ITT: the fuck-awful state of British stand-up comedy in 2008

The Penny Dreadfuls can eat a dick as well.

I have no idea who to blame for the former. Ross Noble?

99 percent of stand-up is shit. lol are any of those shitty comedy magazines still going that got started 10 years back when it was the new rock and roll?

I dunno man, when I was 14 I could kinda kick back and watch one of those "here's six stand-up comedians in half an hour" late night TV shows and lol at at least two of them. Pretty sure the only British stand-up I've lolled at in the past three years is S.Lee.

It's like America has Katt Williams, we have Noel Fielding.... one of these things is better than the other, y'know?

Maybe it's just oversaturation to the point where I don't give somebody a chance because the act of saying "Hi I'm a stand-up" sets the hackles rising, the same way some dude wandering on stage with an acoustic guitar does.

Where does the ILE comedy hivemind stand on Jason Byrne? I went to see him in Canterbury a couple of weeks ago and thought he was pretty lolsome. Routine was kind of 90% humiliating audience members though.

It's very rare that I go and see any stand-up because 'comedy people' are kind of lame.

Sorry fuck yeah Katt Williams OTM. Okay, maybe the point is a lot of American stand-ups set out to try and be funny (whether they succeed or not) whereas the UK thing now starts from a point of trying to be "original" and if they bump into a lul on the way then that's a bonus?

I think a lot of British stand-up is more theatrical than American stand-up, which might have something to do with the fact that a lot of Brit stand-ups are jobbing actors or theatre studies graduates pulling in some overtime on the "have you ever noticed..." circuit. Possibly a hangover from when stand-up was on the points card system for Equity? In America, there seems to be a greater tradition of stand-up comedians actually wanting to be stand-up comedians, and not panel show guests/sitcom writers/etc.

And really, anyone talking about comedy today needs to watch Williams' Iraq War/weed/kids' cereal routine.

the UK thing now starts from a point of trying to be "original"

I thought they started from the point of trying to get on an unfunny gameshow that no-one will watch on BBC3? But, seriously, do they really start from a point of trying to be original?

a lot of Brit stand-ups are jobbing actors or theatre studies graduates pulling in some overtime on the "have you ever noticed..." circuit

So true.

xpost to Dom

Yeah I was thinking along those lines, also America has an honourable history of great stand-up comics, most of the pre-1980 British stand-ups are anathema to today's yoot, and if The Comedians was anything to go by it's because a lot of them were pretty shit, and their acts consisted of the same gags - albeit told better, generally - that you'd know from the playground by the time you were 13.

I said they start from a point of being "original", like "what is my schtick gonna be, how do I create a persona?" instead of "what is some funny shit I can say?"

To an extent, maybe. It's safe to say that the "old comedy guys" who are canonical faves to modern British comics (Milligan, Python, Peter Cook) weren't stand-ups, compared to Pryor/Bruce/Hicks/Cosby in America.

xp

Connolly

Connolly exists seemingly in isolation though. And really, are there any guys coming through doing the rambling monologue routine in British comedy? It's either character comedy or one-liners.

Billy Connolly, Jasper Carrott and Mike Harding, whose influence I suspect is close to zero with the probable exception of Connolly, all came up on the folk circuit which is obv different to the Working Mens' clubs. Mike Harding used to make me laff my nuts off when I was 12.

Lenny Henry's speech to the Royal Television Society about diversity and comedy:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/feb/11/television.race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcXj_ZdKmcQ

Sometimes I really wonder where the next Ted Chippington's gonna come from

Carrot was funnier than Harding

Chris Addison, from the Thick Of It, is very good. i saw him before xmas, and he was very funny, very political, very sharp.

Oh I liked Jasper too, but he wasn't well served by some of the later BBC shows he did. It's an old truism about TV eating up material but that's because it's true.

Taking a bit of a risk here but I quite enjoyed Dylan Moran's show from 2004 that I watched recently. As far as rambling monologues go it's pretty decent. To a degree I guess it's character comedy (the character being a stereotypical irish drunk) but it's certainly doesn't seem to try to be anything other than that.

