I'll answer my own question and see if anyone agrees. What counts as comedy nowadays?.....

Unfunny (but think they're funny) comedians on panel shows agreeing with each other and sneering on more than one half of the country and the silent majority.

My ex girlfriend loved this types of shows Rich. I remember watching Dave Gorman with her, when he said is political views are right of centre he got boos from the audience. Before he was explaining why. The audience is mainly white middle class.

She loved 9 Out of 10 Cats doing Countdown. When Sean Lock chose the EU as a mascot. The audience applauded with the camera panning over the audience members. Again the audience looked mostly white and middle class with designer frames.

A lot of the old school comedians were from the were working class and had working class routes.

Now comedians all seem to be from the South with posh backgrounds. I doubt many of them have real life experiences. Many of comedians went to university and did theatre and comedy clubs and their mindsets are still stuck there.

I still don't the appeal of Peter Kay. He started in show business at a young age.

If you are white and working class the elite hate you Rich. Comedians are bit like MPs they are stuck in a bubble, none of them have experiences in life, and comedians are still stuck in their university mindset.

There was a time when comedians were working class and they never forgot their roots, also many comedians are now scared to be edgy in case people call them racist on X or Facebook.

I have noticed that Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr have toned down their jokes in recent years. Yet, they attack religion but it's never Islam or Judaism.

You can burn the Bible but burn the Quran police will be involved.

I liked Dave Gorman's take on the world. I had no idea of his politics and to be fair neither did I care. I used to love watching Friday and then Saturday Night Live on Channel 4 with Ben Elton and he was always having a go at "Mrs Thatch" as I think he sometimes referred to her. Funnily enough I don't recall much Kinnock kicking, but I suppose she was the one in power. Back then in the late 80's these kind of biases never crossed my mind or that it was slanted mostly one way. It didn't seem so obvious if it was then.

I watched all these more recent shows, including Have I Got News For You and The Last Leg, the two biggest offenders in my book. Have I Got News For You was already clapped out years ago anyway but I indulged it now and again.

Then came 2016. In the months and year after that I remember watching The Last Leg one evening and it all suddenly hit me as if by magic. They were not just taking the piss out of people like me but held serious disdain, basically for a vast section of the audience. I soon realised they were all at it and that was the end of them all for me almost overnight. I've never watched any of these shows again. Not because they are saying something I disagree with, but because they fully dismiss those of us with alternate opinions who won our arguments, and showed nothing but groupthink contempt for vast swathes of very good people across the entire UK. Why would you watch people doing that at you week after week without balance.

From what I can deduce from recent events in America they haven't learnt a thing and they are mostly very quiet on the current Government while still furiously attacking the opposition.

Almost none of these "comedians" seem to be good enough or big enough to be given their own comedy shows nowadays, so they all have to bunch together in the safety of panel shows where they snigger at each other.

I steer clear of it all. I find many of today's comedians unfunny, patronising and a deliberate and tacky attempt to be 'outrageous' so their team of publicists can get headlines. Never watched HIGNFY since they sacked Angus Deayton for having a private life. Many of the new shows are as funny as a hernia from what I've seen. Thank God many of the old Ealing comedies have now been remastered. Yes, I'm a boring old bugger. Lol.

HIGNFY has been unfunny for years, and there is something about Hislop that I find unnerving. I am not sure why; it's probably because of what he knows, but he does not want to bite the hand that feeds him.

When the panels were attacking Angus, it was unfunny and pathetic.HIGNFY was good when it took no prisoners now there has always been a left-wing bias, it's more blatant that there are scriptwriters like the late-night talk shows in the USA, who are lost with their scriptwriters it showed during lockdown.

I do remember when I saw Clive Anderson in a pub where I was working, the barman gave Clive the banter back it was a very funny back and forth. Clive got off on it, Bee Gees were humourless fools when they walked off. If you give an insult back to Clive Anderson he will love you for it.

Banter is no longer acceptable because people take it the wrong way. People should know what banter is and what an insult is. I am sure there are more and more people on the spectrum - or maybe the figures are the same, we are just more aware of autism. Roy Chubby Brown is finding it tricky to get big theatre bookings. There is nothing racist about him he is just crude. I am sure theatres would love to ban Ricky Gervais but is he too big to get cancelled and theatre managers will lose thousands of pounds.

I don't think Jim Davidson is banned from theatres like he says he is, he does not have anything new to say IMHO, he probably no longer sells out like he used to, probably losing the theatre's money. Everyone has a sell-by date.

Roy Chubby Brown not my cup of char I'm afraid. Recently saw Mick Miller on you tube from a recent tour. Old school but not vulgar or political. Just very funny. Jim Davidson I never found funny. Not due to offence I hasten to add, but thought his material was rubbish. Lol.

Like you GM

Green Man wrote:
HIGNFY has been unfunny for years, and there is something about Hislop that I find unnerving. I am not sure why; it's probably because of what he knows, but he does not want to bite the hand that feeds him.

