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Episode 9: Comedy Vehicle #1.6 - Comedy (2009)
212 Plays10 days ago
If ATS podcast episodes were to adopt the naming conventions of the popular nineties American Sitcom Friends, this episode would be "The One Where Dan Gets Cancelled"
After a minor misunderstanding over the conventions regarding the context of analysis and reportage vs actual bigotry, Dan gets himself into hot water (no, not the popular male only stand-up venue in the North West of England) and doubles down like a child trying to save himself from being told off by someone trying to teach him something.
Shame.
Elsewhere, Dan says things like "maybe he killed himself" in an insensitive manner, proving that his judgement of tone in comedy has been adversely affected by his absolute inability to do it himself properly. Dan and Joe also discuss Hotel based anecdotes and talk at a far greater length than they should do about an episode of television that lasts for less than half an hour. No one learns anything and Dan wishes he was was a frog who was dead, or something.
Comedy!
Recommended
Transcript
Life Chaos and Episode Delays
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Across This Universe podcast, the world's only podcast about the comedian Stuart Lee. Now, My life is in chaos at the moment. and I've got a bunch of things going on both kind of creatively, professionally, life wise um and I've gotten a bit behind with things so I'm going to level with you.
Disagreement and Reflection on Slur Use
00:01:01
Speaker
I've become turnaround with where we're at in terms of episodes. I think this one
00:01:07
Speaker
is comedy vehicle series one episode six uh comedy which is the last episode in the series i'm not going to dwell on the content of this episode too much because ah between you and i it was a while since joe and i recorded this and i've sat on it trying to find time to edit it um I've finally gotten around to that and to basically my my brain is melted. What I do know about this episode is that this is the episode where Joe and I have something of a disagreement
00:01:45
Speaker
about what is and isn't acceptable to say so what you're going to kind of hear in this episode is me and joe going through that and i'm doing my absolute best it would appear to get myself cancelled for using a slur So do enjoy that, um just be aware that Joe and I are obviously still friends, we have come to some some form of an agreement, we've both agreed that potentially I was in the wrong and I didn't exactly cover myself in glory in in the way that I quite defensively reacted to being called out for using a particular word.
00:02:25
Speaker
So yeah, do do enjoy that and obviously all the all the kind of stew related chat that comes along with
Promises of Regular Content
00:02:30
Speaker
it. um And then we we we've backed up a couple of bits and pieces after this, so you should start getting some more content um slightly more regularly, although I'm not going to make any massive promises on that front. But yeah, without further ado, this is Comedy Vehicle Series 1, Episode 6, the final episode of the series, Comedy.
Joe's Apology for Internet Issues
00:02:55
Speaker
47 seconds, Joe. yeah I realized, I realized, I'm really sorry guys. I was trying, it kind of is, I was trying to download Age of Empires 3. Yeah, okay, it is your fault. I'm recording something. I'd forgotten that my internet is dark shit.
00:03:17
Speaker
And what's quite funny, though, is that um we were talking for a good half an hour before we decided to start recording. Yeah. And then the second we started recording, we were just about to kind of get into it and you you just froze on the screen. Did I even start the the off menu?
00:03:34
Speaker
starter you did yeah so for context what we were talking about is how um terrible our intros are we sort of they're usually quite contrived where we sort of acknowledge amongst ourselves that we've started in the middle of a conversation and now we've started even though we've been talking for a while um so to to me they feel very contrived i'll come down power to this universe podcast and there's plenty of us sometimes The thing
Contrived Intros and Spontaneity
00:04:05
Speaker
is, though, you can do that, right? um and i you know I can't get sued, surely. Well, I don't know. You never know. Yeah, you can just cut it out. just I mean, does it come under fair use? I don't know. I'm parodying it. Yeah, well. Yeah, OK. If anyone from Closive or, you know, is listening to the podcast,
00:04:34
Speaker
PBJ management or whoever Ed Gamble's people are. Just know that this is with affection. Yeah. Please, it was on your podcast. This isn't this isn't a diss. And also, I'd just like to point out we are we're saying this, they will never listen to this. You never know. No, I do know. I know. I do. Of course I do. This is now the what would you class it as the we're back uh by uh popular by singular demand by singular did you notice as well did you go back onto that post on reddit i did yeah every single person misunderstood what the request was yeah it was brilliant
00:05:18
Speaker
It was brilliant. Thank you so So for context for the listener, basically what happened was, ah Joe and I have been taking a break from doing this for a while due to various kind of life things happening and, you know, other commitments. I was in Edinburgh, et etc, e etc. Lots of things got in the way. um So we haven't done one of these really since about June.
00:05:39
Speaker
um And were taking a bit of a break and we were starting to sort of slowly come back together and discuss when we were going to start up doing these again. um And I think what really gave us the push to
Inspiration from Reddit Post
00:05:55
Speaker
so kind of fully commit to to coming back and picking this up again and stop being lazy is we went on reddit or i went on reddit i'll tell you what not in fact i'm lying i'll tell you what happened was right eddie french a friend of the podcast yeah um
00:06:12
Speaker
messaged me and with just a screenshot of the topic in Reddit, which in the Stewartly Reddit, basically someone had put across the Stewniverse, more please, thank you, right? yeah That was basically, it that was the entirety of the thing.
00:06:32
Speaker
yeah But then what I said, so I took that to mean because they'd written in the exact in the exact vernacular that we we kind of have our title and stuff like that. So I think it was directed at us as far as my work. Whereas everyone else in the shoe at least a breadhead.
00:06:48
Speaker
Took this to mean, please do more ridiculous puns on Stewart Lee's name for Beatles songs and other kinds of music. Mainly Beatles songs. Yeah, mainly Beatles songs. So if you look at the threads on on Reddit, a thankfully one person did actually. And I think it was the one person that we spoke about before with Reddit.
00:07:10
Speaker
Oh, I haven't seen. I haven't seen one person had did clarify one person acknowledged it. Yeah. Yeah. And said, Oh, no, this person is a referring to the pod. Yeah. Original pop posters is referencing the podcast. Yeah. But I've got to be honest. I think it's funnier that it's misunderstood. Yeah. but Yeah. but Especially because they that they commented that and people were still posting yes great and theses anyway yeah people were completely ignoring it If you are one of someone who um posted one of them and still listens,
00:07:46
Speaker
Welcome and thank you for your service. Yeah, no, um I have to be honest. I ah prefer the misunderstanding. yeah I would prefer to think that no one wants us to come back, you know, to to steal to steal a Stewart Lee phrase, which actually comes up again in this episode, funnily enough, um that we're looking at today, is that the only thing worse than, you know, one person
Thoughts on Stuart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
00:08:13
Speaker
yeah asking for something.
00:08:15
Speaker
and I'm paraphrasing now, but the only thing worse than one person asking for us to come back is for everyone else to completely misunderstand what they're asking for. yeah im It suggests that while there may be artistic merit in what we're doing, it has a very limited commercial appeal. yeah her So that's me butchering a shoe at Lee Quilt. Today we are looking at a comedy vehicle, series one, episode six, entitled Comedy. Now, you could argue And I have argued, on many ah many occasions, that regardless of actual content and regardless of actual themes, etc, every single Stuart Lee piece of work is about comedy itself. That's right. yeah I expect that you're going to say that.
00:09:02
Speaker
well yeah because like stu um i've become i've become quite known for being dull ah and repeating myself quite a bit uh so in that in that sense i have succeeded in one of my ambitions i'm like stu at lee in one way that i'm quite boring and repeat myself a lot um but yeah like it's an interesting oneness because this is the episode that i kind of feel like every time i watch a new one of these because i haven't watched comedy vehicle series one for a long long time yeah i don't think it's the best representation of no i wasn't as uh wasn't as if i i find in my day to day i'm less attentive yeah on the ones that i'm not
00:09:54
Speaker
as bothered about. yeah I felt less attentive. i The thing is and what I'm going to do at some point, this is quite a popular thing, I may i may do this as a YouTube video or we rather may do this as a YouTube video at some point. To do my hair then. Yeah, I'll just tidy up the room behind me. I'll blur the background. and but the Have you seen one of these you seen these things that they have now where they do like a ranking of
00:10:25
Speaker
oh i still Yeah, they do like a tiered thing. The top one is like God tier and then it's great and it's good and then it's whatever. And they go down to like abjectly terrible. yeah At some point, once we kind of get to the end of this journey, slog, yeah you know quest, whatever it is that we're doing. It is finite.
00:10:50
Speaker
Well, it's finite in ah in as much as it it lasts for as long as Stuart is producing work. well yeah so But you know the gaps between episodes of the podcast will get bigger because once we catch up to it... I think there is probably a chance that we see Wolfman, Man Wolf or whatever it is. Before we've got to the end of it. Before we're finished, yeah.
00:11:14
Speaker
But then i what i I reckon is we'll get to the end of this before he does the follow-up to Manwolf. Yeah, probably. I reckon. um I know he works quickly. I know he's quite ah prolific. Yeah, because it wasn't that long. Well, it was almost immediately of him finishing basically upon when he announced Manwolf. Yeah, well, I think usually what he does, and or at least what he used to do, I don't know if he does it anymore, but he used to do a thing where He, when he went to Edinburgh, he'd do two shows. He'd do the current tour show. And then a work in progress. And a work in progress. So he'd be somewhere like ah the big room, the stand or, you know, whatever. And then he'd be in the stand one, which is like the little, the little, the place where we saw Simon Moneyme this year. ah right
00:12:05
Speaker
you know he'd be in there doing a work in progress warm up at like 10 30 in the morning or something yeah um because i was gutted actually because one year i can't remember whether it was last year or, no it can't have been last year, it must have been 2022. I think he was doing warm-ups for basically. Oh right, okay. He was doing yeah know he's doing the full tour last year, so it wasn't it wasn't last year. So yeah, me and my wife went, because I went up there to do So You Think You're Funny yeah in 2022 and me and my wife were there for a few days.
00:12:41
Speaker
and But at the time, and now having now having done my own show at 10 o'clock in the morning, yeah ah or even earlier, yeah can I can kind of see how it happens now, whereas at the time I was like 10.30 in the morning, I'm not sure I can do that. like I didn't know how I'd feel going and sitting and watching comedy at 10.30 in the morning. Was it busy? My show? No. um
00:13:06
Speaker
The one that you went to see. Stu's. I didn't go. i thought yeah ah No, that was kind of what I was getting at. I didn't all right yeah ah essentially didn't end up going. listening to you sorry nice sal like Don't worry about it. I'm used to it. Like I said, I'm very boring, Joe. like i think what I'm just not very attentive.
Personal Comedy Experiences
00:13:28
Speaker
ah like I think um may i be me being unpedicated is
00:13:38
Speaker
Well, yeah, yeah, fair enough. But I mean, you know, a little more. What are you going to think? We're probably the worst combination of people to to do this, really. Well, you're boring and I don't listen anyway. Yeah, I just I keep talking. At length and less until someone sort of tells me to stop. I do that, though. My cousin once when I was 17 turned around to me and said, Oh, sorry, I wasn't listening.
00:14:07
Speaker
And I was like, oh, it's all right. And he went, yeah, I've zoned out when you talk sometimes. Yeah, well, that's exactly what happens to me in my general life. People do that all the time, apparently. like Most people do zone out when I talk. ah Come see my hour show.
00:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, but I've got to be honest with you, Joe, a lot of that's not talking. Yeah, no, yeah, true. there's There's precious little talking and even if there is talking, there's usually something interesting visually going on on the stage to hold your interest anyway. Yeah, true. Even if the talking does get tedious, which for me it never has, how i I must have. and That's all right then. Mainly because the three the three proper times that I've watched it, I think I've been doing the tech for it. Yeah, true. Yeah, if you come and see it and then you come out to watch it. Great just doing the tech this time.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. I'll have to see what I'm doing. But anyway, right, so what we're looking at today is a comedy vehicle. series one episode six comedy and like i say um i'm quite glad to be getting to the end of series one because it's not my favorite um there's some good stuff in there i think we've we've agreed over the course of this there's there's some stuff in there that holds up there's some stuff in there that's kind of made its way in a better form into later later work and stuff so that you know there is good stuff going on and individually there's a lot of really good jokes there but i just think in terms of the way it's put together like i'm slightly different to you in the
00:15:29
Speaker
i I kind of just want to watch a block of stand up. I don't mind the later series where they get the interruptions from like Chris Morris or Amanda Yunucci or whatever as the interrogator. I don't mind those, but to stop for sketches.
