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Whose Line Is It Anyway? (British TV series)

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Whose Line Is It Anyway?, sometimes called Whose Line? for short, is an improvised and largely unscripted comedy pseudo-game show. It was originally a British radio programme, but moved to British and then American television. The show is not to be confused with Whose Life Is It Anyway?, a play by Brian Clark.

File:Whoseline.jpg

Format

The show consists of a panel of four improvisational performers and comedians. They make up characters, scenes, and songs on the spot, sometimes based on audience suggestions, or with pre-written prompts from the host. The show is formatted roughly as a mock competition, with the host arbitrarily assigning points and choosing a "winner" at the end of each episode who would (in the British version) undertake an improvisational act based on the closing credits. In a typical taping, each "game" is played between one and three times, always with different prompts and suggestions. Then the show is edited, and only those scenes deemed the best (and suitable for broadcast) are actually shown.

In 2004, a similar show with almost the same cast called Drew Carey's Green Screen Show premiered on The WB.

Participants

The show was created by Dan Patterson, and in its original form on BBC Radio 4, Clive Anderson presented the show, with two regulars, Stephen Fry and John Sessions, and two guests. It was later moved to the television station Channel 4, with little change in format except for a more varied guest rotation. Regular comedians from the British version included, as well as the radio regulars, a variety of British, American, and Canadian comedians, notably Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton, Tony Slattery, Ryan Stiles, Sandi Toksvig, Colin Mochrie, Mike McShane, Brad Sherwood, Stephen Frost, and Greg Proops. Sessions was ever-present in the early days of the British television version, with Stiles becoming a staple in later episodes and having some influence on the creation and success of the American incarnation. Many of the performers, including Merton, Lawrence, and Toksvig, were regulars with the Comedy Store Players, an improvisational group based at the London Comedy Store. The theme tune for the British television incarnation of the show was composed by Philip Pope.

One of the first North American broadcasters of the British series was the Canadian youth channel, YTV, though many episodes were heavily edited for adult language and content.

The reruns of the UK TV series were also aired for many years on the U.S. Comedy Central TV channel, and were brought to the attention of American comedian Drew Carey (who had a working relationship with regular Whose Line performer Stiles who co-starred in The Drew Carey Show when not appearing on the British show). Carey convinced ABC to air test episodes in the United States. The show was an inexpensive hit, and ABC kept Carey on as the host of a successful American version which ran for several years; it benefited from the low expectations of its Thursday night time slot (ABC was not expected to mount a serious challenge to what was then NBC's longtime Thursday dominance). Also, while there were various instances in which the series had two episode premieres in one night, there were several occurrences in which some episodes were skipped over or were postponed until later dates.

The American version was almost identical to the UK series, though with a less diverse rotation of games and performers, more involvement of the host (Carey) in the activities, and occasional celebrity guest appearances. During the early years of the American show, there was much debate over whether the new version was as good as the original UK show. Eventually the show was accepted by fans, due to increasing familiarity with the new format and the U.S. "Whose Line"'s building of its own fan base. The American incarnation of the show included Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles as regulars, with Greg Proops, Chip Esten, Brad Sherwood, Denny Siegel, Jeff Davis, Stephen Colbert, Kathy Greenwood and several others taking turns as the fourth performer. Celebrities sometimes took the fourth spot, including Robin Williams, Kathy Griffin, and Whoopi Goldberg. Other celebrities made guest appearances for individual games, such as David Hasselhoff, Florence Henderson, and Jerry Springer. There was even a particularly memorable appearance by Richard Simmons for one sketch [1] [2]. There was also one episode where comic legend Sid Caesar made an appearance. During this episode, the applause and standing ovation for Caesar was so long that a good portion of it had to be cut from the broadcast.

Mochrie, Proops, Stiles, Esten, and Sherwood all appeared multiple times on the British show. For a time, the British version of the series (with Clive Anderson still hosting) was taped in the same Hollywood studio as the American version (it was during this season that Brady made his debut), though this version was only shown in the U.S. on Comedy Central. After a couple of years of simultaneous productions, the British version of the series was retired. The American version was cancelled by ABC in 2003 due to low ratings, and continues in reruns on the ABC Family cable channel; however, these proved so popular that ABC put together new episodes from older tapings not considered to be good enough for previous runs, and original first-run episodes began airing on ABC Family in 2005.