When the panels were attacking Angus, it was unfunny and pathetic.HIGNFY was good when it took no prisoners now there has always been a left-wing bias, it's more blatant that there are scriptwriters like the late-night talk shows in the USA, who are lost with their scriptwriters it showed during lockdown.

I do remember when I saw Clive Anderson in a pub where I was working, the barman gave Clive the banter back it was a very funny back and forth. Clive got off on it, Bee Gees were humourless fools when they walked off. If you give an insult back to Clive Anderson he will love you for it.

Banter is no longer acceptable because people take it the wrong way. People should know what banter is and what an insult is. I am sure there are more and more people on the spectrum - or maybe the figures are the same, we are just more aware of autism. Roy Chubby Brown is finding it tricky to get big theatre bookings. There is nothing racist about him he is just crude. I am sure theatres would love to ban Ricky Gervais but is he too big to get cancelled and theatre managers will lose thousands of pounds.

I don't think Jim Davidson is banned from theatres like he says he is, he does not have anything new to say IMHO, he probably no longer sells out like he used to, probably losing the theatre's money. Everyone has a sell-by date.


I wonder if the Bee Gees ever realised they'd completely misunderstood Clive Anderson, and maybe even contacted him afterwards. He was clearly very much a big fan of theirs. It pays to research and understand what you are asked to appear on. Maurice didn't really want to walk off that day but felt he had to. When he passed so suddenly and unexpectedly young in January 2003 I remember Clive Anderson being on Radio 2 that weekend it happened and being very respectful about them.

Regards HIGNFY, scripted to within an inch of its life, I'd love to see a totally cold unscripted live edition of that done ad lib. That would show how fast they could really think on their feet, and they probably couldn't and would bomb.

Al Gershwin wrote:
Like you GM


You're biggest comic going!

im Davidson I never found funny. Not due to offence I hasten to add, but thought his material was rubbish. Lol

I thought he was quite witty in the early 90s but when I saw at a charity function he was just obnixous to be around and listen to. He swore at fans and drove off at the event because a kid asked for an autograph. This was about 2001.

He is well known in the West Country and was very rude to a shop assistant in a charity shop of all places.

People say Dennis Waterman was rude to fans but he never showed any rudeness to my sister nor was he flirty where she worked. I guess she didn't ask him silly questions, bothered with autographs nor spoke about Minder or The Sweeney. Dennis Waterman was another actor who saw acting as work.


I wonder if the Bee Gees ever realised they'd completely misunderstood Clive Anderson, and maybe even contacted him afterwards. He was clearly very much a big fan of theirs. It pays to research and understand what you are asked to appear on. Maurice didn't really want to walk off that day but felt he had to. When he passed so suddenly and unexpectedly young in January 2003 I remember Clive Anderson being on Radio 2 that weekend it happened and being very respectful about them.

What I liked about Clive Anderson is what you see is what you get. I thought he was joy to meet and briefly chat to. The barman did most of the chatting, Anderson loves to banter and joke around, Bee Gees were up themselves it was pathetic on their part.

I love how he gave Cher and Branson a roasting.

I vaguely remember the to and throw with Jeffery Archer, that what was Clive was like in person.

Roy Chubby Brown not my cup of char I'm afraid. Recently saw Mick Miller on you tube from a recent tour.

I am not keen on both of them.

I do Larry the Cable Guy joke about Vegas. However, I do like it when a classic bands say "Here's one off our new album".

Molly Hatchet are still going but sadly all the orginal members have died. Bobby Ingram paid about $20.000 or so buy the name.

Tell me that Larry The Cable Guy thumbnail still image in your post GM doesn't look the spitting image of Johnny Vegas. I thought it was!


One of my favourite newly written comedies of the past 20 years or so has been Julia Davis in Nighty Night. I watched that again recently on iPlayer. More recently only Friday Night Dinner is noteworthy as a longer running comedy, and now they've lost one of the main actors. ITV did something I quite liked not too long back called Vicious with a stellar cast of McKellan, Jacobi and De La Tour but like most things it vanished as soon as it arrived.

Between BBC1 and ITV1 it's absolutely shameful that the two major terrestrial channels cannot even muster up a half decent regular comedy series. They were all over the schedules in the 1970's and 1980's at one point, and even since then, often having two different back to back comedies of a weekday evening around about 8pm.

It seems like it's easier to make people angry nowadays rather than laugh or even raise a smile at something. Things like HIGNFY appear to be lightweight humour making certain people laugh but actually they are ill disguised anger rather a lot.

ITV did something I quite liked not too long back called Vicious with a stellar cast of McKellan, Jacobi and De La Tour but like most things it vanished as soon as it arrived.

Vicious, really did have its amusing moments. I remember ITV kept mucking about with the scheduling.

I have been re-watching Rising Damp it has stood up quite well. The Yanks loved it also.

ITV and the BBC have not produced a decent sitcom in years. I loved Saxondale with Coogan, and Peep Show was great, but the last series was meh. Ade Edmondson in Teenage Kicks was diabolical. I gave up after two episodes. Ade is a very talented musician in real life.