I hate Dylan Moran

No Irish comedians are funny. No Australian comedians are funny.

I assumed people would. I just don't happen to.

I heart Dylan Moran, sorry.

Because of "Black Books" tho?

No Australian comedians are funny.

-- Tom D., Thursday, April 3, 2008 10:00 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

^^^real talk

Partly, although I like his stand-up shows as well.

(xpost)

Of course, Edinburgh Festival = wall-to-wall Irish and/or Australian comedians

"You've got to get off your arse and find people. What's the big deal? Kids are interested in sound, in cameras, they love movies, they spend all day on YouTube. The easy thing to do is to take these guys from Radio 4 or those guys from Edinburgh. The hard thing is to go into the ends, into the community and check out what is going on in some dodgy club over a pub. But that's what people have to do."

I'm just happy mong guy linked that Ted Chippington vid.

Lenny Henry is semi-cash sitting, but a) tl;dr and b) what the BBC gives a shit about /= what's funny

I don't understand Moran hatred either, notwithstanding the fact he's supposed to be an arsehole. His stand-up's gone off the boil a bit, but four or five years ago he was superb.

i saw simon munnery a while ago and he was quite funny

Lenny Henry appearing Jools Holland the other night in a Public Enemy T-shirt and suit jacket was pretty funny, for the wrong reasons.

Dylan Moran once asked a friend of mine for 20p so he could afford to by an overpriced Twix on a train, and then didn't offer him any of the Twix. What a cunt.

(That's up there with my most banal celebrity stories ever)

Moran hatred = bafflement at popularity of not particularly funny dude in not particularly funny sitcom, attributed to liking the "character" rather than actually getting belly laffs out of his work

No Australian comedians are funny.

-- Tom D., Thursday, April 3, 2008 7:30 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I strongly agree with that statement.

At least not in the past 15 years anyway.

Moran hatred also part of the "I don't find this guy funny, but I want to fuck him" school of propelling certain bad stand-ups to fame amongst women who should really know better.

See also: Izzard, Eddie; Boosh, Mighty

you should get into stand up comedy

xpost

Didn't work for Ricky Grover.

Moran is at least better than the cunting mighty boosh.

Plus, personally, instinctive dislike of garrulous charming Oirish broth-of-a-boy schtick, re: Moran

i saw eddie izzard a couple of months ago too, and he was quite funny also.

I went to a few stand up gigs during the Adelaide Fringe and all - be it Australian, Irish, English, whatever - were fucking awful. Fucking dreadful. It's a worldwide issue.

I think Eddie Izzard started out funny. His influence has been almost wholly negative tho. But yeah: comedians as rock stars/fantasy figures for their fans is bullshit and the death of comedy.

(I love how this thread is mostly people who find hen fap funny)

^^^but this didn't do any damage to Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy, did it?

xp

I still don't know what hen fap means

Maybe Pryor and Murphy did find hen fap funny, though.

haha

but this didn't do any damage to Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy, did it?

Except for the latter ending up setting himself on fire smoking crack and the latter starring in "Norbit", you mean?

I thought Eddie Izzard was good when he made the odd "surreal" departure during his set, whilst still essentially sticking to a central theme. But then his later shows seemed to get rid of the structure completely and go tediously Ross Noble.

xxxxpost

I don't think Pryor really fits that description. Eddie Murphy maybe but the same rules don't apply to gay comedians maybe.

Heh. OK, but you know what I mean. Pryor was funny up until he was unable to stand-up unsupported anymore, Murphy was funny until the 90s.

xxp

if i were a standup comedian i'd be well funny

"maybe I should have improvised like Eddie Izzard

pretends to do"

Fuck me, Delirious and Raw are so far above any Brit stand-up working today it's, um, not funny.

Yeah, I watched Delirious on Virgin OnDemand recently... just a perfect stand-up set.

Richard Blackwood came close tho.................................... *ran out of dots*

Dylan Moran, I watched a stand up show of his that was on TV, he seemed to be dieing badly, the audience seemed to be laughing more out of sympathy.

Bill Bailey is good but you know exactly what you are getting and have to want that, I was helpless with laughter at some points when I saw him live.

Stuart Lee is just great.

