Mrs Brown’s Boys New Year’s special review: Observing that it’s unfunny is rather like observing that the sea is wet

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. If one were forced – at gunpoint, perhaps – to, very quickly, write a novel featuring a fake sitcom, I suspect it would sound something like Mrs Brown’s Boys. A man in drag playing a potty-mouthed Irish grandmother: in a way, the best joke in Mrs Brown’s Boys is the sheer audacious laziness of the premise. All the same, observing that Mrs Brown’s Boys is unfunny is rather like observing that the sea is wet – the fact might be accepted, but it doesn’t tell you much about the prospect of diving in. And so, I’m giving the Mrs Brown’s Boys new year special – “New Year, New Mammy” – zero stars, for two reasons.