Be Excellent To Each Other

Tina Fey.

EDIT - as a rebuttal, as she is awesome.

And had the fucking gall to complain that she didn't get opportunities to be on telly because she was black and female. Having spent the best part of fifteen years getting telly gigs for precisely that reason.

Shappi Khorsandi, Russell Kane, Jack Whitehall and Russell Howard in an ideal world would all find themselves are the wrong end of some fast approaching nuclear-tipped weaponry. Or, as Mrs P once memorably said about Russell Howard "Fucks sake, he's just a cock-eyed cock."

Kane and Whitehall are clearly using standup to get TV presenter gigs, though. It worked for the talentless McGuinness (who I beat in open spot competitions twice!) and to an extent for Russell Brand (who was shite before he cleaned up from the smack and stole the Jack Sparrow schtick wholesale).

And if I see another twee female comedian with a guitar, whose act is a mixture of "oh look, I wear mittens!" kookiness and several wistful songs about killing her useless boyfriend, I'm gonna fucking scream.


On the positive side Sarah Millican is brilliant. Her chat show was awesome. In real danger of being over-exposed, though. (See also: John Bishop.)

Starring in Hebburn, on BBC3 this autumn. Written by Jason Cook, who is awesome. He also plays what is effectively Jason Cook in the story of his life and who has a mate in the show called Ramsey... being played by Jason Cook. It is going to be a bit confusing. But hopefully very good - Jason is a firend of mine and he has deserved this break for a long time. Vic Reeves and Gina McKee are involved, too.

Sarah Silverman's brilliant. But she has 'man' in her name, so I dunno.

So does any woman.

Massively disagree. Every time I see her on tv I cringe into my chair.

Is she fuck. She's fucking awful, but knows that when she is dying on her arse saying "cunt" on the telly will work for the shock value.

o/

\o

Would, though.
And she's fucking Matt Damon.

Can I just put Victoria Wood forward for "female comedian who isn't useless"? Ta.

I've only ever heard of three names mentioned in this thread; Dylan Moran, who is fucking awesome (though I've only ever seen one stand up DVD and all of Black Books), Harry Hill & Jo Brand, who are not.

You've not heard of Victoria Wood?

Absolutely.

Catherine Tate can safely be added to that list as well. She cracks me up.

Do you have a link for this please?

There is so much wrong in your statement that I don't know where to begin. The only way it could be more wrong was if you put Miranda Hart in there as well.

Stop being me.

There's something wrong with this thread. Comedy comes down to what makes you laugh, on your own personal tastes. There are comedians that come out and say about ten words and people are rolling on the ground, then you have athletic comedians like Lee Evans.

To sit and tell others what is and isn't funny is quite clearly fucking daft. Obviously it comes down to what tickles them and nothing more. So all this thread has a use for is to find out what makes people laugh at who and what.

Personally, for example, I think Billy Connolly is the most unfunny boring cunt I've ever had the misfortune to watch. However, obviously some people find him hilarious or he wouldn't still be a comedian, and he wouldn't still be wildly popular.

Comedy's not subjective. Everyone laughs at exactly the same things.

88

73%

Black Books was one of the best sitcoms on TV and Dylan was great in it. His standup prior to that series was also quite good. I remember one him complaining of "Irish hair" that cracked me up and I used to prod my Sister's Irish boyfriend with it. But after Black Books he assumed this rambling character which was an even more exaggerated version of Bernard Black and it just doesn't work for me.

I love Sarah Millican, but didn't like her recent show on TV. Same goes for Stephen K Amos.

I don't wish the comedians I don't like ill, they're just entertainers trying to entertain people. They're hardly child molesters. The fact they don't tickle me in particular doesn't mean they deserve death or harm. Good luck to them.

Known. You told me that back in the day, in a 'wow, we disagree on something!' moment. But yeah, she's clearly very funny.

Apart from Mickey Flanagan, right?

Well, that is me told.

To an extent, I agree. For example, I can't stand Mrs Browns Boys whereas it is popular. However, I can tell you why so many people find it funny. On a technical level, it is end of the pier music hall and partly works because no-one has done end of the pier music hall for a while. It is quite unlike anything else, aims broadly, fires lots of shots and enough of them hit. I've never found Bottom to be all that amusing either, but it worked the same way.

I can see why Dylan Moran has so many detractors - he took the character in Black Books, which was totally awesome in the situation it was in - and brought it onto a stage and a spotlight and it just doesn't work. The Pub Landlord isn't to everyones taste but is amazing live and never really worked on telly. (Didn't help that Al Murray found himself in the same position as Warren Garnett, being enjoyed by the very people he was taking the piss out of.)

Tate is a fine example of one of the worst things in TV comedy. Ever noticed that there are male comedians, but female "comedy actresses"? Jack Dee and Vic Reeves are comedians who act, and Tate and Hart are actors who do comedy. You can tell the difference. It is one of those oddities that female standups largely get ignored (I'm thinking Linda Smith, Susan Calman, Sarah Kendall, Jo Caulfield) yet the ones who have had a shot at a TV gig (Sarah Millican) rapidly hit stardom. Hart has the delivery and timing of Beethoven - the dog, not the composer. Tate can't fucking act. Her "characters" are a one-note sledgehammer with a laugh track.

(But then I can take you through Little Britain and explain how every single sketch and every single character and every single situation is exactly the same. The Fast Show spawned many imitators, all of whom missed the damned point.)

