Friday 13th Jan Funny but not funny

To some people Friday the 13th can mean only one thing; bad things are bound to happen. Luckily for me I'm not superstitious and therefore it means nothing worse than any other day to me. That's not entirely true though; as far as myself and my team mates were concerned it did mean saying goodbye to one of our Senior Advisers.  She has moved onto to pastures new within the company.  Obviously the previous Manager of the team I work in couldn't bare to work without her, and so she has joined him at our Head office.
In order for us to commiserate this change it was decided we should all go for an Italian meal at one of the many restaurants in our town centre.  I had a lovely pasta dish known as Penne Al Salmon; it literally translates as Salmon in Penne pasta.  I've had it before and it was a safe bet to go for the same thing again.  I like to try different things whenever I go to an Italian restaurant but it had been so long since I went for an Italian meal that I forgot.  Its funny how, when it arrived on the table, it triggered the memory of the last time I had it.  I told myself this was an expensive lunch but it was worth it, because I love fish and pasta. I was asked if I had any jokes to tell the team, and even though I have written a few jokes the day before I wasn't really comfortable telling them; not that i thought they were bad or rubbish but because I knew they could be funnier.
In the afternoon a few of us got onto the subject of stand up comedy, sit-coms and all things funny.  It has to be said that this subject is probably my favourite talking point and one that is close to my heart.  I have always prided myself on my knowledge of comedy on TV.  If I was to be asked if I had any obsessions it would have to be this.  Somehow I am able to recall the names of writers of TV shows, and people who write material for or with comics on various comedy panel shows.  I have to admit this is more likely to be confined to the UK than other countries, such as the USA; this is only because the US tends to have pools of writers whereas in the UK this isn't really the case;  much like British sit-coms, which are predominantly written by one or two people.  In the case of Graham Norton, he has most of his scripts written by Will Ing and Dan Gaster.  These are two people who instinctively know how to write for him. Panel shows are the only thing I know of in the UK that are written by 'Programme Associates' (seen in the credits list) as opposed to the guests and hosts themselves.  Obviously in the case of Mock The Week the guests perform their own material in the stand up segments but may not necessarily write the 'gags' in the general rounds.  This isn't a bad thing because it probably makes it quicker to record the show.

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