When I look at vintage sitcoms from the 60s and 70s from America they are camp with some propaganda thrown in. I know the Yanks did their versions of On The Buses, Till Death Do Us Part, Man About The House and some feeble attempt with Fawlty Towers. None of them worked in my eyes.

Another thing ITV wasted good money on was Warren United.

If it is cheap online Larry The Cable Guy did write an amusing fictitious biography which is getting but only worth reading once.

However, you might need to be in heavy rock to get some of the gags and references. Tesla, Molly Hatchet, Kentucky Headhunters and Heart all get a mention more than once. It is too low-brow for Wyot the DSC.

www.amazon.co.uk/Git-R-Done-Larry-Cable-...ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0


I like the paragraphs stating his cousin burnt down the barn because Hee-Haw got cancelled and if NASCAR had a sponsorship from Tampons.

British comedy was always rooted in characters more than jokes. Or it used to be. Dads Army, Fawlty Towers, Rising Damp, Steptoe etc. US sitcoms are more about wisecracks and one-upmanship. Many of the old British sitcoms had characters who were terminally frustrated, pompous, making the best of their miserable lot, but always desperate to break free. Reflecting the British very well I think. I do find a lot of new comedy tries way too hard to be irreverent and is much too self conscious and often pretentious. Funny is funny. I still laught out loud at Laurel and Hardy.

Fawlty Towers! Few would agree with you; some say the best of all time....


en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawlty_Towers

Downing Street Cat wrote:
British comedy was always rooted in characters more than jokes. Or it used to be. Dads Army, Fawlty Towers, Rising Damp, Steptoe etc. US sitcoms are more about wisecracks and one-upmanship. Many of the old British sitcoms had characters who were terminally frustrated, pompous, making the best of their miserable lot, but always desperate to break free. Reflecting the British very well I think. I do find a lot of new comedy tries way too hard to be irreverent and is much too self conscious and often pretentious. Funny is funny. I still laugh out loud at Laurel and Hardy.


Very well said DSC, I agree with all of that. Some of Laurel & Hardy's earliest films are now just about a century old (yikes!) and yet they manage to make me smile, laugh and feel happy any time I see them. I watched their 1933 film Busy Bodies only about 2 weeks ago, the one with the car cut in half. I just wish the BBC would show them again. How they made people laugh and empathise with their frustrations in the 1920's and 30's still does exactly the same in the 2020's and will for as long as I can imagine decades hence. That's the genius even they may not have realised at the time themselves at the height of the fame putting out those movies.

There's another quite remarkable thing about Laurel & Hardy, and I don't think I am wrong about this, I've been trying to think it through just now to recall any obvious ones but can't, but there are none of the 'isms' in their films that obsess people nowadays. No racism, no misogeny, no homophobia, none of it, or very little if any. Things also don't play to stereotype either. The wives are often the strong side of the marriage who they the men are scared of upsetting and give them a roasting if they mess up, they are played as strong assertive independent women with lives of their own apart from their husbands. No swearing either of course.

But plenty of violence and GBH!

You have misunderstood me again. America tried to remake their version of Fawlty Towers which flopped. America remade numerous UK sitcoms for their own.

Rich wrote:
Downing Street Cat wrote:
British comedy was always rooted in characters more than jokes. Or it used to be. Dads Army, Fawlty Towers, Rising Damp, Steptoe etc. US sitcoms are more about wisecracks and one-upmanship. Many of the old British sitcoms had characters who were terminally frustrated, pompous, making the best of their miserable lot, but always desperate to break free. Reflecting the British very well I think. I do find a lot of new comedy tries way too hard to be irreverent and is much too self conscious and often pretentious. Funny is funny. I still laugh out loud at Laurel and Hardy.


Very well said DSC, I agree with all of that. Some of Laurel & Hardy's earliest films are now just about a century old (yikes!) and yet they manage to make me smile, laugh and feel happy any time I see them. I watched their 1933 film Busy Bodies only about 2 weeks ago, the one with the car cut in half. I just wish the BBC would show them again. How they made people laugh and empathise with their frustrations in the 1920's and 30's still does exactly the same in the 2020's and will for as long as I can imagine decades hence. That's the genius even they may not have realised at the time themselves at the height of the fame putting out those movies.

There's another quite remarkable thing about Laurel & Hardy, and I don't think I am wrong about this, I've been trying to think it through just now to recall any obvious ones but can't, but there are none of the 'isms' in their films that obsess people nowadays. No racism, no misogeny, no homophobia, none of it, or very little if any. Things also don't play to stereotype either. The wives are often the strong side of the marriage who they the men are scared of upsetting and give them a roasting if they mess up, they are played as strong assertive independent women with lives of their own apart from their husbands. No swearing either of course.

But plenty of violence and GBH! I think there is one L an H film in which they escape prison and 'black up' to go and work in the cotton fields. But it was funny. Hilariously so, but I'm sure there would be some no marks today who would find it offensive. The domestic violence that Oliver endured especially was brutal. lol. I think the wives even had shotguns. lol. So very very funny. Greatest double act of all timer. Bar none.