Thank You Hater

Brilliant...



This YouTube clip is getting quite a bit of media coverage. It had already had 45,000 views this morning. No doubt it will get many more before long.

You can follow Isabel Fay and Tom Hopgood (but not troll them) on Twitter - @isabelfay / @tomhopgood

The German Comedy Ambassador On Debt

I've been a big fan of Henning Wehn since I saw him supporting Stewart Lee during his If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask For One tour. I was just enjoying some YouTube clips of "The Germam Comedy Ambassador" when I was reminded of his take on the British attitude to debt. The clip below was posted in 2008. It was and is very apt at the time as we as a country, were already running up enormous public and private levels of debt. It contunues to be apt as we are continuing to do so.

However, I'd love him to do this routine today, in Greece, about the Greeks' attitude to debt. I think it would go down a storm..? He could then tour his show to Italy, Ireland and Spain. Mind you, being a German I imagine he'd want to start any European tour in Poland, regardless of whether Germany is needed to bail them out or not.*



* Cheap, lazy reference to the Second World War that was totally unavoidable. Sorry.

Beardyman On The BBC's Comedy Proms

Tonight's Comedy Proms on BBC2 was very enjoyable. Tim Minchin was brilliant, as always. But I was pleased to see Beardyman, an act I've not seen since stumbling across this excellent YouTube clip...

Beardyman with Nathan "Flukebox" Lee...



It's worth a watch all the way through. There's some great moments later on in the clip.

On The Hour - Council to Evict The Old To Teach Government A Lesson

On The Hour, Chris Morris' spoof radio news series and forerunner to the excellent The Day Today included a story about how a fictitious Labour council was evicting old people from their homes and making them sleep on the streets in boxes to prove a point to central government...



That was back in 1992. Now the Conservatives are back in government, we see Labour councils living up to their old reputations. This time it's about the governments attempts balance the nations books and asking councils to do their part by reducing what has been burgeoning spending on their part over many years.

We've seen the stories put out by (mostly) Labour councils - child protection services to be cut, sure start centres to close, all library services to be disbanded, even worse treatment of the elderly in council run homes etc. It seems Labour (and indeed some LD and even Tory) councillors would rather this than make long overdue efficiencies in the way they run their services and better prioritising those services most needed by the communities they serve.

They would rather cut front line services in the hope voters will blame central government than their historic profligacy, inefficiency and waste.

You've got to laugh.

Are Exams Designed to Discriminate Against The Motivationally Challenged?

After Gary Liniker blamed his son's school for his failure to get good enough results to get into university, research in America has shown that it may be the exams themselves that are discriminating against lazy kids...


In The Know: Are Exams Designed to Discriminate Against The Motivationally Challenged?

Customer Service At Its Best

As seen on http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/2010/08/23/service-with-a-snarl/

Thomas Hungry But Tired...

Adam & Joe's Classic Comedy Song Remakes

I have been enjoying Adam and Joe's remakes of these classic songs from their radio and much missed TV show...

Richard Cheese Sings...

There have been some great songs written in the last 20 years. However, you do wonder, if the same songs had been written in a different era, how much better would they have sounded?

Richard Cheese provides us with the answer. He recreates modern pop but in his own inimitable, catchy and highly entertaining Lounge style. Just listen to his version of Radiohead's "Creep",  to hear what I'm talking about...

Richard Cheese - Creep (Radiohead Cover) by kwargs

He also covers many other great modern pop songs such as The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" and my personal favourite, U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" - A highly sensitive remake of that thought provoking and poignant song, I think you'll agree...

Richard Cheese - Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2) by iorish

Manchester United Unhappy With Premiership's First Past The Post League System

As Chelsea lift The Premiership title, some of the losers are complaining that the league system in this country isn't fair to teams that lose games. They point out that goals scored in matches that they lose are effectively "wasted" as they don't count towards their points tally. They are calling for reform of the system to provide "Fair Goals".