Many of the sketches include music, and there have been a number of musicians during the run of the show. On the original BBC Radio series, the music was provided by Colin Sell, but when the show migrated to Channel 4, Richard Vranch took over the job. Richard Vranch did not move with the show to the U.S.; in fact, during the final series of the UK show (filmed in America), musician Laura Hall made her first appearance. She continued as musician in the first season of the U.S. show on her own, but in the second season and onwards, other musicians were added to attempt to "jazz up" that section of the show. Joining Laura Hall often was multi-talented musician Linda Taylor, and on occasion other musicians were added, such as Cece Worral-Rubin, Anne King, and Candy Girard. The sketches "Greatest Hits", "Hoedown", and "Song Styles" are amongst the most popular and rely heavily on music. The musicians have a task as challenging as the actors. In the games "Greatest Hits" and "Song Styles", for instance, they must come up with different song styles on the spot, and they must also work with the other musicians and the actors to make the scene work. The skits involving music are also challenging for the participants because they have to keep up with the music while simultaneously making up lyrics off the top of their heads.

Common sketches

  • 90-second Alphabet: Three performers enact a scene in which each sentence must begin with the letter following the first letter of the last sentence. The performers start with a letter chosen by the audience and must go through the entire alphabet in 90 seconds. Many times, the players were not able to complete the game in time. The British version did not have a time limit; the game was just called "Alphabet."
  • Action Replay (aka Instant Replay): Two performers enact a scene (usually with large physical movements), while the other two watch while wearing headphones, preventing them from hearing what is going on. Afterwards, the second pair must re-enact the scene based solely on what they saw. A U.S.-exclusive game.
  • Animals: Two to four performers must enact a soap opera-type scene as animals; the species are provided by the host. Only performed once to date on the U.S. version.
  • Authors: All four performers tell parts of the same story, but each performer uses the style of their favorite author, selected before the show. The host switches sequentially among the performers at regular intervals. (For a similar game, see Remote Control.) Not performed since the fourth UK season.
  • Award Show: Two performers host an absurd award show (such as "best frat boy" or "most bitter divorce") as other two performers act as the winners and take the stage for an acceptance speech. Random members of the audience are shot by the camera as the "runners up" and are not told ahead of time. Another U.S.-exclusive game.
  • Backwards Scene: Two or three performers are required to act out a scene, only starting with the ending line and working their way back towards the beginning.
  • Bartender: A performer approaches the bartender and sings about a prescribed topic, while the bartender (another performer) replies in song. The performers approaching the bar are typically either mad at something, sad about something, in love with something, celebrating something, or drinking to forget something. (For similar games, see Prison Visitor and Psychiatrist.)
  • Change Letter: The performers enact a scene; however, the performers must substitute one letter for another in all spoken words, as specified by the host. (For example, if 'F' is substituted for 'B', lines like "I fruised my futt on the fack porch" might be spoken.)
  • Daytime Talk Show: One performer is the host of a daytime talk show, two other performers are guests appearing on the show, and the fourth is the rowdy audience member. The topic of the talk show is usually a fairy tale or nursery rhyme, and the "guests" improvise different people or parts related to the suggested topic.
  • Dead Bodies: One performer must act out a scene in a play, while one other performer and an audience member (in the U.S. show) or two other performers (in the UK show) pretend they are dead. Another performer joins the scene in due course but promptly dies as well. However, "the show must go on," so the living performer acts out the scene as if the others were still alive.
  • Doo-wop: Three performers sing a doo-wop song about a topic chosen by the studio audience.
  • Dubbing: Two performers enact a scene with an audience member, whose voice is provided by a third performer. Sometimes a special celebrity guest is used instead of an audience member. Much of the comedy comes from the inability to sync performer and voice (the performer is unable to see the person providing the voice).
  • Fashion Models: One performer comments on a "fashion show," the subject of which is usually related to a profession suggested by the studio audience. The other performers act out the show by mocking the walk down a fashion show runway.
  • Film Dub: Performers must watch a clip from an old (and usually unknown) movie or television show that has been muted and provide a dubbed dialogue, following the suggestion of a scene provided by the host.
  • Film Trailer: One performer acts as if he were a voiceover artist for a movie trailer, the nonsensical title of which is suggested by the studio audience. The other three performers act out scenes from the movie prompted by the narrator.
  • Film, T.V., & Theatre Styles: Two or three performers enact a given scene; at regular intervals, the host stops the scene and gives the performers a different style to use when the scene resumes. Called "Film & Theatre Styles" in the UK version.
  • Foreign Film Dub: Two performers enact a scene in a foreign languange chosen by the audience while the other two performers translate. Because the performers usually do not know the language chosen, the language spoken is usually just gibberish.
  • Greatest Hits: Two performers act as pitchmen for a compilation album (whose topic is provided by the audience); they provide titles and styles of songs to one or both of the other performers, who must improvise part of the song.
  • Hats/Dating Service Video: The performers are divided into two pairs and receive a box of random headgear, which they use to come up with examples of "the world's worst dating service videos."
