The One Where They Talk About Laugh Tracks

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1:06Hello and welcome to this episode of The Rest is Entertainment, questions and answers edition. I'm Marina Hyde. And I'm Richard Osman. Happy Thursday. Happy Thursday, Richard. Or Tuesday, I suppose, if you're a member, because they get it early, don't they? That's correct. Whatever day you're listening to this, I've got some sensational any other business to begin with. Oh, wow, okay. You remember last week we were talking about Madam Tussauds and what happens when, you know, you fall out of favour or you get cancelled or whatever, what happens to the waxworks? Yeah. Okay, we have had a letter.

1:33A letter? It's common, there's an email. So someone sent a letter, sorry, you picked up the post and there it was. A pigeon brought it. Dear Richard and Marina, I greatly enjoyed your recent discussion about what happens to Madam Tussauds waxworks once their subjects have fallen from fame or favour. For a time, I worked as a serial killer in the Scream Scare Maze inside the old Chamber of Horrors at London Tussauds. An actual serial killer? Yeah, a generic one, I think. Okay. It doesn't name the killer. We would often repurpose retired figures to quietly haunt the scenes. If you ever visited and spotted Hannibal Lecter behind glass, surprise, that wasn't Anthony Hopkins at all, but a shaved Nick Faldo.

2:10No way. I've got to put this more to this letter, but I can't. I have to honour that. A shaved Nick Faldo as Hannibal Lecter. Wow. A shaved Nick Faldo as Lecter. I just, I really want to go back and see if there's any pictures of that particular attraction, just so I can look at it. Because I've told you before, one of my favourite happy places is the personal life section of Nick Faldo on his Wikipedia entry. Because I knew I was going to read this out to you. I've just had a look at it, by the way. It's been cleaned up. It's missing everything. What did it used to have? By the way, Nick Faldo was an 80s, 90s golfer, for anyone listening.

2:42Yeah, I mean, you know, Britain's greatest golfer. Challenge me. Don't actually, because I want to tell you about the bit where his ex-wife says. Okay. Socially, he was a 24 handicapper. Oh my God, it's amazing. Like how the burst had to be induced in time for his tournament. Oh my God, it's so good. And it's been completely clear. Big Faldo, I'm talking about like the corporate entity responsible for promoting the interest of Nick Faldo, didn't do great with the Chamber of Horrors, has cleaned up that entry. And now it is lost to the mill. I'm going to find it all back out. He's recently, by the way, he was in Happy Gilmore 2.

3:16Yeah. And I have to say, I make no comment on people's appearance. He looked a tiny bit waxworky. Well, sorry, we're halfway through this letter still. Okay. The man strapped into the electric chair in the Chamber of Horrors was the former king of Greece. Is that ex-King Constantine of Greece? No, I think it's John Travolta. And the man by the switch of that electric chair was a beardless Charles Manson who could follow you around the room with his eyes in a way that was frankly unsettling even for the staff. Charles Manson would already be in the Chamber of Horrors, surely. He's earned his place.

3:48Why does he have to have a walk-on part? Why can't he be Charles Manson? I suppose overtaken by... So who was being electrocuted? He doesn't say just a random electrocutee. The King of Greece was being electrocuted. Yeah, electrocute Manson. This is how I would do it. Lecter Faldo, electrocute Manson, switch King of Greece. And next week, if you want to send in a question and ask us three various celebrities and ask us Lecter, Electrocute, Switch. And we will start playing that game. And if anyone can provide me with a picture of the Hannibal Lecter shaved Nick Faldo actual waxware, I will be so grateful.

