We take a look back over the comedy year.
The year of the comeback
Blimey were there a lot of comedy comebacks this year. Black Squadron members and Podcats everywhere rejoiced as beloved radio duo Adam and Joe brought their Sony award-winning show back to the airwaves in April (then deserted us after Glasto – sob!). New episodes of cult ‘90s cartoon Beavis and Butthead aired on MTV in America, to an audience of 3.3 million viewers. Foster’s followed up their triumphant revival of Alan Partridge in 2010 by recommissioning more classic comedy shows including Vic and Bob and The Fast Show. Jennifer Saunders hinted that as well as a three-part Christmas special of her award-winning sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, there may be a movie in the pipeline and look out for new Red Dwarf next year, as Craig Charles confirmed that the cult sci-fi show will return for a new series.
Rows
It wouldn’t be a normal comedy year without a few Twitter scraps, a rant or two from Stewart Lee and a joke that offended somebody. Frankie Boyle and Mark Watson got into a row over a blog Watson had written in 2010, criticising Boyle’s handling of an audience member with a Down’s Syndrome child. Just when it looked that might be the end of the scrap, champion of provocative comedy Doug Stanhope waded in with his two pennies worth. Ed Byrne quit Twitter over a row with Cheggers and his followers about plagiarism. Boyle got into more hot water over a joke he made about Jordan’s disabled son Harvey. Stewart Lee was riled by the inaccurate Metro report that he was at the 2009 British Comedy Awards, so we thought it high time we compiled a list of some of his best tirades. Funny Women were lambasted by comics for trying to introduce a ‘pay-to-play’ policy for their annual competition and Jimmy Carr had to apologise for tweeting a joke about a car crash less than 48 hours after the November M5 crash.
Edinburgh
This year saw some venue shake-ups at the Fringe with some of Edinburgh’s biggest venues closing and The Stand winning tenancy of The Assembly Rooms off long-time residents Assembly Theatre. In one of the funniest new stories we reported this year, Paul Daniels was taken to hospital after Sooty hit him in the face with a flying pizza. Character comic Adam Riches won the coveted Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award for ‘Best Show’ while Humphrey Ker was awarded Best Newcomer for his World War Two satire and sketch duo Max and Ivan scooped the panel prize for their wrestling spectacular. Cariad Lloyd may have missed out on the ‘Best Newcomer’ award but her show was rated the most popular in terms of Twitter traffic.
Show highlights (Edinburgh)
Edinburgh highlights for us included Rich Fulcher's Tiny Acts of Rebellion which saw the Mighty Boosh star play a suave self-help guru advising how to ‘stick it to the man’ in some of the silliest and most imaginative ways. The Beta Males performed a slick narrative-driven sketch show about a runaway train, Tom Rosenthal’s energetic debut took the posh-boy satire to a new, quite brilliant level; while Richard Herring delivered another perfectly-timed, intelligently written comedic exploration into the subject of love. The surreal prop-based antics of Sam Simmons, Ben Target and Lou Sanders also cracked us up.
Show highlights (London)
Of course there is comedy life outside Edinburgh. Mark Thomas walked the entire length of the Israeli West Bank Barrier and wrote a funny and insightful show about it. The early days of alternative comedy were celebrated at the 1981 Show with Alexei Sayle, bubble wrap and a naked balloon dance. The Pajama Men cooked up an endless stream of undiluted silliness and the world’s first live comedy think tank was launched.
photo by Alex Brenner
Interviews and photoshoots
We’ve had a lot of fun interviewing comedians all over London this year. We listened in on a Horne Section practice session, went tap dancing in Camden Passage with Charlie Baker, kicked kids off a carousel to make way for Frisky and Mannish, went bowling with top sketch troupes Pappy’s and The Beta Males, browsed for comic books with Colin Hoult, learnt some magic tricks with Paul Daniels, watched Max and Ivan train for a comedy wrestling match, spied on comedians behind closed doors at the Edinburgh Fringe and got stopped by security taking pictures of Boy With Tape on His Face outside the New Diorama Theatre.
Phew – we’re knackered just thinking about all the comic happenings this year. Farewell 2011, we’re going to go home, drink too much red wine and fall out with our families over Christmas telly before we come back in January and do it all over again.
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