Interview with Lara Ricote

How did you come to be involved in Mitchell & Webb Are Not Helping? 

Gareth, the producer, came to Edinburgh to watch my work in progress. He was really kind to me and said he liked what I did and he asked if I wanted to be in the writers’ room.

It was awesome. It was really special to be part of it. I had a really good time, especially since it was my first time doing anything like that. All of it was deeply exciting for me.

You’re Mexican-American, now based in the Netherlands. Did you know Mitchell & Webb’s work?

Of course, I knew their sketch show, and I had watched Peep Show, but I'm not from the same world at all. I watched it online because I'm interested in comedy, and it was something that I liked a lot, but nothing that I ever thought that I would be involved with.

Can you talk a little about the writers’ rooms? 

That was great. The way they did it was that Gareth would come with an idea that he knew was a sort of bad idea, and that he’d be setting the bar really low. Then Rob would say another bad idea. They would literally say, “This is a sh***y idea”, which was really nice because it meant anyone could say anything and we’d go around the room to see if anyone had anything to add to it. And then, usually from a tiny seed that felt like nothing, something really exciting would come out.

Obviously, it was nerve-wracking for all of us who were new in the room. It was a big deal: you don't want to say an idea and watch it die in front of people that you really respect, but because they had that attitude right from that start, we knew that whatever we said, they’d be incredibly supportive. Even if there was an idea that didn’t really turn into anything, somebody would say something and make it fly for a bit, so it didn't feel like you were the reason it died.

What was the atmosphere like? 

It was really like a hangout. Gareth did a really good job with that too, because he would start by saying something like, “I had to take my cat to the vet because we think it's dying, but we've been thinking it’s dying for three years,” and so we knew it was an idea with some tension but we didn’t know what the tension was, and then somebody would ask a question, and it would function like a conversation until there was something to riff off.

There was enough space for people to jump in at any point and really get to know each other so that it was a working environment but a relaxed one. When we had other writers coming in just for a day or so, they were always friends with at least one person, so there was a connection that made everybody feel quite comfortable.

What do you think you added to the writing process? 

My brain works in a bit of a wackier way, so I think the sketches that I wrote have a bit more of a visual quality. David and Rob are incredible at writing the exact words that you need in order to get a laugh, whereas I work a bit more with images. So I think I brought that. It wasn’t only me that was doing that, but I definitely think my words on the page were like, “Then the camera pans out and you see this!”.

We also all brought some extra characters in. There are some sketches that are funny because of the characters, and that's a bit different from what they usually do, which is exciting. That meant that David and Rob get to play really funny characters, and they're incredibly funny when they do that, so I think that worked out well.

What were some of your favourite sketches to perform? 

I really enjoyed watching the way that other people work. There’s no right or wrong, and the writing is very important, of course, but I do think we got some good ones, doing it that way.

I loved playing with Kiell. He does improv on stage in this thing called Cool Story Bro, and he’s invited me to do that with him. He's wonderful. I think that was a highlight for me.

Is there a good balance of different styles and tones to the sketches? 

It felt good that it was a series, because there were so many different kinds of sketches, which they picked really well. I think they were interested in making something that people would want to watch continuously, with light and shade, and not just one type of sketch. We were getting to enjoy a lot of different types of humour during filming, which was representative of how we worked in the writers’ room.

What can you tell us about the behind-the-scenes sketches that are based on the writers’ rooms? 

Those were nice scenes because we got to write in our own voices. We were asked, “Okay, how would you say this line if it were really you?”, because it's the place where we represent ourselves, or a very heightened version of ourselves. We're all playing a character, but we’re playing a character that's based on us. They were also nice to write because we’re using the generational differences, but in a way that was kind of stupid and silly.

In the first drafts, David and Rob were very much representing the old people, while we represented the young people, and it didn't feel right. Then in the second wave of the writing group, there was more of an approach of letting everybody's sense of humour shine through no matter what their generation, rather than it being like, “Oh, the young people always say this.”

I was the youngest at twenty-eight, so I’m Gen Z, but I don’t think I was picked for being representative of Gen Z because I don’t think that’s the thing about my voice. I don't think I speak “internet speak” or whatever. I think they just picked people based on their sense of humour, which varies across the generations.

In some of those sketches we play with the idea that the four of us understand social media better than David and Rob, but we’re not really teaching them social media, we’re basically just calling them names! It felt like an opportunity to be silly with them.

David and Rob were very self-deprecating. I was a bit worried about using some of the lines we used with them, but we were totally allowed, which was really nice.

How did you enjoy the filming process? 

I found it really fun, partly because we had really funny costumes. When you're sitting around looking like that all day, it's just funny the whole time. Rob was incredibly good at following whatever fun there was on the set and that helped to make me much more comfortable.

Although I loved the writers’ room, there was something about filming where we had long hours of hanging around where we all suddenly got much closer. I cried so much when it ended. I'm Latin American, I can't hold back those tears for one second! We spent so much time chatting that we really got friendly.

The other clever thing they did was to start the day with the hardest scenes, so by the end of the day we were just enjoying ourselves and playing because we knew we had time and we weren’t running over and it wasn’t stressful. I’ve never had that experience on other sets.

And what was it like to film with David and Rob? 

It felt nice. It felt easy. I was improvising songs in between takes, and Rob would always join in, and even David started joining in towards the end. He was a little bit harder to crack in the beginning, and then he was incredibly playful towards the end. It felt like they were having the time of their life. They really liked being with each other – they make each other laugh so much. They told us so many stories, and they listened to our stories, and it was just lovely.

Sketch shows have fallen out of favour in recent years. Why do you think that is? 

People love sketches. I guess we assume that they're expensive to make because of how many sets you need and how many people you need. I think it’s a risk to put a bunch of money into that, and there was a decision to stop taking that risk for a while. It feels like a big risk is being taken, at least by Channel 4, to do stuff that is popular online and put it on TV.

We know that people love sketches, and that people will watch them, but comedy feels especially risky on TV because people get mad when they don’t like it. I think there’s a fear that there will be a mob mentality about it, even though the mob is small.

The thing with sketch is that you're doing many different types of jokes, and you're doing it over the course of six episodes, so you've got a lot of choice but you’ve also got a lot more for people to get mad about. But my view would be, why would you bet on people getting mad? You should bet on people having a good time and enjoying it!

Do you think this commission is good news for the future of sketch shows and comedy in general? 

Yes, It definitely feels like if anyone could bring it back, it would be Mitchell and Webb. I’m really excited for them to be doing this again, but in a revamped way with new voices in the room. It’s still very much them, they still have the exact same sense of humour, but I think it’s really nice that it involves all these people in the writers’ room from all ages and all types of comedy. We were all influenced by each other. It was really interesting and cool to have a feedback loop, where we got to feed stuff in, and we got their feedback too.

I think the people in charge are moving more towards letting comics take risks, and realising that that mob mentality, if it happens, drifts past quite quickly. People will always find stuff to get angry about, but it doesn't stay long.

Is it good news for younger talent, when comedy is famously hard to break into? 

It's so special. It's special because they’re doing what you should do when you’re on the up, which is to put a hand down and bring people up with you. There's no other way that new talent would be able to do it. Broadcasters won’t make stuff unless they think people are going to watch it, but Channel 4 have allowed us the opportunity to get on TV, which is so special for us. Hopefully this show will be the first of many to do that.

What’s your favourite classic Mitchell & Webb sketch? 

There’s one with Olivia Colman which is about porn, where they say, “And now we know.” It’s not maybe one of the best-known ones but it’s so stupid, I love it.