Rob & Romesh Vs Lapland review – their meeting with Santa is so unfunny it’s painful

The two comics head to the sparklingly weird place dedicated to Father Christmas … and fail to be amusing. Jokes are clearly contrived, rarely funny, and – on occasion – genuinely excruciating to watch

Sky Max has aired four seasons of Rob & Romesh Vs, the comedy entertainment series in which comedian friends Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan take on challenges to which they are not naturally suited. You might not have seen it: although almost all telly now is sorted into subscribers-only silos, somehow Sky manages to feel like a particularly isolated ecosystem. Anyway, you haven’t missed much. Rob is the upbeat one, Romesh is the cynical one, and they are both generally inept at the things they attempt but good at finding the obvious jokes to make about how it went wrong. It’s quite funny! It’s fine.

This year’s Christmas special is Rob and Romesh Vs Lapland, in which Rob and Romesh visit the official home of Santa Claus to train as elves. Replacing the celebrities who have given the comics someone to bounce off in previous episodes – Anthony Joshua, Andy Murray, Shania Twain, Jude Bellingham – is the sparkling weirdness of a place dedicated to the idea that Father Christmas is real. To be awarded elf status, R&R are set a series of tasks by their main sparring partner, a professional elf named Vanille.

Rob & Romesh Vs Lapland aired on Sky Max and is available on Now TV.