Anger over Reeves & Mortimer comeback

Fans of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer have been left outraged by a ticket fiasco surrounding the duo’s first live show in 15 years.

The much-anticipated comeback gig has been marred by allegations of cheating and arbitrary rulings by organisers at sponsors Foster's.

Tickets were given away in a Facebook game called Speedy Pants, in which the air was to repeatedly click on Vic’s Y-fronts as many times as possible in 30 seconds. The 125 with the highest score would win a pair of tickets to the August 13 show in Camden Highlight.

However, the mechanism has been strongly criticised as being open to abuse, with allegations that software could be used to slow down the timer or automatically make repeated clicks.

When the competition closed, the top scorers had racked up more than 1,000 clicks – the equivalent of one click every 30milliseconds.

Liam Jordan complained to organisers: ‘I love Vic and Bob. Always have. In order to stand of chance of being a ticket winner I have to be good at clicking? I don't see the logic. Surely questions or even names in virtual hats would be more fair.

‘Do you really believe that the people with 1000+ scores are playing fairly? That's over 33 clicks a second. There are freeware programs that can be used to slow down timers. I have one... I just refuse to use it out of fairness.'

They replied to him: 'Fair comment Liam. Appreciate your frustrations. We have spotted that some folk are clicking faster than seems humanly possible - but we're on the case and any foul play will be weeded out. So don't be put off from giving it a go.’

Following complaints, organisers started deleting some of the higher scores, but retained those clicking at up to 23 clicks a second remained.

However other contestants felt they were unfairly disqualified. Laura Hotchkiss told Chortle: ‘The leader board has pretty much been filled up with ridiculously high scores since day one. This is probably as the result of rampant use of auto-clickers and auto fire joypads, etc.

‘I eventually reached the leaderboard using a combination of Windows accessibility options which let you set up keys as mouse clicks, a fast laptop, and the use of a family member or two. I reached the leaderboard. The next day I was informed that my score was too high and I was being chucked off it.

‘Why they did this silly game and not just some kind of ballot/email in/simple system? I've always been suspicious about all these alcohol companies jumping on the "sponsoring ccomedy" bandwagon but now I'm just really upset that I don't get to see Vic and Bob live.’

Another player, Mark Lawrence, complained on Foster’s Facebook page: Totally pissed off-the only way to get anywhere NEAR the leaderboard was to cheat! Fosters – how about another gig where entry is via a random draw instead of a cheat fest?

James E Stone added: ‘Great, night full of 250 cheaters in one room. Another ill thought-out online escapade like the Comedy God last year.’

Jordan added: ‘It's left a nasty taste in the mouth. A bit like drinking Foster's.’

A spokesman for Foster's said: 'The Vic n Bob Speedy Pants competition closed on Friday at midnight. Over the course of the competition, it became clear that a very small number of people were using software to inflate their scores beyond what is humanly possible. To ensure a level playing field, we removed all entries suspected of using this software. As a result, we are confident that the winners of the competition are people who played fairly.'

'To give Vic & Bob fans another chance of attending the gig, we've made a further 10 pairs of tickets available. Winners will be chosen by random selection. Anyone who previously applied for tickets (and did not win) will automatically be included within the draw. Anyone else wishing to enter, should do so via www.facebook.com/fosters by 8am on Thursday August 4. Winners will be informed by email on the same day.'

Published: 2 Aug 2011