Comedy Should Be Funny

As someone who likes his comedy it was refreshing to see a genuinely funny comedy program on TV this week.

It seems that comedy programs on the TV these days are falling into a category of their own. One that is labelled ‘Unfunny’. Take, if you will, Horne & Corden (no please, take them!). The darlings of the BBC at the moment due to the success of Gavin & Stacey, these two have taken the sketch show to new lows with a collection of non-humerous characters and sketches that fail to raise a smile in the first two episodes (there’s an hour I’m not getting back again!). Even their comedy song (I love a comdey song!) about Christianity this week was a very poor imitation of God’s Pottery.

This just goes to show how important Ruth Jones is to the success of G&S, because without her Horne and Corden is possibly the worst comedy show on TV this decade (even with Al Murray’s show also contending for the same title). Whether this has more to do with Horne contributing to the writing, or Jones’ absence is a tough call to make. As for their latest venture, Lesbian Vampire Killers, it’s pretty much more of the same!

Which brings me to the genuinely funny program mentioned at the top of this post.

After numerous years spent off the tellybox, Stewart Lee finally returned with his new show ‘Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle’. And if the first episode is anything to go by, this vehicle is going to run a long way. If you happened to miss it you can still catch it on the BBC iPlayer.

What I don’t understand though, is why the BBC failed to promote this show. I don’t recall seeing a trailer for it at all, yet Horne & Corden’s mugs have been shoved in my face at every possible opportunity over the last 3 or 4 weeks. The BBC need to realise that popular does not necessarily equal success. In the world of comedy, funny does.