Was it something I said?

The week's comedy trivia

  • Noel Fielding was spotted playing croquet with Kasabian at the Isle Of Wight festival. Rock and roll!

  • One rule of comedy: know your audience. It’s something Sean Hughes overlooked when he played to the right-on crowd of middle-aged bibliophiles at the Hay Literary Festival last week. Somehow they weren’t reader for lines such as: ‘I've never paid for sex in my life – which has pissed off a hell of a lot of prostitutes.’ But it was material on the abduction of Madeleine McCann which really stunned the audience into embarrassed silence, according to press reports: ‘Did you see they went to the see the Pope last week? I don't think he's involved. I mean, I know he's a Nazi, but, well...’

  • US comic David Cross isn’t entirely looking forward to his London run which starts next week. ‘London can suck after 11 at night,’ he said. ‘People are rude. If they’re not trying to piss next to you, or on you, they’re trying to beat you up.

  • An actress facing unemployment after her character on Scrubs was killed off is returning to the sitcom – because creator Bill Lawrence couldn’t bear to see her out of work. Bill Lawrence killed off nurse Laverne Roberts last series, to try to shake things up for the show’s final year. But when the comedy was recomissioned for a seventh series, he contrived a new role for actress Aloma Wright – as Laverne's twin sister, Shirley. Lawrence said: ‘I didn't want to take work away from an actor.’ Wright added: ‘I'm glad I've still got a job.’

  • New 8 Out Of 10 Cats team captain Jason Manford said he was got offered the chance to take over from Russell Brand on E4’s Big Brother’s Big Mouth. ‘But I didn’t want to be on telly every night.’

  • Billy Connolly hasn’t got much time for people who say what is on or off limits when it comes to comedy – no surprise given the backlash he got for material about hostage Kenneth Bigley. His considered opition? ‘Those pricks on television, and their shitey boring talk shows — fuck off! They should get the fuck out of the way of comedy. They’ve no fucking business anywhere near it. There are no rules: How fucking dare you impose one? We teach you what’s funny — you don’t fucking teach anybody.’ Pretty clear, then...

  • David Walliams and Matt Lucas appeared on the episode of Neighbours that aired in Australia yesterday. Here is their brief, non-speaking, bit of scene stealing as Lou and Andy:

SOURCES: The Independent, Variety, Time Out, The Independent, Manchester Evening News, Time Out New York, YouTube

Published: 15 Jun 2007

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