Comedy night...

My, we are spoilt for comedy choice on a Friday evening: Benidorm clashing with the new series of My Family (posing serious problems about which to watch 'live' and which to catch online later) and Ade Edmondson's Teenage Kicks taking laughing at a Chinese accent to dizzying new depths. What have we done to deserve this drivel? How does My Family remain a ratings winner? Couldn't Benidorm have been scrapped and the way paved for re-runs of ye olde Duty Free? Couldn't Edmondson have done some less-offensive slapstick with Rik Mayall instead? Didn't Robert Lindsay watch the episode of Extras that he made a cameo appearance in? Why, if I hadn't become a recent convert to Gavin and Stacey and Pulling I'd be making the bold declaration that the sit-com is dead. As it is, there's the odd glimmer of hope. Tucked away. In the late-night corners of almost obscure digital channels.

And talking of television...

Whoever subbed the two Jools Holland-related entries in this week's The Guardian Guide was no music fan, unsure of where commas were required. On Tuesday's Later Live, we were promised "the Kooks Yeasayer" while tonight, there was the prospect of getting down with "Goldfrapp the Kooks". This Later Live business is a strange thing - at last, we're able to watch Mr Boogie Woogie Piano Vamper at a reasonable hour but when it comes to Friday, I really can't be bothered to rewatch what I saw three nights previously for the sake of "30 minutes extra music and chat".

Dee do do do...

Apologies to Bob, who heard all this in the pub the other day...

Lead Balloon. Hmf. It's not that it doesn't make me laugh. It's not that Jack Dee can't act. It's not the washed out colour palette. No, none of those things make me dislike Lead Balloon and its 'creator'. It's just that I wish that Jack Dee would hold his hands up and say it loud - and he could even say it proud - that Lead Balloon owes an enormous debt of gratitude to Curb Your Enthusiasm. But with each and every interview - and since the return of the show and its arrival on BBC2 there have been many - Jack Dee seems to move further and further away from acknowledging that Lead Balloon is an extremely derivative piece of work. Now, there's nothing wrong with being derivative, of course (hell, nothing's original. I thank you messrs Milligan, Palin, Gilliam, Orton, Cook, Rossiter, Nobbs, Adams et al for all that I have taken from you. My words are but a pale imitation of yours). But why can't he just say it? Just once would do. Something along the lines of "Without Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lead Balloon would never have existed". And why haven't interviewers aske him about the obvious influence? Have they been briefed not to ask the question? There are differences - Curb is improvised by a team of extremely talented comic performers around a hefty outline, Lead Balloon's each and every line is unquestionably, precisely scripted by Dee and Pete Sinclair. Rick Spleen's a made up name, Larry David isn't. But the similarities are legion. So much so that it hurts to watch it. LD is an experienced old hand, a master of comedy situations: JD is a callow youth in comparison. I get the sense that Lead Balloon is supposed to be 'ironic' - but there's no irony. It's supposed to be a sit-com - but there's no comedy. It exhudes superiority (actually over the audience, which is an alarming approach) but is woefully inferior and simply, in its efforts to ape without acknowledgement, tries too hard.

Lead Balloon doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of the comedy to be found in Curb, but I'll concede one thing - in terms of the quality of its production values, Lead Balloon wins hands down.

...But Bob, the freaking weirdo, prefers Lead Balloon to Curb. If only he'd agreed with me (because I am the great objective right one) I would have been able to stop the inner turmoil I feel every time I see Jack Dee being interviewed on the telly. Please, Jack, make your show funny and confess from whence it came.

Tags: Jack Dee, comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Funny...

Film Fun. Yes. Masked Dan was very funny as were the films of his comedy troupe The Replica Goose Egg. Scarlet Lights, a few of whose members I know (one of their number was in Off Their Trolleys), were rather good too. And Ladma's work about useless free runner Sebastien Foucault was a splendid, unexpected treat. Hull Comedy Festival, bless the damn thing, runs until 9 November.

Butterfield diet...

I was lambasted yesterday for eating Peperami sticks by a theatre director concerned about my intake of saturates. So, to remedy the situation, I will be turning to the Butterfield Diet. Don't know what I'm talking about? You must watch this, the funniest thing on television in ages:

Tags: Butterfield Diet, Peter Serafinowicz, comedy

Corrie goes music hall...

Coronation Street's Sally Webster when it was suggested that mechanic husband Kevin accompany her to a production of Henry V: "Kevin? Shakespeare? He thinks that Coriolanus is something you go to the doctor with."

Start of a good night of hilarity. The IT Crowd just gets better every week and Moss's appearance on Dragon's Den with his spontaneously combusting Abracadabra was truly inspired, then youtube provided me with the second instalment of the new Curb Your Enthusiasm season, The Anonymous Donor, in which Larry realises that it wasn't such a good idea to donate money using his own name, given that those that donate anonymously get all the credit. Wonderful - really good and consistently excellent comedy does exist.

Tags: Coronation Street, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The IT Crowd, comedy