TBF I like some of the deadpan Emo Phillips-influenced stuff that goes out on ILM tho.

I know a stand up who basically does the crappiest character ever in an attempt to overshadow the fact that he has no jokes. He lives and does gigs in London now so try to avoid him, not least because he tried to make me listen to Sigour Ros once.

Lee and Herring is still probably the most consistently, painfully funny thing I've seen live.

what's his name?

xpoist

ken c

I think the Moran thing stems from Black Books - funny character, let's go watch his stand up, I bet he's really funny to create a character like that.

Cue realisation that he didn't create that character. He is that character.

Bill Bailey recycles too much, but has good ideas and presents them fairly well.

Ross Noble is gradually becoming less funny to me, but is still the king of random and seemingly improvised surrealist comedy.

I enjoy watching Mock-the-Week (Britishers ahoy) if only because it's less a presentation of ideas (from whoever) and more a bouncing-ideas off each other creative thought process. There's more original in that half hour than in a lot of comedy 'shows'.

Fire away.

^^^ Fake AndyTheScot

Richard Blackwood came close tho.................................... *ran out of dots*

-- Tom D., Thursday, April 3, 2008 10:22 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

He truly was the black Will Smith.

I enjoy watching Mock-the-Week

I can't comment because I have never watched it and never will

It's weird how they always have a female guest who manages to get about three words in edgeways for the entire show

Hate fucking Russell Howard and that little fucking troll guy

^^^HOOS

lolololololol

Aye, there's always someone who never gets a word in because of Punt or Dennis , whichever it is, Andy Parsons and Frankie Boyle.

Laundry done by a pirate?

Yesterday's Apprentice to thread.

I had to watch all the Izzard DVDs for work a while ago and the drop in quality after about '98 is pretty shocking. His last tour DVD was a lethal combination of celebs fawning over him backstage and a dismally weak show.

I like Moran a lot - he has a terrific facility with language. His last broadcast show was short on LOLs, though you could still kinda see that it read funny.

Ross Noble has always been dreadful, as far as I can tell.

I have to say, I do love Frankie Boyle on a panel.

He seems to Run Things with some ease

Is there any more 'early 00s' a record than '1232 Get With The Wicked'?

he has a terrific facility with language

Yeah this is why I like him, he can turn a phrase in such a way that an averagely funny observation becomes very funny.

I have to say, I do love Frankie Boyle on a panel.

I'd prefer a skewer

Pryor was funny up until he was unable to stand-up unsupported anymore

there's a routine from 1992 on the box set about his MS that's very funny.

i think black books is funny and do not want to fuck dylan moran. what i've seen of his stand up is good too, but i must have missed the last show.

Quoi? Vexed Weegie is always a good look for comedy.

Dylan Moran unfuckable due to probable presence of bedbugs.

BLACK BOOKS IS FUCKING SHIT

sry just wanted to get that off mah chest, it'd been there for some years

^^^^ Realest talk alive

Vexed Weegie is always a good look for comedy.

The sound though. The sound.

My theory is that Mathews and Linehan lucked out with Father Ted because it's essentially a documentary.

Agreed.

Dylan Moran, I like - despite the criticism that he is the Black Books character - exactly because of his facility with words. The ability to pluck out just the right word...

I heard something on Radio 2 a month of so ago, comedy writer, who was talking about how he would discuss the minutest detail of his script - the example he gave was "A funny thing happened to me last Tuesday." That was re-written, because "Wednesday's a funnier day for things to have happened on..."

Moran has that facility, but on a different level - similar to James May (of Top Gear fame) of using hilarious words and phrases.

testify, nv

x-post - Agreed about Frankie Boyle on the skewer!

Surely anyone who writes comedy should have that facility? (xxp)

You've not seen 2 Pints of Lager then?

Should. "2 Pints" is written by a comedy writer?

I heard something on Radio 2 a month of so ago, comedy writer, who was talking about how he would discuss the minutest detail of his script - the example he gave was "A funny thing happened to me last Tuesday." That was re-written, because "Wednesday's a funnier day for things to have happened on..."

