Stephen Merchant has been striking comedy gold in British TV for over a decade now, but apart from the same show rehashed to suit American audiences and reruns of his original work, we haven't seen the S'Merch break out into his own freakishly long-legged stride until now. Billed by his own admission as 'That really tall bloke you sometimes see standing behind Ricky Gervais at an awards do,' Merchant, unlike Gervais, has mainly always sat behind the camera when it comes to their collaborative work save for the small part as Millman's Agent Darren Lamb in Extras and the cameo role of 'Lanky goggle-eyed freak' Nathan (it's a good name) in The Office. Without further build up, here are reasons you should be checking out his toe-curlingly great new show 'Hello Ladies' as soon as possible:
5. Crash Course In Awkward
As already stated in the introduction, this show is awkward comedy beyond belief. Do homophobic jokes at a pool party with several gay men sat in a hot-tub sound cringe-worthy enough to you? Or maybe buying 800 dollars' worth of drinks for a girl and her friends in attempt to impress them all, only to then fall forward onto a table spilling said drinks all over the place in an attempt to deliver a misogynist chat-up line. Oh, and just to add insult to injury, the only word heard by said woman targeted was 'masturbates.' You want to humiliation? You've found it in spades here. Merchant's Stuart Pritchard simply can't help but stick his foot in it, over and over again in scenes reminiscent of a slow-mo social car crash. It's that most excruciating form of comedy, and depending on your worldview, you'll either be turning the TV off or laughing yourself silly.