Vintage TV comedy panel show Jokers Wild - being reshown on ReWind - still leaves us laughing
It comes with a ‘woke warning’ longer than one of Ronnie Corbett’s shaggy dog stories because Jokers Wild is packed with gags which, today, would not get past the secretary of a working man’s club.
Sexism, racism, homophobia and religious bigotry are rife in the panel game which sees comedians battle it out for the most laughs as the host, the late, great, irreplaceable Barry Cryer, keeps score and endeavours to keep order.
Some of the gags make even this hardened Wheeltappers and Shunters Club fan cringe or shout at the TV: “You can’t say that!” and whisper: “You can’t even think it.”
That said, viewers can skip it. Jokers Wild is on nostalgia fest known as Rewind and is a slice of social history – I would no more want it banned than I would see Love Island – to me it’s offensive and morally corrupt – taken off air.
Each week two teams of three comedians – including the captains – play for points by telling jokes on a subject, selected by the turn of a card. Examples include birds, medicine, politics, the circus, young love and fashion. Cryer then gives the joke marks out of 10.
There is also a quick-fire round when Cryer starts the sentence. For instance, “I am not say the hotel was cheap but …” and the panellists have to come up with a one-liner.
Each week one of the six comedians is invited to do a 60-second stand-up segment on a topic chosen by Cryer.
If all this sounds familiar, it is. A Question of Sport, Have I Got News For You and, particularly, Mock the Week, follow its formula.
It originally aired, in front of a live audience, on ITV from 1969 to 1974.
Jokers Wild is a chance to watch outstanding entertainers at work. Team captains were ad-lib king Ted Ray and Ted Rogers who went on to host 3 2 1 – by which time standards of entertainment had fallen to such a low that its star was a tin waste bin wearing a red nose and yellow wellies.
Guests included Arthur Askey, Charlie Chester, Norman Collier, Alfred Marks, Ray Martine, Lennie Bennett, Clive Dunn and Peter Goodwright.
Series co-creator and father of comic Michael McIntyre, Ray Cameron, also appeared.
One of the best guests was the lugubrious Les Dawson. His answer to “I’m not saying this hotel was cheap… but they sprayed the kitchen with DDT before the flies came in.”
Roy Hudd was also a stand-out stand-up with wonderful monologues.
Host Barry Cryer – a performer and one of the best comedy writers in the business – was sublime. His scoring was arbitrary, he was quick-witted, insightful and funny.
There were no female comedians – nil points for that. They could have had Beryl Reid, Millicent Martin and Dora Bryan. Ask Jo Brand if things have changed for the better.
Every guest wore a suit, tie and pocket handkerchief. Ray Martine was very dapper.
He wore a blue velvet jacket with black trim and matching shirt and contrasting tie.
During the show, the majority of the men smoked a cigarette, and in Alfred Marks’ case, a cigar.
How times have changed. These days, stand-ups work their schtick around their children, medical procedures and political allegiances.
They wear jeans and T-shirts, sometimes splattered with such offensive slogans and pictures they have to be blurred out, and drink Evian.
The comedy of Jokers Wild is usually generic and systemic.
Now it is personal.
Take bully boy, gold medal-less Frankie Boyle and his jibe about Olympian swimmer Rebecca Adlington’s nose – Mock the Week or Have I Got News For You would have little content if the panellists could not trade insults.
Jokers Wild is on Rewind TV every day at 7pm.