4:27As you know, I'm an ironist and I collect these moments. God, that's amazing. And who sent us that? Sorry, thank you so much. That's from Errol, that particular email. Thank you, Errol. I was talking to Jimmy Mulville, who runs Hattrick Productions, probably our greatest comedy producer. And he was listening to our special episode about Euro Disney and said that that was in 1992 and he still would do things like the holiday program in 1992 Jimmy and so the holiday program sent him to Euro Disney for the launch so the coldest he'd ever been but it's the whole thing he said I was constantly surrounded by American executives who I'm almost certain were CIA operatives he said I had to conduct an interview with Mickey and Minnie Mouse and all they could do was like use their hands and I had to interpret what that meant.

5:10And then when I said at one point, aren't the people inside Mickey and Minnie cold? It's absolutely freezing. They said, we stopped the interview, stopped the interview now. And just the food. And he said, and then I said, they kept saying, this is our fourth Disneyland. And he said, but you just said there's only one Minnie and one Mickey. So how do they sort of, how do they work that? He says, I'm not going to answer that question. He said, he then went back about five years later with his daughter and he was so reassured that the waiter in the restaurant was incredibly rude. he thought, yes, the French have won.

5:39I don't know if I've told you this, and I'm really sorry if I'm telling this story twice, but it was quite formative. On my honeymoon, as I told you, I went to Disney. We drove across America, and for two days, we were in Disney World, Florida, and we stayed at somewhere called the Wilderness Lodge. And a character breakfast was available, although obviously I was 25 and we didn't require it. And there were a lot of children. I would always choose a character breakfast, a non-character breakfast. Well, I was sexually harassed by Eeyore at that character breakfast. and yeah, they can't talk, but you know what?

6:09They can just make signs and stuff and I didn't like it. And I kept saying, Eeyore, I tell you what, why don't you go talk to all those kids who want you to talk to them? Even though, you know, you're such a miserable character. Wow. Or just sod off back to the Hundred Acre Wood. I don't need this. And I would say, and he was making sort of gestures and I was saying, What sort of gestures? Really, Eeyore, I'm kind of, thank you, but it's been lovely to talk to you, although of course they can't talk. and then he was I was like oh my god just take a no Eeyore take a no hung like a donkey of course that's so horrible that's bad now we're cancelling Eeyore can we start the questions and answer the episode oh yes we haven't done any questions yet have we I didn't think that memory could be more traumatising and if you assumed it and made it so much well I assumed it but you made it so much worse oh man I'm so sorry shall we move swiftly along oh please I have I'm so sorry everybody sorry Marina is what you are yeah so you think you're not included in everybody you're like a special case I feel that my trauma was worse yeah if you're on Real Housewives you go like there's everybody and then there's Marina Spider-Man cars Fiona Doyle has a question for you I live in Glasgow where we have been very excited with the new Spider-Man being filmed oh I was in Glasgow when they were filming Indiana Jones the whole place was kind of made up it's amazing it does so well Glasgow it's old New York it's all these different anyway carry on anyway Fiona says I have a question about the cars they use They have lots of American cars.

7:36Do they ship them or is there a warehouse somewhere? Also, so many were wrecked and smashed up. What happens to them? All those stunt cars are very interesting and there are specialist hire companies. They used to have a place which I had gone to, the London Motor Museum, which used to have so many things and it had one of the original Batmobiles from the Adam West thing. They had one of the DeLoreans. They had Herbie. Do they really? Yeah, they had Mr. Beans Mini. Owing to a financial dispute, whether they were operating as a business or just not as a going concern. They were shut. So those cars went to various different places.

8:11I think most of them are in Bewley, by the way. The Bewley Motor Museum is one of my favourite places in the whole world, in the New Forest. If you're ever down in that neck of the woods, I absolutely love it. I used to go there when I was a kid. We used to go camping in the New Forest and we used to go to the Bewley Motor Museum and I've been recently as well. And Bewley itself is beautiful, but the Bewley Motor Museum here, they've got all of those cars. It's like the whole history of cars. They've got so many things. In terms of renting them out, studios like Pinewood have some in stock. Quite a good pool of those American police cars, which, by the way, are constantly by specialist people being resprayed in different ways.

