Kieran Hodgson completely changed my idea of what you could do with live comedy

Ted Milligan picks his comedy favourites

Ted Milligan is at the Edinburgh Fringe with United, a live mockumentary following Crubchester United FC's fervent fans, oligarch owners and pitiful players. Here he picks his Perfect Playlist of comedy favourites.

Kieran Hodgson: '75

Very important show to me and completely changed my idea of what you could do with live comedy. I had assumed you had to do, and therefore was doing, stand-up about having ADHD and a series of crap one-liners about Usain Bolt (no U-insane bolt).

The first time I saw Kieran Hodgson, it was like taking the limitless pill and it was amazing, unlike the film Limitless which is crap.

Hodgson is such a genius storyteller, as well as being an exceptional joke-writer. Anyway after watching this, I determined on character comedy and created not one, not two but three separate sketches where I played Batman. Sorry to the people of Bristol for all of them.

There are no clips online, just this trailer..

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

I remember the first time I watched a clip of Craig Ferguson, it was an interview with David Tennant and it was just a very funny interview. Then it cut to this camp British robot at the side and I thought, 'What the hell is that?’ so I investigated…

Man, this show is so good. I love the organised randomness of stuff like a pantomime horse running out during interviews and the audience members he interviews at the start. However, I’ve chosen his house band Alfredo Sauce and the Shy Fellas who were too shy to come out from behind the curtain. It’s so funny conceptually but also the fact all their music is just rubbish royalty free tracks (including For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow) makes me laugh so much.

Man, it was such a good send-up of late-night TV and it’s such a shame that the genre has become so boring now.

On Cinema at the Cinema

This is the best thing anyone has ever done with comedy (in my opinion). What starts as a really banal series of movie reviews slowly turns into one of the most insane sprawling comedy universes ever seen.

The fundamental joke is that Gregg wants to talk about movies and Tim doesn’t and this is stretched so far that it becomes unhinged. I challenge everyone to watch the first episode (12 minutes) and then watch the first episode of the trial series (3 hours) and not want to know how the hell that got there in eight seasons.

The Thick Of It

Quite simply, the best sitcom ever made. Every time I rewatch it, I choose a different character to be my favourite. Right now it’s Terri Coverly. Joanna Scanlon is so good. The scene where Terri investigates the men’s urinals while Malcolm tries to tell her about his plan to stop ‘the nutters’ makes me laugh every time I think about it.

I can’t find that scene sadly, so I’ve left it at the discretion of the editor because quite honestly every scene in this show is great (except for that weird bit in the 4th season where Fergus goes to the pub).

The Sopranos: Intervention scene

Often the actual funniest things to me are not from comedy shows but from dramas with comedic elements. The Sopranos is genuinely so funny and I could have included any of a number of scenes (‘he’s an old-fashioned guy, very allegorical’) but I think this particular scene is so well-written and performed.

It’s on the surface a great sketch premise: mafia do an intervention. This is obviously made funnier by the fact you know these characters and their history, so it grounds it, and all of their reactions are very believable. I used to do a stand-up bit about The Sopranos ending and how no one likes that it just ends in the middle of

Magneto defeated by wooden gun

I really had to include this because my brother and I watch/quote it endlessly. We grew up on superhero cartoons like Spiderman, Justice League and X-Men. This is from a 1960s Fantastic Four TV show that we never watched.

Magneto is one of the more interesting characters in comic books because he’s a Holocaust survivor who grows up to believe that he is superior and the only way to avoid persecution is to persecute those who would persecute you.

Anyway, in this, he mainly uses his powers to avoid waiting in traffic. In this scene, he is defeated by being tricked by Reed Richards using a wooden gun instead of a metal one. Firstly, it is the most drawn-out crap ever and has about a minute of him re-explaining his powers that he’s used all episode.

Secondly, when the gun doesn’t move, he has a full on mental breakdown and immediately assumes his powers don’t work rather than trying them on anything else first as a control study.

Finally, when he discovers he is tricked, rather than just going ;Oh well then fuck you all’ and flinging the car over he just has a full-on identity crisis and accepts his fate. I watch this at least once a month. I love it, it’s so devoid of tension and so stupid.