Radio Comedy

[amateur51]

Does (did?) Ivor Cutler count as comedy?

In this house he does

[EdgeleyRob]

To me, 'laughable' isn't about humour ('funny' is); it usually has an underlying sense of contempt or derision.

[Cf the original context for my question.]

Laughable, that's the word I was looking for originally.

[Lateralthinking1]

To me, 'laughable' isn't about humour ('funny' is); it usually has an underlying sense of contempt or derision.

[Cf the original context for my question.]

Yes I completely agree but I am not sure that it means 'contempt' can't be funny. I often find Ian Hislop funny. Perhaps we need to separate out satire, lampooning etc. Those often come from a sense of being powerless in relation to the powerful and feeling a need to redress the balance. There is also amusement in those who in situ are contemptuous and yet seen to be blustering - Captain Mainwaring, Basil Fawlty. Because they are more preposterous than threatening, you can laugh at them or with them but there is an element of affection. I am not keen on cruelty in comedy although it is difficult to define and most might draw the line in a different place. For example, I recognise the cartoonist Steve Bell as really excellent but he is too severe at times for me.

The number of stand up comedians I like is quite small. As soon as someone says "I am going to be a funny person" I feel slightly self-conscious. They have to be really good to capture my imagination but when they are I tend to be very keen on them. Often more satisfying is a sketch which leaves you feeling not merely amused but almost as if it has encapsulated a detail of our ordinary lives. That is reassuring and even cosy. But there are so many areas - funny faces, clever wordplay, the utterly bizarre. All of those things can frequently reach me. I am the sort of person who is inclined to doom-laden moroseness and yet laughs a lot.

[Lateralthinking1]

....If I stick to BBC Radio, Hancock's Half Hour is my all-time favourite. Tony Hancock is the ultimate anti-hero in my book. The absolute best whatever he was in real life. I also love Dad's Army, Round the Horne - actually anything with Kenneth Williams who was exceptional and never even nearly equalled by imitators, and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. I completely agree with John's comments about Jack Dee. He is quite brilliant. I like Steptoe and Son. I have a soft spot for some quite corny things like The Glums and The Men From The Ministry. I did like Les Dawson a lot - a man of great depth and shallowness.

My appreciation of Just a Minute is dependent on the guests. Paul Merton is always good though. Ditto Sheila Hancock. The News Quiz is also a bit "depends on the guests" for me - Toksvig, Hardy and Hamilton though are all sound. I really like Count Arthur Strong, a marmite programme if ever there was one. I like Milton Jones, Tom Wrigglesworth and Ed Reardon. I quite like Mark Steel. I have some respect for Marcus Brigstocke. I like the wit of Clive James. Ivor Cutler certainly. This is probably the tip of quite a big iceberg. The huge number of programmes I don't find funny I usually switch off and then tend to forget.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Breakfast and in tune are quite funny!

Screamingly so, particularly the latter in the hands of Mr Rafferty

[amateur51]

I greatly enjoyed Newfangle which lasted but a season, sadly ;sadface:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfangle

Fags, Mags And Bags has gone into 3 series and is nicely chucklesome

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fbnb7

while Goodness Gracious Me lived more dangerously and moved to television and then gave birth to The Kumars At Number 42

I agree wholeheartedly about the marmitiness of Count Arthur Strong, Lats - please count me as a fan

[Curalach]

I rather like Marmite but I do find Count Arthur Strong to be the most cringemakingly awful attempt at radio comedy. Instant switch-off!

[Anna]

Does anyone remember Linda Smith? Brief History of Timewasting and panellist.

I find the current R4 'sitcom' comedy shows awful. I prefer the tried and tested: ISIHAC, News Quiz, The Now Show, Just a Minute, etc. Of the golden oldies on R4X Round the Horne never dates, I listen mainly for Julian and Sandy even though I've heard a thousand times before and I also like Radio Active. Arthur Strong is unlistenable to.

[johncorrigan]

What's the difference between 'funny' and 'laughable'?

Pardon me if someone has already said this, but we used to have an expression at school ' Very funny but not laughable'. It was slightly derisory of a joke (and the teller) that didn't quite make it - couldn't us kids be cruel?

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm not a Radio 4 listener, but i listen to occasional programmes and podcasts if my attention is drawn to them. I was brought up on 'Men from the Ministry' and then 'Quote Unquote'... and of course "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue" which I have listened to on and off over the years - some of which was truly inspired humour. The first post-Humph one hosted by S Fry Esq was pretty special - I've listened to that several times on the old iPod

The only comedy shows currently are those mentioned by members here from time to time - Cabin Pressure (good stuff, inc the incomparable Allam ), and the one I've liked most, Ed Reardon's Week I would have thought the latter would have been a big hit here, but no one seems to have mentioned it yet. I think it was vinteuil who recommended it to me

[french frank]

the one I've liked most, Ed Reardon's Week I would have thought the latter would have been a big hit here,

They've lost their chance now after they lampooned the current Radio 3 - deadly accurate (including the Name That Instrument quiz), unlike the tired old Dead Ringers joke which was part of a humorous sketch on the Third Programme's opening night in 1946.

[Bryn]

Was it on R3 or R4 that Peter Cook used to interview Sir Arthur Streeb-Grebling and John Sessions did a programme about the reminiscences of Clara Schumann?

A-ha #1, wiki tell us that Sir Arthur was a life-long project of Peter Cook and he did appear on R3 in a series called Why Bother?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Bother%3F

A-ha #2 wiki also tells us that:

"On radio, Sessions guested in December 1997 on the regular BBC Radio 3 show Private Passions, presented by Michael Berkeley, not as himself but as a 112-year-old Viennese percussionist called Manfred Sturmer, who told anecdotes (about Brahms, Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg and others) so realistically that some listeners did not realise that the whole thing was a hoax.[citation needed] Other Sessions creations appeared on Berkeley's show in subsequent years."

Blimey I was almost identically wrong in both cases

I well remember making a point of tuning in to all five Why Bother? broadcasts, and indeed drawing attention to their availability on YouTube during an earlier discussion on the old Radio 3 message boards. Essential listening, all five.

[Nick Armstrong]

They've lost their chance now after they lampooned the current Radio 3 - deadly accurate (including the Name That Instrument quiz)

That was the first episode I ever heard - and I was hooked

[amateur51]

Does anyone remember Linda Smith? Brief History of Timewasting and panellist.

I find the current R4 'sitcom' comedy shows awful. I prefer the tried and tested: ISIHAC, News Quiz, The Now Show, Just a Minute, etc. Of the golden oldies on R4X Round the Horne never dates, I listen mainly for Julian and Sandy even though I've heard a thousand times before and I also like Radio Active. Arthur Strong is unlistenable to.

Linda Smith, one of the comedy greats, I agree Anna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG06XI8O58o

[Northender]

Ed Reardon, yes - how could I have forgotten?
From the past: Delve; People Like Us (Chris Langham); The Day Today and/or On The Hour (Chris Morris).