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ALL FINGERS AND THUMBS

THE rule of thumb that can be applied to virtually all new TV series states that the number of trailers they get is inversely proportionate to their actual merit.

And never was that better illustrated than in the case of FIST OF FUN (BBC 2).

Here’s yet another idea moved over from radio in the mistaken belief that if Stewart Lee and Richard Herring work well in one medium they will automatically do so in the other. They don’t.

Radio comedy is usually an accompaniment to something else and if it starts to flag then it is a simple matter mentally to switch off for a while.

Television demands a conscious effort to sit down and concentrate on the images and sounds on the screen and is therefore far less forgiving.

Fist of Fun rarely rises above the humour level of an early-teens comic and the only reason I stayed with it was out of curiosity as to when we would finish with the preliminaries and the funny bits would begin. I’m still waiting.

- Chris Rundle's review of Fist of Fun in the Western Daily Press, Wednesday the 12th of April, 1995. As featured (and mocked) on Fist of Fun s1e4.

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bonus bit from Tree

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Back in the day (aka the 90’s), there was a BBC comedy show called ‘This Morning With Richard Not Judy’, hosted by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. It featured a segment called ‘When Insects Attack’ which was a spoof of over-the-top US shows like ‘When Animals Attack’. You can see a couple of the segments on YouTube, along with its successor ‘When Things Get Knocked Over Spill or Fall Out of Cupboards’.

The narrator/host of this segment was Mark Gatiss, in the guise of the over-dramatic Greg Evigan. Which is really funny enough in itself because Mark being hammy in an American accent is always a thing made of win, but even better is this YouTube video, which is a whole 14 minute long voiceover recording from a production session including Mark chuckling to himself in between takes and the odd flubbed line.

Each segment ended with a different version of Mark saying ‘I made this!’ a la the 10/13 production company credits, so the last minute of the recording is just him giggling and running through all the different ways you can think of saying those three words. It’s difficult to explain quite why I find this so hilarious, but it amuses me greatly and is attached.

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“Oh ladies, when you are staring at the mirror in despair and none of your clothes seem appropriate, don’t worry. Relax. Put the kettle on. It might suit you! And in any case, when one is wearing a kettle, the rest of one’s clothes seldom attract comment.”

— Simon Munnery, The League Against Tedium

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this clip of 22-year-old alex horne proves that alex horne has always been so very alex horney

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They had to make a joke about sleeping together at least once for every 30 mins of programming produced or they’d die

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The Alternative Comedy Experience | S02E01

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Krishnan Guru-Murthy: So when you talked about fascism in your last column… You meant it?

Stewart Lee: Oh yeah, I'm calling it what it is, absolutely.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: You think that's where we're heading?

Stewart Lee: People are pussyfooting around this idea, you know. People are being deported wrongly from the States to an El Salvador jail, without due process. What's that? Trump is doing deals for resources with dictators. You know, it's… It absolutely is that. And we have to call it that, and we have to act in the way that we should have done more quickly in the '30s.

Channel 4's Ways to Change the World

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41 minute podcast with stewart lee just released on channel 4's youtube

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Ways to Change the World | Channel 4 News

Transcript under the cut.

Stewart Lee: "Something is clearly attractive about callousness and cruelty at this point in history that is allowing those sorts of people to flourish in politics, journalism and entertainment."

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: "So what's the difference between what you're doing in that bit and what Ricky Gervais is doing?"

Stewart Lee: "I'm dressed as a werewolf." [Laughs]