-- AndyTheScot, Thursday, April 3, 2008 10:49 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Something similar on the DVD commentary for I'm Alan Partridge, Iannucci and Baynham discussing what numbers and places names are funny.

Interview with Barry Cryer last night (BBC 3?) was very good, I thought.

WallaWalla, Cuca-mung-a, Se-att-le

It's all in "The Sunshine Boys" isn't it? How 'K' is a funny letter and one number is funnier than another

Bart: Hey, Chalmers, where are you from?

Superintendent Chalmers: Well, I was born in Queens, went to Ball state, then made the move to Intercourse, Pennsylvania.Uh, why do you ask?

(Bart is about to say something when Skinner Quickly puts his hand over his mouth)

Principal Skinner: Uh, don't worry, sir. I'll teach these children some respect for their town. I'm assigning each of you 20 hours of Community Service.

(the children walk offstage, groaning and moaning)

Ralph: Intercourse?

Superintendent Chalmers: Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to my vacation at Lake Titicaca. Try to make a joke out of that, Mr. Smart Guy.

(Bart looks at Skinner, and Skinner waves his hands "no")

spixworth lolololol

xxxpost

Frankie Boyle strikes me as exactly the opposite of the striving-for-originality-but-failing-to-be-funny syndrome that Dom decries. He's very very good at what he does.

By the way I take back everything positive I've ever said about Marcus Brigstocke. He now strikes me as one of the most unpleasant and small-minded people alive.

Brigstocke is a horrendous stand-up and human being, especially when you balance out his "lol chavs in a hired limousine" material with the fact that he was able to do the stand-up circuit fulltime as a beginner because his dad (works for ICI or some shit) was bankrolling him.

Brigstocke always strikes me as the poor man's Sean Locke (who I like a lot).

Is this the same Frankie Boyle? (xxp)

Brigstocke should not be allowed more than three and a half minutes to do his bit, below this he is funny, beyond this he is just whiny.

Still, he does his tv show proper live. Not impressive exactly but it's fairly brave.

Dunno if it's that brave if nobody can tell the fuck-ups from the jokes.

Tom, I think Tracer and I know a lot of vexed Weegies to compare Boyle to. He gets off on a good foot with me by being vexed at same things I am...

You forget I grew up surrounded by vexed Weegies

Furthermore I am an authentic vexed Weegie and I'm way funnier than Frankie Boyle a.k.a. Andy Cameron in Ten Years' Time.

I'm vexed but I'm a Buddy no' a Weegie

All vexed Weegies are funny.

Not on the night bus from George Square to Paisley Cross, they're not

You were lucky to have a night bus! The Bothwell buses now stop at five in the afternoon or something equally absurd.

God, the Number 9 at the dead of night... I walked home to Glasgow one (very drunken) night from Paisley just to avoid getting one of those night buses!

Re: Brigstocke - Ed, OTM.

Brigstocke was great on Question Time a few weeks back (pwning David Davis for not having read the Lisbon Treaty) - better as a lefty pundit than an actual comic.

I fear the sneer

Dylan Moran once asked a friend of mine for 20p so he could afford to by an overpriced Twix on a train, and then didn't offer him any of the Twix. What a cunt.

-- Matt DC,

Tragically I've been repeating this story to people in support of the 'Dylan Moran really is like that' cause. But I couldn't remember who'd said it to me. Very sad.

I really like Mock The Week, esp. when they have Frankie Boyle on it. Agreed on the female contestants though, it seems very boys club, especially compared to QI for example where they let their female guests speak and have opinions and stuff.

This idea that people actually like Frankie Boyle is a new one on me

I agree with you in principle, unfortuneately said female guest is usually Jo Brand.

xpost

Boyle's OK but the funniest dude on MTW is that young blonde guy

He now strikes me as one of the most unpleasant and small-minded people alive.

what's this based on TH?

Flicking channels on the telly the other evening, I caught part of a comedy stand-up programme (no idea what channel it was on) which had a very funny bald Australian guy who played bits of Hendrix and Led Zep on his guitar during the performance. I wish I could remember his name - he was good.

