Comic Cuts

Joan Rivers on BBC2's Culture Show was explaining that comedians, unlike singers, always have to do new material.
What?
Joan Rivers? A woman who has been doing the same jokes for 30 years.

"My husband committed suicide. It was my fault."
Altogether Now: Yes, Joan. You took the bag off your head.

Maybe the poor man killed himself because he couldn't bear to hear the same joke yet again.
As for Joan, is she unaware that she's doing the same stuff as though on an audio loop? Has she got Altzheimer's?

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After last night's footie, I watched a bit of Alan Carr's Tooth Fairy show on C4. A few days before, I'd seen him on a repeat of Live at the Apollo on a digital channel. Most of the material was identical.
Come to think of it, he did a lot of the same jokes on the Royal Variety Performance.
I know I've moaned about this before but if these people can repeat themselves for vast sums of money than I can do it for free.

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The ads for Russell Howard's tour describe him as "one of the most sought-after acts in British stand-up."
Presumably, like his co-panellists on Mock the Week (on which he's the weakest link) he's sought after by people who want to punch his smug face.

This publicity blurb reminded me of the ancient music hall joke: "The audience were with me all the way. But I managed to shake them off at the station."

Meanwhile, in a sign of changing times, I see that the tour of The Vagina Monologues is playing the Assembly Halls in Tunbridge Wells. Another stereotype sadly bites the dust.
They're probably so un-disgusted now in Tunbridge Wells that they could re-name the show The Cunt Colloquies and nobody would reach for the Basildon Bond and the green ink.

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On his Radio 4 show last night, Mark Watson, another over-rated comedian, appeared to think that YouGov is a Government-run polling organisation.
It is not.
Not so long ago I heard another comedian on Radio 4 say 'wouldn't it be awful if Gordon Brown's strange jaw movements that we all make fun of were actually a disability?'
They are. It's the result of an accident.
Shouldn't comedians be subject to some kind of editorial fact-checking?
To paraphrase the old journalistic motto: jokes are free but facts are sacred.

As for Mark Watson, listening to his burblings is like being trapped on a train with a loquacious bore. Well, not quite because you can turn him off, which I usually do.

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Fans of Summer Heights High can see Chris Lilley's previous series this evening. In Australia it was called We Can be Heroes but here and in the rest of world it's called The Nominees.
It starts at 10.30 pm on FX - a channel that few have ever watched and many have never heard of.
I wonder if this means the BBC cannot now buy it. I'm sure they'd like to after the success of Summer Heights High.
FX is 126 on Sky and 132 on Virgin.