Two teams are currently in talks about forming a coalition for change. They are Manchester United and Manchester City. Alex Ferguson was asked what this new football combo would be called.

"We took one word from their name, 'Manchester' and one word from our name, 'United", he replied and went on to explain,

"We feel that Chelsea's claim to have won the Premiership is illegitimate. I mean, our new combined points total is 152 compared to Chelsea's 86. We are clearly the winners on this basis".

He went on to demand Chelsea give in to his demand for "Fair Goals" immediately and admit that Manchester United are the real league winners. If Chelsea refuse to give in to Ferguson's demands he says he will pull out of the league, effectively bankrupting it and many of the other teams that are involved. When asked if he was concerned about this he replied,

"Fuck 'em", before walking off for more discussions with league officials, behind closed doors.

Meow Meow To Be Banned, But What About Clarky Cat?

Today we saw the British government announce it's intention to ban mephedrone, also known as meow meow. But what about the drug that has caused more fortnights in a bad balloon than any other... Clarky Cat?

Chris Morris is Back - His Target: Terrorists

I'm looking forward to the release of Chris Morris' Four Lions film later this year. Not one to shy away from satirising controversial topics like media coverage of  9/11 and paedophilia, he has now turned his sights onto British Islamic fundamentalist wanna-be terrorists.

Here's a clip...



I've been listening to various clips of Morris' old work tonight. I particulalry enjoyed this clip form his radio show on Greater London Radio...

WARNING: This clip contains the words "Christ's", "fat" and "cock", consecutively.

The Ritual of The Bullying Ritual

Never fear! I'm not going to whine on about Twitter bullying any more. But yesterday's experience did put me in mind of one of my favourite The Day Today reports about bullying in the Church of England. Watch out for some bad ecclesiastical hurting...

Stewart Lee: If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask For One

Great show tonight. I hadn't realised the "German Comedy Ambassador", Henning Wehn (http://www.germanhumour.com/bio.html) was going to appear before Stewart Lee.

He was excellent. If you get a chance to see him as part of this show or in an independent production, I would highly recommend it... Unless you are easily offended, or one of the McCann's!!!

Stewart Lee was on after a 20 minute interval following Herr Wehn. He was brilliant, as expected. His rapier like, satirist's wit initially employed to humiliate and expose a blatant and wholly unfair loyalty card based administrative error at Cafe Nero that led to him being denied his rightful free coffee... "ABSOLUTE CORPORATE IDIOCY!"

He went on to explain why 38 year old Scotch* comedian Frankie Boyle was right to describe all 40 year old-plus comedians as being "too old for stand up comedy". They lacked the anger of the younger satirists such as 38 year old Boyle. Quite right explains Lee. Just 18 months ago, Lee (now 41), would have been aghast and livid at the haunted status of the Queen's vagina. But now, at the grand old age of two score and one he is, at best, ambivalent about it. Frankie Boyle on the other hand is infuriated about the situation (as you will be aware if you've seen his act).

Best quote of the night, the inverse Daily Mail style quote, "If there's one thing I hate it's Emigrants". This was from a section of the act about how, those who emigrate (to, say, the former colony of New Vancouver-Zealand-Frisco) often claim a higher standard of living can be found. But, on deeper investigation, it often boils down to little more than the availability of MASSIVE PRAWNS. Massive prawns = quality of life. MASSIVE PRAWNS, five times the size of your ludicrous British prawns..quality of life, prawns... etc.

Ok, I'm still a bit drunk and shouldn't be blogging in this state. A proper review can be found via the link below; may add more tomorrow if my alcohol addled brain allows any more lucid recollection of tonight's events.

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/theatre-musicals-national/stewart-lee-if-you-prefer-a-milder-comedian-please-ask-for-one/1300501/

Gute Nacht!

* Before any non-Stewart Lee fans point out that it should be Scots not Scotch... I do know, honest!