This week we learned which comedians would be entering Jimmy Carr’s lair for the Last One Laughing Halloween special.
Jack Dee, Daisy May Cooper, Phil Wang, Lou Sanders, Reece Shearsmith, Harriet Dyer and Tom Allen are the lucky (or unlucky) comics who’ll have to endure the torture of keeping a straight face while surrounded by some of the funniest people working on television and Jimmy Carr.
To make matters worse, Jimmy’s cooked up a special trick for this Samhain-themed special!
Not only will the cast have to keep a poker face throughout, but they’re also barred from screaming.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but apparently the comedians will have to deal with several spooky surprises designed to get under the skin of even the most battle-hardened TV stars.
Now, I’m really excited for this new series, and I can’t wait to see what bombshells Jimmy will drop on the comics, but I already know who’s won.
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I’m sorry, but looking at this list of comedians, it seems pretty obvious to me that the inimitable Reece Shearsmith is going to follow in the winning footsteps of Bob Mortimer and David Mitchell.
Why am I so convinced? Well, as a keen devotee of Reece’s work, I think he’s got the perfect skillset to win this.
First of all, Reece is capable of being very composed when he wants to be.
We saw this on Taskmaster when outlandish things would be happening all around him, and he managed to make it seem as banal as brewing a cup of tea.
There were occasional times when this persona started to crack, of course, but that just gives way to his biggest advantage – his incredible ability to turn clear amusement into exasperated frustration.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen another comedian do this with as much skill as Reece, but he seems able to subdue even the hint of a smirk behind faux indignant rage (or at least I presume it’s faux).
David Mitchell has a similar talent, and it definitely stood him in good stead.
What’s more, I’ve interviewed Reece twice, and both times he seemed completely unamused by my ramblings, and not to brag, but Greg Davies once said ‘I enjoyed that’ after meeting me, so I know how to impress a comedian of a certain age.
As for the screaming, well that won’t be a problem. Reece is famous for his macabre sense of humour and love of horror.
I just can’t envision Jimmy Carr being able to cook up anything that might unsettle him.
After all, Reece and his mate Steve Pemberton sometimes start their day with mock murders; compared to that, Jimmy’s got nothing.
The other reason I’m convinced he’ll win is his competition.
I’m sorry, Lou and Daisy, but you’ve already failed at this once before, which rules you out.
Phil Wang isn’t going to win either, is he?
It’s not that I think he’s incompetent (although if you watched Taskmaster you’d be forgiven for thinking that); it’s that he seems far too nice to win.
By which I mean I think he’ll feel obligated by the rules of polite society to laugh when his co-stars tell jokes as a sort of reward. Basically, he’s too kind to be cutthroat.
On paper, Tom Allen and Jack Dee might seem like competitors. Dee, after all, is famous for his deadpan delivery, while Allen has the armour of poshness that makes him seem above it all.
But the thing is, that type of haughty persona is brittle.
It breaks under constant bombardment, and I think that Dee and Allen will be machine-gunned by gags courtesy of the rest of the cast early on, leading to them getting knocked out before Jimmy has even had a chance to shout ‘doors’.
Could Harriet Dyer win Last One Laughing?
Senior TV reporter Asyia Iftikhar thinks Reece may have some serious competition…
From the snippets I’ve seen of Harriet Dyer online, she never fails to get at least a chuckle out of me while I’m doomscrolling my hours away.
Her deadpan, matter-of-fact, sometimes self-deprecating humour is right down my alley. And she always has a witty retort ready. Also, she seems pretty good at not being fazed and just zoning the world out, which could be a leg up.
Her viral clip on 8 out of 10 Cats with Jimmy where she talks about discovering she’s deaf during Covid is the perfect example of her disarming joke-telling that will startle a laugh out of you even if you’re trying really, really hard not to! Don’t count her out of the race yet…
The real wildcard is Harriet Dyer. I’ll be honest, I don’t know enough about her to adequately assess her comedic chops, but the fact that she won the Sean Lock Comedy Award suggests she’s very, very, very funny.
Still, I’ve never let my ignorance get in the way of forming an opinion before today, and I’m not about to now, so I’m still backing Reece.
Who knows, maybe I’m backing the wrong horse in this race, and Reece will fall at the first hurdle.
All I know for certain is that finding out will be a scream!
Last One Laughing: Halloween will launch on Prime Video globally on October 23 with the first three episodes. The final episode will be available on October 30.