  • Helping Hands: Two performers enact a scene in which one cannot use his hands; a third performer stands behind the handless performer and provides his hands instead. The performers usually wear smocks and costumes for this skit as it tends to become very messy (particularly for the poor performer who cannot use his hands). In the American show, Ryan Stiles usually plays the role of a character, with Colin Mochrie's hands being used.
  • Hey You Down There!: Two performers enact a scene in the style of a 1950's infomercial, complete with a voiceover by a third person. Commonly, the voiceover is Greg Proops, and the two performers are Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie. This skit is usually carried out more often in the British version.
  • Hoedown: The four performers individually sing a hoedown about a given subject, with each contestant forming one of the four stanzas. (The British version also used a related game, Gospel, in which the four performers sing a gospel music song.) The performers often struggled to create stanzas, and their stanzas frequently insult each other, the Hoedown itself, the host, or a combination of the three. Ryan Stiles in particular, is known for either making his verse somehow offensive, or expressing his distaste for Hoedowns.
  • Hollywood Director: Three performers improvise a scene provided by the host. The fourth performer, the "director", played by Colin Mochrie, interrupts periodically to provide new styles to be used in the scene, such as "Do it like a 1950's musical." Other common suggestions include, "Do the entire scene backwards", and "Do it like you have uncontrollable lust for each other."
  • If You Know What I Mean: Several performers improvise a scene in which they make up as many ambiguous euphemisms as they can, ending with the phrase "if you know what I mean." Many times, nonsensical phrases were thrown in (usually by Colin). Example: "Perhaps you need chunkier raisins . . . if you know what I mean," or "I'll help you fluff your Garfield, if you know what I mean."
  • Improbable Mission: Two performers are super-secret agents a la Mission: Impossible. A third performer is the voice on the tape, who gives them their assignment: a mundane task (e.g. get dressed or mow the lawn). Called "Mission Impossible" in the UK version, possibly not in the U.S. because of the TV and movie series Mission Impossible.
  • Infomercial: Two performers create an infomercial to sell "miracle products" for a personal problem (e.g. bad breath, baldness) using only the items given to them in a box.
  • Irish Drinking Song: The four performers must sing an Irish drinking song one line at a time about a given subject. Four verses are sung in alternating lines, usually of seven and five syllables; in each stanza, a different performer begins the verse.
  • Let's Make a Date: One performer is the contestant on a dating-type show. The other three performers are bachelors who have quirky personalities that are revealed through their answers to the contestant's questions. The contestant tries to guess the specific personalities after one or two rounds of questioning. Sometimes, the characters are related to each other (e.g. Wayne is a drunk uncle ruining niece Colin's wedding, Colin is a frog leading the great escape from a French restaurant, and Ryan is the head of Colin's fan club).
  • Living Scenery: Two performers enact a scene provided by the host. The other two performers or special guests stand in for props during the scene.
  • The Millionaire Show: The performers enact a parody of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, in which the performers act as members of a particular group provided by the host (e.g. gangsters, hillbillies). The performers take the role of the host, a contestant, a "phone-a-friend" lifeline, and an audience member lifeline (not present in the original show).
  • Motown Group: Three performers sing a Motown Sound-style song about a subject suggested by the studio audience.
  • Moving People: Two performers enact a scene, but they cannot move on their own. Instead, two audience members must move them into different positions as they act out the scene.
  • Multiple Personalities: Three of the performers are given a scene to enact with three handheld props (e.g. a canteen, a pair of binoculars, and a knife). Each prop is assigned an emotion or famous personality; the person holding the prop must reflect that emotion or personality during the scene (e.g. "the person holding the canteen is Carol Channing"). The performers trade props as the scene continues, giving everyone the chance to do different emotions or impressions. If a performer is holding more than one prop at once, the performer must combine the emotions or impressions.
  • Narrate: Two performers enact a scene in film noir; i.e., they must break the fourth wall, approach the camera, and tell everyone what is going on, typically providing prompts for and information about the other character.
  • News Flash: One performer stands in front of a green screen as a field reporter, while two other performers act as studio reporters. Random footage is shown to the audience, the news anchors, and the viewers at home via the green screen, as the studio reporters question the field reporter about the footage. Eventually, the field reporter tries to guess what the footage is, based on the questions from the studio reporters. Colin is usually the reporter in front of the green screen. (For a similar game, see Press Conference.)
  • Number of Words: Four performers enact a scene in which each is assigned a number. They must use exactly that many words every time they speak.
  • Old Job, New Job: Several performers enact a scene in which one of the performers displays traits of his old job (e.g. cowboy) in his new job (e.g. teacher). Only played once on the U.S. version to date.
  • Party Quirks: Three performers (party guests) are given a random quirk, and the fourth performer is the party's host, who must identify the others' quirks as the guests arrive and interact at the party. If they correctly guess a person's quirk, that person sits down and leaves the party.
  • Press Conference: One performer acts as a public figure answering questions from three reporters (the other performers) at a press conference. Only the reporters know who the public figure is; the first performer must figure out who he is based upon the questions asked by the reporters. (For a similar game, see News Flash.)
  • Prison Visitor: One performer visits the other three in prison individually. They sing their problems to the visitor. (For similar games, see Bartender and Psychiatrist.)
