"Did Greg Davies butter his legs to squeeze into leather trousers? - Would I Lie to You?

Watch for Alex Jones's bizarre comment at the end... What bizarre things did you do with vegetables in your teens?

Honest but maybe not the ideal best man's speech

David Mitchell with a few home truths

Victoria Wood R.I.P. The Ballad of Barry and Freda (Let's Do It)

Victoria Wood R.I.P

Not trendy, not cutting edge but very very funny.

This is her finest song 

But also look up dinnerladies, a much underrated comedy tour de force.

Beware of small offices...

Mitchell and Webb and a small office

Jimmy Carr's First Major TV performance

Jimmy Carr's First Major TV performance

"Was that the last time you slept with an older woman?"

James Corden car poolswith Rod Stewart - "God bless you, Rod Stewart"

Paul Chowdhry is unlikely to get on to any BBC comedy panel shows

Paul Chowdhry is unlikely to get on to any BBC comedy panel shows; his colour is acceptable but his views & jokes are nowhere near left wing enough.

Jeremy Taylor: "I am a Liberal Man"

https://youtu.be/Ga4oFHu2h

Skewering lefty liberals... Somehow I doubt he'll ever get air time on the BBC

Tim Minchin only lasts for 3 minutes

My BMW won't work at night

A funny South African sketch...

Lance Percival RIP

Lance Percival has passed away, here's how I first heard of him.

And here he is from a 1963 TW3 sketch

A liitle Frasier for Rosh Hashonah

Frasier Crane speaks Klingon instead of Hebrew at his son's Bar Mitzvah.


Shana Tova everybody... But you should really be getting ready for schul now!

Joan Rivers RIP

Joan Rivers on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show from 1986

A challenge not taken up

Over on Biased BBC there are some pro-BBC types, who may or not be paid by the BBC in some way, who love to attack the other commenters on the blog but rarely produce much in the way of evidence. There's one particular one who goes by the handle 'Scott' who gets a lot of stick for picking on low-hanging fruit in discussions in an attempt to derail the discussion.

Almost a month ago there was a Biased-BBC about the BBC 'comedian' Marcus Brigstock and how his 'humour' was of the easy targets left-wing variety. In the comments I challenged Scott to a game:

Let’s play a game: I’ll name a left wing comedian who gets regular airtime on the BBC to air his/her left of centre views. You then name a right wing comedian who gets similar airtime.

I’ll start – Mark Steel – nary a slot of his goes by without an attack on the Tories or a disparaging mention of Thatcher or an insult aimed at Daily Mail readers or UKIP…

Your first example of a right wing comedian given a similar amount of airtime to Mark Steel is…?

 Scott never responded, here's how that thread petered out

 

So come on Scott or any other BBC defender, let's play comedian political affiliations.  I've started with Mark Steel, who's your first right-of-centre political comedian? Just one needed... If you do find one, I've got a long list of left-wing political comedians to choose from for my number two (allusion intended). Have you?

So why become a teacher?

Armstrong and Miller have some common reasons...

Think on these as the long summer holidays, for children and teachers, start.

QI on flying and accents

Quite interesting, indeed!

Maths CGSE Unit 3 exam tomorrow? Here's what might be happening behind you...

Armstrong and Miller again...

Maths GCSE Unit 2 exam tomorrow? Here's what might be happening behind you in the exam hall...

Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller there...

Rik Mayall R.I.P.

So sad, so very sad, at the news of Rik Mayall's death. He was part of my growing up, he made me laugh so much in The Young Ones and The New Statesman and prior to that as one half of The Dangerous Brothers and 20th Century Coyote.

But most of all, he was Flashheart in Blackadder, here's his best two appearances in that series...



Lord Flashheart's appearance at Blackadder's wedding - 2minutes and 48 seconds of a force of nature scene stealing and all with a half falling off moustache.

"Thanks bridesmaid, like the beard. Gives me something to hang onto!"

"She's got a tongue like an electric eel and she likes the taste of a man's tonsils!"


And as Squadron Commander Flashheart...


"Have you any idea what it's like to have the wind rushing through your hair? He has..."


And from later in that series of Blackadder:

Flashheart: Enter the man who has no underwear. Ask me why.

Others: Why do you have no underwear, Lord Flash?

Flashheart: Because the pants haven't been built yet that'll take the job on.

Finally from The New Statesman, a series that inccluded some dark satire as well as silliness:
 Alan B'Stard: Why should we, the country that produced Shakespeare, Christopher Wren - and those are just the people on our banknotes for Christ's sake - cower down to the countries that produced Hitler, Napoleon, the Mafia, and the... the... The Smurfs!

Live or on screen Rik Mayall was simply funny.


I'll leave the last word to his long term collaborator Ade Edmondson

There were times when Rik and I were writing together when we almost died laughing. They were some of the most carefree stupid days I ever had, and I feel privileged to have shared them with him. And now he's died for real. Without me. Selfish bastard.

—Ade Edmondson^[37]

Maths GCSE tomorrow? This may be what's happening behind you in the exam hall...

Alexander Armstrong demonstrating what exam invigilators get up to...