As the comic genius is once again given something to complain about, we look back at some of his finest and funniest rants.
Another day, another angry rant from comedy legend Stewart Lee. Once again, stand-up’s equivalent of a blustery mother hen has been riled by a factually incorrect article printed by the Metro that accuses him of attending the 2009 British Comedy Awards and having a go at Michael McIntyre.
Some of you may be thinking that there have been slightly more serious breaches by the tabloid press in recent memory, but nethertheless Lee has fired off an angry letter to the editor of the Metro complaining about the mistake. In it he states that he hasn’t attended the awards since 1992, and goes onto say,
“Perhaps it was golfer Darren Clarke or General Ratko Mladic, both of whom I am often mistaken for... It is offensive to suggest that I would attend The British Comedy Awards and I will be considering legal action unless you print this. Check your facts, fools.”
This is the latest in a series of very funny outraged complaints from Lee, and so we’ve decided that the time is nigh to look back on some of our favourite of his previous tirades. Here’s the top 5:
5. The Twitter rant
Impersonating Stewart Lee on Twitter is clearly a bad idea. Not only will you never be able to recreate the genius of the original, but you will also provoke the ire of the man, as witnessed in this most foul-mouthed of rants from his newsletter of last month.
“A cunt is pretending to be me on Twitter, which is annoying. It is not possible for me to stop this cunt without joining Twitter, which I will not do. I will never appear on Twitter. I will also never pretend to appear on Twitter. The fact that a cunt can do this is partly why. I will not be held hostage by you people.”
4. The Top Gear rant
Anyone who dislikes Top Gear, or to put it another way, anyone with a shred of human decency, will love Lee’s masterful satirical dissection of everything that’s so dubious about the supposedly ‘harmless and good-natured’ humour of the show.
Predictably, Lee’s comments about Richard ‘the hamster’ Hammond caused an outcry in the Daily Mail, the intelligent journalists of that distinguished rag seemingly unable to grasp the concept of a comedian not working entirely at face value. (This story has reappeared in today’s Mail in an article by everyone's favourite columnist, Jan Moir.)
3. The Bo Burnham rant
During the Edinburgh Fringe last year, YouTube star Bo Burnham made a remark in an interview about Lee’s stand-up which didn’t go down very well. As a result, anyone fortunate enough to be in the audience for Lee’s show on the day the interview was published found him not to be in the best of moods. The phrases “twelve year old cunt” and “I’m sorry I’m not a children’s entertainer” particularly stand out in memory.
2. The Del-Boy falling through the bar rant
Apparently, Stewart Lee didn’t find Del-Boy falling through the bar on Only Fools and Horses as funny as the rest of the British public.
1. The Edinburgh Comedy God rant
And here it is: our Number 1 Stewart Lee rant. When last year the Edinburgh Comedy Awards announced they were going to celebrate 30 years of the accolades by organising a public vote for the all-time Edinburgh ‘Comedy God’, a tipsy Lee took to the computer keyboard and emailed out a vehement panning of the whole idea.
“You need to pull the plug on this now. It is the most shameful, inane thing I have seen in all the years I have been doing the fringe. You will ruin it for everyone. Have a heart, for God’s sake. Don’t invoke people like Simon Cowell and Andrew Lloyd Webber in an Edinburgh fringe award. What is wrong with you? It's totally inappropriate. This is the place we go to escape them!
“Think about the logic of it for a moment. Who among those you are asking to vote has even heard of [1984 nominees] The Frank Chickens, who for all anyone under 30 knows may be the best act on the list? It is not possible for the outcome of this vote to have any credibility.”
Such was the impact of Lee’s diatribe, Frank Chickens went on to win the prize and returned to Edinburgh at Lee’s request to perform at his 25th anniversary show. A rant that truly achieved results!
Stewart Lee - Flickwerk 2011: Work In Progress is on at Edinburgh's The Stand Comedy Club August 3rd-29th
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