00:15:44
Speaker
for me just felt a bit stop start and it kind of muddled for me what the thing was meant to be. I quite like the approach in later series of having just straight stand up the occasional thing to back up the point from the the interrogator but then having like a silent sketch at the end which is kind of you know it was was kind of the way that it went to I think series three series four it kind of got to that but the way that it happens now where you're meant to follow the thread of a stand-up, you know, half hour or whatever, slightly less, I suppose, with the sketches and then, you know, stop periodically for these sketches. I don't mind where it's just the sketch as a punchline. So a good example would be the one that we ah we most recently looked at episode five where he was talking about religion and and obviously at the end of a point he he had the sketch where it was like a literally
00:16:37
Speaker
one shot, one joke of Kevin Elden dressed as a pope sitting on a whoopee cushion. yeah And it wasn't really a sketch as much as it was just underlying the point that he was just making. I don't mind that. But where the narrative gets interrupted for me to then watch a three minute sketch about you know apples, for example, um as good as those sketches are,
00:17:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna let people know that say i'm I've been talking for quite a while and Joey's yawning. um so ah i that's Right. And I think the thing is, right, the difference between Joe and I, the the difference between Joe and I is that so I'm not, as far as I'm aware, I'm not on on the spectrum in any way, I'm not neurodiverse, as far as I think I'm neurotypical, as far as I'm aware. So I pick up on that. ah Whereas if I think if the if the roles were to be reversed and I were to start to yawn, Joe wouldn't pick up on it and just keep going.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yeah, which is which is why people zone um because I haven't realized that they're not interested. No, what I will say is right. So sometimes I'm quite conscious of this. I don't want to be rude to people. um So I will try and stifle my yawns, but they do come out nine times out of 10 when I'm yawning, it's because my life is so exhausting.
00:18:09
Speaker
yeah it's because I'm tired and not because yes exactly yeah not not because you're boring apart from that one time that I was doing a gig in Hull and a woman on the front row literally yawned in my face she literally like I clocked eyes with her because she you know when when you're on stage and you they they want to You'll always find the one person who's not into it. yeah and In fairness, in Hull, there were many who weren't into it. I could have picked from a few, but I clocked on to this woman because she had a look of just disgust on her face. and this was This was round about the time that I was doing the whole rip the shirt, eat the sausage roll thing. right yeah
00:18:50
Speaker
um and I'd just done a joke about a Tom Hardy dildo or something yeah um and I just looked over at her and she had this look of disgust on her face and then I went into the next bit whatever that might have been and and she just yawned but but it wasn't like a little sort of oh I'm tired I'm gonna stifle a little yawn it was a giant e With the hand over the mouth and going yeah like this. um Yeah, and not one of my finer moments. Try not to let it and and tried not to let him throw me, but you know, I've since developed a bit more of a self-awareness and I think it is just, I am just quite boring. So that's fair enough. Anyway, I'm not on a tone, but I want a boring.
Humor as a Sleep Aid
00:19:42
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's fine. If you're still here and awake, we are now going to sort of yeah have a little look at this comedy episode. How's this universe now available on the car map? Yeah, let us be your sleep story. yeah Don't listen to this if you're driving or operating heavy machinery. and sink yeah Yeah, so it'll be Matthew McConaughey.
00:20:09
Speaker
yeah well hello everybody yeah i fucking love that story what does he think of uh stewart lee matthew mcconaughey yeah he thinks he's all right all right all right oh no why didn't i see that coming i thought you were being sincere no what a dickhead Oh, that's three years of acting training in there. Superb. Superb. Anyway, so the opening joke.
Comedy Bravery and Firefighting
00:20:38
Speaker
Yeah, after all that second, it's only taken us 17 minutes. It normally takes longer than that. The opening joke tonight, I'm going to be talking about comedy. ah There's a kind of glib truism about comedy. People say that stand up comedy is the hardest job in the world, and it is the hardest job in the world.
00:20:56
Speaker
I used to live opposite a fire station and one day I got talking to one of the firemen and he said to me, what do you do for a living? I said stand-up comedian and he said, wow, you must be very brave. I should imagine stand-up comedy is the hardest job in the world. And I said to him, it is. And I'm glad that you, of all people, appreciate that that is the case. Right. Probably one of my least favorite opening, Stuart Lee jokes, because even before that, he starts with the what what what is now classic what what I realize as being classic opening to comedy vehicle of him. what Where it makes a count reference. Yeah, him driving, having nine points in his license. It won't be taking any risks. It won't be any it takes it taking risks at any junctions. Yeah, and I don't really count them as opening jokes, to be honest. They're just
00:21:54
Speaker
to tie into the format I suppose which is something he's said in the past where like the BBC kind of asked for this type of thing. right yeah and Which is again, you know you think about the intro, and the actual intro with the music and the clowns and the dancers and all that kind of stuff. And it's him driving a car. yeah like that's That's fine, but it's a bit on the nose. like yeah I always thought of comedy vehicle being a bit light bit more like, you know how they call
00:22:26
Speaker
like For example, Independence Day would have been a star vehicle for Will Smith or whatever. like you know They refer to exactly like Mission Impossible as a star vehicle for Tom Cruise. So you know I always thought of comedy vehicle in that term rather than literally a vehicle.
00:22:43
Speaker
yeah
00:22:46
Speaker
But no, in terms of this fireman joke, like it was all right. and It made the point and obviously it said it's kind of What it's doing is it exposing a trope, I suppose. yeah you know The trope being people think stand-up comedy is very brave, it's very difficult, it's not. ah it's It's only brave, I think, the first time.
00:23:11
Speaker
I think, like, I wouldn't even necessarily call it brave. yeah like I've got certain like certain family members like my cousin who um shout out to my cousin uh legend one of the funniest people that I know that's an odd name for a cousin he's always like oh like I think you've got guts and all this like the other and it's like it takes nothing to to walk up on stage yeah it really does
00:23:47
Speaker
Like I wouldn't say it's brave, I think it's... um Is that actually what it is, is we've got the part that in and other people's brains yeah that tells you not to do that thing. yeah We don't have that. Yeah, when you fuck up your fight or flight response by doing it. Yeah, so it's just like you just end up... Which is weird because I have fight or flight about stuff that...
00:24:16
Speaker
don't matter the yeah like I am genuinely terrified of escalators I hate them like I genuinely like they and stairs like if I if I'm carrying something I have to get my wife to carry it down the stairs because I can't carry something whilst walking downstairs.
00:24:42
Speaker
what's that um you just remember what's that I don't know. I'm sure it's something like an escalator can never be out of order, it can only become stairs.
00:24:57
Speaker
I was showing my son some Mitch Hedberg the other day, he's fucking brilliant.
Performing for Large vs. Small Crowds
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah, Mitch Hedberg's great. Sadness. but but But yeah, but I can go up and stage in front of 200 people. I mean, it's rarely 200 people, but I can. 200 is the same. 200's asking in a lot. I did it at Leicester, but that was the one night.
00:25:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to say I've i've probably been up ah on stage in front of people in the hundreds, maybe four times in in my yeah probably yeah so my time doing stand-up. The best I can usually hope for is Double Figures. Yeah, but the um Beat the Frog, I think, is... 200, 250. Yeah, I thought it was 150. I don't know. Anyway, we've done that again. We've got sidetracked. and So, like I say, it's kind of okay as a joke, but, you know, the follow-up's better, the topper. I would rather go into a burning building full of asphyxiating smoke than to have to walk out in front of 120 people in a provincial arts centre, many of whom are already kindly disposed to me because of my amusing Radio 4 panel show appearances. Has he been on Radio 4 panel shows? Years and years ago, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't think he does much these days. Well, I was thinking about, like, recently, no, but... No, no, but... Obviously at the time.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah, obviously. I think Radio 4 was much more commonplace back then. but And then it sets up, obviously, the little fireman sketch where it's just Kevin Elden and Paul Putnar watching TV yeah with the punchline, ah the po this pawn won't watch himself. Which is great. But like the funny thing about that fireman routine that I do kind of like is, effectively,
00:26:45
Speaker
in ah in a kind of ironic way suggests that being a stand-up comic is in no way comparable to being a fireman. yeah You know, makes fun of himself really there through irony, but then in the next breath disparages firemen by basically saying they just sit there watching him. So it's kind of a weird con confused thing, but it's very funny.
00:27:06
Speaker
um But yeah, Lenny starts talking about it being like an art form and then you know sort of talks about how it came from America and how it was one of the great indigenous American art forms of the 20th century, along with jazz and comic books and senseless high school massacres.
00:27:25
Speaker
Yeah. It's quite a decent little rule of three. And then, you know, he does the thing of one person applauds and and he says the no and often paraphrased badly by me. One person applauding for a stand up comedian. The only thing worse than one person clapping is one. but No, the sound of no one clapping is the sound of one person clapping alone. Yeah. and So, yeah, obviously, that's quite a kind of. Yeah, that happens to me many a time.
00:27:52
Speaker
yeah yeah to be honest ah guys it happens to me quite a lot but um it's very rarely a clap it's just one guy going and to be fair it is usually me yeah exactly i thought it was the word he did it in the back with my what rach now refers to as my duck laugh yeah because it's where i can't help it yeah and it just goes ha and the back of the room. Yeah, but it's better than the one that you write. So there's, there's a couple of different types of this. There's the ones where you can tell you've genuinely caught the people and getting, I usually quite like to have Tom in the room um when I'm doing new jobs.
00:28:33
Speaker
I like to get Tom in the room when I'm doing new jokes because if if you can catch him, his laugh's brilliant, right? um And you know if you've caught him that it's it's you're on to something because he he doesn't laugh easily. no And also he won't just, like, i will I will feel awkward for someone who's getting nothing yeah and force giving them something.
00:28:53
Speaker
right Which is a thing I hate people doing to me. Yeah. But if someone's dying on their arse on the stage, i might say let's say their first first timer or something like that.
Importance of Structure in Comedy
00:29:05
Speaker
Yeah, I'll just go I'll just go or something. And it's so you do that. It's so fucking forced. All right, I will do it um either if someone's really new and getting fuck all because their stuff isn't, you know,
00:29:21
Speaker
I always think about new people. It's not that it's not any good. It's just they don't really know how to structure it. Yeah. I think the things that they're trying to raise up there because they don't have the experience of how to deliver it. Yeah, but they don't have the they don't have the delivery, but also not having the structure makes the delivery worse. Yeah. You know, because because they don't know how to deliver. Yeah, the structure informs the delivery. um And the thing is, right. And this is me saying this and just would like to acknowledge that I know a little bit because I've been doing this a few years, but I don't know everything. So I'm kind of that's the place I'm coming from. But the kind of thing that I've observed watching loads of brand new people and from the point where I was brand new to now. Yeah. He's nine times out of 10. They've got something that is funny. Yeah.
00:30:11
Speaker
You know, there are some people who come on, you know, they think they can do it. And really all it is, they just want license to get on and call people a nun. So whatever. Yeah. Like there's that school of thinking. Yeah, well I don't count that. No, really. I don't mind a non-stroke, but it has to be it has to be well crafted. Yeah. and Anyway. So it is the hardest job in the world. It's also an art form. ah And he obviously he starts talking about ah the Americans having been the masters of this in the past
00:30:43
Speaker
yeah and whereas now and they've been overtaken by the British and the Australians and the New Zealanders. But you go and see the American stand-ups and then he gets into this repetitive riff which is obviously one of his kind of trademarks. I love the American stand-ups because what I like to see is someone come out and say what the nationality of their mother was and then what the nationality of what their father was and combine those two things for comic effect often for as long to three, three and a half minutes at a time. Yeah. the past.
Critiquing American Stand-up
00:31:10
Speaker
um I like to see American standards come out and go, hey, my mom was Italian and my dad was from Lithuania. So when I say a chorizo sausage, I don't know whether to eat it or shove it up my ass.
00:31:23
Speaker
which obviously he then repeats with kind of varying different nationalities and different national foods, baguettes and kind of all that kind of stuff. yeah and But each time kind of repeating the exact same format, the exact same intro, I'd love to go see the American standups because what I love to see is XYZ, you know, building that repetitive building so the audience know exactly what's coming next.
00:31:49
Speaker
i am But I think the thing for me, and this is probably hits upon why I don't like this series as much as later series, is that he'll do that. He'll build up that hysteria. And whether or not a punchline exists, we don't get to see it. yeah Because it cuts to a sketch.
00:32:09
Speaker
Yeah. um But that being said, I will say I do quite like this sketch, the Dill Spinks sketch. Yeah. and Where he repeats. He just repeats the ken and you know what mine are. You're not allowed to say that. You're not. If I'm reading it verbatim off of a piece of paper. from the baim ah Okay, let's just get the let's just get some rap lyrics with the n-word in and... Yeah, I think you'll find, Joe, that if you are quoting someone... I still don't think you can say it. Well, we can agree to disagree like in that sense because I think as you well know it's not said with any mileage. No, absolutely not.
00:33:01
Speaker
I completely agree with that. But I take your point. Language is important. language I take your point. Language is important. Let me ask you this.
00:33:12
Speaker
um
00:33:15
Speaker
Let's take, I don't know, I'm trying to think of a specific routine. a Well, let's take Finn Taylor, for example. Yeah. A lot of the stuff that Finn Taylor says yeah is not acceptable. No.
00:33:31
Speaker
Do you still think it's acceptable for him to say it?
