Alan Partridge’s late style
Can a national joke survive when it’s also trying to become a national treasure?
ByComedy
Jimmy Kimmel and the decline of the American comedian
His return to air was like watching a forced confession
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Jimmy Kimmel won’t be the last to be silenced
The Charlie Kirk crackdown is here, and the right-wing assault on free speech in America is underway
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Remembering the stage titan Giles Havergal, my cousin
Also this week: bashing pans for Palestine and parties at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
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Mitchell and Webb’s second look
With their new Channel 4 sketch show, the duo are on a mission to save the comedy double-act.
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Lord Byron’s sex education
This summer, take the epic satire Don Juan to the beach.
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Good Hang with Amy Poehler is breezy, funny and light
The comedian’s series was conceived in opposition to wellness and therapy-adjacent shows that promise to make us “better” people.
Bridget Jones’s hollow feminism
The novels portrayed the working woman of the Nineties as a hot mess. By laughing at her, we laughed at…
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The unadulterated pleasures of Rivals
This Disney+ take on Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles is very funny and deeply satisfying. And what a multiplicity of backsides!
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A modest proposal for the regulation of comedy
A Criminal Levity Act would place the dangerous realm of humour safely within the scope of anti-terrorism laws.
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Josie Long Q&A: “I wish Keir Starmer had a functioning spine”
The stand-up comedian on Joanna Newsom, expressionism, and the dream of being a forest ranger.
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Ricky Gervais is turning into David Brent
The comedian is condemned for being a culture warrior. The truth is much sadder.
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How Friends changed the way we laugh
The show shaped a global sense of humour with Matthew Perry’s Chandler, who turned sarcasm into the default mode of…
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The tedious world of anti-woke comedy
From Jimmy Carr to Ricky Gervais, “edgy” comics are making jokes about 9/11 and Michael Jackson in an attempt to…
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A comic story of Britain
This history of comedy contains much moralising – but the best creations transcend the monstrousness of their characters.
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And Just Like That… is a woke horror show
The Sex and the City sequel is a combination of glib identity politics and extreme shopping – and it’s impossible…
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Bridget Christie’s The Change and the rise of menopause media
I’d take Christie’s dark humour over Davina McCall’s washboard stomach any day. But let’s stop pretending the topic is “taboo”.
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Frankie Boyle’s “shock” comedy was vile – no wonder he’s given himself a makeover
The once “edgy” comedian is now a left-wing commentator who stars on Taskmaster, comedy’s cuddliest show. How did he get…
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The Cockfields is a genius, black-hearted British social comedy
I was hysterical with laughter watching this Diane Morgan-starring series from David Earl and Joe Wilkinson.
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An Everywoman on her way up
Funny Woman is a broad, old-fashioned comedy about an aspiring female comic in Sixties London with an indisputable star at…
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