Ed Gamble is the host of brand new comedy show “Unacceptable,” where he oversees a gaggle of comedians as they battle to sway the studio audience to side with their most outrageous opinions.
The comedian and podcaster who is perhaps best-known for hosting “The Traitors” official companion podcast “Uncloaked,” is joined by familiar faces such as Richard Ayoade, who in one episode tries to argue that action movies are peak cinema, and Katherine Ryan, who attempts to persuade the audience that all men should have vasectomies at birth. Romesh Ranganathan, who exec produces the show through his prod-co Ranga Bee, also makes the occasional appearance.
“Unacceptable” is part of a new slate of comedy programming from U.K. free-to-air network TLC (who are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) which also includes the resurrection of “Mock the Week” (which was previously on the BBC). So invested is TLC that they confirmed “Unacceptable” would be renewed for a second season before the first episode even dropped (it launches on July 5.)
Before its launch, Gamble sat down with Variety to talk about the new show, the U.K. comedy scene and whether audiences will ever see him as a contestant on “Celebrity Traitors.”
How did you get involved with “Unacceptable”?
The format basically came through fully formed from Ranga Bee, so I’m assuming Romesh sort of gave the nod and said “Ed would be good at doing this” and they came to me and said, “Oh, we’re doing this with TLC,” and I was excited about that, because I knew that TLC had recently brought “Mock the Week” back, and it was really exciting to hear that they wanted to put a new panel show on as well.
I loved the idea and I think because it’s Romesh’s company as well, they had access to brilliant comedians to come on, so we’ve had some episodes where it’s been like Hall of Fame panel show comedians, which has been great.
Did it get competitive with the panellists and the captains in terms of being funny? Are you allowed to be as funny as them?
You can get involved in the conversations and make jokes and all of that stuff, but then [as the host] you need to be thinking about how much everyone said and how much everyone’s been allowed to contribute, and sometimes comedians are so eager to say their thing, and there might be someone who’s hanging back a little bit, and you can hear someone trying to get into the conversation, so you’re trying to make all that happen, you’re trying to make the round run to sort of vague time, you’ve got people in your ear, so there’s all those things to think about, but then when it starts flying, you can chuck in whatever you like.
I think panel shows have got a bad reputation in the past of being very competitive and comedians not giving each other room and only trying to get their own stuff in, and I think that’s changed a little bit now, the comedy scene seems to be a lot more collaborative.
And this is a special show as well, I think, because each comedian has their moment to shine to do their “unacceptable” opinion, so they have a space to do that, and it’s their bit, so everyone’s going to get to do something.
How edgy does it get?
I’d say that’s what it’s sort of knocking on the door of, but I think all of the opinions that are “unacceptable” are the sort of thing that everyone could get involved in and discuss and have an opinion on. There’s certainly no one saying anything where you’re like, well, that’s going to upset a lot of people. And that’s not what anyone wants, I don’t think, so yeah, you might say some socially unacceptable things, but it’s certainly not taking anyone down for their life choices or protected identities.
The audience gets a vote – how were they responding to the unacceptable opinions?
It’s very tongue in cheek and the audience were great, because it’s a really simple format to get the hang of, you know, mock gasps and things like that. And they vote, and obviously 98% of them think it’s unacceptable. Then the comedian gets a chance to flesh out that opinion and explain it a little bit more, and then they vote again and the swing — hopefully you’ve convinced some people — that’s the amount of points that you get.
Were there some quite big swings?
There were some bigger swings than I thought, there were some where there was no swing and almost there were more people who found it unacceptable afterwards. It is crucial how well the comedian argues it and how much the opposing team chip in and absolutely destroy that opinion. It’s been really fun. It’s got that sort of comedy debate feeling to it
In an era of polarization this feels like it’s almost more than just entertainment and that actually it could be quite important in showing people how to listen to other views.
I wouldn’t say the discussion ever felt important, we’re dabbling around in some pretty light-hearted stuff. When it felt really fun as well was there’s a round called the Switch Up, where we give comedians an opinion that they’ve not seen until that moment, and they have to defend it, and normally we pick something that we absolutely knew that person did not agree with, and you can just see their face. Like we had Harriet Kemsley have to get a card out and read “all single mothers are lazy” and she was absolutely amazing, because you can see her spiralling that she’s having to say this, but she’s delivering this invective, it’s really good fun.
There has been discussion in recent years that it’s a difficult era to be a comedian because people are so worried about what they say. Is that something you’ve felt?
It’s not something that ever crosses my mind, really, and I don’t think it’s ever been difficult to be a comedian, to be honest. There are hard jobs out there, and being a comedian is absolutely not one of them. And you know, I think intent is always big for me. I’ve seen comedians say some outrageous things, but you can see the intent, you can see what they’re doing, and I’m fine with it, but I think now there’s plenty of comedians who have no problem punching down, and quite often it’s utterly charmless. I think charm is something to always remember when you’re a comedian. I think there’s plenty of people who are just trying to make a point that’s quite ham-fisted.
With TLC investing in comedy plus “SNL U.K.” at Sky and “LOL: Last One Laughing U.K.” at Prime Video, does it feel like commissioners are open to comedy again or is it still difficult to get it on air?
It certainly feels like there’s some more things coming through now.
I’ve pretty much consistently been able to do some sort of television work but also been able to podcast and do online stuff as well. I think the comedians who are flourishing and still doing stuff are the comedians that had massive variety and added loads of stuff to their careers early on, and just sort of threw themselves into anything. So I think that’s the way it’s going. If you look at the comedians who invested in online early, and do like Patreon and podcasting and all of that, they’re now at a point where they got so massive themselves that now TV’s sort of coming back, they’re getting on TV.
What else are you working on at the moment?
We’ve got more “Traitors Uncloaked” coming up because they’ve just wrapped on “Celebrity Traitors” [Season] 2, and I was up in Scotland for that, filming some bits with people as they came out the castle. We’ve got all the London episodes of “Uncloaked” to do when it’s broadcast time for “Celebrity Traitors” and then civilian “Traitors” will start, and then I’m touring in January.
Would you ever want to be a contestant on “The Traitors”?
I love doing “Uncloaked” so much. When I’m up there, I get a feed to the castle, just watch it all happen, which feels like watching “Big Brother” in the 2000s but they never cut to bird noise — I can hear everything they’re saying. I think [doing “Celebrity Traitors”] would then mean I’m not doing “Uncloaked,” so I don’t think I would do it.
You’ve been quite open about having Type 1 diabetes (previously known as juvenile diabetes), which is probably not easy to deal with when hosting a panel show. How do you manage it during marathon recording sessions?
So having a CGM [continuous glucose monitor], personally with the Dexcom G7, it’s made things so much easier. So back in the day, doing any TV stuff or doing live stuff, I’d be relying on pricking my finger [to check blood sugar levels], and you never get a sense of whether it’s going up or down or whether it’s staying steady, so you’re flying blind, really. But now I can just check my phone. And luckily my awareness symptoms are still quite good, so if I feel weird I can just check my phone and know where I’m at, so it’s been all right. And also, when I’m working, I just have to be really conscious of what I’m eating, so it’ll be low carb, low amounts of insulin.
This interview has been edited and condensed.