The best comedy on demand

The best comedy on demand…

The ParaPod

In the same week they were nominated for a Chortle Award, comics Ray Peacock and Barry Dodds return for a second series of their comedy debate programmes about the supernatural. While the first series concentrated on ghost stories, culminating in an overnight stay at the supposedly haunted 30 East Drive in Pontefract, the second widens the focus to more general mysterious goings-on, such as Bigfoot, The Loch Ness monster and The Mary Celeste.

Peacock, who is the cynic to the credulous Dodds, says: 'He surpasses his previous wide-eyed gullibility within ten minutes of the first episode, and continues to spiral in the wrong direction for the rest of it. I thought we were making great progress at the end of series one as he did seem to be looking at things differently, and questioning ludicrous tales rather than just believing them, but over the Christmas break it would seem all that progress has slid out of his ear. He's been notably worse since watching the Derren Brown special too, so it may not be all his own fault.'

It's available on iTunes

Donald Trump's The Art Of The Deal: The Movie

Quite a cast list for this 50-minute Funny or Die film, led by none other than Johnny Depp, unrecognisable Donald Trump. The premise is that in 1988 the tycoon wrote, directed, and starred in a made-for-TV movie based on his book The Art of the Deal, which has never been seen… until now.

Everyone's clearly having fun in the 80s nostalgia and Trump bizzaro-world, but it's also very revealing about the unedifying methods Trump used to get where he is today. Also in the cast are Patton Oswalt as Merv Griffin, Henry Winkler as Mayor Ed Koch and Stephen Merchant as hotel magnate Barron Hilton, as well as Ron Howard Alfred Molina, Andy Richter, Jack McBrayer, Kristen Schaal, and, erm, ALF. Even Kenny Loggins signed up to perform the original theme song.

Watch it here.

The News For Idiots

Political comedian Chris Coltrane recently launched a YouTube series, offering sardonic commentary on the big stories and the way it's covered. There's no denying he's is a bit of a Charlie Brooker wannabe on this… but there are worse people to want to be.

Here's the latest episode, on Brexit:

A Stand Up Guy

A Mafia wiseguy goes into the witness protection scheme, but while stuck in a Wisconsin backwater takes to the stage at an open-mic night… and becomes a viral hit. The conflict between wanting to pursue his comedy and needing to keep a very low profile are at the heart of this film which, like so many others, offers a pretty unrealistic portrait of the comedy scene. We reviewed it yesterday here, and you can buy it here.

Published: 13 Feb 2016