00:33:37
Speaker
Depends on the context. Exactly. So if you look back at the context of the conversation we've just had.
00:33:46
Speaker
Yeah. And given given what we're here to do, yeah which is to step through this episode, talk about the things that are on the screen, i.e.
Debate on Offensive Language in Comedy
00:33:57
Speaker
this routine. which you you know I think it's quite difficult to talk about this routine without referencing at least once the repeated phrase.
00:34:08
Speaker
Do you get what I mean? yeah I mean, I suppose the only other way to do it would be if I were to stop talking and you go through this one. um Which I think would be an interesting exercise. like i think Given that i am not a I am not a member of the LGBTQ community. I think ah i mean maybe maybe I overstepped.
00:34:33
Speaker
No, no, I don't. Right. OK, so let's but ah let's put a pin in that because what I don't want to do. um I am not a member of that community. Right. You are. So I'm not going to invalidate your um your you your immediate feeling was that's not acceptable. And which I'm not going to I'm not going to invalidate that.
00:34:59
Speaker
I think i think in in the in the context of of the sketch, yeah the point is that that is an awful thing to say. Exactly. which I think possibly,
00:35:22
Speaker
like I wouldn't say it. No. Which is partly why I'm like, I shouldn't say it. I don't I don't believe it. So in in terms of like, if if we take the N word. Yeah. I'm i'm in an agreement of the people that say it's the same that. Yeah. And and that go and am like I've seen. ah Not personally, but like on films and things where black characters have said, well, no, I don't say either.
00:35:57
Speaker
yeah yeah no of course you shouldn't say either um understand it's that and it's that thing of like i like because i i actually i like this sketch I think it's funny because but yeah of how ridiculous it is. It's funny because, like well this is my opinion, but it's funny because what it's essentially doing is satirising that sort of opinion Yeah, just because you kind of trying to make a philosophical point doesn't mean that you should. And and anything that is slightly different to something else. Yeah. Can be a gay version of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then it's like there are some where it makes perfect sense and I'm like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. But like, what is it that I'm sure like
00:36:55
Speaker
And I've seen some um someone say that dogs are straight, cats are gay. Oh, I've seen that thing. And I'm like, are they not? I can't work out why that's a thing.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's too broad of a generalization as much generalizations are. Like, you know, if you were to take the whole dogs are straight, cats are gay thing. What does that mean for those little handbag dogs? Yeah. Do you know what I mean? But also, partly. So that this isn't your fault. But partly the thing about that is is that automatic assumption as well, especially that you've just made. OK.
00:37:41
Speaker
that that, to our dog, yeah would be gay. But again, that's where this has all come from.
00:37:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, but the thing is, right? That society has made it so that, like, the more camp thing yeah is more gay. Oh, yeah. So and I will acknowledge at this point that within my brain and within my kind of personal experience and and the things I've seen in the era and place that I grew up, yeah there are a bunch of prejudices hardwired into me.
00:38:20
Speaker
Oh, and same for me. And blind spots and kind of you know things that I just don't acknowledge automatically. And within the LGBTQ community, like I've had just as much, if not more, homophobia yeah from people that are part of the LGBTQ community yeah than straight people. yeah Because I've had more i have had more gay men
00:38:49
Speaker
uh invalidate my sexuality what because you're bisexual i'm straight men because i'm bisexual yeah yeah and they say oh just on the trip and just on the road to gay yeah i've i'm just heard that i've heard that said like it's acknowledged by a lot of people yeah yeah i've heard that said before it's like that that i'm a half major I suppose it's the same thing, like just bringing it back round to the the word that I said that's part of this routine, yeah um which, you know, given that obviously it's making you it makes you uncomfortable, um I'm not going to say it now that you yeah you've basically pointed that out to me in fair dues. So in terms of my- That works, definitely, for some reason.
00:39:36
Speaker
like I don't know if there's an experience I had or... Maybe it does and to be honest with you. Especially the longer version of it. Oh yeah. Well he actually says the longer version of it the further down into this game. Yeah and it's the hard tease that is just that. And I don't think like it's saying that word without like normally when that word said and it is the same in this sketch when that word gets said it's spit yeah like you sort of you don't just say it with us yeah it's like is it's full of consonants yeah exactly but so the thing is right something harder the thing is right so first of all um everything you've said makes sense like completely um
00:40:30
Speaker
again, this is, you know, this is what I was talking about in terms of blind
Personal Prejudices in Comedy
00:40:33
Speaker
spots and stuff. My my assumption that I made, you know, rightly or wrongly is, if what we're doing is analyzing a thing, yeah, throughout the course of that thing, if you were to say that thing. Yeah. um To me, that's in my mind, that's acceptable. Yeah. Or, you know, that everyone i can understand that. And exactly. But everyone's different in the sense that, you know,
00:40:58
Speaker
that might not be the case for you, and I'd made the assumption that it would be. um so But I suppose it's to say it's the same thing. like the the The issues that you've got with that word, for you know the reasons that you've already given, would probably be the similar thing to, I think you've told me before,
00:41:16
Speaker
ah the other word that gets used which I'm not going to say just for the sake of talking about this but in Alex's show title yeah that word yeah right um you know I I sort of should have caught up on that because we've had this conversation about a different word Right, yeah. So I just, you know, that that's kind of how we've ended up in this place. But like I say, the in terms of. The way I approached that it was pure and I don't think that you like was said, like, I know that your intentions are good and also in terms of going back to the sketch. Yeah, I think like we were saying in the last episode, yeah, about Gervais and various other things about whether the bar of the joke. Yeah.
00:42:06
Speaker
the butt of the joke is the comedian that's making that stupid joke yeah and that's what the butt of the joke is here and also the yeah and the um the continuation of it yeah and it's a little bit kind of um poking fun at like old style comedians that haven't updated well i suppose it it's for me like looking at this thing looking at this stuff it's poking from a few different things it seems to have like obviously the obvious first thing is Bill Hicks right yeah that's meant to be Bill Hicks um you know but not only that it's it's Bill Hicks it's kind of taking something that is kind of offensive and dressing it up as
00:42:57
Speaker
philosophical or artistic or whatever which is you know some sort of accusation that's been leveled at Bill Hicks and those types of comedians before is that essentially all you're doing and Stuart himself to be fair like he's had yeah he's had this this laid at his door as well in that essentially what he's doing is taking potty mouth shit and and dressing it up as high art or whatever which he has done in the past um i i personally think that can't remember who it was like have you read that Joel Morris book I think I can't remember if I told you about this before but um be funny or die I haven't it's a great book um in books honestly um for me
00:43:42
Speaker
probably, if not the best in the top three books about comedy ever. ah It's an incredible incredible book. But one of the points that he makes in this book, because he kind of goes through the whole thing um anthropologically in terms of why we have humour and all this kind of stuff.
00:43:58
Speaker
and the whole nature of what you can and can't say and offensive comedy and all that kind of stuff. And his point is, you should say whatever you need to say to get a laugh from your audience, right? yeah He says, but the difference is now, because we have the internet and we have all these different things, is almost every everyone is your audience.
00:44:20
Speaker
Yeah. Right. So you can ah legislate for who's going to pick up and who's going to see the material that you put out into the world. No, exactly. Whereas, you know, back in the day in the working men's clubs or whatever, you walk in there knowing pretty much what you're going to get.
00:44:35
Speaker
yeah You know what I mean? So the fact that they used to... Yeah, and it's it's tribal as well. Like humour is a part of kind of forming tribes. Like if you don't laugh at a certain thing, but someone else does, um you're not likely to be friends, potentially.
00:44:50
Speaker
yeah you know You're not likely to have loads of stuff in common, so you might belong to two separate groups, so you'd have two separate tribes. one of the people One tribe that thinks this thing is okay and one tribe that thinks this thing is not. And he kind of breaks it all down and essentially says, there is no right and wrong answer. You can pretty much say whatever you like, just be aware that if you are to go down the road of using this type of language and saying these types of things, um you you will get the audience for that type of thing.
00:45:19
Speaker
Yeah, you get the audience that you deserve. You get the audience you deserve based on the material that you're doing. um yeah So, you know, I do tend to agree with that, but I think the issue now, like I say, is people who like Ricky Gervais will watch Ricky Gervais. Yeah. People who don't like Ricky Gervais and find him offensive will still somehow see Ricky Gervais. Yeah. It might not seek him out.
00:45:48
Speaker
no like i haven't watched anything post um humanity yeah where i went to see that live you left in you early no i didn't leave i just did not like enjoy it because the first 15 minutes just anti-trans material Yeah, exactly. And then that then that ruins the rest of the show. I just found myself like I laughed less than four times. Yeah. Which I was not expecting. Yeah, but it's because it's
00:46:29
Speaker
The thing is for me, and ah you know obviously a lot this similar accusation can be levelled at Stuart Lee, but perversely, it's the ah the reason why we actually love his stuff, is that he does plough a lot of the same stuff.
Repetition as a Comedic Technique
00:46:46
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? A lot of his, especially now, especially sort of, I would say since probably about Maldon comedian onwards, and it's become a lot of the same tropes and variations on the same tropes over and over again. And that is the reason people people keep coming back. We like the repetition, as fans of Stuart Lee, we like the different spins on all green teams. We know what we're getting.
00:47:13
Speaker
that he's left wing, and that if he says anything yeah that kind of contradicts that, yeah you can look at it within the context of what it is. But he will have usually built something into it that yeah exactly gives him a platform to talk about certain things, which he likes. Everything is just, oh, that's just your awful opinion.
00:47:40
Speaker
Yeah, and it's weird because I never used to. It might be completely. um Completely fake, and he's just doing it because it's where the money is, isn't it? Yeah, so it's similar to how Clarkson has found his yeah like.
00:47:58
Speaker
um audience and stuff like you never know what extent but it feels more with shoe that we know where he's coming from yeah and also you don't see it that often yeah so when he does it he has impact yeah rather than it just being oh this is just your opinion yeah exactly but like this is the thing and and you know he said this before in interviews about like he doesn't use this excuse me he doesn't use the c-word a lot
00:48:30
Speaker
yeah in his routines. He'll use it occasionally. And usually when it does, it stands out and it has an impact, right? um So like there's ah there' a routine in 41st best where he's talking about Richard Little John making fun of prostitutes. And, you know, he used the C word cunt at the end of that routine.
00:48:52
Speaker
Yeah. And it it really lifted the whole routine. It bit it fit with that. and It made complete sense for him to use that word. And like you know we'll get into some other stuff later on where he does use and does use those words again. But whenever they pop up, they're not sort of gratuitous. like Similar let' submit to my set that you gave me, that advice. You know, the one that I sent you re relatively recently.
00:49:23
Speaker
And you said you're using the C word far too much. We'll just dilute it. Like, so now I've updated it, so I do on the use of the once. Yeah, exactly, which means it has the impact. And it does have more impact. And to be honest, I can't really take credit for that myself. It's just because I've seen enough, you know, we watch enough open mic comedy between ourselves. Yeah. To to see that. And it's a crutch at times where you use it in place of having something else better. 100%. and hundred um yeah
00:49:55
Speaker
And I do it. We've all done it. so But sometimes you can't necessarily step back and and see it. But, you know, there are times, like I say in Stu's work, where it is gratuitous, but for the point of being gratuitous, like he's making a joke out of the fact that it's gratuitous. So there's a little routine. We'll get to it when we get to Snowflake tornado. There's a little routine in tony Snowflake where he's talking about Tony Parsons.
00:50:18
Speaker
uh calling him the runsid tip of a cesspit that is the modern male attitude to women because he used the c-word um right and in arguing against that point he uses the c-word a shit ton of times right but like for that purpose you know just to kind of make fun of it um but anyway right this whole thing i suppose that the starting point of where we kind of got to I'm quite glad we've had this conversation because I think it is is interesting.
00:50:52
Speaker
A lot of the times, far more interesting than just going, oh, he said a funny thing. um We've actually had a proper discussion for once, Joe. Yeah, because it's not even like I'm like, oh, no. band well um'm well like I understand the context.
00:51:08
Speaker
and I get that it's funny. But it was also it was also a split second reaction to hearing me say that word. who you you know you probably You might have had going into this a thought in your head that I would say, I would i would refer to it as the F word or something. Yeah. But you may have thought that that's what I would have done, right? Yeah. Or that it would be, um we we expect people that are listening to one second. Yeah, no. Cool. Sorry about that. Yeah, she's alright. She just wanted to know she could watch YouTube. and um Yeah, so like we expect people that are listening to this have also watched
00:51:53
Speaker
what we're discussing yeah we should probably say that at the start of these episodes do you reckon yeah i think we did to be fair to to begin with and then start with other with the bigger episodes i think we did yeah um but yeah like so i i i expected it then then it would be oh the the sketch that's about that thing yeah without needing to say it yeah of course and that yeah on on not even kind of saying the f word Yeah, suppose I suppose it it kind of speaks to the, I suppose the different ways that we think about things in the sense that I, in my head, it seemed more important to talk about the routine fully than it was to avoid the word. yeah Whereas it's possibly, you know, it's possibly more important.