  • Props: Two pairs of two performers must come up with quick scenes that involve a random prop, usually with one line that refers to what the prop is. Many times, the props are shaped in different ways that provoke slightly sexual scenes; for example, a prop shaped like a set of breasts. In one episode, Drew warned the performers "that they're on national television."
  • Psychiatrist: One performer acts as a psychiatrist, but the other performers (patients) sing their problems to the psychiatrist, who then sings back to them the solution. (For similar games, see Bartender and Prison Visitor.)
  • Questions Only: Two performers enact a scene, while only speaking in the form of a question. Failure to speak in the form of a question results in the performer being buzzed out and replaced by another performer. A variant is Questionable Impressions where, in addition to the above rules, the performers must impersonate a historical, fictional, or popular culture figure of their choice. Another variant is Questions With Wigs. (See also Song Titles.)
  • Quick Change: Two or three performers enact a scene provided by the host. Another performer stands to the side and says "change" at various times during the scene; the performer who had the last line must then change that line to something else. A single line can be "changed" multple times, often leaving the performer clueless as to what to say.
  • Remote Control: All four performers enact four different types of television programs, each dealing with the same topic (provided by the host or the audience). At regular intervals, the host switches between performers as if using a television remote control. (For a similar game, see Authors.)
  • Scene to Rap: All four performers must enact a scene, rapping throughout.
  • Scenes From a Hat: The four performers improvise one-line scenes in response to suggestions from the audience. (The suggestions are written on slips of paper in a hat, giving the game its name). In the UK version, only one scene per suggestion was performed; in the US version, however, multiple scenes per suggestion are acted out.
  • Secret: Two performers act out a scene given by the host, and they are joined thirty seconds before some sort of secret is revealed. The audience suggests the ___location of the secret, relevant to the scene they will be playing.
  • Show Stopping Number: Three performers enact a scene. At random times, the host uses a buzzer, and the last performer to speak before the buzzer must sing a show-stopping tune based on the line they just said. Another U.S.-only game, possibly inspired by Wayne Brady's ability to do this.
  • Song Styles: One performer (almost always Wayne Brady in the U.S. show) sings a song in a style provided by the host about an audience member, or about a subject provided by the audience. (Sometimes, the rest of the cast provide backup vocals or dancing.) Variations on the game include:
    • Duet: two performers perform the song together as a duet, alternating verses or stanzas.
    • African Chant: same as Song Styles, except that the style is always an African chant. There is constant joking about the fact that the other performers, all Caucasian, would be Brady's backup (one time being referred to as "Wayne and the crackers").
  • Song Titles: Two performers enact a scene, speaking only using song titles; artists, song lyrics, and album names cannot be used. Failure to do so results in the performer being buzzed out and replaced by another performer. (See also "Questions Only".)
  • Sound Effects: There are two versions of this game. In one, one performer enacts a scene provided by the host, reacting to sound cues provided by a second performer. In the other version, two performers enact a scene with sound effects provided by two audience members.
  • Sports Commentators/Sportscasters: Two performers act out a scene in slow motion. The other two comment on it as if it was a sporting event.
  • Stand, Sit, Bend: Three performers enact a scene, but one must be standing, one must be sitting, and one must be bent over. Whenever one performer changes positions, the others have to accommodate. A variant is Stand, Sit, Lie, where a performer must be lying down instead of bending over.
  • Superheroes: One performer is a silly superhero whose name is given by the audience, and is confronted with a bizarre world crisis. The other performers enter one at a time, each identifying the next entrant. Superheroes from this game include Disco Kid, Captain Dog-in-Heat, Yodeling Pogo-Stick Man, Captain Hair, Captain Obvious, Double-take Man, and Body Parts Constantly Falling Asleep Man.
  • Telethon: Two of the performers (generally Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie) host a telethon for a group of people who would not need money raised for them (e.g. NBA players or sitcom actors), while the two other performers impersonate different musical artists who are there "supporting the cause".
  • Themed Restaurant: Two performers dine in an unusually themed restaurant; the other two performers display the theme as they act as waitstaff. Another game seen only on the U.S. version.
  • Three-Headed Broadway Star: Three performers sing a mock Broadway hit song one word at a time. The name of the mock musical and hit love song from said musical are provided by the audience. Sometimes one of the players would say more than one word at once (David Hasselhoff would repeatedly give whole phrases by mistake). Also, the performers often separated longer words into multiple words by syllable. Another U.S.-exclusive game.
  • Two Line Vocabulary: Three performers enact a scene provided by the host. One can say anything they like, but the others are allowed to say only two specific lines each, which are provided by the host.
  • Weird Newscasters: One performer is the lead anchor of a news show, with the others acting as co-host, sports anchor, and weather anchor. The host gives each performer (except the lead anchor) a quirky personality to be used in the scene.
  • Whose Line: Two performers enact a scene (provided by the host) while including two random lines that were given to them. The lines are provided by audience members, and are unseen by the performers until they decide to use them. Usually Colin and Ryan play this game exclusively; Brad Sherwood and Greg Proops have each played it once, both on the UK version.
  • World's Worst: The performers come to "the world's worst step" and step forward with examples of the world's worst example of something (e.g. "the world's worst roommate" or "the world's worst person to be stuck on an island with").