Everything I've ever seen him do apart from 20 minutes of great stand-up in Edinburgh I saw, when I didn't know who he was

xpost

This is the equivalent of comedians coming on Opportunity Knocks and New Faces in the seventies and still doing Al Jolson impressions.

I mean, his Daily Show show is just awful, really sub-Carson with its "hilarious" 10-year-old video clips of birds shagging each other

xpost

We need a "TS: that show with Anne Robinson and Marcus Brigstocke vs that show with Ben Elton and Alexa Chung"

And what is odd is that judging by that Edinburgh show Brigstocke does seem fairly intelligent and at least nominally "left", so it's just bizarre that on his regular show he trudges through such poor material, which often mocks the disadvantaged and vulnerable rather than the powerful

He isn't writing this material?

Boyle's OK but the funniest dude on MTW is that young blonde guy

Yes, he's good he is, but I wish his name would stay in my head. As it is I just refer to him as "the little blonde boyband one" or "Steps Boy" which is kind of unfair.

Tom D I have no idea, it's bizarre either way.

xpost i call him Zoo Boy. he looks like he should work at a zoo.

Tracer fair dos. i avoid his show because that suspicion it would be pandering, diluted and too much of a stretch for him was there.

Russell Howard? I would prob find him funny if I wasn't so utterly repelled by his smug demeanor.

HE IS FUCKING SHIT

in addition to a relatively weak sense of smell i have a handy smugness-bypass filter making it difficult for me to detect smugness eevn tho it may well be there.

this also enables me to enjoy rock music and magic tricks.

And ILM

and me!

Russell Howard has a really unfortunate face, he could look smug at his mum's funeral.

Russell Howard looks like the Happy Shopper logo.

This is perhaps true. Maybe him just SMILEY.

http://www.mocktheweek.tv/images/cast/regulars.jpg

Add a set of glasses to that pic:

http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/movie/trailerparkboys/trailer_park_boys_1.jpg

http://www.sitcom.co.uk/graphics/various/lee_evans_tour.jpg

^Already got my ticket for this show in October - before it sold out. £30 to sit at the back of the upper tier of the 02 Arena.

Why?

A load of my mates are going. I'm not a huge fan or anything, but I've liked a couple of his DVDs.

Speaking of "jobbing actors"! (Is there another kind? Gentleman actors, maybe?)

Lee Evans is fucking atrocious.

Can never forgive him for ruining Beckett's "Happy Days" last time it was on in London (though Michael Gambon was almost as culpable)

Sorry, not "Happy Days", I meant "Endgame"!

Haha I was about to say just that

Just reading the Rolling Stone feature on Chris Rock and wondering, without deigning to express an opinion myself, what others Britishers think of him as a stand-up. any thoughts?

Incredibly charismatic and occasionally very insightful, ie - he's good.

It's very rare that I go and see any stand-up because 'comedy people' are kind of lame.

-- Matt DC, Thursday, April 3, 2008 10:38 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

yup

limmy and harry hill ftw

Saw several comedians at a charity event at Edinburgh last August. Rich Hall and Mark Watson were genius. Jimmy Carr (yes that one), Bob Downe and Jason Wood were surprisingly good though whether Downe and Wood's spiel would work for more than the 6 or so minutes they were given, I don't know. Unmitigated cack; Phil Jupitus and Simon Amstell, who was as slender as a twig and about as funny. Maybe it was his turn to die on stage that night, as I think he's fine on Buzzcocks.

Amstell's humour is fairly reliant on having people around to poke fun at, which he's extremely good at. Don't know how well he'd fare alone on stage deprived of unwitting foils (not very well, apparently).

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't care if a comedian is charismatic or insightful, I just like them to be funny. Which Chris Rock is, 90 percent of the time.

Fair enough. He's funny in large part BECAUSE he's charismatic and insightful, though.

are 'comedy people' lamer than music people, art people, theatre people, film people etc.

Amstell was on after Stewart Lee at the last Leeds festival I went to, which just exposed how much weaker he was at being a smug pedant than Lee

Music people yes, art people sometimes, theatre people no, film people actors no others yes usually.

I bought a friend tickets to Simon Amstell's show in Brighton in June. I fear he may be less than good without a member of Blue to take the piss out of.