00:52:47
Speaker
to, yeah, but it's possibly more important to talk about the routine generally and avoid just using that word, um given that the routine uses that word overabundantly, to be honest. um so it But it's yeah he's interesting though, like but you know the point that's the point of it.
00:53:06
Speaker
I suppose to put a cap on um this routine,
00:53:11
Speaker
it like I said, it was funny. The thing that kind of bothered me about it, other than, you know, obviously all the stuff we talked about, but the thing that bothered me about it was the fact that it, again, did what a lot of sketches do in this series. It acted as a punchline in the place of a punchline in the stand up or in the place of a stronger punchline in the stand up. Yeah, it is absolutely.
00:53:35
Speaker
capable of doing Yeah, and it you know it may but then what I did right so you step out of this sketch and what we're gonna do is we're gonna We'll put a pin in that whole conversation that we've just had. I think we know where we stand. Yeah and I'm not gonna guarantee that I won't forget. I've said all of this and probably do it again next time run and hip But just be aware that essentially what I suppose what I'm telling you now is of I might have connection issues at that point. and Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The screen is just going to freeze. um What I would say is ah
00:54:14
Speaker
i I don't necessarily always know what my blind spots are until they come out of my mouth. Oh, no, no one does. ah So that I suppose that's just a disclaimer for future episodes for anyone who might be listening. Yeah. Yeah. ah Anyway, right. So we must know that we've gone work finally. Yeah. Yeah. Fucking always only taking a while.
00:54:39
Speaker
I don't know, I think we've i think we've had little little spots here and there, but we've had fully way the unsayable we've had a fully discussion just now. yeah But you know what? Look at that. right right Any right-wing people that might be listening, what we did was we had a ah perfectly amicable discourse. right yeah no one got cancelled no exactly as far as i'm aware um i haven't haven't checked the internet yet so yeah um i might have been cancelled by now i'm not sure if uh if that's what cancellation is get me a slice of that cancellation pie all i think of whenever i hear stew do an american accent is just that yeah i mean waitress awful yeah
00:55:25
Speaker
American accent. Yeah, which he makes awful on purpose, let's be honest. Yeah, it's that bad that you have to. like No one's doing that intentionally. other than intentionally and Some of the cancellation pie.
00:55:44
Speaker
um
00:55:46
Speaker
but yeah anyway so he uh after the the dill spinks sketch he starts talking about this american this black american comic called franklin aji um who what i will say is right for anyone who doesn't know this and probably to be honest if you're listening to a stewartly podcast you probably know more about stewartly than i do um because why would you listen to this? I probably don't know this. No, but ah so he's he's mentioned in in interviews many, many times. The one that pops into my mind is the ComCom Pod interview, where he talks to Stuart Goldsmith. He's talking about his own book, How I Escape by Certain Fett, which Stuart Goldsmith basically says he is the best book about stand-up.
00:56:35
Speaker
that kind of exists. yeah And I tend to agree. But then he he basically says, well, theres's there's this other comedian who's done a ah great book called Franklin Ajayi. So the book that he's actually making fun of in this routine and the person that he's making fun of in this routine, ah he is actually incredibly fond of him.
00:56:55
Speaker
i and and really does kind of respect and appreciate his work and kind of counts him as a bit of an influence in a way. i Although in in this particular routine he is kind of disparaging him to some degree. the jazz comedian um you know where he said but There's a couple of lines in this aren't necessarily funny but they they like really spoke to me and it's the same as the thing we were saying when we looked at episode five ah There's these little spots here and you can kind of tell he's been through the wringer a little bit. um Sometimes I think the real Stuart Lee genuinely does come out. yeah And it's in the more sort of melancholic moments. um There's one here same as the the previous episode, like, you know, right at the end, it gets really melancholy. Yeah. ah Well, in this episode, he does it again, where he says, I've been a stand up for 20 years, many times I've considered giving up.
00:57:48
Speaker
um it's very difficult and in just in those three lines, yeah like it's the way he says them and the kind of the look on his face at the time that he says them and kind of how he phrases those lines. like It just got me.
Comedian Challenges and Inspiration
00:58:05
Speaker
Because as we've said in many conversations that we've had, I think about giving up all the time yeah because it's so fucking hard um for a lot of the reasons that we've discussed. but This is where he's kind of talking about this and he says, look, in 1997, I was in Norwich and I went into a second-hand bookshop where I found this album and he holds up a copy of Franklin Aji's album. um And he says by a comic called ah Franklin Aji and it's called I'm a Comedian, Seriously. And he says this album must be a constant source of inspiration to me and a great comfort in times of stress. If you near the front, you'll see it's ah still in its cellophane wrapper. yeah
00:58:44
Speaker
So he's not even listened to it, which I imagine given all the stuff he said in interviews is he's got another copy and he's listened to it ah but Yeah, imagine there are clips of Franklin on YouTube as well Right, and he is you know, it's obviously it's dated humor. It's different because it's like 70s New York Letterman type humor and But he is quite he is quite good and So, you know, he says it's still in its cellophane wrapper. I've never opened it or listened to it. I've never listened to it and I have no intention of ever doing so. But it's a great cut source of comfort and inspiration nonetheless. um There's two things I like about this album. but I like the cover. It's called a come I'm a Comedian Seriously. And on the front there, you'll see Franklin and Jayi. And this is the routine that I like best in this whole bit. Yeah. Where he starts talking about mashed potato.
00:59:40
Speaker
where he says the front cover is that he's smiling, he's happy, but he's not gone mad. He's just reasonably content, mildly. He's about as happy as you might be as if you'd invited some people around and I don't know, you'd made them some mash. And one of them had said, this mash is nice, Franklin. And he'd go, yeah, I've got some spring onion in it.
01:00:05
Speaker
right right and he shows the picture again and he says look nice match and then turns it round and it's like an image of him being quite serious and he says but he's not suicidal he's just mildly pensive he says he looks as serious as you might do is if you'd invited some people round you'd made them some mash
01:00:29
Speaker
And one of them had said, are you sure you boiled these potatoes, Franklin?
01:00:36
Speaker
Right. And I think what's clear, I can see this on my screen. ah You may be able to hear it. What's clear is I find this routine much funnier than Joe does.
01:00:46
Speaker
I find it funny, yeah. I don't know why, it just this whole bit about him just repeatedly referring to these pictures being like how you'd feel if you'd made some mash. I just love the kind of... Maybe I feel called out because I am a quite renowned in my family as having inconsistent mash.
01:01:11
Speaker
All right. I thought you were going to do a James A Caster and say you were the mosh king of your family. No, I, uh, one of my great sadnesses and, uh, what's the word, you know, like the things that you keep hidden from people, like your, um, insecurities yeah is the fact that even, even as I am a train chief,
01:01:38
Speaker
You've got shit mush. I buy frozen mash now. Oh, dude. Because I have an autistic son who prefers the consistency. Right. So that's a valid reason.
01:01:54
Speaker
I am used to my own shit man or inconsistent mesh because some days I will make mesh mesh of my life. Yeah. And I'll be buzzing with it. Right. And it's the fact of he doesn't like the inconsistency. Right. Again, not to get all work about everything again. and But I would think um having someone in the family who is autistic um and has a certain preference for things is a valid reason for perhaps buying subpar mash and actually it's not that bad like no it's not as good as proper mash
01:02:35
Speaker
No, and ah to be honest, I can't talk because what I buy, I buy those little those plastic tubs of mash that go in the microwave. Oh, wow. Oh, that's even worse. Is that worse or is it better? I don't know. They're my they're my favorite types of mash because it's all done for me. I know there's no lumps in it. and And it's got the perfect amount of butter to salt to mash to whatever ratio. Like it just works for me. And also it means I don't have to do anything. I can just put it in the microwave. But yeah.
01:03:04
Speaker
um That being said, I'm always quite pleasantly surprised if I ever go to anyone's house for dinner like my, you know, if we go to my mum's or anything. Yeah. And they they do, they do real mash. They're not, they're real people. They're not, you know, they're not pretend people like me. and They do genuine mash. And as we all know, with real people, mash,
01:03:27
Speaker
that you know, because it's been made by a human, it's inconsistent. Yeah. um So there will be the the odd stray lump here and there unless they've got a food processor, which, you know. Yeah, my cousin puts it through a food ricer. Oh, yeah, no, I've heard you're supposed to do that. But which is what proper like chefs is they rice the potatoes first. Yeah, they'll rice the potatoes and then it won't even be with like butter. Yeah. It'll be with like cream.
01:03:56
Speaker
yeah like and but then i don't like that consistency because then that's more of a sauce that's like a pompere yeah it's a bit yeah it's it's a bit too thin for me yeah yeah i like it i'm not saying i like a lumpy mash i would rather lumpy mash then but then to be fair there is nothing more crazy than my cousin who um boils his mash uh with the skin still on
Mashed Potatoes and Personal Preferences
01:04:26
Speaker
Do you know what? I've seen that and then it washes it all together with the skin still in. Oh, no. Yeah, mean like I mean, if I did that for my stepson. Yeah, he'd go. No, I get that. Parental side. I get that.
01:04:43
Speaker
But yeah, so to be honest, people are really getting their money's worth today. And um when I say money's worth, I mean, they don't pay. um yeah But they're they're really getting their time's worth, should we say, today, because we've kind of really gone thread to needle on the appropriate usage of certain words and mash. So there's something for everyone, I think, is yeah what we would say.
01:05:08
Speaker
if you don't want to me there up there's a fifteen second but skip things. So if we if we're ever talking about something that you're not really that bothered about, just skip along a little bit. There will be people who would just use that function all the way to the end. home Like, you know, they they want it in their stats that they've listened to it because yeah it feels like the type of thing that you should listen to. Do you think we'll ever be in anyone's, you know, the Spotify Roundup whatever it is yeah and i hope he's listening because i think we'll be in felix's oh really yeah um felix whiteman no not felix whiteman the other felix the other p fehoenix paul felix all felix huh
01:05:53
Speaker
Tall Felix. Tall Felix. Young Felix, I call him, because he's much younger than me. Yeah, he's much younger than me, I think. But his surname's escaping me right now and it's annoying me. Felix, yeah. Carter, is it Carter? Carter. Yes. Sorry, Felix. I don't do i don't know names very well. I remember your first one because you are a cat who likes Felix. Yeah.
01:06:15
Speaker
yeah but But yeah, I think if Felix is listening, thank you, Felix, because Felix is so far the only person, I think, maybe there may be others and they might be listening now and they'll be upset that I haven't mentioned them. So I apologise if that's you. But Felix is the person who sticks in my mind as someone who's come up to me, like, unprompted and said that he likes the podcast. Well, that's very kind.
01:06:43
Speaker
and and also stuck us in his Instagram stories one day when he really liked an episode. Yeah, which episode was it? I have no idea. One of the one of the earlier ones, he's probably got bored and killed himself by now. Don't say that. He can't say that. Oh, God. is This is just an episode of me learning what I can and can't say at 38 years old.
01:07:10
Speaker
Finally Dan is learning that he can't say the unsayable. I will keep saying it though, that's the problem. That's the problem with unsayable stuff is that it is eminently sayable. I mean I joke about suicide more than and than anyone I know. Well to be honest it's quite pertinent in this episode because Stu uses the the the the common, which I think I've stolen by the way, but in my vernacular I often stop what I'm doing and when I'm having a hard moment and just say to whoever's around, I wish I was dead. yeah And I think I've stolen that from Stu because I'm not allowed to say that at home anymore. No, that's but it's a different kettle of fish for you, though, because I think ah at times, you know, not to get too deep into it, but there there have been times where I've been worried that might be the case.
01:08:00
Speaker
and from some of the conversations that we've had it might not have ever been that but I sometimes from the tone that we we often use with each other I can tell when you're upset um so just because I mean you gushed about me last week all all last episode no like you definitely saved my life last week really yeah oh shit don't say things like that because I will just cry on here cause that's like it's one thing for someone to make the most I've ever said to you is I really like your comedy like let's chill out you can't go from you gushed about me last week I said your comedy was nice so like that's what I did and you've just gone you've just gone you saved my life and I'm like I need to deal with that now no but you you genuinely did and you can cut this bit out if you're I'm not gonna cut this bit out fuck you
01:08:52
Speaker
but but People need to hear how important I am.
01:08:57
Speaker
I might use slurs wheelie-nilly but I'm a very important person. I told Andrew last week as well. What about? You saved my life. Oh man. so ah I've got yeah little bits in my eyes. It's the first time I've ever seen Andrew like, showing the emotion.
01:09:16
Speaker
Sorry, someone's cutting onions in this room and I'm on my own. Wow. Yeah, well, listen, right? I think the only thing that... The thing that that's that's doing right now is i'm I'm quite sad because I didn't... I said what I said because I wanted you to be well. yeah But also I didn't realise that it actually got that far. I kind of knew it was in that ballpark. And I will stop while we're having this conversation just to clarify to any listeners, we're okay.
