Beyond a joke.

Now he tells me it was Saturday!

I have a history of getting the dates wrong for people's birthdays - Jacqui has hers 9 days before I think, Sue's is a moveable feast, like Easter.

Don't hate me cause I'm fallible, love me for the tat I think you'll enjoy.

A week late.

I blame the buses, one went into town around 11 and should have left the terminus by now. Should never have arranged to do a driveby shooting on the number 7, he's always late.

Yes, maybe I should get out more.

I'm out next week, mind. The Boosh is loose and appearing at the Hippodrome, and I'll be there with Liz, Dave and Mel. A birthday present from Dave, very kind, and very welcome. The second series is being shown again on BBC2 while Noel Fielding will appear in the IT crowd on Channel 4 in episodes 4 and 6.
(By the way, in a Radio 5 discussion, I heard it said that Graham Linehan, the writer and director says "it", not "I.T.", so now you know why I was right during that discussion we didn't have).

I like what I've seen, so far of this, quite rightly too, the lady at the bus stop says, tutting as another one goes the other way. Chris Morris is doing a grand job of scaring viewers with his acting performance, not with the four years too late Nathan Barley, a show that also starred Fielding and Julian Barrett, the other 50% of the Boosh, as well as Richard Ayoade (another Booshy boy on radio and tv) while Linehan, as we all know, wrote Father Ted, had a hand in Black Books and the "Talking to Mike at Picture Loans" advert, so the whole thing stinks of potential.

Funny. There's been a lot of talk recently on whether the sitcom has died, is dying, has taken it's drip stand for a walk outside while it has a fag, da diddily, diddily.

I like a laugh as much as the next man, unless the next man is standing next to me in the library, then he's on me, nipplewise.

I find it strange that we are having this kind of discussion.
(Radio 5 even asked when ITV would next make a decent comedy! Never, as long as they insist on giving Robson Green, Ross Kemp, Sarah Lancashire, the interchangeable kit list of actors that make up Casualty, Heartbeat, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Brookside, The Bill and It Ain't Half Hot Mum money to bother my telly)
I find it confusing that I am still unsure what's going on with Hyperdrive, with the first 3 episodes rushed, badly paced and just not funny enough, while the fourth was worth watching, twice!
(Petra Massey, who plays Sandstrom, the enhanced, I have to say has me growling at the screen and I admit to thinking she a cutey! But mainly impressed by what she's done before. Check her history, she mighty inneressin!! )

So, it's sad to say that I find the consistently funniest things on the box are the contestants on The Weakest Link ("What B is an insect that lives in highly organised social groups and include types known as Digger, and Bumble?" "Beavers?"), and Harry Hill's voiceovers on You've Been Framed, a programme that does for cinema verite and Mass Observation what rickets did to the Victorian Chimney Sweep Under 12 Five a Side Squad. Seriously, I worry that, while My Name is Earl is mild and sweet and smile along witty, it is on late on a Friday night so people will miss it, yet H.Hill has Saturday AND Sunday teatime on ITV sewn up. Mind you, the bit where Gene Simmons mumbles "Two pints of lager and a flaps of kreps, please", that well known Splodgenessabounds standard had me squirting milk out me nose.

And that's the point! The BBC3 "comedy", Two Pints is dire, sub Young ones toilet humour and fanny gags. A wry comment from an UNSEEN commentator (Lisa Reilly, take note) over the top of a clip from a triathalon is genuinely funnier, speaks more to the public, actually includes them and, ...oh I took things seriously for moment, didn't I? Must go out and get some air, maybe talk to Betty at the bus stop, find out what's really important in the world today, like who dissed who in the queue at Greggs this morning and how much the robber in the corner shop charges for 9mm clips.