The Blame Game (radio)

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The Blame Game is a weekly comedy panel game broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster. Started in 2005, it is hosted by Tim McGarry (Give My Head Peace). Regular panellists include comedians Colin Murphy, Jake O'Kane and Neil Delamere. Special guests have included Mike Wilmot. It lasts approximately 20 minutes.

On 27 January 2006, the show was first broadcast on television, on BBC1 Northern Ireland.

[edit] Format

In the first round ("Pass the Buck"), individual members of the audience ask the contestants who they feel responsible for a topical issue, usually in the structure "Who do you blame for...?" Example issues include binge drinking, the "Stroke City" problem and trick or treating. Tim McGarry passes the question over to a contestant who attempts to answer it, normally in a humorous off-topic manner.

In the second round ("Blame It on the Boogie"), a piece of music is played, and the contestants must try to figure out why it is being played.

In the final round ("What's the Story?"), Tim McGarry reads out a recent newspaper headline and the contestants state their take on the headline.

The game ends with Tim McGarry telling the audience if they "blame (team) for winning, to cheer now".

The television version cuts out "Blame It on the Boogie", and the majority of the show consists of "Pass the Buck". With just a few minutes to go, Tim McGarry announces "There's just time to look at this week's news", before getting out a 'newspaper' from which he reads the headlines for "What's the Story?".

[edit] Quotes

"Welcome to The Blame Game: the show with more cheap shots than a student union bar." -Tim McGarry

"Over in London, when they say they're going out for a drink, they mean one drink. Over here, that could mean anything from three months imprisonment to..." - Jake O'Kane, on cultural differences between Northern Ireland and England.

"There'll be a national stadium and you'll be getting calls from a Clones number saying, "Hello? There's a bomb...big bomb...huge bomb...car bomb...no, not a car bomb...more like a lad on a bike with a banger...Sunday, at half three, that's when it'll go off. (pause) You don't have a match on Sunday? Ah...when's good for you?" - Neil Delamere, on plans to build a national stadium in Northern Ireland.

"You have to have a completely depressed announcer. Have you ever been to a GAA match?" - Neil Delamere

"Robert from Dundonald, ever been to a GAA match? -Tim McGarry, to the member of the audience, obviously Protestant, who asked the question.

"I didn't quite get that, but I think I know what that is. Is it like saying, "Mervyn from Bangor" ?" - Neil Delamere

I think there's someone in the Falls Road saying, (strong Belfast accent) "National stadium? I'll have you know that it would be more accurate to call it a "regional" stadium." " - Jake O'Kane

Jake O'Kane - "Can you imagine breakfast in the Paisley household?"

Tim McGarry - " "Pass the sugar." "NEVER!" "

"Shankill FM. Did anyone actually know Shankill that had its own radio station? Community radio. I mean, how "community" do you need? I mean, that's local radio taken to an extreme. That's like, individual houses. (puts on strong Belfast accent) "Sammy, your tea's ready. Sammy!" "

- Colin Murphy, on local radio stations

Tim McGarry - (after playing a song by crooner Brian Kennedy) "That was the voice of choirboy Brian Kennedy. But why are we listening to him this week?"

Colin Murphy- "Because you're trying to hurt us. Last week, it was The Corrs."

Tim McGarry - (reading newspaper headline) " 'Call for end to religious imbalance..."

Colin Murphy - "...as Buddha is banned from the see-saw (teeter-totter).' "

"It's the coldest winter in more than twenty years. So the I.R.A. must be really annoyed: they've finally decommissioned and they've no balaclavas!" - Neil Delamere

"I was talking to a lad from Offaly the other day and as he was leaving he said, 'keeping it real'. Keeping it real. In Offaly. He's from Leinster. He's not Ice T from L.A., he's more like choc ice from Tullamore. His house is made of turf. His family crest is a picture of a man hitting a bullock with a shovel." - Neil Delamere

"I live in London, not America by the way, so this was like a real short flight for me. And because I live in London, I know how to keep my head down, I don't speak loudly in public, I'm not obese, I can pronounce the word "Leicester" but I still like saying "aluminum" just to wind you people up." - American comic Dave Fulton