8:45So you'll often see the same car. And people have done these deep dives into which car has been repeatedly used the most. New decals, new spray. In terms of the smashing up of them, there's lots of different ways they do that. Lots of them are made of fiberglass and foam and things like that so that they can be spun around very easily. There's obviously a lot of CGI in that. But if you've seen actual smashed up cars, then they often start with smashed up ones. They'll have one car which is called the hero car, which is for the close up work. And then have a sort of medium smashed up one for the chase scenes.

9:18And then they'll have a complete sort of wreck at the end. They can make not very good cars look amazing just in order to scrunch them up. And then there are lots of rules of how you dispose of them. but they often buy junkyard cars and refurbish them there's a whole sort of industry of this but there is a pool that gets kind of put around all the different productions because so much stuff is filmed here and for something like I talked to someone actually who worked on Fast and Furious and for those you don't have all and because remember we've had a couple shot over here you don't have all those muscle cars they get shipped out for Fast and Furious and they have huge numbers of them and it's a whole that's a whole operation but obviously they're kind of the star of the movie no offence Vin Diesel yeah but it is it's a massive industry and there's lots of people so some companies have hundreds of cars that can rent you out anything and by the way it's not always oh we've got a muscle car or a police car sometimes it's got we've got like a 1973 austin maxi sometimes that that's the car you need but there's also lots of sort of amateur people who collect cars anyway and as a sideline they will rent them out and via agencies i've got a you know american station wagon even though i just live in essex so yeah and i remember we did when we did celebrity antics road trip and they give you kind of old cars to go in and the people who own the cars come out with them just so they're absolutely looked after and they also because some of them are slightly harder to drive than certainly for me because i don't drive um and so they would come out and show you how to use them and and and what have you but by and large they're sort of hobbyists some of those people but funnily enough in in the thursday murder club there there are a couple of scenes and that's a big budget they weren't skimping anywhere but there's a couple of scenes where there's police cars parked outside a window which are cardboard cutouts and you would not in a million years ever know because scene painters are so extraordinary but it's a lovely sideline for anyone who does collect old cars or lots doing up old cars is there's this always a drama a film something which can use whatever car it is that you have and they're constantly doing up the ones they have and slightly altering them there are a lot because we have so many american productions films over here but my recommendation is the beauty motor museum yeah there's in we solve murders there's a fictional village which is called axley and people keep saying where is it because it sounds so beautiful.

11:23And it isn't anywhere, but it's slightly based on the village of Beaulieu, which is very, very beautiful. Yeah. Oh, I like that. This is a good one from Kelly Salter. As a fan of history documentaries, I wonder if the historians or authors who provide talking head perspectives and narrative do it specifically for a programme or whether it's recorded as stock content and any production can use it. Does it mean there's a risk of an esteemed historian such as the wonderful James Holland, my personal fave, being used in a less than accurate documentary? Thank you very much, Kelly. I thought as James Holland is Kelly's personal fave, I thought maybe rather than answer it myself, we get James Holland to answer it.

11:58Very good. He obviously records the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast with Al Murray, who I bumped into on the street the other day. Had a lovely chat, but he had nothing to say on this particular question. But I'll tell you a man who does, and that is James Holland. So here's James Kelly answering your question. Well, they are absolutely recorded specifically, Kelly. And I've got to say, they're absolutely awful. They're torturous, and I can't bear them. and I've made a solemn vow never to do it ever, ever again. Because basically what happens is you go into a darkened room somewhere in a hotel or a warehouse in London, for example, and you're asked to contribute to, let's say, three to six different programs.

12:32You've got to know absolutely everything. You're asked maybe 200 questions in one day. You're underpaid. And you have absolutely no control over it whatsoever, which is one of the reasons why my great pal Al Murray and I do our podcast, because it means that we can go into the enormous detail on the subjects that we want to from our period, which is Second World War, and cover it on our own terms, in our own way, and have complete control over the material. I enjoyed the seagulls over his head while he was saying that, the noise of it, and also the observation that you're meant to sit in a warehouse.