01:09:48
Speaker
um yeah we're We're all right. Like everyone, people go through stuff. yeah something If anyone is going through any things um right now and they're finding this conversation difficult, do feel free to stop listening yeah and you know speak speak to someone who's kind of close to you. um Joe's got a good support network of people. I've got a good support network of people. um So please do that if you need to.
01:10:18
Speaker
We will resume talking about the comedy in a minute. Yeah, ah when I've just processed what George just said to me. um I'm going to bask in the glow of it. It's usually what happens. it's before just so right People laugh at my comedy, they just have to sit and process why. It's different when you're on stage, though, because I've said I wished I was dead on stage a number of times. And depending on the intonation, you can get a laugh out of it.
01:10:41
Speaker
Oh yeah, like i mean literally my show is called I Should Be Dead. Exactly, but you know it's that whole tears of a clown thing in it. And Stu has mined this trope many, many times down the years. And there has been times, there was once, I think it was at Comedy Cellar yeah when you came out to me afterwards and was like,
01:11:03
Speaker
that that wasn't That wasn't pretend that that was you, the mask slipped. Yeah, well, i've I've seen, yeah. And you're right. That's only because I know what I'm looking at. Yeah. Like someone else would have just seen that as a performance. But obviously, haven't given the conversations we've had, and you know we we' we've spent a bunch of time together in the sense that outside of doing gigs together and stuff, we went to Glasgow and we've had all these long car journeys and we've done all this stuff. So
01:11:35
Speaker
you know, I've kind of gotten to the point where I can spot when it's not artificial. yeah And to be honest, sometimes I think the best performances need that. Yeah, like I need to not not go so far, but just open the envelope where it's like, where the realness kind of comes in a little bit. And yeah, we will get to this further on in the podcast, because Stu does talk a lot about in further series,
01:12:00
Speaker
There's one episode in particular which I think I've already shown you but it's in series four and and he kind of talks about you can't break your heart on stage for real every night. Yeah. Like it does take its toll on you mentally and emotionally. and But, you know, you don't have to have strategies to kind of get into that headspace where you can at least fake it and pretend that you're, you know, to give a good enough performance and to. Yeah, exactly. You sort of have to lose your temper. Like in in these bits where he does that whole thing of wandering off the stage and losing his temper and all this and all. You kind of there's not there has to be a nugget of it that's connected to a reality. And it's like pissing yourself on purpose.
01:12:38
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've not heard it's a phrase like that before, but I like that. I've heard that somewhere. I can't remember what it is. The thing is, but that's what I would say is where it's like, you know that you don't know what I would say is and I'd like I'd like feedback from anyone who um anyone who may be listening to this, who may have a channel to give us feedback. So we do ah we do have an email address.
01:13:05
Speaker
Yeah. um But I've forgotten what it is. So what I'll do is i pop I'll find it and I'll put it in the intro. When I record the intro, I'll put it in the intro. What I what i want people to do is tell us, right? We also have a Facebook page. I'm wondering. Yeah, exactly. See, right. so Let us know. Which one of us has ADHD? No. wait we I think we know which one of us has ADHD, Joe. And it's it's not the one of us that continually tries to drag us back on track.
01:13:35
Speaker
and ah But what I would say is we've kind of shit the bed with this episode. Yeah. In that we dug too deep into certain things. We're nowhere near the end of the episode, ah but we are near the end of the time that Joe and I have got together. Yeah. So we might not make it to the end. We'll see. I may skip some bits, but I suppose the feedback I'm looking for is what do you prefer as a listener? Yeah. with There are episodes of this where we just literally line by line
01:14:10
Speaker
You know and there's some of the more the longer more tedious ones like ah I think of the first episode right there's I think there's a reason why so many thousands of people have listened to the first episode of this podcast and on the second and then it takes a Massive drop off a cliff for the second right because they probably Didn't I'm not gonna say what I said earlier, but they probably didn't make it to the end of an episode I and thought, fuck it, I'm not persevering with that. And um what I would say is it has got less like that the longer we've done it. Yeah. But what I'm interested in is the feedback of the people, i.e. who are listening to this. What do you prefer? Would you like us to forensically, line by line, go through this stuff, say some shit we like about it and and kind of discuss it and break it down in that way? Or do you prefer the more general conversational stuff essentially like what we've been doing today? We've got into some stuff, we haven't so much.
01:15:07
Speaker
manage to forensically analyze a lot of it. But we've stopped on bits that have provoked discussion, um much like the discussions we've had today. And we've kind of dug into those. So let us know. Felix, what do you want? Yeah, Felix, tell us, because you're the only person, I think, who listens to this still. so Maybe the person that's asked for more.
01:15:29
Speaker
Or maybe that is Felix. Do you know what? right whoever the person is Whoever the person is on Reddit who asked for more, please approach me on Reddit. Is this what you wanted? And let me know if this is this is something you enjoy, ah because at the end of the day we may as well do it for the one or two people that we know listen to this. We don't want to do people.
01:15:52
Speaker
No, we don't like new people coming. Don't don't tell your mates about this. the first Don't tell your mates about this because they will be they will stage an intervention. They'll be worried about you. This is the type of shit you're listening to for fun. um But anyway, right, so obviously, like I say,
01:16:08
Speaker
taking it back to the the routine. he He does this whole thing about MASH. um But it's all under the guise of kind of trying to make fun of the fact that there's these two opposing images on the album. There's one where he looks serious, one where he looks quite happy. yeah um And he says there' you know there's two... and Franklin says, I feel that the two pictures on this album cut cover ah convey accurately the contrasting mental processes of the comedian during a performance.
01:16:38
Speaker
in that, you know, you've got your outward kind of yearly guide. And then you've got your internal and serious artist trying to do the thing. yeah you know and He says, we're artists at work, this makes this clear, there are two processes at work here. He goes on, all of the material on this album is derived from events and situations which either happened to me or I observed firsthand. And after thinking about these events, I found something in each one to laugh about. It would be hip if you join me.
01:17:11
Speaker
And he introduces, yeah, have a good old laugh at the archaic language. But think about what he's saying. You don't just come out as a stand up and go, oh, I saw a cat today. That was funny. no you take You take the material. ah Some people do do that. You take the material, you know, and process it and apply an artistic process to it. And only then, you know, can the raw material become a comedy routine.
01:17:34
Speaker
were artists working with an artistic processes. ah So given that, let's have a look and see from the tracklist in what the first three subjects that Franklin and Joey chose to apply this artistic process to. And they are homosexuals, girls with big breasts, a dick caught in zipper. I will clarify, you are allowed to say the word homosexuals. I think that's um Is that a scientific term? Not to get bogged down on this. But I think that's the the scientific term, so i think I think we're in in the clear there. I havet haven't used a slur yet.
01:18:11
Speaker
um All the material on this album. It's either homosexuals or sometimes, depending on the night, a homo erectus. ah Yeah, well the the problem is right in the Venn diagram. We are all Homo erectus. Yeah, no, we're all Homo sapiens Homo erectus is Two generations back ah you see this is straight away. You've lost me. This is my ignorance of Yeah, no, it's like a previous like I think it's just before caveman
01:18:49
Speaker
the um the only the The only reference that pops into my head um whenever anyone says Homo erectus yeah is the Friends reference where there was one episode where
01:19:06
Speaker
Ross is putting together a ah display at the museum or something and he says, no, this is, ah is it Homo erectus was was fully erect. Austria, Austria Lapithicus was never fully erect. Right. And Chandler says, maybe he was nervous. Yeah. Which always pops into my head whenever anyone says Homo erectus. Oh, so yeah I'm so happy with myself. I was right. Well, did you say Homo generations?
01:19:35
Speaker
Yeah, homo sapiens. Before it was homo neanderthalinesis, which is neanderthal's cavemen. But the point is, Joe? Previous to that was homo erectus. Right, yeah, but the the point being, so how how long ago was homo erectus? Doesn't say.
01:19:56
Speaker
The point is though a long time ago I think what we can agree is regardless of how long ago any of this was homo erectus homo sapien Whatever the other one was that you said um They're all gay so it's fun yeah a So millions of years ago it's about 500,000 years ago right so gay people aren't new everyone and ah for What do you mean, homo erectus? Well, just all I'm saying is they right basically what I was doing, Joe, which I know you i know you know, and you've been facetious. um Every single one of these words has the the prefix homo. Yeah. Right. So all I was doing was I was extrapolating that out to say that they all mean gay. Yeah. Right. I think I've heard someone do that before. Which might mean I've accidentally done another slur.
01:20:53
Speaker
um No, no, no, you've just done what every kid in my every open mic when they heard the word homo sapiens. Oh, so you're all gay then. Yeah. Oh, you're a homo. But the point I was trying to make, ham nibrrian the point that I was trying to make is that gay people have been around much longer than the Daily Mail would have you believe. Yeah, it's true. Anyway, anyway, for AIDS.
01:21:24
Speaker
right moving moving on before i get canceled um
01:21:31
Speaker
right so anyway he's doing this routine and he said he's got all these different subjects and he says um after thinking about these events i found something in each one to laugh about and i'm wondering exactly what the time lag was did he see uh girls with big breasts and immediately find it funny or did he squirrel it away in his mind and only after thinking about it for an hour away a week and a year or maybe 10 years um did he realize how funny it would be to see girls with big breasts we don't know comedy's not a science right And again, this is following that format of yeah every routine ending with not necessarily a brilliant punchline, but a line that sets up a sketch. Yeah. and Because obviously then you get into the Simon Munnery scientist sketch, which I really like. yeah I think Simon Munnery is an incredible comic actor, to be honest with you. And I think as a sketch performer, he's really, really good.
01:22:22
Speaker
um I think I like this one because it kind of parodies those old school um science videos that you'd watch. Yeah. Where and, you know, to the same extent that like Peter Serafinowicz and what was his name? Robert Popper did on Look Around You. um but seen that Oh, you need to watch that. It's fucking great. um ah Robert Popper, you know, that is, don't it? It's the guy who did Friday night dinner. All right.
01:22:52
Speaker
But so years ago, he wrote with Peter Serafinowicz, he wrote a series called Look Around You, and it was like spoof science videos and stuff. It's really, really good. But this this sketch is kind of in that same style where it's kind of making fun of those old sort of 70s BBC documentaries that you used to watch at school. And and what I really like about this this Simon Monnery one here is that you kind of know what the punchline is going to be.
01:23:22
Speaker
you know, where he sort of says, does it, you know, if if comedy plus time, at if tragedy plus time equals comedy, um but then time plus girls with big breasts also eat equals comedy. Does that mean tragedy and girls with big breasts are interchangeable? Yeah. He says, I tested that theory by putting tragedy into a scenario where girls with big breasts were expected.
01:23:49
Speaker
and obviously it's him doing a Shakespeare monologue um instead of a stripper. yeah like and it you know the The kind of conclusion of that thing was so inevitable that I kind of think that that's what made it made it funnier really for me. yeah um And just a bit just how cartoonish the violence was at the end where those guys picking up chairs and beating the shit out of him, but obviously it was all off screen. Do you know what Shakespeare was?
01:24:17
Speaker
No, because i don't I don't know enough about Shakespeare. It was Hamlet. Was it? Yeah. Which bit was it? so To be or not to be? Was it to be or not to be? But it's the bit after the to be or not to be. That's probably why I didn't get it then because I only know the to be or not to be. but um um know it does do to be or not to be. Oh does it? Yeah I must have just it' glossed over it but whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows blah blah blah. Yeah I don't know enough about Shakespeare to you know to kind of to pick up on stuff like that. Again you know talking about blind spots and stuff I know this is slightly different in that it's more of a cultural blind spot but I um
01:25:00
Speaker
Shakespeare just passed me by completely. I mean it only didn't pass me because I did drama at uni. Yeah well you're a theatre kid aren't you? so Yeah that was kind of inevitable and also I really enjoy it. like matt Yeah well I probably would like I think the ah my only experience of Shakespeare is the Leonardo DiCaprio movie. So the one that you should watch that is very good, yeah I will lend you the DVD of, is Hamlet but it's David Tennant. Okay, right, yeah, yeah. And it's David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. Cool. And it's set in more modern, sort of modern, but it makes, you can
Comedy Show Observations
01:25:45
Speaker
understand it. Yeah, funnily enough, um given that you've just said Patrick Stewart, you've teed me up for a point that I'd forgotten about that I was gonna make earlier. Have you seen throughout this episode, there's a guy on the front row
01:25:57
Speaker
or on the front set of tables, when when the camera cuts across to show the audience and Stu in the same shot, there's a guy on the front row in a pink shirt and bald head. kind of ah Immediately, I thought it was Patrick Stewart. but don like On second look, it wasn't, but right he was doing that thing. You know, we were talking about earlier where people laugh where they maybe doesn't deserve it or whatever. He was doing like an incredible version of that where he was sort of He looked like he was being electrocuted. Right. He was actually laughing. No, it well, I think he was laughing, but it looked so forced. Right, yeah. Like, and he was, because Stuart was stood like quite near him. And I think he was doing what I would do if I was sat on the front row of a Stuart Lee gig. And that I would telegraph my laughter.