The end of the program is handled differently in each version.

  • In the British version, the "winner" (chosen arbitrarily by the host) reads the credits in a given style of the host's choosing.
  • In early episodes of the American version, the "winner" (again, chosen arbitrarily by the host) performed a sketch with the host; afterwards, the credits rolled normally. In later episodes, the "winner" sat at the host's desk while the host performed a sketch with the rest of the performers; afterwards, one or more performers (unrelated to the "winner") read the credits in a style of the host's choosing.

Atmosphere

Though Whose Line? has all the trappings of a game show, it lacks the competition and the stakes of a normal game show. The winner is chosen completely arbitrarily and the points are meaningless. At the beginning of every American episode, Drew Carey says "Welcome to Whose Line Is It Anyway, the show where everything is made up and the points don't matter." He then follows that statement up by mentioning something that does not matter (spy satellites over Canada, TV Guide on your wedding night, a politician's family, etc.). The meaningless points and winners are often the subjects of many jokes by host and performers alike. In the British version, individual games even sometimes had winners that did not participate at all. This carried over to the American version, with Drew occasionally giving points to cameramen, audience members, or Laura Hall.

There were two shows where the points did matter. In one, Drew wrote down totals on the back of a scene card ,and the winner actually was the one with the most points. On another show, instead of giving points, Drew gave $100 bills, most of which went to the audience.

Many times, the greatest comedy on the show came from the cast members attempting to stall for time or pass the buck to the other performer when they were not able to think of the next line. There are also instances when the performers interact with certain audience members. One example comes when, during a game of Greatest Hits, a cell phone goes off in the crowd, thus prompting Ryan to act as though he is putting one away.

Typically, Ryan and Colin would be teamed up together in scenes, allowing for a humorous rapport between the two. Colin would usually inadvertently say something that would cause Ryan to laugh so hard that he would be unable to look at Colin. This happened in many episodes. One of the most memorable examples of this was in a game of "Improbable Mission" where Colin kept yelling, "The cat!", causing Ryan to crack up so hard he had to turn around to hide his face from the camera. They would also sometimes have phony side squabbles while addressing the camera. They are often paired up with Drew for "Helping Hands", with Colin acting as Ryan's hands. Colin usually forces Ryan to eat something strange, including chocolate syrup, toothpaste, and whipped cream. Because Colin cannot see what he is doing, he often tosses things between hands, and once even juggled, earning mass applause.

Running gags

Running gags appear frequently in many episodes, largely in the American version. Usually, the gags involve the participants and the host making fun of one another and themselves.

Some running gags are confined to a single episode, in which notable jokes or mistakes from previous games are recalled in later games.