13:11Why are they always sitting, almost always, in some sort of, you know, abandoned warehouse? to discuss the Third Reich. Genuinely, because it gives you real depth of field. So you're in somewhere that would cost almost nothing to hire out because it's a warehouse somewhere. You can have one light in the front of them and you've got this massive depth of field in the background, which means you can sort of blur out and it looks like you're sort of somewhere kind of utilitarian. But it's just a really lovely shot for almost no money at all. It always looks bombed out. Sorry, I've just popped in from the wars to talk about the wars.

13:42Sorry, it's going on outside, but ask me anything. Ask me 200 questions in a day. That's a lot. That is a lot. You know, there's all those talking head shows on TV. Funnily enough, the historian thing, people always used to say with the Philomena Kunk shows, you know, Kunk on Britain, Kunk on the world, and she would always talk to academics. People would go, oh my God, these academics don't know that they're having the mick taken out of them. And they all did. Every single person who's ever interviewed by Kunk absolutely is in on the joke. They're just told, just give the answers that you would normally answer anyway.

14:11If you think a question is stupid, absolutely feel free to say it. but talk as if you were talking to a child and be patient and try and explain a possible answer to the question that she is giving so those are the only notes they're given but occasionally you see reviews just saying how stupid are these academics and you think, I mean how stupid are you that you're a TV reviewer and you're not working out that these people are in on that gag We've already done one show about the nature of reality this week Let's go back there for the Q &A Okay, I love that answer, thank you very much Thanks so much James Shall we go to some adverts now?

14:45We did spend about 15 minutes at the beginning talking about Nick Fowler, which I had not predicted, I must say. Never wasted. Never wasted. See you in a moment.

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15:36Join now at therestisentertainment.com This episode is brought to you by Sky Sports. The curtain's about to rise on a new Premier League season, the national soap opera with 20 clubs chasing glory, redemption or simply survival. And this year Sky Sports will show 215 games live compared with last season's 128. It is an episodic drama with no time for rewrites, four fixtures a week and, for the first time, every final day fixture shown live, all in one place. 10 months of unscripted theatre, new heroes and old rivalries, from final act twists to title challenges fading to black. If football is theatre, this is the main stage.

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16:46Welcome back, everybody. Marina Tom Frost asks, When filming shows like Friends, do the live audience watch the scenes in the order they are shown once the show is released? I've noticed they laugh at lines which reference jokes or bits from earlier on in episodes, which makes me think it must be filmed in order. Well, Tom, you are right. Friends was filmed with a live audience and it now sounds like, although everyone loves it, like a period piece with those laughter tracks. But it was always on a Friday afternoon and they did shoot it in chronological order because otherwise it doesn't work.

17:15Having said that, it takes an incredibly long time to film a half an hour episode of television and it took six hours, which is actually quite good going. Six hours. Well, that's quite good going. think how long it takes to film half an hour of something that hasn't got a studio audience it takes about 8 days House of Games we do in I'd say 48 minutes you are a pro though you are an absolute pro it may not last as long as Friends but it's quicker I'll say that well each scene was filmed 5 or 6 times and I thought that's the minimum because you've got to do everyone's coverage it's so important the reaction shots in comedy so everyone's coverage is particularly important more important than it might be in other things because so much of that That might just even come from someone from a look, from a glance or from a non-reaction.

17:57The writers would be on set and they would change lines within the takes. And they might even improvise a tiny little bit at the end and do a loose take, as it's called. So they're trying to get the most laughs out of it. Although the scene may get funnier, and that often happens when you're filming comedy, is that by the time you've done it six times, then it's become funny because you realise everyone's worked out what they're doing. And then something spontaneous might just happen. unfortunately the audience laughter for friends would actually wane every take because you've literally watched 12 even though it's getting funnier and funnier you've you've heard a joke already yeah your first response to a joke is always going to be your best response yeah you're not the director you're just let a laugh and you've heard it you've enjoyed it that's it so although the performances were improving um the laughs weren't and so what the editors did was that they took the first laugh track and laid it over so that those wonderful fresh laughs Richard would be reheated.

