'The thing that's going to rescue him from the silence isn't a fart joke...'

Jamie Kilstein chooses his comedy favourites

Stephen Colbert roasts George W Bush

This was a real amazing moment in comedy. It was always easy to make George Bush jokes. I always tried not to. The dude and his administration were so fucking evil and caused so much death, that getting on stage and being like, ‘He talk stupid!’ seemed like a waste.

I would talk about the war, war crimes, and so on and felt that was a little better, but this blew anything most comics and myself could have done out of the water. Colbert did this in front of the president and all of his lackeys. Not only that, but he went after all of the hacks in the media that helped lead us into war and stick up for the one per cent on a daily basis.

Mainstream journalists in the States will not hold administrations accountable so they can keep their access and go to stupid parties like this one. Every time there is a war they bring the same dumb fucks that lead us into the last failed war back onto the news to lead us into a new one. It's all entertainment to these fucking people who would never go over to fight in the first place. Suffice to say, they were not amused.

John Ashcroft

Where do these politicians get some of their crazy ideas? JESUS! This guy, THIS GUY, was the Attorney General.

Tim Minchin: White Wine In The Sun

One of the only times I did Spank at the Edinburgh Fringe without getting booed there was a strange man with long hair in the back watching my set. I talked about how even though I was an atheist I loved Christmas, and he invited me and my wife to his show that night as he thought we would like it. I was all for supporting this young up-and-comer – only to arrive to a packed concert hall, screaming fans, and this song as an encore. That not only made me cry, but made me throw out my dumb attempt at a joke with the same premise.

Stewart Lee

I've been on TV in the states a few time and it wasn't too bad. I've been on TV overseas a few times and it's been the worst. Not because it's not in America. I think people like me more overseas. But the only time I was on TV in Australia was on festival galas: four hours of comedy that goes from a nice evening to a hostage situation very quickly. Both times I’ve gone on at the end, and both times followed fart jokes. Fart jokes, that fucking killed. I mean, brought the house down.

In this clip Lee, who is one of my favourites, not only opens with a super-dark joke, but one with a long jokeless setup, and he does it with no fear. Even though the thing that is going to rescue him from the silence isn't a fart joke, it's a joke attacking religion and talks about fucking dead animals.

Kid punched

I am 30 years old and nothing scares me more than a group of asshole teenagers. They are all mean, rotten and they have constant blue balls, so they are angry. When I see them I cross the street. Here is one getting punched in the face.