The Brit List: Five Of The Greatest Bits Of ‘Harry Hill’s TV Burp’

This weekend, apart from being the Doctor Who Convention, also sees the end of a British broadcasting institution. For the past 10 years, Harry Hill’s TV Burp has secured it’s place in British hearts as one of the funniest shows on TV, and it will come to an end on Saturday night.

The premise of the show is simple. They take a look at all the TV shows that go out in a single week, digest them (hence the burp thing) and twist clips from the show into lighthearted comedy gold, much like Jon Stewart does with clips of politicians talking nonsense. At first, TV being the home of fevered egos, this meant a fair amount of snippy correspondence from the shows themselves, but they soon began to see a gentle ribbing from the permanently cheery Harry as a kind of badge of honour.

Here then are just five clips to illustrate why it’s a sad day for British broadcasting. There are countless more on YouTube:

1: The Cube

Here’s TV Burp doing what it does best, dancing about next to a serious-faced TV game show with not one, but two silly running gags.

2: Hugh’s Chicken Run

It’s all about the answer to the question: “what animal of any kind would want to live in a place like this?”

3: Horizon

Professor Brian Cox, a sort of rockstar Sheldon Cooper, and a man who knows a thing or two about physics, asks the question “what time is it?”

5: Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word

Thanks to this, it’s now impossible to take Gordon’s steroidal grunting seriously. Not that many of us did to start with.

5: “FIIIIIGHT!”

Just before the commercial break in every episode, Harry would pause, in the middle of discussing a programme, and offer the following thought: “Now I like [PERSON OR CONCEPT A], and I also like [PERSON OR CONCEPT B], but which is better? There’s only one way to find out….FIIIIIIGHT!” and then, well you can see what happens.