1980s UK Alternative Comedians

What an utter shower of shit.

Went for Enfield, assuming we're dealing with the time Whitehouse was writing his material.

Alexi

Sadowitz

Alexi Sayle or John Hegley, Hegley was probably the only one I actually saw in the 80s, as a kids poet rather than at the comedy store.

Which of these in any way embodied the Garry Bushell ultra-PC strawman that still limps on today? Elton and Hardy and...?

(I'm 27)

I voted for Jeremy Hardy, but might've gone for Sadowitz if I'd noticed him on the list.

Jenny Eclair

^^^the worst

^^^the truth

http://fools.abc.net.au/tours/peter/img/fp003.jpg

For your consideration: Bing Hitler (aka Craig Ferguson).

... shite

... stole his act from Jerry Sadowitz, and I mean literally STOLE jokes

Bing Hitler was pretty good. How's Craig Ferguson's takeover of American telly working out for him? It seemed so unlikely back then, as unlikely as, well, Hugh Laurie taking over American telly as a cantakerous old American.

Jerry Sadowitz ftw.

xpost

I'm not the only person that gets John Cooper Clarke and John Hegley confused regularly, right?

... stole his act from Jerry Sadowitz, and I mean literally STOLE jokes

-- Tom D., Thursday, 28 February 2008 16:34 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Viz dudes say exactly the same thing.

Another entirely predictable Sadowitz vote.

from me, that is, but where oh where is panto king Gerard Kelly band?

You missed out John Sparkes, who probably made me laugh most of all, live, in the 1980s. And Rik Mayall is a bit of an omission too.

I might vote for Fascinating Aida cos I know that's Dom's favourite.

I went to see Norman Lovett recently, and he was rubbish.

http://www.lipservice.co.uk/images/artists/3.jpghttp://www.lipservice.co.uk/images/artists/24.jpg

For your consideration: The Oblivion Boys. Never bloody off Saturday Live.

Always had a soft spot for Stephen Frost.

Rik Mayall: one of The Dangerous Brothers.

I went to see Norman Lovett about 10 years ago, and he was rubbish. I bet his act hasn't even changed ("bought a non-stick frying pan, glued it to the ceiling, that showed it!" --- "found this nail backstage... perks of the job eh?" - all delivered in a deadpan I'm Holly From Red Dwarf You Know voice).

xpost to ailsa

Only found out recently that Stephen Frost (Mr Eyebrows on the right) is the son of abstract painter Sir Terry Frost.

Gerraway!

emo phillips, with alexei a close second. doesn't stephen frost have MS now?

Don't see how Jenny Eclair could be classed as alternative, may as well put Roy 'Chubby' Brown in the list. Unless she's alternative by way of being female.

You answered your own question there I think

No, he was showing slides of photos he'd taken and saying supposedly amusing things about them. It was like watching your dad reminiscing about things that weren't even funny when he was experiencing them and then losing some more in the telling.

xposts about Norman Lovett

oh god, i went to see jenny eclair at our student union in the early 90s, she was all "OMG VAGINAS! BLEEDING! SAGGY TITS! JIZZ! I'M A WOMAN I CAN TALK ABOUT THIS, DO YOU SEE!" and every fucker was chortling away proving that you just need to be controversial to make morons laugh, you don't actually need to be funny with it.

where's Gregor Fisher?

is the guy who played Shadwell in this? not that i'd vote him

Guy who played Shadwell = John Sparkes.

Jenny Eclair was a comedy store / alt-com caberet circuit regular at the time.

going for Elton mostly for his TV writing and for managing to only mention Thatcher half as much as SOME people round here...

You should drop some stand-up comedy into your UltraMix MP3s.

Newman and Baddiel on the 92 one, Lee Evans in 96, Peter Kay in 03.

Shadwell was great, well my 19 yr old self thought so anyway, will have to do a youtube when I get home.

there was some Bill Hicks in the last one (via Fila Brazillia) xposts

where's Gregor Fisher?

He was never a comedian. Mind you neither were most of the people listed here, to be honest.

Who was Sea Monster? Wikipedia/Google is of no use.

Sea Monster = Jo Brand.

Oh, sorry - didn't see Dangerous Bros up there.

Where's that Malcolm Hardie geezer?

Malcolm Hardee, influential but not all that funny.

Didn't Lenny Henry count as "alternative" for a wee while in the 80s?

As a kid, I thought Alexi Sayle was DA BOMB.

Or at least one of those big round mines they used against ships in World War 2, right?

I keep meaning to read one of Alexi Sayle's novels, which he has "given up" comedy to write..

Alexei Sayle for me. Harry Enfield was good, but in the early 90s rather than the 80s. All I remember him doing in the 80s is Stavros and Loadsamoney.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Alexei (nearly typed The Lex, as he was oft known back then)

Stoked for the love of Sadowitz, my 'just' second.

I voted for Arnold Brown. And why not?

He used to do Kenneth Williams... missus

^Pushing Up Daisies, 1984. xp

Perhaps the worst thing, in a crowded field, in the Tomb Raider movie as well.