18:49Which again feels like fakery but in a way sort of isn't because you are trying to make it as funny as possible but you do have an audience there and the audience are laughing less and less and you know why and you cannot put out the version. Your funniest version is going to be unwatchable because of the audience reaction. So you have to take a genuine real it's the same audience and they are laughing at the same jokes it's just they were laughing at it 45 minutes ago and so you combine the freshness of the laughs with the quality of the improved scene. And that's what you see on television. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot easier now.

19:21You don't have to do that anymore. Yes, having no audience. Having no audience. But anyway, so Central Perk and their apartments were at the front of the stage. So that was directly in front of the audience. And if anything else was taking place on secondary sets towards the back, you would, like say Ross's apartment, they watched that on monitors. Most season finales would be filmed without an audience at all because they had to protect the plot lines. So those shocked gasps when Ross says Rachel's name at the altar when he's marrying Emily. Spoiler. Yeah, that's all fake. But Lisa Kudrow actually hated filming in front of a live studio audience because she thought that they were laughing too much at her jokes even when they weren't funny or they hadn't landed.

20:07And she's obviously a purist. And so it used to take a lot of her energy not to snap at the fans for laughing too much at her. Wow. In America, you get paid to be in an audience as well. Over here, you don't. It's, you know, in return for getting in free, you have to sit there for three hours or whatever it is. But in America, because they're very aware, certainly in that era, of how important an audience was, you get paid. So you would sit there for six hours and you would applaud wildly when you were told to applaud because you were getting paid to do it. Which, by the way, doesn't mean the laughter is faked because you're watching Friends and that's an amazing thing to do.

20:39But certainly for the last two and a half hours, you know, the fact that you're watching Friends may have paled a tiny bit. and that's the point at which the money kicks in. Six hours in, the Danny Dyer Strictly observation slot. Okay, I'm done. Right, a question from Stephen Roddy Duffy, that's a good name. I found myself in a bit of a YouTube rabbit hole and I started wondering about cameos in music videos. Which music video has the most? Is it Taylor's Gang in Bad Blood? Well, the most is an interesting question. I think she might have had the best girl group, including her. Oh, it's long and strong in quality.

21:12Exactly that, yeah. you've got, well, Taylor Swift herself is in it. Selena Gomez is in it. Kendrick Lamar is the token male in there. Lena Dunham is in there. Zendaya is in there. Ellie Goulding, Cara Delevingne. Hayley Williams is in it. Jessica Alba is in it. Ellen Papayo. Cindy Crawford is in it. So it's long in quality, I'll say that. But in terms of numbers, Michael Jackson, Liberian girl, he had 35 celebrities in that. And actually, that was pretty good in terms of some of the quality. Richard Dreyfuss is in there. Spielberg's in there my mate Whoopi Goldberg is in there John Travolta Weird Al Yankovic is in there Lou Ferrigno the Incredible Hulk as well and Corey Feldman I mean that ages at a tiny bit doesn't it?

21:55I want to talk about him next week actually Corey Feldman Michael Jackson this has reminded me carry on oh good that's 35 in that the Beastie Boys Fight for Your Right revisited so that was Adam Yowch when he was going through chemotherapy before he sadly passed away he wanted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Fight for Your Right to Party. And there's like a 30-minute epic version of that with all sorts of people in it. You've got Elijah Wood, Danny McBride, and Seth Rogen. They're playing the Beastie Boys. You've got Stanley Tucci, Jack Black, Amy Poehler, Will Ferrell, all sorts of brilliant people in that.

