One of the great things about Monty Python was they often captured the strange foibles of our humanity by writing them large in their brilliant comedy movies. "Life Of Brian" was no exception. While this movie was controversial at the time, because a substantial number of people saw it as antichristian, the movie was full of little titbits of humour that mocks the way we all sometimes behave as fallen humans. I particularly enjoy this little sketch as it reminds me of an unhelpful habit, which often seems to plague the more left wing among us, of splitting off from one another. The most painful example of this, at the time of writing this post, is the MP Dianne Abbott publicly announcing that she thinks Keir Starmer (the current leader of the UK labour party as of May 2022) should resign if it is found that his takeout dinner with Hartlepool campaigners broke the law in relation to the lockdown rules that were place in the UK at the time the takeout occurred (April 2021). While I guess her comments are technically fair, given the constant infighting in the labour party between the more left and central wings of the party, it does often feel as though both factions of the party would rather the Tories were in power than the labour party of which they are a part if it is the wrong faction of the party.

So last week I shared a comedy video which was a parody of de Feffel's resignation speech. This week we of course now must be subject to the spectacle of those who supported Johnson's car crash vying to replace him. Given that Johnson created a strong evolutionary selection pressure to reward those who were least likely to present any threat to his leadership into cabinet positions, the choice the country has, in relation to the field of possible Tory replacements, is (as the LBC radio presenter James O'Brien stated) a bit like trying to chose a portaloo toilet at the Glastonbury festival.

Thankfully, probably the worst three in Johnson's cabinet of infamy had enough sense not to run and this of course included Nadine Dorries the minister for culture. Sadly over her tenure, Nadine has sadly demonstrated why she would never, in a million years, get a cabinet position under any other Prime Minister who had even a modicum of public duty in his body. Yet for comical effect, the comedian Sooz Kemper imagines what it would be like if Nadine had decided to run to replace Johnson as PM and what her campaign launch speech might have looked and sounded like. Enjoy.

So what I find interesting in these bleak UK political times is how it is spawning new comedy from hitherto completely unknown people (this lady at the time of writing this post has only 393 subscribers). This gem popped up on my Youtube feed on the 13^th of August so I thought I might as well include it in this week's comedy sketch release.

This lady does a great Liz Truss impersonation yet the tragedy is that it is so close to the real thing that one is left feeling both depressed and entertained at the same time. Entertained by the clever parody, yet depressed at the the thought that our next Prime Minister will be indistinguishable from this parody character. Not something you really want to think about when we are facing a cost of living crisis with UK energy bills tipped to hit over £4K per year next year, a war in Eastern Europe, collapsing NHS, global heating-driven European heatwave etc, etc.

Time to move onto some stand up comedy. I begin with Peter Kay who has produced some masterful material over his career capturing the many foibles of human existence. In this particularly funny segment, Kay picks up on the common problem we all have (especially as we get older) of completely mishearing lyrics.

I find this sketch particularly interesting as a physiologist because it also demonstrates how our brains can be so easily tricked if we are presented contrary information about the content of what we are hearing. Kay tells the audience what he wants them to hear and then mouths the incorrect lyric over the song and incredibly this is exactly then what you here. The most dramatic demonstration of this is in the song "We are family where he suggests they are singing "just let me staple the vicar". The correct lyrics are "just let me state for the record". If you play this part of the sketch and focus on the correct lyric of "just let me state for the record" you will actually correctly hear the correct words. Quite incredible really.

Ryan George has a real gift of taking the cultural furniture that has been with us for our whole lives and exposing just how strange it really is when observed from a different perspective. I guess our Christmas paraphernalia is ripe for such parody given the thousands of Christmas songs that have accumulated over the centuries this season has been celebrated in the Western world.

Frosty the Snowman has always been one of my favourites since our next door neigbour once bought my daughter Grace a dancing singing snowman with this tune programmed into it. Strangely enough the version in our snowman is a little different to the classic one. Perhaps I am doing a Peter Kay by mishearing the lyrics of my dancing snowman but it truly likes he is singing:

"🎼 Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul, with a pink carnation and a button nose and a lively 'I don't know'🎵". My youngest autistic daughter Rebekah and I now regularly sing these words as we both find them rather amusing in their silliness.

Private Eye Annual is a compilation of funny satirical pieces that were release in Private Eye magazine during the previous year.

So one of my Christmas treats is reading the Private Eye annual which my lovely wife Helen purchases for me every Christmas. As the tag line to my comedy page states, I fully believe now that the comedians role is partly to provide a painkiller for the frustrating banal evil that infects the leadership of many nations. Sadly Britain has been subject to worse forms of this sickness in 2022 so it is soothing to see individuals like Johnson, Farage, Truss, Mogg and Patel subject to the only earthly justice that is available to us for all the problems their poor leadership has caused and that is some humour at their expense.

In a strange way the politicians whose subjugation to wealthy special interest groups and billionaire media moguls, should be thankful for the English tradition of taking the mick because I often wonder if their excellent work has protected these individual from societal anger which in other nations results in sometimes violent insurrection. Perhaps this is the answer to the mystery of why the Brits continue to tolerate a class system that was more at home in the dark ages than in the 21^st century.

So just under a year ago I opened my comedy section with a series of sketches from the late great Dave Allen. Therefore it seems appropriate to bring this little series to a close with the late great Allen capturing his thoughts on air travel a theme which of course has been the butt of much comedy over many years.

Bonus Clip

When I was a young child my late father used to have a single record from the American Comedian Shelly Berman. One of the sketches on this record was the one posted below. As children my brother and I used to listen to this record again and again. After leaving Australia in 1997, I did not hear the sketch again until a few years ago when I looked it up on Youtube. Hearing it again brought back lots of pleasant memories and made me feel very nostalgic for a past age that is now long gone. A time even before modern jet engines as this sketch was old even when I was a boy. Sadly in the Youtube version below, the sketch is cut off before it finishes.