There is a Mitchell and Webb sketch about everything

Musical comedian Tasmin Sarkany picks her coemdy favourites

In writing this I have realised that the thing I value most in comedy is elegance. Whether it’s a line, character or piece of music, if it somehow feels like it was always meant to be there I will come back to it again and again. Maybe that’s why I like older comedy so much – it feels elegant purely because it’s from a different time.

All of these picks have that ‘feeling’ in common for me. They’re funny, but more than that they mean something. Or they do to me anyway…

Frasier

Anyone who has talked to me for more than two minutes will know that Frasier is at the top of every list for me.

I started watching it while I was home alone revising for my exams when I was 16. I actually didn’t really like the first few episodes I saw, but there was something about the cosiness of it that was very calming, so I kept watching.

Soon I was hooked. I’d never seen a sitcom deal with family so deeply before or mix light and dark like that, and I couldn’t believe it kept getting better right until the end. Also unrelated, I would love to live in that apartment. Pure class.

Victor Borge

An obvious choice for someone who does classical music comedy and one of my biggest inspirations.

Victor Borge was a piano prodigy from Denmark who started doing jokes in his concerts for fun and ended up becoming one of the most famous comedians of his time.

Everything in his comedy has an elegance and precision about it - every line, every note has its place. I love all of his bits, especially his appearance on The Muppet Show, which really tickles my funny bone.

I think his Liszt piano duet bit is one of the most perfect comedic set pieces I’ve ever seen. But what really makes it for me is his beautiful piano playing.

Bob Newhart

When I was about six or seven, my parents said: ‘Hey – we should listen to Bob Newhart’s bus driver sketch’. They put it on the record player and we sat down and listened to it.

I remember hearing the sound of the audience laughing and not knowing what it was. I also vividly remember understanding my very first pun for myself. I thought it was so clever.

Every now and then we’d put the record on again, and it was so nice to laugh along with my parents, even if I didn’t understand most of it. I still listen to it often.

The Marx Brothers

When I was about eight, my dad simultaneously discovered a) the films of the Marx Brothers and b) that he could project films from our TV onto the living room wall.

From that moment forth, whenever anyone would come over to our house we would sit them down, put on the projector and play them this scene with (and I cannot stress this enough) no context whatsoever.

If they didn’t laugh at it, when they left we’d all look at each other and say, ‘Well that was weird’ . A core memory for sure.

That Mitchell and Webb Look

There was a brief period of about five to seven years where I couldn’t go one conversation without saying: ‘There’s a Mitchell and Webb sketch about that’ . And the reason for that is not because I’m strange, but because there is a Mitchell and Webb sketch about everything.

Of course I love the classics like the football advert and the Caesar sketch. But the hardest I have ever laughed at a sketch was during their spoof legal drama ‘Speedo’. I was by myself and I had to pause it for about a minute until I could watch again.

Nina Conti

I first saw a video of Nina Conti when I was scrolling on my phone during lockdown. It was the bit where Monkey hypnotises her and sings Nessun Dorma and it was unlike anything I’d seen before.

I tried to watch all the clips I could and became obsessed with her act. I especially like anything where she points out the absurdity of ventriloquism and plays on it.

It’s so clever, and even though I imagine it’s extremely technically challenging, everything looks so effortless. Always a joy to watch.