I've an aquaintance who comperes a comedy night which sometimes gets biggish names (Adam Bloom, for example), and he never makes jokes in real life. Weird.

Amstell is kind of kind of Lee with less rigorous pedantry but with mildly edgy mean spiritedness + tenuous surrealism/weak running jokes

uh as far as I remember.

Something about kicking a homeless woman in the balls. Didn't really scan.

Chris Rock's act got called out in more than one UK review for its backwards attitudes towards women which I thought was interesting -- he very rarely catches shit for that in the US

Well yeah, he's no Jonathan Ross.

Here's that Chris Rock article btw. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/19551925/chris_rock_isnt_laughing

Not particularly well-written but there are some great quotes in it.

I occasionally find his delivery quite grating and distracting but his observations are often really sharp and far superior to those of almost any British comic.

Writing an article/column based around some of the ideas thrown up here. Would like to open it up for further discussion, especially the "drama student" thing.

find an article about the fuck-awful state of British indie music in 2008 and just change a few words

That's my steez. Indie music makes for bad comedy.

I think The Wall and Scallywagga are the comedy that current Britain deserves.

Joe Pasquale's high-pitched voice is caused by a rare disease called aphallia.

dont like chris rock's delivery and sometimes i just find myself agreeing with him rather than laughing but he does have some funny observations.

On every Edinburgh Fringe stand-up poster for the last five years: "Hilariously non-PC"

. . actually, make that ten.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/features/edinburgh-fringe-the-rise-of-britcom-882362.html

Jesus Wept

Britcom zings: "commonplace nothingness A is like strained unfunny metaphor B with/by/of a token non-sequitur C."

Comedy moment: "So I went down my local ice-cream shop and said, 'I want to buy an ice cream.' He said, 'Hundreds and thousands?' I said, 'We'll start with one.' He said, 'Knickerbocker glory?' I said, 'I do get a certain amount of freedom in these trousers, yes.'"

i made up better jokes in my head when i was five.

When I was in the army I was posted to Africa.
"What was it like?"
I don't know, I couldn't get out of the envelope.

Can I have my guest spot on Mock The Week now please?

Meanwhile, the world is burning and kids are rioting in the riding school-lined streets...

Isy Suttie truly is the Jessica Stevenson of the new generation, ie quirky zany indie pin-up with no comic talent whatsoever

This guy emailed me earlier asking for work: http://www.the-mag.me.uk/Writers/Julian-Hall/

-- DJ Mencap, Thursday, 31 July 2008 14:41 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Pretty sure it's not the same guy but...

Not the "Primark underpants" man!!!

tell us about the golden age of british stand-up comedy, winner

It was the bit in the esure ad where Twiggy told him she wasn't his sister.

That Independent article kinda works better if read in the style of the Pathe Newsreel man.

http://files.list.co.uk/images/2007/08/23/MichaelMcIntyre.jpg

OK I discovered the existence of Michael McIntyre last night, and upon going to bed promptly had a dream where I murdered a younger version of him to stop someone I know from becoming friends with him

He does that Charlie Brooker thing of snorting and guffawing at his own joke while still attempting to deliver it, only he is much more punchable looking and has a more ridiculous voice

From that article:

Every movement has a talisman, its Holy Grail. For Fringe comedians, it's the "Oscar of comedy" – the if.comedy award (the Perrier as was), which has boosted the careers of winners and nominees such as The League of Gentlemen, Steve Coogan, Al Murray, Ross Noble, The Mighty Boosh and Harry Hill.

So much to answer for.

Britain should forget comedy and stick to making great movies and pop music

^^^ lolol winner
http://www.nestle.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/4AF26A9F-3EE4-4FF5-A3EB-0A3CD8BCA325/0/ProdPerrier03.jpg

someone call the police, kevin bishop just been robbed

Frankie Boyle in hating Thatcher sensation: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hvMLXBMf3Mc

Writing an article/column based around some of the ideas thrown up here. Would like to open it up for further discussion, especially the "drama student" thing.

-- Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 21 May 2008 13:59 (2 months ago) Bookmark Link

Have you finished/published this?