No, this was what I was thinking of - Coming Next - 1985, so slightly later than Spitting Image.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118324/

This I don't remember at all.

Chris Barrie should get a free pass just for doing Reagan on the "Two Tribes" 12-inch.

you don't remember Brittas Empire ?

very typical Beeb sitcom, but actually had some laffs.

No, "Get Fit With Brittas", different series

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0778562/

Somehow never made it to a second series

Hale and Pace selling shoes on the Armando Iannucci show was pretty great though

"The Brittas Empire" is a bit of a Channel 5 sitcom name

"Hale and Pace will come to realise that life is mostly pointless"

What about "A Prince Among Men"? What a terrible piece of casting that was. Reminisicent of Harry Enfield in "Celeb".

Was h&p@bbc a redefinition of death?

And Harry Enfield in "Men Behaving Badly".

Although, I have it from inside, that HEnfield was only cast in it to allow the programme makers to get to do it in the first place, and that he was always only going to do the one series.

Rimmer was almost as good a zingmeister as Blackadder.

I'm now totally going to imagine all ILX zings being delivered in Rimmer's voice, complete with a nasal snort at the end.

Hale and Pace get a pass as they're the only ones mentioned above who appeared on a 4AD album.

were smith/jones/fry/laurie really 'alternative'?

Of course, why not?

they were on tv an' that.

So were most of the others

Hale and Pace get a pass as they're the only ones mentioned above who appeared on a 4AD album.

!!!!!!!??????!!!!!!!

Did Colourbox sample them?

this thread is mostly people either too old or too young to have found the most popular names in this list funny at the time. what's up with that?

Yes, it was Colourbox. Can't imagine Cindytalk or the Cocteaus sampling them

From this site http://web.mit.edu/klund/www/cbox.txt

WE WALK AROUND THE STREETS :
----------------------------
From the 1985 self-titled "Colourbox" EP (MAD 509)

"'We walk around the streets; it makes us angry. We see chimneys belching
out smoke. We see cars belching out smoke. We see people,'
'Belching!'
(laughter)
'And who's responsible for all this pollution?'
'We are.'"
--- British comedians Hale and Pace

I voted Roland Rivron - even though he wasn't funny - as I enjoyed the one episode of "Rivron In The River" I saw. I think the guy from Then Jerico was on it, or rather in it.

i voted John Dowie cos i love his "Another Close Shave" 7" EP.

theres no more depressing sentence in the world than "and now with Richard Vranch at the piano its Josie Lawrence"

Another vote for John Dowie, for being the Factory Comedian. And being rather funny too.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The top two are right!

Rik Mayall really should have been listed though, not just as the Dangerous Brothers.

What happened to my vote for Fascinating Aida?!

Someone should do a poll for 80s UK alternative comedy shows.

aka Young Ones vs Blackadder

The Comedians poll

OK clearly 80s comedy, with the exception of the Young Ones and one or two others, is pretty much the only thing from that decade not to have come even ironically back into fashion.

80s UK alternative comedy pwned.

Mainly because it never went out of fashion.

How many of those people are still working in visible arenas?
A high percentage! (Books, Sitcoms, Alt:Acting, 'Production', even 'stand-up')

Still get to be first call on b-schedule TV panel shows involving 'slight intellect'

I like the fact Helen Lederer's face was used to represent this poll and got no votes whatsoever.

"Ave-a-lunch" indeed.

Helen Lederer's rubbish and has a supremely annoying face.

Her initial gimmic was "she sits down and is nervous"

because of her tedious monologues on Naked Video i tended to think of her as the female Corbett. my favourite appearance by her in anything is probably her turn in Bottom as foreign lady pretending to be rich in order the get the money she thinks Richie has, or something.

"Never went out of fashion" is so rong it's untrue.

I like the fact Helen Lederer's face was used to represent this poll and got no votes whatsoever.

Nice daughter though. Saw her on Come Dine With Me.

Bing Hitler 3

lol Scots.

Rik Mayall really should have been listed though, not just as the Dangerous Brothers.

Apart from Kevin Turvey, though, he didn't do anything on his own, did he?

Raw Sex 1

Okay, who was it?

Mayall wrote and co-wrote a shit load of good stuff, and what about all the Comic Strip episodes.

..and Grim Tales !

Drop Dead Fred!

Rik the angry poet
Dave the cardboard box

and so on...

I can't stand Mayall as a performer - he's like an eight year-old showing off in front of the grown ups*. I can only watch him in the Young Ones, in which he's supposed to be a total tit.

*Which I suppose is the point, but I still don't like it.

Victory speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGMTCfjnP6Y

Nice daughter though. Saw her on Come Dine With Me.

lol DavidM pretending not to watch Echo Beaceh

Another vote for John Dowie, for being the Factory Comedian. And being rather funny too.

And you're in luck if you're a fan:

http://www.ltmrecordings.com/johndowiecatalogue.html