01:26:48
Speaker
Yeah. So that you did him to know I didn't I wouldn't want him to pick me up on it for not laughing. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Because I want to be in the cool kids group. Yeah. um In fact, that did happen to me when I saw basically the first time in Leicester Square Theatre. Right. Yeah. Well, you can run around.
01:27:06
Speaker
ah Yeah, me and my cousin were front row and he made he made a ah small reference at one point. I can't remember which bit he was, but he just said, you, the guy in the beard, the guy with the beard and the glasses. and You didn't find that bit funny, did you? And I really did. Yeah. But I mustn't have outwardly reacted in the way that he was. I think the but with Stuart, it's probably that he's a planned to say that and he's just picked me up and he's just happened to pick you out yeah exactly even if you laughed before he still would say it because it's the character of stew seeing that you're not laughing as much as he thinks you should be
01:27:55
Speaker
yeah maybe yeah but anyway so um he kind of he sort of closes off this routine about the record by saying that he's He doesn't know, he doesn't really know about ah Franklin and Jie's process because like he says, he says, I've not listened to the record. I never will. I have no idea how he deals with this. I'm not interested. and But I have become mildly obsessed with him.
Podcast Content Stretching
01:28:20
Speaker
um And I found a book that he's written, which is the book that he's referenced in his kind of real life podcast in the news. Where he says it's a book about how to do stand up comedy.
01:28:29
Speaker
um
01:28:32
Speaker
Just looking at this, we're going to get nowhere near the end of this episode.
01:28:37
Speaker
Which is 40. You are. It's going to be a two-parter. Can you imagine doing a two-part podcast, right? We're currently at an hour and 25 minutes. Doing a 25 minute podcast for a 25 minute episode of ah of television. so A good eight, nine minutes of which are sketches that can be summed up in a line. um And we've somehow managed to take the remaining 17 minutes of this and stretch it out over two podcast episodes.
01:29:11
Speaker
I think Stuart would be proud. i think If it wasn't all distractions, then he would be proud. I think we need to take a long hard look at ourselves.
01:29:24
Speaker
yeah really um i mean it's it's me let's be honest well no i don't i don't know about that i think i think quite rightly we had ah a very serious discussion about a word and it's it's merit and kind of how whether you should or shouldn't be able to say i think that's valid um and you know i'm not i'm not going to edit any of this out
01:29:48
Speaker
In principle, i might I might edit out the little bit where my daughter interrupted us to ask if it was okay for her to watch YouTube. um That's fair. But beyond that, I think all of this has value.
Comedian vs. Miles Davis
01:30:03
Speaker
maybe ah we don't know maybe only to felix um but it does all still here if he is still here um and i do hope he is and i i'm not gonna say what i said before um because i've been told off by joe too many times in this episode this right until tomorrow or should i say uh i've been educated by joe too many times in this episode um Yeah, so I, you know, fucking I've run out of things to say about the Franklin and Jai routine, except there was a really funny bit where he's talking about the book and he talks about the endorsement on the back being from Keenan Ivory Wayans. Yeah, and he says so who was from the scary movie films, same must be good.
01:30:54
Speaker
Yeah, he says, now I've not seen his work, but he is in the Scary Movie series of films, so one imagines he'd be very good. And obviously, you know, he kind of refers to him as the Miles Davis of comedy. And and he does quite a, foot like, it's a funny little routine, the the Miles Davis bit.
01:31:12
Speaker
where he sort of says, with the best will in the world, I don't know if it's possible for there to be a Miles Davis of comedy. and Miles Davis had a 50-year career in jazz during which he outlived every major stylistic change. He initiated many of them. And then he obviously lists a load of the types of jazz. And he says he he invented jazz fusion at the time of his death. He was working with hip-hop artists. With the best will in the world, I don't know if he's ever really been an artist comparable to that in stand-up.
01:31:39
Speaker
and and if you look at this and he holds out a 50th anniversary edition of Miles Davis's best album called Kind of Blue and he says the whole vibe is completely different the tracks on it you know ah he says it's it's all completely different the stuff where he attempts to work with Spanish guitar um he says there aren't any tracks on here called homosexuals and girls with big breasts yeah and although weirdly this 50th anniversary edition does come with extra tracks and there is a studio outtake called Dick Caught in Zippa
01:32:15
Speaker
And he makes a really niche joke
Niche Jokes in Comedy
01:32:17
Speaker
and where he says, weirdly, John Coltrane is playing an alto. And he says, a couple of people laughing at that, of course, because Coltrane's normal horn of choice in the classic Miles Davis quintet was the tenor. He says, Cannonball alderly normally played the alto. So little joke about jazz there. Who's the jazz comedian now?
01:32:38
Speaker
Right? Which, to be honest, watching that right, is obly joke obviously you and I had a discussion last night, um occasionally we'll fling messages back and forth when we're developing material and I wrote a joke last night about Yahtzee. Or I wrote a joke referencing Yahtzee, the dice game, right? and Which I didn't realise you're a big fan of.
01:32:59
Speaker
yeah those ma massive um I the word Yahtzee because it's a funny word but also because it's a game and it's turn-based and all that kind of stuff so it fit with the the joke that I was writing but then we started to get into the kind of merits of maybe following that path a little bit further and I think one of us either you or me said it was a bit niche um but yeah having watched this today and I think there is a there is a way to get away with doing niche jokes. So I think that I might be inspired by Stu yet again. um Anyway, that tees up on Miles Davis' sketch, and which
01:33:47
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of it is what it is. It was just a punchline. It says, tonight the quintet will start with a new composition that's called security guard in a college girls dorm looking through the window and jerking off. Like, which sounds like the type of routine, possibly even is a routine that someone like Frank Lenegy would have done.
01:34:05
Speaker
um And then he caps that off by saying, it's all well for Franklin and Jayi to say we should write from experience, but look at his life. It's amazing. Homosexuals, girls with big breasts, dick, car, and zipper. They don't sound like titles in a stand-up comedy set to me. They sound like chapters from a Fellini DVD. yeah And my again, another niche reference. He says, my life's not like that.
01:34:27
Speaker
and And he he says a brilliant joke here which I like and agree with but also hate myself for sort of half disagreeing with. The truth hurts basically is what I'm saying. a I'm a middle-aged married father of one. My life is like a Jack D sitcom. yeah It's mundane, it's middle-aged and it's exactly copied off of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
01:34:53
Speaker
Yeah. Which I think, you know, if you take away some of the the specifics of that, like I'm not Jack Dee, I'm not quite middle aged yet, but I am a ah married father of four. um And my life is a lot like that. And as we've seen today, I think what I might do, I might even cut in the Curb Your Enthusiasm music la to this.
Curb Your Enthusiasm's Storytelling
01:35:18
Speaker
Every time in the episode, I speak out of turn.
01:35:22
Speaker
ah Uh, and so I might do that. Um, if I haven't done that, my apologies. I'm either a coward or technically I couldn't work out how to make it work. Um, but given that we've run out of time and Joe and I need to allow this, um, allow this episode to save to, uh, the hard drive, we're going to bid you a due and, uh, we will come back for a, a what?
01:35:52
Speaker
ah wall ah I thought that you were stopping with the slurs. Oh, right. I see what we've done. but um um did li and duda dada da dada deada la dida da and it's agi
01:36:12
Speaker
I still need to watch Cabbie and these elements. You've not watched it? No. There's one episode in particular that I'll send you and on the... It's not on it's not on anything that I can watch it on.
01:36:27
Speaker
no yeah i think it's like a hbo or thing or whatever and it's it comes on sky periodically but it's like yeah it's like yeah it's on now yeah it's quite tricky to to pick up but there's an episode there's an episode in particular where it's basically but we studied it as a way of plotting sitcom right because from a plot point of view it's just fucking incredible right and it's like all these these four different plot strands all involving larry There's an A plot, B plot, C plot, D plot, all involving Larry. And they all literally come together right at the end in the very last shot. And it's. Honestly, this place they were spinning throughout that episode to make it work. Was one of the most amazing Larry David story. Yeah. Well, I assume as a Curb your enthusiasm panels panel.
01:37:20
Speaker
thing that you know that they do at like conventions and stuff. Yeah. And there's the guy that's got like a really weird voice. He's like a quite a big guy. Yeah. And he and and he rings him. And he goes just to let you know, in like the the coming season. and Yeah, I've written a story storyline. Your mother's died. Right. And the guy goes,
01:37:51
Speaker
That's really weird. Because my mother has actually just died. And Larry Davis responses. I'm not changing the script.
01:38:03
Speaker
I'll find the clip and I'll send it here. I was like, I've not even seen it. I don't know that any little about it, but that is beautiful. there's one there's a clip um that i saw a little while ago i came across it again recently but i saw it here just go away he's accepting like an award or something himself larry david near the accepting award and just you haven't seen kirby enthusiasm so this won't resonate as much with you but he accepts the award in the most larry david way right of jo imagine know him just being like
01:38:39
Speaker
He's just like that curmudgeon. Yeah, he just shits on everything. Yeah. But he's so fucking... I don't want to spoil it, but I'll find a link to it and I'll send you it because it's so funny. But i ah basically what he's doing there is he's essentially saying, I... I get into lots of scripts, but it's quite mundane. You know what I mean? It's it's it's comedy that ah arises from real life, right? It says to the point where you think someone would have been sued. i This is the kind of thing that happens to me. It's what my life's like. And it goes into this routine talking about being in a Worcester travel lodge, right? Which
01:39:18
Speaker
painfully reminded me I don't know if you've ever seen the Seinfeld and sketch well it's not a sketch it's obviously it's within an episode of Seinfeld. Not in a single episode of Seinfeld. Right okay fair enough well I'm not gonna say either way some people call it the greatest comedy of all time like I'm not sure about that but I there's stuff that I've watched I've really enjoyed. There's gotta be nostalgia as well for some people.
01:39:44
Speaker
Maybe it is. I mean, I didn't watch it first time around. I was too young when it came out. And by the time it sort of, you know, reached, it's kind of, you know, the last episode of Seinfeld is one of those things that's, it's held up as an example of something that everyone in the world watched, like in like 1998 or something. And it's just, it wasn't on my radar. I was 12. You know what I mean? like yeah and Fucking care. I was more interested in watching Friends. um So, you know.
Critique of Travel Lodge Comedy
01:40:11
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Rightly or wrongly. But anyway, there's this episode of Seinfeld where um he goes to pick up a rental car. Right, yeah. It's quite a ah common clip on YouTube. You probably would, you know, if if you Google Seinfeld rental car, it's quite a big clip on YouTube. But um he goes to pick up a rental car and and the woman says to him something along the lines of, oh, it's sorry we don't have your we don't have a car he's like but i've reserved the car he's like she's like oh well we we don't have a car and he's like yeah look what is the point of having a re reservation yeah and says if there's no vehicle
01:40:53
Speaker
And, you know, he goes through this whole like routine. I'm not going to try and do it verbatim because I can't remember it specifically, but it's effectively this routine that she was doing now. Right. um Where he kind of, you know, he goes into this travel lodge. And and, you know, he says, have I got have you got any rooms available in here tonight? And there was the travel lodge woman behind the counter says, I don't know.
01:41:22
Speaker
And I said, hang on a minute, this is the Worcester Travel Lodge we're in now. And she said, yes. I said, you're the woman behind the counter in the Worcester Travel Lodge. And she said, that's correct. And I said, yeah you're unable to tell me if there are any rooms available in the Worcester Travel Lodge. Right. So it's like, it's basically the same routine. um You know, you're unable to tell me if there are any rooms available in this building, the sole purpose of which is the commercial letting of rooms.
01:41:48
Speaker
yeah If you ever get to watch the the Seinfeld sketch, Stu takes it in ah in a ah more you know a sort of slightly left field direction. Yeah, it's more Stu, but the the essence of it is the same. It's kind of coming up against that bureaucracy.
01:42:07
Speaker
of you know I'm here to get a service from you, the sole purpose of you is to provide that service, yeah yet you're not able to provide that service. What is the point of view like yeah you? know that And it just struck me when I was watching this bit, um you know how universal some of his stuff actually is. yeah Like, he kind of shrouds it in all of this, aren't I clever, aren't I? yeah um You know, I don't know, what whatever they call it, the kind of the liberal intelligentsia or whatever, you know, the the kind of phrases used to reference his fans.
