Saturday 4 May 2013

Up 6 at 15 it's 'What's the deal with airline food?'

In a Green Room conversation, the fact that The Independent had printed a 'Top 100 jokes of the Fringe' article last year.

How ridiculous.

Or - how brilliant. The newspaper wins because they get to fill a page with funny and clever stuff that they didn't write or have to pay for, and the acts win because they get to put it on their CV and impress literally everybody they ever meet.

This got me thinking, if I can trot out the 20-year-old cliche for a moment, and I can, that comedy is the new rock'n'roll - why not have a weekly chart run down of the best jokes/bits/routine on, I don't know, Radio 4 extra or Comedy Central hosted by (and here I was going to suggest some retro DJ, but in light of Operation Yewtree I'll leave it up to you to fill in the blank).

Jokes could enter the chart and rise or fall depending on how they've been doing in the clubs. Good topical material (which I'm lead to believe does exist) would enter the charts high and then drop out quickly, even punchy short jokes probably wouldn't stick around that long, so if Gary Delaney wants to fill up this chart (as he probably would) he'd have to keep his quality material turnaround at the ridiculously high level that he's used to.

What would have longevity would be the bits that don't get old with repeated viewings and it was unanimously agreed that Gavin Webster's panda routine would have a Love Is All Around-esque grip on the top spot.

This video doesn't do it justice but you get the general idea.

No comments:

Post a Comment