Single Episodes

  • There were very few episodes that starred cast members from the original Whose Line Is It Anyway? from Britain. Josie Lawrence guest-starred on the American show once. During a "Scenes From A Hat" game she said, "Welcome to Dead Cats, with 100 recipes that you can do with your p***y." The censors blocked many vital parts of the sentence (both visually and orally). Drew later said, "You know, here in America, you get away with it if you pronounce it poo-say."
  • In one episode, at the beginning of a "Greatest Hits" game, Colin Mochrie shouts gleefully, "We're watching animal porn!" Drew Carey pressed the buzzer in response, and Ryan Stiles broke into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, at Colin's expense. Afterwards, Ryan said to Drew, "So happy. 'We're watching animal porn!'"
  • In one episode, during a "Greatest Hits" game, Ryan Stiles—letting Colin Mochrie play a guessing game about what the next genre of song was—asked him what sound an African tern made. Colin replied, in an attempt to imitiate a bird, "Backstreet Boys?" This unfortunately caused the audience to cheer; Ryan laughed so uncontrollably that he cried. In the next song, Colin asked Ryan what sound a blackbird made and said, "Opera!" with less of an uproarious response from both the audience and Ryan.
  • In one episode, Drew accidentally calls Africa a country. Throughout that episode, there are numerous references to Africa and the differences between countries and continents.
  • In the one-hundredth episode, Wayne attempts to sing a Village People style song about a man named Howard but spells it "Horward" shortly before (and for the rest of the song after) the tempo of Laura Hall's synthesizer speeds up unintentionally. Wayne's spelling was a joke for the rest of the episode.
  • In one episode, Drew Carey was asking the audience for suggestions for "Film, TV, and Theater Styles." The audience suggested horror. When Drew Carey used that suggestion, Ryan Stiles misinterpreted it as "whore."
  • In one episode, during a game of "Weird Newscasters", Ryan was asked to portray a character "desperate to quell rumors that he's gay." Jokes of Ryan's being in the closet occurred throughout the rest of the show, including it being the theme for the reading of the end credits.
  • In one episode, the "Title Sequence" game was suggested to have Adolf Hitler and Bill Cosby as unlikely roomates, but the directors adamantly refused this on air (this may be the only time in show history this happened; the director's head was clearly visible on camera). Hitler was replaced with an occupation, an insurance salesman. The cast jokingly complained the rest of the night, especially Drew, who, in the next game, "Scenes from a Hat", vented his frustration with a suggestion titled, "If Tonto and Tarzan were roommates." At a point during the suggestion, Drew looked into the camera and said, "Go ahead, make fun of the Native Americans all ya want! Who gives a shit about them?" to which Brad brought Wayne down on stage and said in a Tonto-like voice, "Will you go upstairs and tell Hitler to be quiet?" After the laughing, Drew Carey says, "What did I do?"
  • During the hoedown in that show, Ryan Stiles concluded his hoedown with this piece about the director: "...he should grow a mustache / and move to Germany."
  • In a game of "Greatest Hits", Ryan Stiles was talking about a great fictional song written by the "band Kid Rock." Drew Carey laughed and said Kid Rock was just one guy. Later, in a game of "Questions Only", Ryan Stiles and Drew Carey are standing in front of each other, and when Ryan is forced to ask a question, he asks "Did you know Kid Rock was just one guy?"
  • In one episode, during "Song Titles", Colin, who was out of songs to use, blurted out "Nice Pants" in response to Ryan's use of "Blue Suede Shoes". The other performers immediately latched onto it and used it in just about every scene thereafter. One highlight was when Chip Esten sang a short jazz song which consisted solely of the words, "Nice pants!"
