Mitchell & Webb Launch YouTube Channel With ‘Not Helping’ Sketches

EXCLUSIVE: In a sign of where the industry is headed, beloved UK comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb have launched an “official global YouTube destination” combining their TV sketches with original content.

The @mitchellandwebbofficial channel will initally feature multiple weekly drops of sketches from Channel 4’s Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping, which are “designed to serve international audiences discovering the pair’s work for the first time,” they said.

Mitchell and Webb returned to sketch comedy with last year’s Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping and it quickly became Channel 4’s most-watched new scripted comedy for six years.

Going forwards, seasons of Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping will continue airing on Channel 4 in the UK and HBO Max in Australia, but sketches will also be put out globally on YouTube via the channel.

Over time, more of these will land on YouTube along with a new YouTube-only series titled Mitchell & Webb Talk About Some Sketches in a Pretend Room, in which they revisit, dissect and discuss the recent series. Produced by Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping’s Gareth Edwards, the Pretend Room will explore how new sketches like Sweary Aussies, Bad Therapist and Middle-Aged Man Island came into being.

Mitchell and Webb first found fame in the UK with their hit Channel 4 series Peep Show before a highly-rated BBC sketch comedy That Mitchell & Webb Look and then Channel 4’s Back. Although made for a different broadcaster, Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping is effectively a continuation of That Mitchell & Webb Look. It also features up-and-coming comic talent like Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Stevie Martin, Lara Ricote and Krystal Evans.

Mitchell and Webb’s YouTube strategy has been forged by their That Mitchell & Webb Company along with long-time producing partner Big Talk Studios. Both partnered with WME Creator Labs on the development, launch and ongoing management of the channel. It comes with traditional TV players keen to get on board with YouTube. Channel 4 has been making YouTube-only content for several years but the BBC only just got in on the act after striking a landmark deal with the Google-owned behemoth.

Big Talk boss Kenton Allen said: “Long before streamers and social platforms transformed audience behaviour, Mitchell and Webb were creating sketches that people wanted to quote, share and rediscover repeatedly. The global demand for this material is potentially enormous, so our ambition with this channel is to create the definitive destination for one of Britain’s greatest comedy double acts.”

British sketch comedy feels in rude health, owing mainly to the breakout success of Saturday Night Live UK.