He's not very good. In the fat Northern comedian stakes my money's on Bernard Manning every time.

I agree. His humour seems to be designed purely for people with little grey matter.

Why is it that just about the only successful Northern comedians seem to fall in this category? Is it a fiendish plot by the London barons to make us out to be fools? I for one am ashamed of the fact that he comes from within a 30-mile radius of me. Oh, and that bloody Paul Daniels does as well. Argh!!!

Why can't we have more like Reeves and Mortimer, who actually give to the comedy circuit rather than this tat all the time?

London of course, has produced Jim Davidson and Jimmy Jones. Both are, if anything, less talented than Manning and Brown.

As ever, London puts itself at the centre. Why can't we look for mediocre comedians in the West Country, Wales or Scotland, for a change?

Roy Chubby Brown is an incredulously bad, foul-mouthed bigotted arse-wit.
I wouldn't say he was typical of Northern comedy, though. Fair enough Manning is very much like him as well, although looks rathe more like a potato. As Al pointed out there are offensively bad (and badly offensive) Southern comedians too. Rubbish comedians can come from anywhere, as can good ones. I've never met a funny woman though (please realise this is a joke).
I personally would say Peter Kay, John Thompson and that brigade were more typical of Northen humour.
I'm too tired to think straight.

>As ever, London puts itself at the centre. Why can't we look for mediocre comedians in the West Country, Wales or Scotland, for a change?

There's Jethro, the "slightly naughty" Cornish comedian, if that's a good starting point?

I've heard of him, but as I've never seen his act, didn't want to slag him off. What's he like? And how come he has his own live comedy videos yet never gets on the telly?

I say bring back winner of TV's "The Fame Game" Barnaby...

Jethro seems to be entertainingly mediocre. I heard an audio tape of him once, and don't recall laughing at it, but equally don't recall being annoyed or offended or outraged at his views or thinking anything really.

I think he's appeared on a few chat shows in the past to promote a tour or a new video.

Anyone heard of Blaster Bates the stand-up/demolition explosives expert from the Midlands?

No, really. I heard a tape of him years and years ago, and he was a bit controversial when he got booked to do a gig in our town (so was Chubby Brown as well). He did routines about his life as a demolition man, interspersed with smut.

There's a whole sub-genre of this kind of comedian - the "rudie-dudies", if you will. Often, spotty 15 year olds will urge you to listen to tapes of them. In this category go such acts as:

Kevin 'Bloody' Williams
Maclean & Maclean
The Macc Lads
Ivor Biggun

Anyone think of any more?

I heard that Ivor Biggun was the alter ego of Doc Cox from 'That's Life'. Or vice versa. Either way, you'd never live it down.

an ex girlfriend used to find Kevin "Bloody" Wilson hilarious.

Mind, her ex boyfriend thought a great night's comedy was watching Roy Chubby Brown, and the ex-gf at least had the taste to dislike him.

At my last workplace someone had put a poster up advertising a trip to go and see Bernard Manning. I got in trouble for defacing it with:
"Or for a more balanced view of the human race, and a few more laughs, why not visit the BNP's Mein Kampf discussion group?"

Huzzah! Hat's off to Sam!

You think THAT's bad?

In one of my previous workplaces, I received a stern lecture over my attitude towards Jim Davison. Apparently I had upset some people by casually remarking, when asked, that I think he is obnoxious, repellent, unfunny, and about as diametrically opposed to what I believe in as is humanly possible.

Yeah, but TJ, you were Jim's PA at the time!
(Tarby style "Ha-Hoh!")

AN APOLOGY

I've just noticed that earlier I wrote "Hat's off to Sam!". I should of course have written "Hats off to Sam!"

I don't know what came over me.

I was once a contestnat on a game show filmed at Granada studio. The warm-up man they had was far beyond rubbish.

Typical line: "Maradona, eh? Maradona?" [this was at the time of the '94 World Cup]
Or: "The Irish, eh? Irish?"

...and so on...

Anyone round here ever been to the Embassy Club? Apparently his son took it over and sacked the old guard to get in a load of trendy London comics. What an idiot.

