The Simpsons is a perfect satire

Joe Wells picks his comedy favourites

Joe Wells is about to go on tour with his latest stand-up show, Daddy Autism, which explores fatherhood through the lense of neurodiversity. Here he shares his Perfect Playlist of comedy favourites...

The Simpsons: Lisa's Substitute

The Simpsons is a perfect satire of how power is distributed in society; the politicians are corrupt, the richest man in town is greedy and unhappy, the patriarch of the family is an impulsive, self-absorbed idiot, and the few characters who show intelligence or compassion are routinely walked over by everyone else. Despite this, it is never pious and even the most flawed characters are written with depth and warmth.

It's silly too, Sideshow Bob stepping on a series of rakes and grumbling is up there with the best of Monty Python
Like everyone who grew up watching it, The Simpsons has created hundreds of earworm quotes which I hear whenever someone needs braces, goes to New Mexico or isn’t wearing a tie AT ALL.

Being a weird kid who didn’t fit in, I always related to Lisa. So the A-plot in this episode where she meets a teacher who shares her way of seeing the world always hit home for me, but the B-plot where Martin and Bart run for class president is a spot on satire of populism which should be shown in schools: ‘He says there are no easy answers, I say he isn’t looking hard enough!’

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt was, in my opinion, the best comic novelist who ever lived (take that Douglas Adams!)

He had such a knack for distilling big ideas into their simplest form, that ability is at the heart of so much good comedy writing. He was also puerile and intelligent at the same time, and his books are comforting to read whilst never shying away from the existential threats to humanity which we have built for ourselves.

Mother Night is my go-to recommendation if you haven’t read a Vonnegut novel before. It’s really funny, but also has an important political message which feels more relevant today than ever.
In this clip he talks about the shape of stories, anything he said or wrote about the process of writing is worth consuming, there’s a great collection of these pieces called Pity The Reader, which I would recommend to anyone who wants to be a writer.

Harriet Dyer

Harriet is one of those rare comics who can disarm an audience in such a way that they stop thinking of her as a performer and start to feel like she’s their funniest friend. Laura Smyth and Micky Flanagan are two others, but that kind of comic is very rare.

On top of this, Harriet can talk about heavy topics in a way that’s not lecturey, nor does it feel like she’s trivialising the things that she’s talking about. Her show Trigger Warning is one of the best specials online. Go watch it, it’s genuinely thought-provoking, rough around the edges and funny throughout.

Tom Lawrinson

Social media may be a cesspit of awfulness, but it has made the punk DIY dream a reality. No more gatekeepers, just creative people making cool stuff on their phones.

I love what Tom Lawrinson does, he’s so naturally funny and thinks in such an original way. Sometimes a sketch will have a starting point that other people would have thought of, but he always adds extra twists which could only have come from him.

I think if you’d written this sketch for a TV commissioner then they wouldn’t really understand it, I’m not sure if I fully understand it either but it’s very funny.

@tomlawrinson If i worked in an office with slides and sleeping pods #comedy #slides #sleepingpod Tom Lawrinson">♬ original sound - Tom Lawrinson

Apple and Onion

For the past few years I’ve been lucky enough to write for a couple of kids’ cartoons and it’s a world I absolutely love. I see why so many people who were great comics have migrated to kids TV as there’s so much room for creativity and you don’t have to spend your whole weekend on the M4. I was introduced to this show by the team who make Pablo and I adore it.

My sister, a primary school teacher, asked me to come and talk to her class about comedy writing and I knew this clip was the one I had to show to explain comedy. The characters are great, it packs in lots of jokes, it uses their physicality in a way that only cartoons can, and it’s constantly surprising.

Troll 2

It has no relation to the film Troll. It doesn’t even have trolls in it (they’re goblins). It was written and directed by someone who didn’t really speak English but who insisted that none of the dialogue was changed by the actors, almost all of whom originally auditioned to be extras.

It is full of plot-holes, has a weird anti-vegetarian subtext and a corn-based sex scene. Troll 2 is a masterpiece of bad filmmaking.

Every year, my wife asks what I want to do for my birthday, and I say the same thing; have some friends round and watch Troll 2. I don’t think one could fake making a film this bad, every time I see it I notice new things I missed last time. It’s such a fun watch with friends. I love it!