Last week we watched six comedians enter 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 tasked with enduring 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 cooked up a special trick for this Samhain-themed special!
Not only did the cast have to keep a poker face throughout, but they were also barred from screaming.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but the comedians had to deal with several spooky surprises (including zombies and a dead David Mitchell) designed to get under the skin of even the most battle-hardened TV stars.
And after watching the first three episodes, I’m convinced I know who wins.
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I’m sorry, but after sitting through the first three hours, 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, aside from the fact that his Joker was arguably the funniest sketch we’ve ever seen on the show (He’s not even from Hull!), I think he’s got the perfect skillset to win this.
Yes, I know he’s got a yellow card after Catherine Tate pretended to be an old woman crying out for help (it makes sense in context, I promise), but we know 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.
And now he’s only got one life remaining; I think he’ll be more determined than ever to stay in the game.
Of course we have seen occasional times when this persona started to crack 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).
Season two winner David has a similar talent, and it definitely stood him in good stead before his victory over Sam Campbell.
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 while Chloe Petts said I was entertaining, so I know how to impress a comedian or two (literally two).
As for the screaming, well, that’s not been a problem yet. Reece is famous for his macabre sense of humour and love of horror.
It’s that delight in the uncanny (not the podcast) that’s made Reece such a dangerous player so far. He’s actively hunting the other comedians with his bag of tricks like a slightly less deranged version of the Green Goblin.
I just can’t envision Jimmy being able to cook up anything in the future that might unsettle him… unless they wheel out Catherine again.
And if you need proof, might I remind you that 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.
Lou and Jack are already gone, and I’m sorry, Daisy, but I can see the cracks in your defences.
Phil 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 seems like a competitor. Tom, after all, 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 Tom will be machine-gunned by gags in the last hour, leading to him getting knocked out.
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. Harriet has been an implacable glacier so far in the competition.
Still, I’m not sure if part of the reason she’s avoided a yellow card is that she’s immune to the giggles or if it’s because the ‘big dogs’ have been so focused on each other that they’ve not turned their powers on her yet.
Honestly, I’m probably not familair enough with her work to say for certain; 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 in the first minute of episode four.
All I know for certain is that finding out will be a scream!
Last One Laughing: Halloween episodes 1-3 are available to watch on Prime Video now. The final episode will be available on October 30.