Hats off to Larrrrrrrry, it may sound cruel, but you laughed at me when you said we were throu-ou-ough...

I saw Roy "Chubby" Brown perform live here in Melbourne. I had free tickets and took a friend, and from the start we determined that we would last as long as we could. We surpassed our prediction of 20 minutes and actually gritted our teeth for 40 whole brain-explodingly-angry-confused minutes before Toby said "If we don't leave now I'm going to hit some cunt". (He's a bit of a feminist - the constant rape innuendos affected him adversely).
What a fascinating experience it was - a huge ex-pat, predominately middle-aged audience toted banners, chants, and various items of Roy parephenalia. The last time I saw an audience that hyped and overstimulated was with the Doug Anthony Allstars (and they were mostly teenage girls).
The frightening thing is that Roy actually isn't shit. He is a talented comic and accomplished performer. But if only he used his powers for good instead of evil!!
The most disturbing part was the women in the audience cheering and laughing and supporting the notions of rape and domestic violence as being viable options. Truly frightening experience.
(One thing I noticed too, his suit is padded. He isn't actually fat.)

Oh, and on behalf of my nation - sorry about Kevin"Bloody" Wilson. Also Col Elliot and Rodney Rude. But we gave you Clive James, so it evens things up.

I'd send back CJ, even if we had to get the other lot in return.

Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson was just a pale imitation of Jackie 'Bugger you' O'Leary, who in turn was just a rip-off of Steve '****' ****, who never got any gigs because of his silly name.

Then there was the legendary Fred "fist-your-mother" McKinney.
And not forgetting Joyce "C***maggot" James.
How my Grandma laughed!

Not much to laug at, on the Farthest Shore?

>Not much to laug at, on the Farthest Shore?

Nobody enjoys a laug more than me.

Indeed, you're a lauger lout.

He who laugs last laugs loudest

I had a great time in Ibiza, having it laug.

Having a few laug-ars with your mates.


(PS. Currently watching the Olympic opening ceremony featuring my country's most middle-of-the-road singers. How embarassing. I have to laug or I'd cr. )

Get back to work, all of you.

It's no lauging matter.

Haha - I finished work 5 hours ago and have been drinking margharitas since.
I guess I have the last laug.

You've been watching the Olympics. That can't have been easy.

More laugs than watching Roy Chubby Brown
(aha - I've brough the original subject back in)

No, he's nothing to laug at.

>(PS. Currently watching the Olympic opening ceremony featuring my country's most middle-of-the-road singers. How embarassing. I have to laug or I'd cr. )

at least your national anthem is at least a little bit musical.

as was pointed out on Room 101 the other night (although it has been a talking point in my family for ages whenever it comes on) our national anthem is awful.

we think it should be "Land of Hope and Glory"

failing the sensible option, we would settle for "1 2 3 4 Get with the wicked" by Richard Blackwood.

What a ridiculous suggestion. "Who Do You Think You Are" by the Spice Girls has more of the requisite pomp.

Well we've got dibs on "Better The Devil You Know" then.

hmm, "Notorious" by B.I.G. would be better.

or perhaps something by Wham.

I think that "Too Drunk to ****" by the Dead Kennedys would be nicely appropriate.

Yeah, Dead Kennedies would be great for the anthem, although personally I'd have to go with "Pull my Strings".
Or (I think it's called) "Does God fill Teeth" from the Lard album.

oops.. Kennedys...

Aw, Bloody Hell.... I give up...
flippin' CAPS LOCK was on, now.. I just dobn't think I can... HELL! Now I've spe... whu.. whu... k

They were originally called the Sarah Kennedys, but they had to change it to something less offensive.

I went to gig headlined by "Kennedy" thinking it would be a Jello Biafra solo show and it turned out to be that c*ntbubble violin-playing tosser.

Ironically though, he did "Holiday in Cambodia" and "kill the Poor" as encores. Cool!

>They were originally called the Sarah Kennedys, but they had to change it to something less offensive.

<snort!>

Getting back to RCB - he was actually quite good as the mayor in The League of Gentlemen. Does anyone know if he's acted before?