Nightmare Hotel Stay
01:42:47
Speaker
the metropolitan liberal elite, he kind of co couches it in this in this like overly written, overly kind of, what's the word I'm looking for? Elaborate. Yeah, elaborate is a good word. Like, you know, he kind of couches it in these things, but ultimately, this is an observational routine about and went to the travel lodge and they didn't have any rooms isn't that funny because i completely well it's not even that they didn't have any rooms is that they couldn't tell him if they had any rooms if they had any rooms and that's more ridiculous than them saying oh sorry we're fully booked yeah because that i can imagine
01:43:32
Speaker
But I can also, as a a patron of the world, can 100% imagine going to a travel lodge now and them saying this. Yeah. Well, this is it. um what We don't book the roads.
01:43:48
Speaker
have to speak to someone else to book the rooms. Yeah, we're we're just we're just the people who check you in when you get here, you need to speak to someone else to book the room. But like, you know, and there was ah there was a John Bishop routine years ago, I think it was like the big one where, you know, that actually put him on the map. I think he did it on like MacIntyre's Roadshow or something, where he's talking about taking a fridge to the tip.
01:44:10
Speaker
right and the guy yeah i think i remember and the guy says to him no you can't you can't leave that here you've got to phone up yeah and he's like well give me the look and yeah he says we'll come and get it so he rings he rings the number that the guy gives him and the phone rings in the guy's hut so like then the guy answers the phone he's like what what could i do for you he's like i've got a fridge he's like all right where is it he's like it's outside dickhead yeah like you know and obviously the way that he tells you it's like very funny but yeah it just it's that mundane thing that's it's quite a rich vein for people to follow over and i'm sure mackintosh has got like a middle class um you know like a middle england sort of um it's a nice kind of thing but it' be a prime and be what premieer inn yeah and it'd be ah it'd be a yeah
01:45:03
Speaker
or a fucking ritz or something. yeah Did you know hell and double tree give you free cookies when
Accommodation Struggles in Oxford
01:45:11
Speaker
you stay there? I do yeah right I have a story about this because um One, ah can it was a couple of years ago, I took my son to see, to some sort of comic con or something in London. right And me and my son and my cousin, who's like in his 20s, we went to this thing. My son was about 10 at the time. And I hadn't booked the accommodation, which is a massive mistake. I normally like to book my own stuff, but like my auntie booked it because my cousin was coming with us and she booked it. What I didn't sort of account for was that my auntie will always try and book
01:45:47
Speaker
Like the cheapest no like the absolute cheapest are really sort of flea pit Right available. And you know that that pretty much proved to be the case, right? So we were in Hammersmith um So I thought it'd be okay But we got to this place and they showed us to this room that was basically in the basement ah Like you know the light exposed pipework on the walls and stuff like that and we got yeah but we didn't care because wed we didn't travel in all day and we were so tired and and all that kind of stuff so we just we sort of got went and got some food came back got sorted to kind of get ready to get get into bed right and i even though we'd booked for a twin room me and my son ended up having to share the same bed because you know that she'd have a twin room available well she'd obviously either not booked it or they'd just put us in here or whatever yeah so we got into this bed right and
01:46:46
Speaker
was really uncomfortable and I couldn't sort of work out why it was like it felt like there were crumbs in the bed right right it was like really weird and uncomfortable so I said get out of this bed we got out of the bed I lifted the duvet back right it was just rats no it wasn't rats do you know what it was do you know what it was what human skin ah Right o so I hope no one's eating while they're listening to this but it was actual like it looked like someone had had like a massive psoriasis of human skin well it was weird like I know renting in London's expensive but I didn't realize you know you had to make like an actual organ donation yeah to kind of make it make it happen but
01:47:32
Speaker
so i said look and they didn't even have a shower in the room and so i couldn't get this person's skin off me i can imagine for you that would fucking i was fuming right so we got dressed i went to the other room not that i would have enjoyed it to be fair i got dressed went to the other room grabbed my cousin um ran upstairs and i said to the guy in the in the thing i said there is skin in the bed right and the guy to be fair to him i don't think he like he sort of ran the place i don't think it was his place um and he was just like look he says we can refund um part of your stay but because you've been here for like an hour we can't refund tonight fucks sake and i was like whatever look i don't care we need to leave right so we were out in the middle of a multiple night they're meant to be there on yeah we' we're there two nights
01:48:20
Speaker
But we we were then out in the middle of Hammersmith, like, um effectively homeless for the evening. Yeah. Right. And, you know, skin on you. So yeah, well, this is it. Well, I still have the skin on me. That's the issue. Right. So then I was looking around, like, where can we stay trying to find places? And the only place I could find was a double tree.
01:48:40
Speaker
Yeah. Right. So we went to the double tree and we went in there and I walked in the door and they could see straight away that we were like clearly distressed. Poor. We were obviously poor, but we were distressed. Right. Yeah. And the woman came over from behind the counter and she's like, are you okay? Is everything okay? Would you like a hot towel? I was like, I would love a hot towel. Right. And then she's like, can we get you a drink? id like I would love a drink. We sat at the bar and she's just like, would you like some complimentary cookies? I would love some complimentary cookies.
01:49:10
Speaker
and then so we were doing all this stuff and then she's like uh so we've got one one room booked for you it's a it's a blah blah blah family room or whatever all three of us staying in the same room um that'll be 480 pounds yeah right but like by that point i had like a mouthful of cookies and like a hot towel on my face fucking pina colada I was like, I don't give a fuck. I don't care. I went to Oxford once for an
Competitive Auditions
01:49:45
Speaker
audition. Yeah. Post uni for Alice in Wonderland that I was close to getting, actually. Yeah. So I went on the night the night before because I needed to get there thinking I'll just stay in a hostel. So I went to book into the hostel that I had already booked and they said, ah can I see your passport?
01:50:06
Speaker
And I was like, I haven't got a passport. And they went, but you need a passport. Stay here. And I was like, I don't have one. And they're like, literally, we we can't. um
01:50:24
Speaker
Yeah, we can't. We can't take it. Yeah. I understand for like people that are not from here. But I'm like, why do I need a passport if I'm not leaving the UK?
01:50:37
Speaker
This is in Oxford. If I'd gone to Reykjavik, then fair enough, I'd have my passport. But then I was there and I was like, I don't know why what to do now because now I'm stranded. No hostel would book me in. And I went to a the closest hotel that I could find. yeah And they went, we have no rooms. yeah This is going to be hard to hear.
01:51:05
Speaker
But um it's currently the the night of a um one of the college's graduations. So every hotel in Oxford was fully booked. The are only one that they said, like one of the hotels that I went in yeah said, I think the only one that I can think of that might have one yeah is round the corner. I was like, okay, what's that? The Randolph.
01:51:35
Speaker
Oh god, I was like that even sounds expensive I was like fuck so I walked in and I went up to the counter and I was like I'm a struggling actor Yes, and I'm literally I've been to every hotel. Yeah explain the situation. I had an thing. It's like it's here or It's a bench. Yeah, that they're my options and I can ask my dad. Yeah to send me some money, yeah but he's going to lose his shit. So I needed to be his... I was like, it's six o'clock at this point. I passed six. I need it to be as cheap as possible. yeah And she went and spoke to her manager and came back and said, I can give you a room for 150 quid. That's not bad. Which she said, normally they're 280.
01:52:31
Speaker
yeah And I was like, at this point, I was like biting her arm off. Oh yeah, 100%. And then I went and sat in my robe, like Kevin Macallister. Watching the Big Bang Theory. Like I ended up, um it was my cousin that bailed me out, actually not my dad. My dad didn't have any money to send me. But my cousin sent me like more than 150 quid, like was just like, I think he sent me like 300.
Dining Experiences and Cooking Woes
01:53:02
Speaker
yeah this is the like go get some food go chill out like you've got your audition tomorrow yeah just try and forget about it yeah yeah yeah and put you in the best place possible ended up yeah ended up not getting it but there was 500 people auditioning for five roles fuck and i think i got down to the last 50 that's pretty good means that's pretty good to like i can't like and that's actually the numbers game at the end of the day like when you're going to audition in but yeah, like hearing the the the idea that it was graduation week yeah was just like, and I was nearly in meltdown. Oh yeah, no, I can imagine. I used to take that similar thing from when I did So You Think You're Funny, it was like seven or 800 people and I got down to the last 50 or 60. You know what I mean? So I was like... Really good. I kind of walked away from that going,
01:54:01
Speaker
All right, yeah, I didn't get where I wanted to get. Yeah, you have to adjust your expectations based on or take comfort in what you did get. You know what I mean? You saw exactly you didn't come away from it with the outcome that you wanted, but you got an outcome from it. And that outcome is you were considered one of the 50 best out of that pool of people or whatever. and And, you know, like this is what I'm saying about. Like so this this clearly demonstrates that this is quite a relatable sort of concept.
01:54:31
Speaker
that both of us have quite prominent stories that we remember clearly, you know, on the back of just thinking about. But at least the hotels that we went in, they knew that they had rooms. Yeah, well, no, of course. They knew whether they had rooms or not, which is just ridiculous. We both stayed in enough hotels to recognise this level of bureaucracy, right? Yeah. Yeah. And just not even hotels, but the way... Yeah.
01:54:58
Speaker
everything works now. and so yeah like service monitoring general We went to Wagamama's on Saturday for Rachel's birthday yeah and Rachel's mum who's never been to Wagamama's before.
01:55:10
Speaker
So there's like an a QR code now that you do, that you go on and each person can go on. Oh fuck that. And pay for um their own shit. Their own stuff. Like they go on, there's a list of all the items. You have to use your own calculator to work out how much it is.
01:55:29
Speaker
but then you go back into the QR code, and you type in how much you're paying. Fuck that. um And Ninja Mum, who is like massively anti-technology. Yeah, it was not happening. It was just like, no, everyone else can do theirs, and I'll pay for whatever's left at the end. Yeah, no, I get that. I'm just not doing it. I like Wagamummas, but the thing that really irritates me, and someone's done a routine about this, and I can't remember who it is, but... About the tables.
01:55:58
Speaker
Do you know just about about how why can't you bring all the food out once you know how long these things take? ah yeah Ryan was the one that was last um yeah and and was fuming. I can't remember I'm going to look into this because it's going to annoy me who did that routine but someone's got a brilliant routine. the The crux of which is you know how much how long all of these things take to cook. Yeah yeah. When you get the order why can't you just love the show the order at the same time? I'm someone who is now back being a chef from next week, ye my my shift is. um Yeah, you couldn't go to, I won't say for legal reasons, but my new work yep and just send everything out whenever it's done. Oh, it's to go out together. No, you make a ticket so that yeah all all the ticket is ready together. yeah
01:56:53
Speaker
But you just imagine, right? I've i've seen enough episodes of hell kit Hell's Kitchen to know that Gordon Ramsay loses his fucking shit. Yeah, when some things are done too early and sat under the hot lights dying. Yeah, exactly. Do you know what I mean? Why they're like, well, we'll just do it this way.
01:57:08
Speaker
and we'll pass it off as, oh, well, everything's fresher then. Yeah, no, just be better at your
Observational Comedy and Classics
01:57:14
Speaker
jobs. Yeah, 100%. Just be better at your jobs. The reason I'm not a professional chef or cook, or whatever the term is, is I can't time things. When I do a Sunday dinner, bits of it are cold. Bits of it are fucking piping hot. The gravy's lumpy. There's a reason I don't cook professionally, right? So I go out to people who do cook professionally. I didn't realise that cooking wasn't easy until I met Rachel. And that sounds like massive shade against my wife and it's not. She's an alright cook but she's not great.
01:57:55
Speaker
Yeah, but what you're saying is she's an alright cook by your standards. She's a great yeah cook by your standards. And it's one of them things that I was like, yeah like a curry or a sauce or saw something or whatever. And I'm like, oh, it's a bit runny. You need to like um reduce it more. And she was like, I don't know what that means. I don't know how to do that. You just cook it for longer. Yeah, I know. But people say this, right? People say this in practice. rather the pubbling The bubbling yeah is gas. Steam escaping. Steam escaping yeah from when the water yeah in the source
01:58:39
Speaker
is heated. Do you know what, right? Less water. not not to kind of Not to spit in the face of you trying to teach me this. I know how steam works. yeah I understand that bit. um i mean The longer you cook it, the more steam that escapes. yeah The less water that's in the dish. Yeah, of course. Therefore, the less runny it is. You would think so, wouldn't you? right You would think so. that's how it No, that's that that's the that's the science. and Yeah, I know. I agree. And you would think so because that's how actual science works, right? Yeah. But for some reason, whenever I do it, I i so i drop into a dimension where science is no longer relevant. Well, something you have that maybe it's ah um maybe it's not on hot enough. Do you know the yeah you know, the James, the James Acaster, and then that that can be a bit, you know, you got the James Acaster routine about how is a guy having a breakdown while nothing happens to some custard.
01:59:33
Speaker
I haven't seen that in ages. I thought you meant you hadn't seen it. I haven't seen that in ages and I know what you mean. It's not one that I can bring to the front of my eyes. It's his bake-off breakdown and for me that's one of the best lines in the game. The bake-off breakdown where he's sort of basically saying it doesn't make for a very good telly watching a man have a nervous breakdown for 45 minutes while nothing happens to some custard. Also I haven't seen covers on you.
