#Alan Coren

[hislopchino]

An episode of The News Quiz with Ian Hislop, Paul Merton, Richard Ingrams, Alan Coren as the panellists and Barry Took as the host.

[shelbycarpenter]

[petercushingscheekbones]

whenever I feel sad, overwhelmed, stressed or plain disgusted with life I watch some unhinged British TV (especially comedy panels and shows)

No cure like that

[ra-assputin]

I mean it when I say that Taskmaster UK series 12.04 is THEE best episode of taskmaster.

it's got the best Greg intro, and the best alex skit. Victoria Coren-Mitchell gets penalised for making a pun and learns to ride a bike during a task. Morgana has a breakdown, Guz has a revelation and Desiree gets high beamed in the crotch. And Alan Davies briefly looks cool.

What's not to love

[1-800-crystalball]

Desiree: What’s something you guys are better than Victoria at?

Alan: Mario Kart.

Guz: Yeah, video games.

Morgana: Emotional vulnerability.

[fofi42]

Unbroadcastable banter | QI

[thatnerdinthecorner]

@partywithponies

[sarahlancashire]

top 5 recently watched? (movies or tv series)

midsomer murders

bluey

under the bridge (ik it's still airing so i haven't technically finished watching it but whatever)

series twelve of taskmaster

palm royale

ask me my top fives

[bronzeandsage]

Send 🎵 plus a muse and I will share a song from their playlist & some lyrics that stand out.

'Could it be that somebody else is Looking into my mind

Some other place, somewhere… Some other time'

The golden orb rolled gently over Coren's hands as the swirling sands continued to ever ebb and flow. As the sands turned so did the light in his eyes as he kept his vigil over his new ward, no matter the mundane or unscrupulous it was all as it should be.

For now.

@safrona-shadowsun

[mapetitefeedeslilas]

Reading this three years later is so weird! I love that some of these people were on the show, but damn does it hurt to read Sean Lock's name. 🐯 🍺 🤍

Since apparently someone up there listens to my prayers and we will be having Victoria Coren-Mitchell and Alan Davies in the 12th season of Taskmaster, I might just drop the list of my dream participants

Tom Allen: he’ll probably beat the record for the biggest amount of meltdowns and I’m here for it

Maisie Adams: she is incredibly sweet and hilarious and I have the feeling she would come out with some genius ideas

Richard Ayoade: honestly I just love him

Bill Bailey: he’s talented, resourceful and clever…and I want him to play the main theme during every episode, always adapted in a different genre

Fern Brady: pure chaotic evil

Gyles Brandreth: he’ll probably complete no task at all and spend the whole time telling Alex stories about his life, but it would be entertaining anyway

Kevin Bridges: he would disagree with any of Greg’s decisions

Susan Calman: she is too adorable for this world and always brights up the room

Alison Hammond: YES. Just yes

Cariad Lloyd: she gives me some strong Sally Phillips-madness vibes

Sean Lock: he’ll probably burn the house down. Still, I want to watch him cursing and flipping out at tasks for ten episodes.

Jason Manford: he emanates hopeless and helpless dad’s vibes

Siobhán McSweeney: same as for Richard Ayoade, I love her and I just want to watch her compete

David Mitchell: now that his husband and his wife have both been/will be part of the cast, I think it’s his turn. Make taskmaster posh and repressed again, David!

Diane Morgan: she will either be astonishingly good or an hilarious catastrophy

Dara Ó Briain and Ed Byrne in the same season bickering like an old married couple

Sandi Toksvig: I want to see her arguing with herself on what could be the smartest way to solve the tasks

Sindhu Vee: she would probably terrorise Alex and I have the feeling she would do pretty well in the competition

Claudia Winkleman: I love chaos and Claudia is chaos and sweetness bottled up

[panelshowsource]

so many fun things coming up!

qi (series u/christmas special) — dec 18th with alan davies, eshaan akbar, jo brand, jimmy carr

never mind the buzzcocks (christmas special) — dec 19th with daisy may cooper, jamali maddix, noel fielding, harry hill, leigh-anne pinnock (little mix), ricky wilson (kaiser chiefs) + special guests dj luck and mc neat, 5ive, the wurzels, blaxin' squad

cats does countdown (christmas special) — dec 21st with jon richardson, joe lycett, roisin conaty, danny dyer, joe wilkinson

i literally just told you (celebrity special) — dec 22nd with aj odudu, ben shephard, bill bailey, sarah millican

would i lie to you (christmas special) — dec 22nd with victoria coren mitchell, alex brooker, naga munchetty, melvyn hayes

big fat quiz of the year 2023 — dec 26th with richard ayoade, mo gilligan, katherine ryan, rosie joes, kevin bridges, mel giedroyc

would i lie to you (series 17) — dec 29th

taskmaster (new year treat) — jan 2nd with deborah meaden, kojey radical, lenny rush, steve backshall, zoe ball

qi (series u) — jan 5th with alan davies, aisling bea, urzila carlson, romesh ranganathan

big fat quiz of telly 2023 — tba with russell howard, babatunde aléshé, jamie demetriou, natasia demetriou, judi love, daisy may cooper

plus a league of their own, rob & romesh vs, late night lycett, a lot!!

what are you excited for this holiday season? :)

[galactic-academia]

There is a fury to Terry Pratchett’s writing: it’s the fury that was the engine that powered Discworld. It’s also the anger at the headmaster who would decide that six-year-old Terry Pratchett would never be smart enough for the 11-plus; anger at pompous critics, and at those who think serious is the opposite of funny; anger at his early American publishers who could not bring his books out successfully.

The anger is always there, an engine that drives. By the time Terry learned he had a rare, early onset form of Alzheimer’s, the targets of his fury changed: he was angry with his brain and his genetics and, more than these, furious at a country that would not permit him (or others in a similarly intolerable situation) to choose the manner and the time of their passing.

