Just so...so bad

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I am really torn with this show (so much so that I am finally writing my first review on IMDb). Lee Mack and the other fellow comedians are killing it. However, as time goes on, the facts just get less and less interesting AND less and less veritable; I suppose that is only natural.As far as the freshness of the "facts", it is quite annoying to see old "viral" video ideas. For example, the stacked ball experiment and Rubens' tubes was not so cool seeing a second time.Ignoring the lack of scientific rigor in most of the tests requiring statistics (e.g. in 5th episode of season 3, the first thing you write down with trying a new pen is your name, not only there are the standard issue of sample size and representability of the test subjects, the data from Kenya seems to be completely dropped in final calculation!), after all it is just a TV show, there are still some unforgivable gaffs. To be specific, in episode 3 season 3, the "rocket scientist" mention about the classic myth on division of tasks between left and right brain. And earlier the fact that sex-related differences in human visual processing capabilities is not a clear cut fact but rather controversial is completely ignored. Later Lee demonstrated the floating cereal and magnet trick (in 3.5), which is not really caused by the iron content in cereal (alone). then in 3.6 the already disproven myth of bull and color red is cited by a guest without opposition... In general it is just extremely weird to see astrophysicist ("rocket scientist") and a space/mechanical engineer to be on the show answering biology questions! (no disrespect for rockets, I myself is trained in math and aerospace in undergrad.)But of course, there were some quite surprising and amazing facts that I have not heard of before (such as the one about decision making and peeing, which won an Ig-nobel unbeknownst previously to me).I also have some minor problem with the change of format in Season 3. Since the competition is b*ll*cks anyway, having celebrities/comedians rating each other just created better dynamics than mocking/bullying audiences with extreme scores in general. The lack of "risking" guest campion's life on tricks and gimmicks are sad. But the visual charade is kind of fun.

Before I watched it (seeing it advertised), I expected another clichéd comedy that would be contributing to an already saturated genre.Fortunately, it had something I really liked. I'm not sure if it's the interesting, often unbelievable facts or the witty punchlines given by both the host and guests.Lee Mack is just brilliant throughout, so much so that I watched every episode back to back via the on demand service. When I came to the final episode (highlights form the previous ones), I couldn't help but watch them, despite the fact that I had just seen them all! It's a rare occurrence for me to even pay attention to a TV program. Mainly because it's usually recycled trash with the same old tired jokes.One fact that stuck in my mind, and the reason for the spoiler alert notification, is that three-year-olds cannot lie. This was tested on the show, and it turned out to be factual, much to my amazement.Another intriguing fact is that touching someone gently on the shoulder can often increase the chances of getting something from that person. On the show they tested this with waitresses. They had two women waiting on random customers, with each taking a turn to use this technique. It turned out that when each of them used the shoulder touching technique they received more tips!! I don't understand why anyone can't like this show. The jokes are witty, original and funny (a rarity in my opinion) and the facts just make it an all round must see TV show.