much recognised globe identity by the BBC, which had been used in various ways since 1963.
Goin'Bulilit is a Philippine television sketch comedy show produced and originally broadcast by ABS-CBN for the first 8 seasons until 2019. Originally directed by Edgar Mortiz, Badjie Mortiz and Frasco Mortiz. It aired on the network's Sunday evening line-up from February 6, 2005, to August 4, 2019, replacing Ang Tanging Ina and was succeeded by iWant Originals and Rated K. The show returned for an all-new season on July 1, 2024 to Kapamilya Channel in the Kapamilya Gold and Yes Weekend! on the afternoon block, the show currently airs on the Kapamilya Channel, A2Z and All TV.
Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy series produced by Avalon Television, and written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show ran for 11 series between 2001 and 2012 on ITV1. Each episode sees the host take a humorous look back at the previous week of programming on British television from a range of shows aired on terrestrial and digital channels.
Your Mother Wouldn't Like It was a children's sketch show broadcast on ITV between 1985 and 1988. A unique aspect of the show was that the performing cast were almost entirely children.
Moon TV is a New Zealand comedy television series. It is produced by Leigh Hart. In 2006 the show received $176,324 in funding from NZ On Air for six half-hour episodes, to screen on TV2.
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV is a British comedy sketch series written by and starring comedian Victoria Wood, with appearances from Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge. The show was televised on BBC2 between 1985 and 1987 and included sketches that became famous in the United Kingdom.
Onion News Network is a parody television news show that ran for two seasons of ten episodes each, both during 2011, on the Independent Film Channel.
The Peter Serafinowicz Show is a British sketch comedy show written by and starring Peter Serafinowicz. Its debut was on 4 October 2007 at 21:30 on BBC Two as part of the newly launched "Thursdays Are Funny" brand on the channel and Thursdays on ABC2. On 1 August 2008, American cable network G4 began broadcasting the show as part of their "Duty Free TV" block of international programming. The BBC decided not to produce a second series. A Christmas Special was aired on 23 December 2008.
The Kevin Bishop Show is a sketch comedy written by and starring English comedian Kevin Bishop, part of the Star Stories team. The show was commissioned by Channel 4 for a six-part series starting on 25 July 2008 at 10 p.m. A pilot was broadcast on 23 November 2007 as part of Channel 4's Comedy Showcase and the programme soon earned interest for its incredibly fast pace; 42 sketches were shown in 23 minutes. The show was nominated for Best New Comedy at the 2008 British Comedy Awards. The show started its second series on Friday 31 July 2009 at 10 p.m. on Channel 4.
The Fast Show, also known as Brilliant in the United States, is a BBC comedy sketch show that ran on BBC 2 from 1994 to 1997, with specials in 2000 and 2014. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Arabella Weir and Caroline Aherne. Other significant cast members included Felix Dexter, Paul Shearer, Rhys Thomas, Jeff Harding, Maria McErlane, Eryl Maynard, Colin McFarlane and Donna Ewin.
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