Mock the Week

Dara Ó Briain, the host of the show since its debut

To date, Hugh Dennis has appeared in every episode, with the exception of the special episode for David Walliams' 24 Hour Panel People

Throughout the show's history, Mock The Week has consistently had at least one permanent comedian/stand-up performers within its panel who appears regularly within every episode; up until the fifteenth series, the programme regularly featured two permanent members in its panel, and in some series the show featured a third permanent member. While there have been a total of six performers who have performed regularly on the show as a permanent panellist, only Hugh Dennis has appeared regularly in every episode since its debut (with the exception of a special episode of the programme that was broadcast as part of David Walliams' 24 Hour Panel People).[7] The other five performers to have been regular, permanent members on the show include:

• Frankie Boyle – Series 1 to Series 7. His departure from the show, revealed on 2 October 2009, was due to focusing on "other television commitments".[8][9]
• Rory Bremner – Series 1 to Series 2.
• Andy Parsons – Series 3 to Series 14. His departure from the programme was announced on 19 October 2015.[10]
• Russell Howard – Series 4 to Series 9 (first half).
• Chris Addison – Series 10 (latter half) to Series 12 (first half). His departure from the show was due to his involvement in a project being filmed in the United States.[11]

Along with at least one or two permanent members, the panel often consists of guest performers, some of whom have had frequent appearances on the show. The following have appeared at least three times on the show as a guest panellist (up to 6 December 2019, not including the 2011 Comic Relief special):[12]

a. ^{^} Appearances made before becoming a regular panellist.
b. ^{^} Also made an appearance in the Comic Relief 24 Hour Panel People special.

The following games feature in all episodes of Mock the Week:

• Picture Of The Week: Panellists are shown an image and makes jokes about it, with the image connected to a news story that happened on the week of the episode's broadcast. This round can be played as the first or second-last round of the episode, alternating with "If this is the answer, what is the question?". The round replaced "Headliners" as one of the regular games of the show.
• Wheel of News: The game is a stand-up challenge in the Performance Area, in which a number of performers (often the guests) are tasked with doing stand-up comedy based on a subject that the "Wheel" of the Random News Generator lands on (e.g. Education). While in the first series, all six performers took part, between Series 2 and 8 this was reduced to four performers, then to three between Series 9 and 10, before being reduced to the current setup of just two guest performers doing the game since Series 11-13; this arrangement was aimed at allowing for greater screen time for those guests, in order to help promote them more as stand-up artists. Since Series 2, host Ó Briain would introduce the round with a name that sometimes referenced a recent event, with examples including Dara's Supercasino: Make-a-Joke Roulette, Four By One Joke Relay, and Don't Stop 'til You Get a Laugh, among many others. Furthermore, the winner of the game between Series 1 and 2, was determined by a system in which Ó Briain judged whether the audience had laughed enough at the routine and decided whether or not the performer was allowed to sit down, with the first team to have all their performers back in their seats winning the game. If one player from each team was left standing, a sudden death system would come into effect, in which a random topic was picked and both players had to talk about it. From Series 3, this was changed to far simpler system of Ó Briain simply deeming the team who got the biggest laugh to be the winner.
• If this is the answer, what is the question?: A simple quiz-styled round for all performers to play, in which one of the guests is given six categories to choose from, covering topics such as sport, health, home affairs, world news, the environment, and politics, and are then given the answer related to the topic and asked to guess what the question is. Often the guesses by the panellists are of comical questions, which sometimes are not even on the topic it's related to, with the host eventually calling time on their guesses by requesting the actual question. The round is not over after the answer is given, as the host and panellists often conduct discussions in relation to the question and the topic, most for comedy, and are sometimes asked further questions by the host on news articles that may not have relevance to it. The round often was played before the final round, but more recently is often played as the first round of the episode.
• Scenes we'd like to see: The final round of each episode, with all performers playing in the Performance Area. Each team is assigned to either side of the stage and are given two different scenarios (four in Series 1, three in Series 2) which are stated out on the TV screen, with any performer who steps onto the stage having to walk up to the microphone provided, and needing to suggest something that is unlikely to happen based on the given scenario, with the host buzzing them off when they are done. Examples of scenarios used on the show include "What the Queen didn't say in her Christmas message", "Unlikely lines from the final Harry Potter book", "Commercials that never made it to air", "Rejected exam questions", and "Things you didn't hear at the Olympics", among others, with some subjects repeated in later series. The round was inspired by the game "Scenes From A Hat" from Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

These games occasionally appear in some episodes, but not all, with those not used either featured as part of a series' compilation episode or released as part of a DVD extra(s). The reason these may not appear and be cut from an episode is either because of the language used or the highly politically incorrect answers the panel members give, at the time that the show was broadcast:

• Between the lines: This round takes place in the Press Pit, with one performer impersonating someone in the news who is giving a press conference (often a politician), with another translating their words to detail what they are "really" saying. For much of its use, Hugh Dennis is the one stating what is "really" being said, while in the first two series, the impersonation was done by Rory Bremner and Frankie Boyle, with more recent series seeing Hugh partnered with a guest performer.
• Newsreel: This round sees a performer shown a piece of news footage played with no sound, and acting out what each person is saying, although usually bearing no relation to what is actually occurring in the footage. Throughout its uses, Hugh Dennis has often been the only one tasked to play this game, with the round later renamed as "Royal Commentary" in which he provides commentary on a royal event. The round is similar in style to the game of "Film Dub" from Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
• What on earth: This round sees the panel shown a picture linked to a world news event, and attempt to figure out what is happening within it. To date, the round has only featured as an out-take during clip shows, and has also appeared on the Too Hot For TV DVD.

These rounds were originally used in the show before being dropped (most were used in Series 1 and 2), or replaced:

• Dating videos: Two performers, one from each team, is given the name of a famous person and tasked with acting as them in the Performance Area and pretending to record a lonely hearts advertisement in the style of that person. The other players are tasked with guessing who they are acting as.
• Ask the politicians: In the style of current affairs programme Question Time, two or three performers take seats in the audience and give out questions to the rest of the panel, each of whom answers in the style of a politician; often one acted as a spokesperson for Labour and another acted for the Conservatives, while Ó Briain performed as the host of the "show".
• Prime Minister's questions: One team played as the British Prime Minister and their front-bench MPs, while the other team played as the Leader of the Opposition and their front bench MPs, with the host taking on the role of the Speaker of the House of Commons. Both teams are given a rather trivial news story to debate, but would treat it as if it was the heavyweight issue of the day, with the game usually evolving into a series of puns that saw each team attempting to continue the chain (for example, while referring to farming, "I take it you're an expert in the field", "I have ploughed that furrow" etc.).
• Bombshell phone calls: Two performers, one from each side, each play as a famous person having a telephone conversation with each other, in which one of them would drop a bombshell during the conversation, with the other having to give out their reaction to it.
• Headliners: Played by all panellists, and often used to begin the show, both sides are shown a photo of someone famous in the news. They are then given the initial letters of a newspaper headline connected to the photo and asked to guess what the headline is, with guesses often being comedic suggestions before one of the panellist gives the correct answer, after Dara prompts them for it. Guests, such as Michael McIntyre, have admitted they often struggled to come up with a headline that both fits the letters and is funny (In one episode, McIntyre's best effort was "Brown Orders Tree Explosion"). As was evidenced on the "Too Hot For TV" DVD releases, a hefty percentage of headlines pitched (mainly by Frankie Boyle) were not suitable for broadcast. The round was later replaced by "Picture Of The Week".