It was the Comedy Night of the Year, when comedians from all over Britain came together in the name of charity - in this case Comic Relief - to instil within the viewing public, a sense of collective guilt, of shame, and of the need to offload their hard-earned pounds and pennies to deserving causes ... but this year's offering of 'comedy' turned out to be something of a let-down, with TV viewers complaining that the contributing 'star' comedians "just weren't funny".
That's not to say the BBC line-up wasn't impressive.
Graham Norton, Omid Djalili, Jason Manford, Lenny Henry (who isn't funny at the best of times), Katy Brand and the idiots who perfom Little Britain all had a stab at making viewers titter in order that they would part with their cash in the form of donations, but to no avail, with only £58million being stumped-up.
Comic Relief - Do Something Funny For Money, the slogan behind the guilt trip, was tested to its limits, and found very much wanting, as desperate attempt after desperate attempt fell flat on its face when viewing figures began to drop away virtually from the beginning of the BBC transmission at 7pm on Friday.
One viewer, Ethel Glumm, from Surrey, told us:
"It jast wosn't fanny! Typical shyt from the Beeb!"
Another, Jackie Twonk, who watched the entire 15 hours of dross from her flat in Peckham, said:
"Terrible. I did some painting while it was on, and watched it dry. Far funnier."