  • In one episode, during a game of "Party Quirks" where Ryan was playing "Carol Channing whose head keeps sticking to things", Ryan accidentally breaks the rectangular neon light on Drew's desk when he hits it with his head, causing nearly uncontrollable laughter in the other cast members. Colin later makes the comment, "It would've been better if your head burst into flames." During a hoedown about wrestlers later in the episode, Ryan refers to the incident by asking if they "can break a neon light by slamming it with their head." The incident is mentioned again when Ryan is asked to read the credits as Carol Channing while the other cast members pick pieces of glass out of his hair.
  • In one of the most memorable episodes of all time, a game of Sound Effects was played with audience volunteers who only seemed to be able to make "ooo" noises, no matter what the situation called for. Colin and Ryan, who were playing the game on stage, were struggling not to laugh, while Drew and Wayne both fell out of their seats. The incident was mercilessly joked at for the rest of the show, particularly by Wayne, but everyone used "ooo-ooo" as a punchline at least once (especially during "Scenes from A Hat").
  • In one episode, Wayne was told to sing a song to a school lunch lady as a singing, stripping telegram: when reciting the week's menu, Wayne slipped in "a little bit of spaghetti and two great meatballs", only realizing what he had said after he said it, causing uproarious laughter from the audience. After returning to his seat, Wayne commented "I feel so dirty!"
  • In one episode, during a game of Weird Newscasters, Ryan was "Rapidly descending the evolutionary scale." After imitating a chimpanzee, Ryan proceeded to imitate Drew. As a result, Drew called Ryan a freak for the first half of the episode. Drew later apologized, though Ryan commented that he felt great when he mocked Drew.
  • During a game of "Party Quirks", Wayne (desparately trying to convey a King Kong vs. Godzilla movie) went out into the audience and grabbed a young woman from the audience Kong-style. Unfortunately, Wayne accidentally lifted her short skirt enough to show her butt, and it took him a few moments to realize why everybody was laughing so hard. The young woman (named Melissa) ended up being a running joke for the rest of the show, especially from Ryan. The ending hoedown allowed Ryan to bring it up again, and, in fact, a special episode of Whose Line shows several hoedowns from the same taping where Ryan concluded each of his verses with a reference to Melissa.
  • During one game of "If You Know What I Mean," Colin comes up with perhaps the most unusual euphemism of all when he says, "I'll help you fluff your Garfield, if you know what I mean." Throughout the rest of the episode, the others used the term "fluffing the Garfield" in one form or another in several of their jokes.
  • In one game of "Weird Newscasters", Ryan took the role of a drill sergeant, and pulled a few audience members from the stage to assist him. He ordered them to climb the green screen (used in "Newsflash"), which cracked and nearly fell over. After the game, Drew congratulated the audience members involved and reprimanded Ryan for "breaking the green screen."
  • In one episode, Colin—who frequently was the butt of bald jokes—was unlucky enough to be given the role of "Captain Hair" in "Superheroes" by a member of the audience (in addition, the crisis he had to avert was "no more Rogaine."). Needless to say, the rest of the contestants made fun of him for the rest of the show. Also in one episode, four performers sang the "Going Bald" Hoedown. Both Brad and Drew's final lines were "I'm glad I'm not Colin Mochrie". Colin, in retaliation, sang "I still get way more sex than either Brad or Drew."
  • In one episode, Colin, unable to think of a line, merely said "Meow" in several games. During the Hoedown of that game, Colin's second verse was merely "Meow". The two performers after him laughed so hard that they were unable to sing their verses and complete the Hoedown, and the piano music stopped, suggesting that pianist Laura Hall was laughing too hard to play.
  • During one game of "Greatest Hits", Ryan asked Colin what comes to mind when he thinks of Desi Arnaz. Colin replied, "Tapioca!". Ryan laughed so long he had to turn his face from the camera, and the singing part of the sketch (done by Wayne Brady) was significantly shorter.

