This video about 'Whose Line' has been brought to you by the letter H! Wayne: "Capital H"!
Whose Line is it Anyway?", the show where everything is made up and the points don't matter. That's right,
the points are just like an ad on a YouTube video!
As I'm making this video 'Whose Line' has ran for 14 seasons and has grown an incredibly loyal,
and thankfully peaceful fanbase and in between their six year hiatus
they produced two different shows 'Drew Carey's Green Screen Show' & 'Improv-a-Ganza'
featuring most of the original cast members and crew and featuring some of the original games.
But neither of those shows as funny as they were really caught on as much as 'Whose Line' did.
So I looked at some of the new games that these two shows featured to see what felt different.
What I noticed was that the new games had a lot less rules and more creative freedom that the actors could use.
Why is that a problem you might ask?
Well, if you look back on the original games whose line still uses to this day
you might notice that there are rules on what they could or couldn't do and they had a tough time coming up with anything to
say, let alone how to perform it. And it's those restrictions that made those moments all the more hilarious and inventive!
Ryan: "I can see your bathroom habits have really taken a toll,
I can see your big fat ass is stuck in that bowl, I'll spread your ass with butter,
Pop you like a cork--"
'Two-line vocabulary' is a great example of this. The game has 2 characters who can only say... two lines,
while Colin is the one moving the story along.
And because of the established rules each scene revolves around a short-tempered leader stuck with two idiots who can't follow orders.
Colin: "We gotta have a plan, we gotta have a big plan". Ryan: "What do I look like"? Wayne: "Did you do that"? Colin: "Yeah-I did hear that"! Ryan: "What do I look like"? Colin: "SHUT UP!
All right-we" Ryan: "What do I look like"? Colin: "I'll tell you what you look like- a big stick with a big nose"!
It's a formula that can work for any scene
but it's the timing and delivery between the actors that make each segment memorable.
And that's the objective of the show take a plane scene and make it funny with nothing.
It's probably why 'Scenes from a Hat' has always been their favorite game;
You have to follow the scene, but you can make anything you can out of it.
Drew: "...It's things you can say to your dog, but not your girlfriend".
Colin: "...Come".
Musical games if anything rely on formulas the most
and that maybe the recent fans love them and cast members hate them the most. The games usually allow for the four
to make material based on each other's reactions, whereas with 'Hoedowns' and 'Irish Drinking Songs',
they have to come up with most or all the material completely on their own. And as a fan much of the comedy does come
from how miserable they all look, along with how they come up with the most random answers
Just to get the game over with. Ryan: "I'm marrying a girl, she's a little messy,
at times she reminds me of a very young Joe Pesci, I'd like to stop it, but I don't know what t-".
Games on 'Improv-a-Ganza' and 'Green-Screen Show' had a different approach where scenes didn't revolve around a story formula,
but based on a location or a random sentence provided by the audience and the actors have to make the story up entirely.
'Whose Line' scenes were pre-determined without the actors knowledge and the focus was on creating characters.
The focus on creating character and story at the same time
isn't as funny because now they have to explain most of the joke just to get a laugh.
Jeff: "... Morning doctor".
Colin: "Hello, Mr. Quandary".
Jeff: "Good to see you again. I thought you'd been let go after the terrible things that happened yesterday".
Colin: "I was let go but then they forgot and they came back".
Jeff: "Well, normally they don't forget when four people die under your knife. We have a lot in common, you know,
I'm having sex with your wife. Gandhi and Joe Pesci and-"
Colin: "S everything you say a premise"?Jeff: "Yes".
And with 'Green Screen Show' especially,
it definitely had a unique concept & the actors chemistry could keep the audience entertained without knowing what the effects were...
But that's the thing, we know they're not laughing at the effects.
So when something legitimately funny happens because of the edited sound effects or animation and the audience's reaction doesn't match up,
It's harder to sell the joke.
Now you might say on whose line that there are plenty of times when actors break the rules and they still get a joke.
And yeah there are but that's the thing; There were rules to break in the first place.
Ryan: "Singing a song about a vending machine,
Don't you know that is really not my scene,
Trying to think of something clever with the little twist, if we do another hoedown, I'll slit my fucking wrist"! All: "Slit my fucking WRIST"!
If someone deviated from the routine to do whatever they wanted,
there's still an element of suffering to it because either they can't come up with anything funny,
or someone else already stole their bit and it's funny the laugh in them whenever they fail.
Ryan: "Can you tell me if the doctor is working on the DOING-TING-TING"?
Greg: "You're New here, aren't you"?
Ryan: "Haven't you ever heard of the THWING-ON-THE-TWING-NIGH"?!
Drew "We're gonna change the name of the game to 'Hey, let's all make idiots out of ourselves'".
'Green Screen Show' and 'Improv-a-Ganza' definitely allowed for more creative freedom,
but without as many barriers there wasn't as much of a surprise when something funny happened.
There's still games with stakes like 'One-Syllable Word' or 'Freeze-Tag', but again, they could still control the story as much as they can,
Now some might say being given scenarios to work with already kind of goes against how improv works, but as far back as
Improvisational theatre goes, that was originally what performers would do. From the 16th to 18th centuries
Commedia, dell'arte was a form of theatre performed on the streets of Italy, and one of the defining features was that-while it was improvised,
the story, characters and their outcomes were usually laid out for the audience right at the beginning, just even in the prologue.
It wasn't about what story was being told. It's how it was told...
Sound familiar?
Characters and their traits were recognizable by their costumes and masks; Harlequin was a comic servant out to for his master.
The Innamorati-if I got that wrong,
I apologize,
are hopeless lovers who overcome obstacles such as the Pantalone, a greedy man of high class who is usually one lovers disapproved father.
And that's just the name of few.
And one thing 'Whose Line' has in common with commedia dell'arte is that each game is set apart by different structures that they each have.
Robin: "Can I help you"? Ryan: "Why don't you over there and get some of that special pepperoni of yours"?
Robin: "Why don't you stay there and let something rise"? Wayne: "Hello girl".
Greg: "Well, you're a jolly sort".
Wayne: "That's 'cause, I don't let things get to me. Sometimes they might get to me-but they don't get to me".
Greg: Mr. Brady I warned you about Viagra's side effects".
Ryan: "Today we bury Madonna".
Brad: "Damn your balls are hairy"!
Now for the record,
I do think all three of these shows are legitimately funny. Even in 'Green Screen Show' or 'Improv-a-Ganza' at their worst moments,
when they have to explain everything right from the get-go,
the actors' chemistry and timing make even the easiest jokes sound hilarious and that's more than enough for me.
But when I look back on them and figure out what it was that set them apart from 'Whose Line',
it was really easy to see that these games as decent as they were didn't have the exact same rhythm.
Jackie Chan once said about his fight choreography that there was a rhythm to it and that the audience doesn't know the rhythms there
until it's NOT there, and I think for most general audiences, that's how they felt about these other improv shows...
Then again the points really don't matter all that much-do they? Well guys,
Thank you very much for watching,
If you're a big 'Whose Line' fan,
What are some of your favorite games and moments, and what are some of your favorite moments from 'Green Screen Show' or 'Improv-a-Ganza?
'Cause honestly, there are quite a few. Be sure to let me know in the comments below,
Be sure to LIKE, Subscribe, check out my other reviews and noperfectmovie.com, and once again
Thank you all very much for watching! Take care!