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? |
9 | |
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. |
11 | |
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. |
13 | |
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? |
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