Warner Music's new funnies website is a great alternative to television or radio Comedybox www.comedybox.tv

As it happens, I did not need cheering up on Sunday evening. I was still laughing at the predicament our no-spin PM, formerly the Iron Chancellor, had got himself into, and at the incoherent blustering of his lieutenants even as they rebooked their half-term breaks. Had I needed a laugh, however, I would have looked no further than Comedybox.tv, a website that thinks it's a television station. Part of Warner Music Entertainment, it is run by John Lloyd, the British comedy guru who brought us Spitting Image, Black Adder, QI and all things Fry. Launched late last month, Comedybox advertises itself simply as "the place on the internet where you can get a decent laugh any time of the day".

Its nearest equivalent would be YouTube, except that its videos are of a professional standard and, although there is an opportunity to post your own material, only make it on to the site after due editorial consideration. Its home page is divided between a television screen on the right and, on the left, 12 suggested video offerings grouped under the headings Sketches, Stand-ups, Animated and Classic, although you actually have access to much more material. On the sketches list, a troupe called The Pros From Dover - Neil Cole, Richard Glover and Phil Whelans - are already making their mark. Their first sketch had a Warner security guard living out a Jack Bauer fantasy in 42: "The following takes place between 11pm and five past 11pm." The second sketch was set in a tiny cab firm where the booker took calls on behalf of his driver as if he were a comedian's agent: "There's been a buzz about him since that Manchester job."

Another weekly offering on Comedybox, by Joke Disco Films, hacks into a celebrity's computer to see what is going on. In week one Darth Vader moaned that Luke Skywalker had removed him from his list of top friends on Facebook. It's inventively self-referential about its own medium. I am also in danger of becoming addicted to QI News, a mini-sitcom made by the the team behind QI, that turns the QI quiz format into a news bulletin in which, Larry Sanders-style, we are invited backstage to witness the monstrous ego of the anchor man, Bob (Glenn Wrage), as he bullies his co-presenter Sophie (Katherine Jakeways).

In the stand-up section, I came across an Australian comedian called Jim Jeffries performing the worst gig of his life, during which he was physically attacked by an audience member. "If you want to see more of me, I'll be getting my head kicked in in the alleyway," said Jeffries when he returned to the stage. Now that was a hard-won standing ovation. Gina Yashere, a Londoner of Nigerian extraction, did an excellent set on rough justice Nigeria-style, and I was delighted to get a chance to see the American Sarah Silverman at work in a bravura set whose punchline was: "Oh God, please find semen in my dead grandma's vagina." (You'll have to log on to see how she got there.)

The animations were equally strong. Adam Sharp's surreal A Nose for Trouble, which depicts a horrific shaving accident, was up to Aardman standards of animation. I can also thoroughly recommend The Lives of the Philosophers, which takes the conceit of Stella Street and applies it to philosophers, so that Nietzsche is living next to Marx, and so on. As for the classic stream - well, it is obviously right that we should be able to see Bill Hicks's rant on the pleasures of smoking whenever we please (and, like most of the content, for free).

What works so well is that nothing lasts longer than five minutes. If you get bored before then, something else is only a click away. My random sampling found a chuckle average far higher than you'd get flicking through satellite TV for the same length of time. You could listen to Radio 4's comedy slots for a week and not find as many laughs.

What the site needs now is an MC. The home page is a well-organised but laugh-free zone, with no welcoming statement. It needs the equivalent of a daily blog carrying topical satire. Sunday's political she nanigans were a classic opportunity missed. Incidentally, when did "bottled out" become "bottled it"? A question, surely, for QI.

Andrew Billen is a staff writer for the Times

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