Line #20 Series/SpanishArcher


1	[[quoteright:685:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spanish_archer_2.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:685:TV Tropes has a page about this show,\\
3	It's quite surrealist and "Spanish"? What ho!\\
4	It's brash, ridiculous and the acts kept getting fewer\\
5	On cable, no surprise it got next to no viewers.]]
6	Brash, utterly ridiculous spoof of early RealityTV "talent" shows such as ''[[Series/OpportunityKnocks Opportunity Knocks]]'' and ''[[Series/TheGongShow The Gong Show]]''. Aired on [[InsistentTerminology L!VE TV]] in around 1994 (whoever remembers that?), this show was perhaps one of the cheapest shows around, yet great fun for tipsy cable viewers.
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8	[[ElSpanishO Bad Spanish speakers]] may say that an archer in Spanish[[note]]arquero[[/note]] is "el bow", and a British idiom for firing someone is to 'give them the elbow'. Combine that to 'give them the Spanish archer", and you've got yourself a TV show... got all that?
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10	In short, a [[{{Fauxreigner}} Spanish archer]] called "El Bow" hosts this low-budget 30-minute spectacle. An act comes on, then one minute in El Bow gives the audience a chance to show their approval or disapproval. If the audience like the act, they complete the full three minutes given to them and are given a Seville orange, of course. If the audience hate it, El Bow fires an arrow at a [[TorosYFlamenco cardboard cutout of a bull]] and the performer is given the Spanish Archer by a literal swinging elbow. At the end, the audience (or sometimes a panel of 'judges') vote for their favourite out of the ones they liked, who wins a small toy donkey.
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12	Anyone could take part, as long as their act was pre-watershed. Needless to say the critics hated this, but it got a small but loyal cult following. Probably ripe for a reboot too.
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14	!!This show contains the following tropes:
15	* TheAlcoholic: Implied about El Bow by Pedro in one of his songs.
16	---> '''Pedro:''' Sonny is an impressionist from the North East, / She loves skiing, she loves being on the piste. / El Bow does and so does me, / There's nothing we like better than a bit of après ski...
17	* AudienceParticipation: In episodes where the judges - called the Tres Sombreros on the show - weren't present, the audience voted themselves.
18	* BumblingSidekick: Pedro Paella, the [[{{Spexico}} Espexicañol]] guitarist who banters with El Bow.
19	* CatchPhrase: El Bow's "A little question now to get you into the mood of Spain", followed by the [[MoonLogicPuzzle quiz question]].
20	* {{Fauxreigner}}: Played for laughs. El Bow has a surprisingly Welsh accent, and exaggerates it.
21	** Exaggerated when El Bow is ill and replaced by Welsh[[GenderBender woman]] Creator/RuthMadoc.
22	* ElSpanishO: For linguists, you'll need a bottle of ''el vino'' or three to appreciate this masterpiece of a TranslationTrainWreck.
23	* FakeGuestStar: Sunny Sky, an impressionist from the North East who lived in London and did a gag on this show every week, was only ever a recurring contestant.
24	* FunWithSubtitles: Every act would have a comedy caption scroll across the screen.
25	---> Sunny is actually wearing one of the latest wigs from the Pedro Paella collection... but she hasn't been to the Pedro school of comedy - [[BaitAndSwitchComment she's actually quite funny]]!!
26	* GenderBender: Downplayed. Creator/RuthMadoc occasionally substitutes for Rhodri Williams when he's ill and can't play the Archer.
27	* GratuitousSpanish: ''¡Hola! Me llamo El Bow, I am the Spanish Archer...''
28	* HopelessAuditionees: Most of the show's contestants were only too happy to join in the ridiculousness.
29	* MinimalistCast: Justified, as this show probably got marginally more applicants than it did viewers, but many former acts often popped up as members of the Tres Sombreros.
30	* MoonLogicPuzzle: El Bow would ask each act a question to "get you into the mood of Spain". Many of these, such as the one in VoiceoverTranslation, can come across as these.
31	---> '''Archer:''' The Procesión de Humo in the village of Arnedillo commemorates events of 1888 when... what? (A) A smallpox epidemic struck the village; (B) The first crossdresser was unveiled; or (C) men's wife friends were invented by a local tailor?[[note]]The contestant went for C. Surprisingly, it's A.[[/note]]
32	* PointAndLaughShow: All it really was is people doing ridiculous acts for a tipsy late-night audience on a very niche channel.
33	* NoBudget: Troper dares you to take a look at the set and tell me it cost more than about 60p - or 60 pesetas.
34	* RhymesOnADime: Pedro's songs were based on application forms / Why did this show make that the norm?
35	* SillySong: Pedro Paella would sing a comedy song about what contestants had filled in on their application forms.
36	---> '''Pedro:''' Gary describes himself as a new wave punk / When he said that, he must have been drunk. / I'm a punk rocker too, it's easy to see. / Come on, El Bow, ¡let's have some anarchy!
37	* {{Spexico}}: The archer might be "Spanish", but the judges and his assistant, Pedro Paella, wear sombreros.
38	* TorosYFlamenco: El Bow shoots an arrow at a bull and flamenco dancers come on to fill the time between acts.
39	* VoiceoverTranslation: In a little side game before each performance, El Bow would mime saying something in Spanish, and a Spanish-speaking female voiceover would dub it in Spanish for the viewers. The act would be asked to [[MoonLogicPuzzle guess the translation of what he was saying]] - well, ''trying'' to say.
40	---> '''Mime:''' ''Compartir con hermanos, lo mío mío o el tuyo entrambos.''
41	---> '''Archer:''' Is it, (A) "What's mine is mine and yours is my own"; (B) "Think of yourself before anyone else"; or (C) "Rule 1: The boss is always right; Rule 2: If the boss is wrong, Rule 1 applies"?
42	---> '''Contestant:''' B?

Context Series / SpanishArcher