Look, I really like Joel McHale. He's great on Community and he seems like a really nice guy, but it's just been announced he's producing a new E! pilot called COMMENTS SECTION. The show will find comedian Michael Kosta taking a sardonic look at the 'bottom half of the internet', where cretinous people leave dumb comments. (No offence to the wonderful commenters of DMD, who are the clear exception to the rule). I'm talking more about YouTube commenters and the like. But does anyone else think that sounds worryingly close to a remake of Adam Buxton's live stage-show (and subsequent Sky Atlantic series) BUG? Hmmm.
Maybe it's just a coincidence (probably is), because you can't patent a good idea... and being snarky about internet comments is a fairly obvious one. The main reason an alarm bell sounded in my head is because McHale's biggest TV success is as host of E!'s The Soup—an irreverent takedown of trashy television, primarily focused on reality TV. (It shoots fish in a barrel, in that regard). And, well, isn't The Soup just a mean-spirited version of Harry Hill's TV Burp? A now defunct ITV show that predated The Soup by three years. Sort of, yeah.
I have to wonder: does McHale trawl UK shows for his next idea? He was also the lead of a failed IT Crowd remake, so it's fair to assume he's an Anglophile. Something to consider...
