Pulp Sport is a New Zealand television show that mixes sport with various styles of comedy. The hosts Jamie Linehan and Ben Boyce acted under their respective pseudonyms Bill and Ben, performing a half-hour of various sports based skits. They were usually accompanied by an anthropomorphic fox mascot.

History

Pulp Sport started as a radio show on Radio Sport in 2001, and ran until the TV series began in 2003 on SKY Sport Syndication and also C4 where it achieved strong ratings. As a result, it was soon acquired by TV3 where its popularity continued to grow with even better ratings. In 2006 and 2007, Pulp Sport was judged "New Zealand's Best Comedy" at the Qantas New Zealand Television Awards. It was also a finalist in 2008 and again in 2010. In the 2009 TV Guide Best of the Box Awards, Pulp Sport was voted "Funniest TV Show" and Bill and Ben were voted "Funniest Person on TV". The first series of Pulp Sport was made by Boyce and Linehan and their two mates using only one camera and edited on a borrowed computer in a kitchen flat. In the second series, they moved out to a garden shed. In 2003, actor Jay Laga'aia appeared in Pulp Sport's first ever episode. During the sketch he appeared in, Laga'aia injured his knee cap in two places, ending up in hospital for two days. This mishap delayed the filming of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which Laga'aia was to act in later that month. In 2004, while playing one of their regular pranks on New Zealand sports commentator Stephen McIvor, Bill and Ben hired a plane to fly the message "McIvor blows goats" over a New Zealand Warriors National Rugby League game at Ericsson Stadium. McIvor and the New Zealand Police expressed their disgust over the message and consequently Linehan and Boyce received a police warning. Linehan and Boyce set up their own political party, Bill and Ben Party, a joke political party based on their Pulp Sport personas. In the 2008 New Zealand general election, they received 13,016 votes, approximately 0.56% of the total party vote, out-polling all minor parties in the election. Network Ten in Australia syndicated the episodes on their sports channel One in 2010 and 2011. Three series of the show also played on Fuel TV in Australia. Three of the series also went on to a limited run of DVDs. Boyce went on to star in two series of his own show WANNA-BEn in 2011 and then Jono and Ben at Ten in 2013.

Segments

The show featured recurring skit segments in each episode.

Active in the final series

The Mc Kay-ver segment has been seen in the shows successor WANNA-BEn on at least 2 occasions.

Retired

DVDs

Footnotes

This was actually true and confirmed by the medic.