And that anger, it seems to me, is about Terry’s underlying sense of what is fair and what is not. It is that sense of fairness that underlies Terry’s work and his writing, and it’s what drove him from school to journalism to the press office of the SouthWestern Electricity Board to the position of being one of the best-loved and bestselling writers in the world.

It’s the same sense of fairness that means that, sometimes in the cracks, while writing about other things, he takes time to punctiliously acknowledge his influences – Alan Coren, for example, who pioneered so many of the techniques of short humour that Terry and I have filched over the years; or the glorious, overstuffed, heady thing that is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and its compiler, the Rev E Cobham Brewer, that most serendipitious of authors. Terry once wrote an introduction to Brewer’s and it made me smile – we would call each other up in delight whenever we discovered a book by Brewer we had not seen before (“’Ere!’ Have you already got a copy of Brewer’s A Dictionary of Miracles: Imitative, Realistic and Dogmatic?”)

Terry’s authorial voice is always Terry’s: genial, informed, sensible, drily amused. I suppose that, if you look quickly and are not paying attention, you might, perhaps, mistake it for jolly. But beneath any jollity there is a foundation of fury. Terry Pratchett is not one to go gentle into any night, good or otherwise.

He will rage, as he leaves, against so many things: stupidity, injustice, human foolishness and shortsightedness, not just the dying of the light. And, hand in hand with the anger, like an angel and a demon walking into the sunset, there is love: for human beings, in all our fallibility; for treasured objects; for stories; and ultimately and in all things, love for human dignity.

Or to put it another way, anger is the engine that drives him, but it is the greatness of spirit that deploys that anger on the side of the angels, or better yet for all of us, the orangutans.

Terry Pratchett is not a jolly old elf at all. Not even close. He’s so much more than that. As Terry walks into the darkness much too soon, I find myself raging too: at the injustice that deprives us of – what? Another 20 or 30 books? Another shelf-full of ideas and glorious phrases and old friends and new, of stories in which people do what they really do best, which is use their heads to get themselves out of the trouble they got into by not thinking? Another book or two of journalism and agitprop? But truly, the loss of these things does not anger me as it should. It saddens me, but I, who have seen some of them being built close-up, understand that any Terry Pratchett book is a small miracle, and we already have more than might be reasonable, and it does not behoove any of us to be greedy.

I rage at the imminent loss of my friend. And I think, “What would Terry do with this anger?” Then I pick up my pen, and I start to write.

Extracted from Neil Gaiman’s introduction to A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-fiction by Terry Pratchett

[eaglesnick]

“Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.” Alan Coren

What is it about the present crop of British politicians?

We have Starmer and his colleagues bending over backwards and performing all sorts of verbal contortions in their attempts to avoid any form of criticism of President Trump. The whole world knows Trump is a vindictive bully surrounded by dangerous right-wing ideologues but Starmer cannot bring himself to say one word against them in public.

Kemi Badenoch issued a stark warning AGAINST imposing reciprocal tariffs on American goods despite Trump's tariffs threatening to cripple our own economy. She also refused to condemn Trumps  "ethnic cleansing" plans for Gaza.

Neither leader seems to have any moral backbone, both seemingly prepared to roll over meekly and accept whatever mad brain, bullying scheme Trump imposes on the world next.

This lack of moral compass and the resulting inaction in face of Trump's bullying attacks has seen a surge in support for Reform UK and Nigel Farage.

"Reform UK has made a significant breakthrough in the latest polling, surpassing Labour with 27% support." (World Magazine: 13/03/13)

This is hardly surprising given Starmer's repeated breaking of pledges and his willingness to take money from the poorest and most vulnerable in our society to pay for increased defence spending while leaving the rich untouched.

The electorate, however, will be making the same mistake that was made when popular support went to the lying, morally bankrupt, Boris Johnson.

Whereas Farage’s image as a man who speaks “common sense” is appealing, and whereas Johnson and Farage are both masters of the ten-second sound bite, like Johnson before him, there is no substance behind Farage’s clever rhetoric.

What is worse, as far as Farage is concerned, is that he is totally delusional when it comes to his own egotistical interpretation of the world.  This was amply demonstrated during an interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday.

This is a headline from the BBC at the beginning of the year:

"Musk says Farage 'doesn’t have what it takes' to be leader." (BBC News: 05/01/25)

Following Musk's call for Farage to step down as leader of Reform UK, Farage faced further rejection when Trump declined to invite him to the President's inauguration. This left Farage stranded after travelling to America solely to attend the event.

Fast-forward to last Sunday and Forage’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg and we find how Farage squares his humiliating US rejection within his own head.

“Nigel Farage claims Elon Musk was 'trying to encourage him' by calling for him to be sacked." (Independent: 14/04/25)

A slap in the face is a slap in the face. It is one thing for Starmer not to criticise Trump and his administration, quiet another for Farage to justify the bullying tactics of a madman and his right-wing political cronies and to contort the truth to fit his own egotistical interpretation of events.

But wait! Isn’t that exactly what Donald Trump is doing to the world?

[petercushingscheekbones]

I think it’s obvious that one of the things I find most attractive in a person is a good sense of humour, evidenced by the number of comedians I have crushes on

[brinnanza]

I've been scooting through old series of taskmaster for something ot have on while I crochet and I know I say this about many women but victoria coren mitchell is absolutely unhinged and I am obsessed with her the way she just bullies her way through the entire riddle task without consulting alan about anything chef's kiss what a woman marry me david can come too I guess

[1-800-crystalball]

taskmaster s12 but context was never an option. i am also unapologetically crushing on victoria coren mitchell