The premise of Last One Laughing UK is simple and diabolical: stick a bunch of professionally funny people in a room together for six hours and forbid them from laughing. Crack once and you get a warning, break a second time and you’re out.
The first season was an unexpected hit on Amazon Prime last year, largely on the strength of eventual champion Bob Mortimer, who can deliver a phrase like “meats and cheeses, always pleases” in a way that will still make you laugh when you think about it days or weeks later. Mortimer is back for season two, which premiered on Mar. 19, ostensibly as a ringer although the cast this year is so stacked it doesn’t feel unfair.
Even if you don’t happen to have subscriptions to both Britbox and BBC Select (what can I say, I love watching sardonic detectives solve murders in various damp locales), you’ll probably recognize a few faces. They run the gamut of unflappability from stone-cold deadpan queen Diane Morgan, better known as Philomena Cunk, to Alan Carr, a man so flappable he giggles about as often as he breathes. Also in the mix are comedian Romesh Ranganathan, former Bake Off host Mel Giedroyc, Taskmaster stand-out Maisie Adam, and a handful of other people who all contribute to the robust entertainment economy of British chat shows.
These contestants have had the benefit of watching the first season, and this leads to a fair amount of strategy—stalking someone who seems on the precipice of laughing like they’re a wounded animal, doing weird things with your face to choke back any hint of jollity, simply getting up and walking away mid-conversation—although there’s only so much one can do when Alan Carr appears with a tank of helium tucked under his jacket.
In addition to the odd trick or prop the contestants have brought with them, they are all required to perform a short act, called a “joker,” and these vary from the traditionally comedic to the musically absurd. Ranganathan makes the other contestants read insults about his lazy eye. Morgan, on whom I now have an apocalyptically large crush, offers the most exquisitely timed fart noises I’ve ever seen.
The one thing they all have in common is that they are delivered to an audience of people who are trying to remain stone-faced and silent. It is excruciating to watch. It makes you physically uncomfortable in a way that can only be relieved by laughing, and then laughing even more thinking about how awful this must be for people who have dedicated their lives to pursuing the validation of a crowd and are receiving nothing. Half the time, they end up nearly making themselves break with their own jokes, which is also hugely relatable to me.
The show is fueled by this impossible mix of forces: absurdity meeting stoicism, quick-wittedness meeting careful deliberation, spectacular effort meeting indomitable will. And nowhere is the contradiction at the heart of Last One Laughing UK better embodied than in the clash of David Mitchell, who always seems like he has just arrived from chairing a two-day conference of antiquarian book collectors, and Sam Campbell, who always seems like he has just arrived from Mars. Fussy Little Pedant meets Odd Little Freak is a classic kind of comedy match-up, and watching these two push themselves beyond the limits of what any normal human being could tolerate is the funniest thing I’ve seen all year.
