... recomending Friday Night Comedy

So a few weeks ago I recommended Wait Wait Don't Tell Me in the first of my series of podcasts you should download. I promised more, and like a democratically elected politician I keep my promises...when I remember them or desperately need some press.

(And say what you want about democratically elected politicians, I've never had the feeling that Hugo Chavez has a subtext: it's pretty much all out there in the open.)

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is an American version of the old British stand-by: the panel show. The Brits have a long history of these shows, a few comedians and writers, who under the guise of competing in a quiz show basically riff on politics and culture. And there are brilliant variations on the theme like Never Mind the Buzzcocks (music) They Think It's All Over (sports) and QI (Stephen Fry's deliberately difficult and complex gameshow).

Also prevalent in British comedy is the tradition of the aggrieved rant. The British engagement in their political process, media saturation at all levels, and dry humour have created a cottage industry of comedians who take observational humour and raise it to the level of a manifesto. North American humour is more punchline based, while British humour is based on the joke's placement in a complex class structure where you are encouraged to aspire for better but know that you probably won't get it. Basically it's the difference between a millennium of monarchy and 200 years of elections.

BBC Radio 4 runs a great series of these on Friday nights. They rotate two very different but very funny shows and have made these available as podcasts under the banner of "Friday Night Comedy".

The first of these is The News Quiz, which is pretty much all the description you need. Sandi Toksvig is the host (or chair) who quizzes two teams of two comedians/writers/performers on the week's events. The questions are normally punny and almost incomprehensible, but they're just jumping off points for the panelists to explain the event, and mock it for a bit.

The real genius of the show comes in the interaction between the panelists as they talk about the story. They're not trying to one up each other, but make their own points in as funny as way possible. As opposed to listening to a group of people in a joke telling competition (which is what things like Best Week Ever and Video on Trial are) it's more like listening to a comedy guitar pull. An excellent example was one week when discussion bees and the waggle dance they use to communicate where honey is and one panelist chimed in with "Yes, it's very complex and elaborate form of communication from an animal that is unable to simply say 'There's honey over here, follow me!'"

Additionally, each round begins with a selection of funny stories and quotes from newspapers and magazines. These aren't just typos and double ententes, but sometimes truly baffling stories, such as the Church bulletin that had a simple note in the middle of all the other entries: regarding a rocket launcher, or my personal favorite "Sainsbury's is pleased to offer chocolate dipped strawberries. These are perfect for Valentine's Day. Expiration date: Feb 11th". It's like Jay Leno, only funny.

Like most British programmes, The News Quiz only runs for a short amount of time (six weeks) before taking a break (a brilliant system, by the way). The next six weeks are given over to a more topical sketch/monologue show called The Now Show, which features Hugh Punt and Steve Dennis (of The Mary Whitehouse Experience) and a rotating band of comedians and musicians.

The format of the show is pretty much the same every week: Punt and Dennis do a monologue about a couple of the main stories of the week, with interjections and little sketches by the other performers complimenting their points. Then Mitch Benn does a parody song about another event, then a monologue/aggrieved from a guest, another Punt and Dennis monologue/sketch, another song from Benn, and then audience answers (before the show the audience is asked a question, and the funniest answers are read back at the end). It's a formula that allows them to cover a number of topics quickly and with a laser like focus: imagine Weekend Update, but instead of a segment it's just a really good Really? With Seth and Amy featuring the guest host and musical act.

Like most sketch shows The NOW Show relies a lot on running gags. Sometimes a variation on a joke will be repeated during the entire 6 week run (recently it was a letter from an aggrieved tourist who did not know there were going to be fish in ocean...and having lived in Barbados for three years I can confirm that such people actually do exist). As well, they tend to reference jokes from earlier in their career, like this brilliant dissection of conventions in World War II movies (and also explores the difference between North American and UK attitudes in storytelling)



Because of this it's not as accessible as The News Quiz, and will often require a bit of Googling if you're not keeping up on UK news. But these are comedians on the top of their game and even if you don't get all the jokes, you can admire what they're doing.

So, if you downloaded Wait Wait, or already listen to it and think you need comedy with an accent, I recommend firing up iTunes and subscribing to the Friday Night Comedy podcast from Radio 4.