My Comedy Heroes

In truth there’s too many to mention, but here for now are people who I can say with a degree of certainty are direct influences on me:

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Graham Chapman

The master of pompous absurdity and my favourite comedy performer. His comedy genius still doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, despite being part of the greatest comedy troupe of all times…

Monty Python

Okay, so I’ve given Graham a solo name-check, but all of Monty Python are legends and make the world a much more enjoyable place to live in. They are one of my go-tos when I’m feeling depressed and need cheering up. There is something magical when intelligent people are very, very silly.

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Andy Kaufman

I’m relatively new to Kaufman’s work, only really exploring it in the last few years, but when I did explore it I found a kindred spirit. He was part wide-eyed innocent (an exaggeration of his real self), part mischevious string puller. He didn’t like to be considered a comedian (he preferred the term ‘performance artist’), probably because some people have a very narrow view of what a comedian is (I too get frustrated by this).

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Jim Henson’s Muppets

I used to watch the Muppets as a small child with my Mum and Dad, and as an adult I still love them now. These colourful, larger than life characters, captured my imagination as a child, it’s no wonder that I would go on to do what I am doing now. As a boy, my favourite character was Scooter (maybe because he was supposed be young like me), but as an adult my favourite is definitely the exploited and permanently startled lab assistant Beaker. Both were played by the late, great, Richard Hunt so I was keen to post a picture with him in (he’s at the very end on the right).

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Kenneth Williams/Round the Horne

The Carry On Movies would be good fun in their own right without him, but Kenneth Williams always added an additional dimension to the humour to take the humour to the next level. To slightly paraphrase Sheila Hancock, he could take something that was fundamentally smutty in nature and turn into into something surreal. He also gave hilarious performances in Hancock’s Half Hour, Beyond our Ken and of course…

Round the Horne was a wonderful production of comedy chaos, underpinned by the genial, avuncular Kenneth Horne. While some may see the humour as tame now, it is important to remember that it’s most popular characters, Julian and Sandy, made a lot of strong allusions to the fact they they were gay (as were their performers – Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick). Very daring (or ‘bold’ in this case) considering homosexuality was illegal at the time in the UK.

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Knowing Me, Knowing You… with Alan Partridge

Watching this back recently, I was shocked at how much this show had subconciously influenced my comedy. This is definitely my favourite of all of the Alan Partridge incarnations, not only because of Steve Coogan’s performance of the main man himself, but also because of the amazing supporting cast of David Schneider, Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber and Doon Mackichan all playing different characters that are hilarious in their own right.

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The League of Gentlemen

I first watched this a Born-Again Christian and decided it was unsuitable for my righteous eyes. I gave the show another go after angrily rejecting my faith and ended up becoming a massive fan. What I love about it is, although it’s very dark in places, it’s a show that pulls at your heart strings, makes you empathise with its characters (even when those characters are monsters in their own right). Again, great characters and memorable catchphrases.

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The Marx Brothers

Masters of comedy chaos. Their movies often saw them drop into a very straight-laced world around them (normally occupied by the prim and proper Margaret Dumont) and turn it upside down.

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The Mighty Boosh

Definitely my favourite comedy show of the noughties. It’s a real trick to deliver delivered imaginative and mind-blowing comedy and still look very cool in the process, but somehow the Boosh managed it.

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Peter Cook & Dudley Moore

Peter Cook was a sharp-witted, comedy genius and Dudley Moore was his loveable foil. Together they made a legendary double-act that have inspired generations of comedians that have followed. They could be funny in a number of different situations, be it the more sanitised environment of the 1960s BBC or completely uncensored in the Derek & Clive recordings. I’m not generally a fan of excessively crude humour, but Peter Cook’s surreal ad-libbing in Derek & Clive makes for a very enjoyable listening experience.

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This is Jinsy

An undervalued treasure that deserves to be a household name. It manages to combines elements of two of my favourite shows – the dangerously incestuous small community feel of the League of Gentleman with surreal adventures typical of the Mighty Boosh.

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Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer

For over 30 years they have been delivering their unique brand of comedy and they are just as funny as ever. Vic Reeves’ Big Night Out still stands the test of time and is a major inspiration to me for Jing TV in terms of seeing what can be achieved with a low budget and a strong imagination.

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The Young Ones, Alexei Sayle & Bottom

What sets apart The Young Ones from many other sitcoms was how unpredictable it was. Anything could happen, including the Easter Bunny hopping into view, a man with an elephant head singing and an overacting postman milking his cameo (my favourite moment in the show).

This show also brought us the anarchic comedy of Alexei Sayle, who went have his own series of shows showcasing his own unique brand of observational comedy.

And Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson went on to create Bottom which, while a bit more grounded in reality compared to the Young Ones (but thankfully not too much), is still gloriously silly in Ritchie and Eddies’ endless, fruitless quest to try and get their respective legs over.