Multiple episodes

  • Ryan's shoes (not only very large, but often wildly colored, having spats, or both). His tendency to wear odd shoes is often the punchline for jokes, usually Drew's, who once remarked that "Ryan's shoes and the Great Wall of China are the only man-made objects visible from space".
  • Ryan's height, which is another target for jokes.
  • Drew's weight, most often the target of Ryan's jokes.
  • Either Colin's baldness, his Canadian heritage, his vibrant Hawaiian shirts, or a combination of the three.
  • Jokes about performers being fired for insulting Drew during an episode.
  • The censors. For instance, Drew Carey once taunted the censors by calling Laura Hall a beautiful "pianist", and stating that it made him happy because he could say the word repeatedly and the censors could do nothing about it.
  • When Drew says at the beginning of the show, "The winner gets to do a little something special with me," he also tends to throw a sexual innuendo into "something special."
  • Ryan rarely gets a chance to sit at Drew's desk. He is the regular who has "won" the fewest games.
  • Though the points don't matter, Drew frequently says at the end of every game, "A thousand points a piece." This is something that Ryan makes fun of several times, particularly during "Scenes from a Hat," and even Carey himself would lampoon this tendency by producing a tape recorder with the message recorded on it and playing it back.
  • Colin was frequently assigned a female role. During one "Scenes from a Hat" scene where the scene was "What the cast members wish for when they blow out the candles on their birthday cake," Colin's wish was "Dear God, let me play a man in a scene for once!"
  • There were several references to The Drew Carey Show, which was concurrently in production with Whose Line? and co-starred Ryan Stiles.
  • Drew's starring role in the TV-movie Geppetto was also mentioned several times. Wayne Brady also had a role in the film as a magician.
  • Many of the players would be known for their impressions, typically Wayne as Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Cosby, or Gary Coleman; and Ryan for characters like Liberace, Carol Channing, and, most famously, John Wayne. Colin, not an impressionist, would sometimes be Peter Graves or Craig T. Nelson, the joke being that he would speak normally and merely introduce himself as Craig T. Nelson.
  • Wayne, as the only African-American on the show, often makes remarks related to racism and Southern states (his favourite is Alabama) during "Scenes from a Hat". He will also often pretend to get offended when Drew Carey assigns him the task of performing a game called "African Chant," and tends to make insulting references to the UPN network as well.
  • The last line of Ryan's hoedown stanza would frequently insult Drew Carey. Ryan also tended to insult Drew in several other games. In one case, when assigned the role of "descending the evolutionary scale" in "Weird Newscasters", he indicated the "bottom of the scale" by imitating a buzzer and saying, "A thousand points a piece, let's go on to 'Party Quirks'."
  • Colin Mochrie would usually end the "Irish Drinking Song" game with the last verse, and it usually made so little sense it would cause uproarious laughter in the three other performers.
  • Colin and Ryan would frequently be given extremely outrageous characters (extreme, even by the normal definition of outrageous) to play in "Party Quirks," "Weird Newscasters," and "Let's Make a Date."
  • On the British version, a running gag was the frequent insulting of Clive Anderson's physique (mostly his short neck) by the performers. Clive was referred to once in the American series after Wayne was accidentally called Brad by Drew ("Hey, Clive's allowed to make mistakes," Ryan commented).
  • Clive Anderson would often belittle Greg Proops on the British version of the show, mostly when translating between the different idioms of Britain and the U.S. (e.g. "elevator" vs. "lift"), often saying something like "You have those in America, don't you?"

See also

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