Mark Lamarr the roast king behind a panel show of full weird non-sober guests from around the world. The show itself was known notoriously for taken jabs at celebrities in the news for being stupid, back when they were on legit drugs and drunk being foolish and ridiculed by the tabloids, unlike now where everything seems to be a publicity stunt. Panel show guests had to sing intros to win points and famously guess the correct member of a band from a lineup. Mark Lamarr at the start of the earlier series seemed quite comical but became very intolerant of dumb guests often jokingly mocking them. Later on it was his a trademark to firmly target guests with dull personalities, sarcastically and effortlessly trolling the guests often making them cringe at their own fault. As the seasons progressed Mark became reluctantly ruthless, remaining cunningly funny often hurling abuse at pop stars, bad actors and the guests on the show often ridiculing to the point where they had no comebacks and all they could do is hide their heads in shame. Before he stopped he seemed to become bored with hosting the show as guests seemed nervous and were only there to promote themselves. In comes Simon Amstell the witty genius comic writer presenter who had to take on Mark's legacy, which in my opinion he did well because he was slightly younger and cheeky in his approach. Just like Mark a first Simon was moderately calm and then started to take the piss out of the guests often pushing them to the limit, making that one guy walk off only to replaced by someone in the audience. Simon appeared as if he was desperately trying to keep the show relevant but in fact he was trying to save it. After Simon joined he added a few games and just like Mark became very defensive hosting the panel show which was great entertainment. Simon was upset when he read on the show that Bill Bailey never really enjoyed working on NMTB. However when Simon realised that Bill was making tremendous amount of money from doing big gigs it really made him question his own place at the show. Bill was selling out stadiums and Simon was trying to keep a dying show consistent. Eventually he left the show to stand up and touring.
The man of the show is Phil Jupitus who never left the show and was there from day 1 being the best team captain hands down. The show handled guests as a trio (inc other team captains) hilariously bantering about the weird comical questions at hand often impersonating people and taking the show not so seriously.
I have to also mention the cosmic wizard goth person Noel Fielding for also being a great team captain - he created some of the most funniest moments in the later series which are unforgettable.
The show died down but could have remained to do well but the pressure was always high as you could tell from Mark and Simons behaviour and sadly giving up.
9/10 - A panel show like this in this day age would do really well, but killing it leaving it as a oldschol funny programme is pretty sad. RIP NMTB and RIP Sean Hughes.