Horne and Corden named best double act

(by idiots)

Horne and Corden are the best comedy duo ever – better than Morecambe and Wise, Laurel and Hardy or The Two Ronnies.

At least, that’s the verdict of the latest futile survey.

Although their sketch show was critically panned, James Corden and Mat Horne topped a poll run by the online TV service seesaw.com, which attracted 3,000 responses.

They got 16 per cent of the vote, narrowly beating Eric and Ernie into second place.

Horne and Corden made a single series of a BBC Three sketch show which attracted at best 800,000 viewers. Morecambe and Wise had a career that spanned 43 years, peaking with the 28million viewers who tuned in to their 1977 Christmas special.

Little Britain's David Walliams and Matt Lucas came third with 12 per cent of votes, while Phoenix Nights' Peter Kay and Paddy McGuinness were voted into fourth place.

Peep Show's David Mitchell and Robert Webb rounded off the top five with ten per cent of the vote.

Laurel and Hardy and the Two Ronnies never got a look-in, neither did Reeves and Mortimer, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, The Mighty Boosh, Fry and Laurie, Flanagan and Allen or Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, to name just some examples.

Gavin And Stacey topped the search for the best British comedy catchphrase with Nessa's ‘What's occurring?’ beating Del Boy’s ‘lovely jubbly’ from Only Fools and Horses into second place.

Only Fools And Horses was named the greatest comedy show in the poll, with 23 per cent of votes, ahead of Fawlty Towers with nine per cent.

And, as is traditional in such polls, the moment when Del Boy fell through a bar hatch in Only Fools And Horses was named the greatest TV comedy moment, with 41 per cent of the vote.

Stand-up Stewart Lee recently criticised vacuous comedy polls – prompting an online campaign to get the obscure Frank Chickens to top a poll of the best Edinburgh Fringe acts of all time. It appears to be working, with the avant-garde Japanese group currently top of the Foster’s poll. Here is his latest article about the topic.

Published: 1 Aug 2010

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