02:00:03
Speaker
Oh, dude. Because you still haven't sent me a Vimeo login. I know I haven't. I mean, no, that's not fair. No, no, it is entirely fair. The reason I've not watched it is because I've not bought it myself. Which, by the way, just so we're clear legally, I don't advocate password sharing in any shape or form.
02:00:23
Speaker
i' okay
02:00:27
Speaker
hard lines. You're not having mine. I'm not getting arrested. i Anyway, right, so he's doing the travel lodge routine and he does acknowledge the fact that... Oh, you're shooting, yeah. Yeah, that's what we're here to talk about. He does acknowledge the fact that you know he says um i'm a 40 year old stand-up comedian and i hate the travel lodge um you know and i'm i'm gonna write a routine about this he says obviously i'll come at it from a more oblique angle and he says um there's a bit in it where he says oh what was it now he keeps repeating the phrase i'm a 40 year old stand-up comedian and i hate the travel lodge he does that thing where he gets really angry and he's like is that what you want are you happy now and he's shouting at the people and he's running through the crowd
02:01:11
Speaker
and there's a bit where he says, I hate the travel lodge, it says please please don't waste towels because of ecological issues, only put them in the bath if you use them. I didn't use them and I put them in the bath to try and waste their money to drive them out of business. um I went into the travel lodge and threw the television out of the window but I forgot to pull the plug out, it bounced back and hit me in the face.
02:01:32
Speaker
um I'm a 40 year old stand-up comedian I hate the travel lodge and there's another glib truism about stand-up people say the best stand-up comedians die young but they don't it's just that some of them are fortunate fortunate enough to die before they write that I hate the travel lodge routine need that and then he does that thing that I do all the time I don't do it on stage because I don't know I'm not good enough to make audiences not be worried about it because that's the whole point but like he then says I wish I was dead the scene cuts to the final sketch right
02:02:08
Speaker
Um, which he'd set up slightly earlier in the routine where he started talking about if I was going to do this from a more oblique angle, I'd maybe do it about, um, trying to buy some apples, but you can't buy the, we don't know if we've got them in stock. So you'll have to speak to the national Apple office. Right. Yeah. Which then, you know, after the little freak out and he says, I wish I was dead, it cuts to the sketch, which is, um, Kevin Elden running an Apple shop, Paul Putner comes in. yeah Um, and the bit that I love about this sketch is that.
02:02:39
Speaker
Kevin Elden keeps saying, well, that depends, sir. Yeah. And whether or not any apples in stock, sir. like It's a very. um
02:02:50
Speaker
Python. ass Yes. Yeah, very. Also giving giving Markham and Wise. I think. Yeah. Markham and Wise that I'm thinking of.
02:03:03
Speaker
but you not no Do you know what it is? It's that two Ronnies sketch, right? The two Ronnies. I'm thinking of the two Ronnies,
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle Evolution
02:03:09
Speaker
yeah. You know, it's the four candles sketch, isn't it, basically? Yeah, it's the four candles sketch, yeah. Where the guy, you know, comes in and he's just at every single turn thwarted in his ambitions to just get the things that he wants. Yeah. it's It's the same setup, the same kind of premise. and But the way that they do it in this one, what I really like about it is how in the end he just loses his shit, yeah smashes up the apple shop, a woman wanders in with a trombone, ah randomly. Kevin Elden's taking bites out of individual apple apples and throwing them around like monkey throwing shit and then Paul Putnam like tears down the set so you see all the like crew and stuff behind it and it's just
02:04:01
Speaker
I just I don't know like of all the kind of sketches like I've liked a lot of the sketches in this series I will say because obviously we're at the point now where we've got to the end of comedy vehicle series one and I must say thank god for that because I feel i think it's how bad no I don't and that when I say that I don't mean it that glibly right what I mean is this is a series clearly that hasn't found its feet yet yeah like yeah it's an opening so like just like any yeah for like there's very few first series that really get to it but like this i've loved i've loved a lot of the individual constituent parts of this
02:04:48
Speaker
And I'm talking about the series as a whole now, right? I've really loved a lot of the individual constituent parts. There's brilliant jokes in this. There's brilliant sketches in this. There's some really good stuff. A lot of rehashing of things. There's a lot of rehashing, but at the end of the day. Can't contribute into it as well. Maybe, but at the end of the day, if you look at it in terms of if he's writing to a theme, right? If you've got some stuff on that theme that maybe hasn't been on telly before.
02:05:16
Speaker
Because bear in mind, a lot of the stuff that he's rehashed has been on DVDs and stuff like that. But you have to kind of think back to would would a BBC sized audience have seen those DVDs at that time? They have now. They have now because he does a quarter of a million people every tour he does. But like back then, this was pre him kind of blowing up properly again.
02:05:41
Speaker
Yeah. um You know, so if you if you're commissioned to write six episodes, themed, you know, episodes for 20, 26 minutes each or whatever, that's like you're talking like three hours worth of material. Yeah. yeah So, you know, you would take the opportunity to kind of like rehash some. I want to do that now. No, you know, like listen, ah you know, I've been doing this three years now and it's taken me three years to write an hour and a half.
02:06:10
Speaker
of sort of serviceable material and it's not even to the level that Stu's material is. it's This is not an easy thing to do by any stretch of the imagination. um But what I'm saying is I don't I don't want to come across like I'm being unfair to comedy vehicle series one measured against his other output. You know, if we were to do one of those trendy YouTube videos now where you where you drag things into like what tier is it? Yeah, exactly. If you to do that, this wouldn't be top tier nationally because.
02:06:42
Speaker
that you know even it's not even top tier comedy vehicle like if you look at comedy vehicle and i think he's even said this himself he's like comedy vehicle took two or three series to find its feet yeah you know and and by the fourth series three was good series three was incredible and by the third that's the only yeah that was my first foray into stewart lee Yeah, well, comedy vehicle series, he's got a lot of the like really iconic routines. If I remember rightly, the kind of Paul Nuttall's from UKIP's routines in there. And, you know, there's a big chunk of like really massive, clever routines. That routine got into number one in the pop chart. Really? Yeah, yeah. It was I think it was like Asian dub foundation or something amazing, sampled, you know, coming over here.
02:07:34
Speaker
with their skills you know that so ah it sampled that whole kind of bit that's funny in a in like a ah sort of pop song or whatever um there are people who like asian dub foundation that will be screaming that they're not pop right now but i don't know they work massively but i just i'm aware that they've they collaborated with him on a song or sampled his work in a song and it got to like the top of one of the charts, download chart or something. But anyway, right, the point is it got better as it went along. Yeah. And I do think that the format of having the sketches interspersed with the stand up sort of took something away from both
02:08:18
Speaker
yeah you know what i mean yeah rather than just having sketches or just stand up like if you look if you look at later series so like i don't really count the interrogator bits with chris morris because i think they do add to the stand up because they basically he's talking about a thing in the stand up and then chris morris there's a little clip of him interrogating series three series four uh three and four i think um because i think it's armando you knew what you're doing the interrogator in series two and then in three and four it's Chris Morris but what he'll do is he'll he'll get to the end of a routine or the logical sort of end point of it and then chris you know it'll cut to him and Chris Morris sat there and Chris Morris will be sort of basically saying why the thing that he's just said is shit and kind of transparent and pointless and not as good as he used to be and like all these things just undercutting him. Let him tough go.
02:09:13
Speaker
yeah exactly that's what i'm saying um and the whereas i think with this you know that adds to the stand-up whereas this kind of stops it in its tracks yeah a lot of the sketches act as like punch lines to the routines, like in the absence of maybe a punch line. I don't know if there was proper punch lines in the room when he when they filmed it. Yeah, but yeah I think the sketches were used in lieu of a punch line at times. um But that being said, they' they're decent, you know, they're really good standalone sketches on on their own merit. Yeah. And again, I cannot iterate in this enough that this is purely my opinion.
02:09:57
Speaker
I am no one. Do you know what I mean? No one. But again, far be it from me to critique one of the greatest stand-ups of all time. That is what we're here to do then. Yeah, but if you look at it that way, it's like a fucking, not a terrible open mic stand-up comedian, a good open mic stand-up comedian sat here going, nah, I wouldn't have done it that way.
02:10:24
Speaker
But the only reason I'm saying that is because he then later on didn't do it that way. Yeah. And it clearly made an improvement. Like the the series just got better and better. And um I'm looking forward to getting into series two, because I know you haven't seen that. There's some really good stuff in there. Series three, I know you've seen, which is disappointing. But that was like a year or so ago. So by the time we get to that,
02:10:49
Speaker
Yeah, and that's fine. You know, obviously, but but I'm looking forward to that because that's got some really big hitter routines in it. Series four genuinely contains my favorite half hour of stand up of all time. You might have shown me that one, actually. I did do. Yeah, when we went to Glasgow and I regret it now because you're not seeing it cold for the first time. No, but still, I'm far enough away from it. that It's so good that I couldn't not show it.
02:11:17
Speaker
yeah It will be fresh from my brain. it so It's that thing where people sort of say, oh, what's your entry point to Stuart Lee? And I always think, well, show them that because that says like fucking out there and experimental theater and fucking esoteric as it gets. The one about I can't remember the name of it. I think it's childhood or something. Right. Where he he talks about seeing the ghosts of dead comedians and stuff and like he has a proper breakdown on stage. And it's like there's like there's less laughs in it.
02:11:47
Speaker
Yeah, I've already, yeah, i've I've already forgotten what it's about. and Yeah, exactly. So you'll you'll be all right. But fine whenever anyone asks me, what would you show somebody doesn't know Stuart Lee first? It's always that one. because I think it best illustrates what he does. um But like I say, that's that's for another time. That's that's two, two more series away. And we've got some other um some other longer specials. I hate the word specials. And it's Michael Legg's fault. Milder comedian. Yeah, I ah blame Michael Legg for me yeah wanting to be sick in my mouth every time I say the word special. You tore you apart. he did tear me apart for that and i do i hate myself every time i say it no but it just it's it's the word i'm conditioned that's what being yes what yes what people call them well i'm conditioned to say it that way but yeah um i hate myself for it now but next we've got um if you prefer a milder comedian please ask for one yeah which fucking hell i mean
02:12:50
Speaker
You want to talk about God tier Stewart Lee routines. Really? You know, this is what this is what we're talking about. I mean, fucking none of this will make any sense to you, but the Top Gear routine, 100 percent pair. Fucking yeah. I've heard a lot of these. I've heard a lot of these in isolation. Yeah. Being talked about, being talked about, but not the actual bit. Not seen them. yeah rather than Fuck.
Hints at Upcoming Episodes
02:13:19
Speaker
So much to do with Richard Hammond. honest And again, because I don't have the context, it means nothing to me. Yeah, exactly. And when, you know, when you watch them, so yeah just slick there's just so many fucking, you know, the.
02:13:35
Speaker
the letter to a pirate, the Harry Hill pirate routine, fucking, there's just so much good stuff in there. And I'm really excited to to do that now that we've got to the end of a comedy vehicle series one. Yeah. um And I do hope that would be really quick for us to get through because they're only half an hour. Yeah, no, we I think we need to accept, Joe, that we don't do anything quickly. um I've got an entire routine about how I can't even do sex quickly.
02:14:04
Speaker
and that's not that's not a boast either um but clearly in my life i can you know we can't slug it's a fucking it is a slug um and we we can't do anything quickly um so i think we just need to accept We need to accept that and move on. But I do hope that everyone has enjoyed us walking through a comedy vehicle and as much as you can enjoy two boring men talking about a boring man yeah for hours. If you're still here. If you're still here, well done to you. and And also, you know, through me trying my absolute best to get myself cancelled and upsetting Joe. You didn't upset me.
02:14:45
Speaker
No, but, you know, it was it was rocky there for a while. I might have ended up having to do across the stu universe with Andrew Marsh. If it sponsored by Comedy Unleashed.
02:14:58
Speaker
the yeah oh You can cut this bit out of the pond. I won't do that. Fine. Have you noticed that, you know, tonight yeah weve we've got a gig. Yes. And normally a bank.
02:15:15
Speaker
is being sponsored by Hot Water Comedy Club. What? What is it? Because it's an all-male lineup. It's an all-male lineup. Sorry, I tried on the punchline of your joke there. Fuck it. Sorry about that. There's always is me stealing the glory. um And being a massive bigot while I do it. ah But yeah, thanks thanks everyone. Join us again when we do milder comedian in three years time.
02:15:46
Speaker
No, it should be like many German stuff. It should be. We'll figure it. We'll figure it out. Find day times and stuff that we can do because the plan the plan isn't to take as long a break again. yeah ah To be honest, I ah kind of said if we're if we're still here doing this by next Edinburgh, yeah there might be another three month gap after August. but and Yeah, else we'll see. We'll see. Cool. Thanks, everyone. Bye.