Funnily enough, I was discussing Billy Connolly with Mrs P last night (she had watched "Audience with..." and was unable to breathe through laughter) and the description of him as "genius". Connolly is not a genius, because that implies some level of pre-meditation and inspiration in what he does. And he isn't pre-meditated, he doesn't work on his craft, his writing or his performance skills. His brain just operates on that level naturally. There are very few like that in the world - Robin Williams, maybe. Spike Milligan?

Sure you can define comedy as "whatever makes people laugh". But then you can define McDonalds as "food" exactly like anything Heston Blumenthal makes, and Westlife as "music" and lump them in with Mozart, Hendirx and Gershwin. There is good comedy and bad comedy. There are good comedians and bad ones. The thing is, knowing that the bad ones are Westlife.

Sorry, rambling now.

Have we really gotten three pages in without Ricky Gervais?

The only good thing about Catherine Tate is her Lauren costume, and that's because I'd want her to wear it when I shagged her.

I don't mind Miranda, I used to listen to the radio series on Radio 2 and found it quite amusing.

I don't get why Ross Noble is considered so great, perhaps I need to see more of his stuff.

I hate that Mike Landers guy.

got

Most televised comedians are shit, and this has probably always been true. Nonetheless, evennthenones I hate most will raise a chuckle out of me over something or other during their set.
Shappi korshandi though. Jesus. Go home, you idiot.

For some reason, I hadn't seen your post when I made mine. I shall add her to the list with Dylan Moran!

The rest are all cunts though.

Man, he was the worst.

Agree with lots of the choices here, and especially with Mimi on Mickey Flanagan. I've a colleague at work who loves him, and if someone in the office randomly says they're going out that night with their mates or whatever, she launches into Flanagan's hilarious "out out out out" bollocks.

Russell Brand, pointless twat, not sure how he was ever called a comedian.

Alan Carr, never laughed at him once.

Graham Norton, not really sure if he is a comdian. Most of the "funny" stuff in his TV show is calling somebody called Mr Cock live on air or looking at internet stuff. All the materal he uses has been found by researchers not him.

Marcus Brigstock. Dear god, his jokes would be less obvious wearing a hi-visibility jacket and carrying a siren.

A couple of years back, the wife bagged us some free tickets to a recording of micky flannigan. The gig was, they were doing a story of his life on radio 4 and they wanted some standup clips to intersperse with the storytelling.

The set was a bit odd as they'd already recorded the radio chat and played it back to us before launching into the standup section. Each bit of standup would then start with a few minutes of off air warm up so that we were suitably enthused to laugh loud during the bit that would be recorded and hence broadcast. The producer would stand up in the front row to signify that we were about to go 'live' so to speak.

He was, unquestionably , hilarious and unrestrained before she stood up. Then, as the radio segment started, it would die on its arse from a comedy perspective but enough people were pissed to keep the apparent hilarity going. Radio and TV do change what a comic can do a lot, evidently (this was just after sachsgate)

Oh God, Alan Carr! Now there's someone in favour of positive discrimination z

Agree, quite a lot. We were bought a DVD of Mrs Brown's Boys which has remained rin the wrapper. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't like it, as it's, from th desriptions I've heard, just as you describe.



I found The Pub Landlord hilarious, as, at the time, it was exactly like the pub I was drinking in at the time. It was spot on perfect. Then what you said happened.



From what I've heard of his earlier stuff, it was really quite funny. The later stuff,much less so.

Ive said before that I struggle with, and I'll put it in speech bubbles "Northern comedy". I try to like it, I really, really do, but too often it is the end of the pier stuff that my erstwhile friend has talked about. And I can't help but think "That's not even cleverly written" for the most part. As Plissken says, it is very much how it is done. Stick a bloke in a dress and have him talk about getting sex in toilets, I'll think it is brilliant. Alan Carr doing the same set I wouldn't find funny.

When I go to see a show, I'd quite like them to do more than an hour, and have no warm up act, otherwise I'm paying £7 to see that Norwegian fella, doing his TV set and £14 to hear Amstell rant a bit,and do nothing of the funny stuff i thought I was going to see. Amstell called people up for coughing a few time, and about half way through his set, asked the ro if "it was always like this". And seemed annoyed when a man said "I saw Rich Hall last week and it was all fine". If his material isn't working, it isn't the audience's fault. I'd like my £42 quid back for the two tickets, please.

We also pronounce 'Valencia' differently.

Well if everyone was as homophobic as you we'd all be living in the Dark Ages caves.

Homophobia would be one of the harder things to stick on me.

ADDENDUM: The point being that you can have someone saying something, and it's really funny, another person saying the same thing, it isn't.

That's more or less the problem I have with it. I wouldn't mind its schmaltziness or nostalgic sentimentality if it was actually witty and they knew how to turn a phrase, but Kay, Manford et al essentially just do an hour of "Eeeeeh, remember tricycles? Remember space hoppers?" bollocks.

Yes, I fully understand what you were saying. I was just using the opportunity to accuse you of something quite bad by reading between lines that aren't there. It's not very nice.

He still hits his stride once in a while. (Although I find the bit about Duran Duran fans offensive.)



Going back a while though, he was incredible, 'An Audience With Billy Connolly' (the full version, not the ITV aired version) is pants-wettingly funny in parts.

I'll consider it your cross to bear. Then we'll move over any bad blood that might have transpired, wittingly or unwittingly, and all carry on like we generally do. How's that sound?

TBH, that clip sounded like any old racist berk down the pub going on about "the fucking Muslims". He's definitely done better than that!

Sounds good to me. Thank you.

But he does the same for all religions though, he's skewered the utter ridiculousness of them all over the years. (Christianity was just as fucking psychotic back in its day, and he's let rip on that plenty of times.)

I think Dara sums up religious comedy on the subject of Muslims quite well.

That is quality!