22:31It's a sort of very scrappy kind of SNL-type skit. But it's 30 minutes long. It's just before Adam Yowch died, so it's very, very much worth looking at. But in terms of numbers, it's a recent one, which is the Charlie XCX video for boys. She's got 75 cameos in that. I'm going to say some of the cameos aren't as strong in some of the other videos. But if you purely want an answer in terms of numbers, it has to be this. Joe Jonas is in it. Stormzy is in it. Tiny Temper. Will I Am. Carl Barrett from The Libertines. As I say, it's not all Richard Dreyfuss. Does it fall away after that? Riz Ahmed. No, it's all good.

23:08Tom Daly is in it. Mark Ronson is in it. Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend. I think they filmed lots of cameos at Coachella as well. So anyone basically who played Coachella was in that video. So Charlie XCX Boys with 75 is the most cameo-laden video of all time. Unless one of our listeners knows otherwise. But beating 75 will be going at some. 75 is a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. It's a lot. The song's what? Three and a half minutes. That's like Happy Gilmore 2. Yeah. No Nick Faldo in any of those. I wonder if Nick Faldo has ever appeared. He might have been shaved. you don't know there could be a shaved Nick Faldo a shaved Faldo could appear actually in many many places that's not Tom Daley that's not Tom Daley in those tiny trunks that's a shaved Nick Faldo Shaved Faldo is our band name now Shaved Faldo is a great name oh yeah absolutely when we do our music video which is just going to be hundreds of shaved Faldos if anyone knows of any pop video that he might have done like a charity single in the 90s or something if anyone knows of any video that has Nick Faldo in it shaved or otherwise by the way he wasn't famously mustachioed or bearded Faldo so I don't know what he said I guess he always had that slightly kind of desperate damn well hang on think of Lecter's hair Lecter hasn't got much hair it's got oh so maybe so maybe yeah he always had a lot of hair Nick Faldo they give him the prison buzz cut do you know what which actually wasn't by the way I just want to say that's not in the personal life section of the website now or ever Nick Faldo has never had a prison issue buzz cut no well this is probably the first he's heard of the Madame Two Swords thing yeah wow Wow.

24:39How would you take that? I mean, you know, he doesn't hate legal action, so imagine what the disclaimer is. I can be used in anything. Yes, you can melt me slightly and shave me and turn me into Anthony Hopkins. Yeah, but turning into Anthony Hopkins is fine. Turning you into Hannibal Lecter. You know that Hannibal Lecter was Anthony Hopkins. Oh, really? Yeah, he was doing acting. Oh, how ridiculous. Thank you, Marina. Now, we have a special Q &A next week. This is exciting. Yes, which is, I'm going to be talking to Chris Columbus, who's over for the Thursday Murder Club premiere. We've had so many questions from our listeners.

25:12What a career Chris Columbus has had and what a lovely guy he is as well. So I'm going to be talking to him and putting all of your questions to him. I think maybe you're going to be away. I'm going to be away, but I'm submitting questions. Can you choose a couple of them? Well, Chris is going to... I feel like I've gotten in with you. Chris is going to be absolutely gutted because the only reason he said yes to it is so he got the chance to meet you. But there it is. That is showbiz. You know what? I hope, just to punish you for being away, I hope you bring Spielberg with him as well. I hope just him and Steve.

25:39Oh, you'd love that. You'd love that. Yeah, because Richie, did you mind, I bought Pierce Brosnan with me. I'm like, I don't mind. I tell you, you will mind. He goes, listen, I bought three people with me. I bought Steven Spielberg, I bought Pierce Brosnan and I bought my new friend, Nick Faldo. I don't know if you know him. If that happens, I'll be inconsolable. Yeah, no, I'm gutted you're not going to be here because you would love him. That will be next week's Q &A, so all your questions to Chris Columbus. But other than that, for members. We have a special on Studio 54 coming out on Friday.