The Graham Norton Effect

Infobox Television
show_name = The Graham Norton Effect


caption =
format = Chat Show
picture_format = 16:9
runtime = 60mins (inc. adverts)
creator =
starring = Graham Norton
channel = Comedy Central
first_aired = June 24 2004
last_aired = September 16 2004
num_series = 1
num_episodes = 13
country = USA
producer =
location =
preceded_by = V Graham Norton
followed_by = The Graham Norton Show
imdb_id =

"The Graham Norton Effect" was a talk show hosted by the Irish comedian Graham Norton. The show aired on Comedy Central. The show aired from June 24 2004 to September 16 2004.

"The Graham Norton Effect" can be considered a spin-off to two previous shows hosted by Norton, including "So Graham Norton" and "V Graham Norton". During the last part of Graham's Channel 4 contract, Graham decided to film a new show, NY Graham Norton, in New York. "The Graham Norton Effect" was filmed for Comedy Central later in the year. Since this show was specifically taped for an American audience, some of the games played in the show were previously played on "NY Graham Norton" or "V Graham Norton". (For example, a game about the world's worst bathing suits which was played in the Alan Cumming episode was originally played during a V episode with Bo Derek, tying into her movie Ten.) Also, some of the guests, who were only on "NY Graham Norton" a couple of months previous, appear again on "The Graham Norton Effect".

List of celebrity guests

List of games and events

"The Graham Norton Effect", like all of Norton's shows, featured games and side attractions that often involved his guests. These side attractions usually relied on audience member participation. The guests would then take part in the event by guessing or choosing something based about the usually inane parameters Norton had defined about the game. For example, when playing "Guess the Partner," the guests would attempt to guess which two audience member participants were lovers based on physical features alone.

On occasion Norton would even go so far as to secretly produce a pre-selected audience member’s parents or lover to witness or take part in an embarrassing event without the audience member’s knowledge.
* Episode 1: Guess the Partner: Guests attempt to match lovers with their partners. Barfly: Sandra Bernhard provides a remote voice for a life-size mannequin sitting at a neighborhood bar, to the confusion of other patrons.
* Episode 2: Ass Makeover: Audience members makeover their male partner's buttocks to resemble celebrities, such as Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson, Freddy Kreuger.
* Episode 3: Audience members model regrettable swimwear.
* Episode 4: Find The Lady: Guests attempt to identify which silhouette of 4 audience members is a woman from a group including 3 men in drag; the least feminine is sent to the streets to proposition men using pickup lines fed by RuPaul. Date Jesus: Norton sets up an audience member on a date with a Jesus impersonator. Lovers Line-up: Guests and audience members guess when participants last had sex by shouting “higher” or “lower.”
* Episode 5: Sharon Stone is sung to by a fan over the phone. Audience members are called on tell suggestive pick-up lines to the episode's guests.
* Episode 6: Guests attempt to guess if a man is gay by the way he dances. In the Dugout: Audience members and guests try to guess what base participants reached with other participants. Candle-schticks: Audience members volunteer to make multi-colored candles molded from their male anatomy, which are placed on a cake and wheeled out by Joan Rivers. Graham interviews candle owners by name, asking "My god, what happened here?"
* Episode 7: Audience members attempt to guess which disguised participant is their lover by how they perform with a sex doll. Jade Esteban Estrada gets spanked by a dominatrix.
* Episode 8: A sexual euphemism contest takes place.
* Episode 9: Audience members reveal lies they have told to their parents. Carson Kressley talks about the man he'd most like to makeover on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy".
* Episode 10: Graham holds a parody of the Summer Olympics in the streets.
* Episode 11: A George W. Bush impersonator is on the show. Audience members are asked to campaign for something close to them with mostly insipid results.
* Episode 12: Chris Rock gives Marilyn Manson marriage advice.
* Episode 13: Graham, perhaps in a mockery of Oprah, makes audience member's dreams “come true” with less than perfect results.

International Broadcasting

*UK: BBC Three
*Australia: The Comedy Channel
*New Zealand: TV One
*Canada: OUTtv