Don’t take children to see Stewart Lee, however. Not because he’s too rude or too satirical, although he is, but because when he kicks off with a line about how 9/11 is actually 9 November, they will quite reasonably turn to you and ask why someone as good as Lee still thinks this is a joke worth using three years after it did the rounds of every playground and office water cooler in the land. This quibble aside, Lee’s show is a masterclass in what the best stand-up can look like.
With a fine balance between current affairs and fart jokes, self-mockery and derision of celebrities (Graham Norton is ‘like a pink jackboot stamping on a human face for all eternity’), Lee, co-writer of Jerry Springer: The Opera, delivers so many good lines at such high density that the audience barely has time to keep up.
The greatest target of his wrath is Ben Elton; rebutting comparisons for the musical thing, he asserts that more people like Osama bin Laden than Ben Elton, because bin Laden ‘has at least lived his life to a consistent code of ethics’.
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98rosjon, Twitter
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GRTak, finalgear.com
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Gmanthedemon, bbc.co.uk
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Al Murray, Comedian
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DVDhth's grandparents, Twitter
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BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
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Ishamayura Byrd, Twitter
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James Dellingpole, Daily Telegraph
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Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012
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Genghis McKahn, Guardian.co.uk
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Alex Quarmby, Edfringe.com
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Joycey, readytogo.net
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Anon, BBC Complaints Log
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Gabrielle, Chortle.com
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John Robins, Comedian
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General Lurko 36, Guardian.co.uk
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Esme Folley, Actress, cellist, Twitter
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Fairy Pingu, Twitter
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