So let's begin our collection with some old comedy from the late great Dave Allen. This video are a set of short sketches Allen did which used to appear between his comedy monologues. Some of the short sketches in this mashup are funnier than others (some are quite dated now especially the old woman whose dog fouls on the pavement) our Dougal does that all the time and of course any modern dog owner now carries a complete set of poop bags for such eventualities.

However, there are a couple in this mashup that should make you laugh out loud especially the one with pretty woman trying to flag down the car driver.

It has been often observed by historians that the Brits, unlike many other cultures (here's looking at you France 😀), never appear to rise up in full mutiny against their government. Of course British politicians and too many of the British public assume this is because the British government has been generally more functional than most other ruling institutions and a lot less corrupt. This believe however is surely utter fantasy and this fantasy has been aptly demonstrated by the utter chaos of the last 3 years with Britain being subject to one of the most dreadful governments in living memory, lead by a narcissistic liar who is up to his ears in corruption and enabled by a complicit cabinet of individuals who appear not to possess anything resembling a functioning conscience or talent.

So what is the secret to the lack of British ire against a ruling class that often makes their lives miserable and, in more extreme circumstances, even costs them their very lives (UK covid death statistics combined with people now dying at home because they can't get an ambulance to them in time to save their lives)? My conjecture is it is British comedy that takes the mick out of its immoral ruling class. I wonder if such mockery, by British comedians, acts as some sort of national safety valve that lessens the rightful anger that many Brits feels against those who treat them as serfs that deserve nothing more than to be exploited.

If my conjecture is correct, then it should be talents like Matt Green that receive a knighthood from de Feffel Johnson rather than non-entities such as David Frost whose greatest claim to fame is achieving a form of "Schrodinger's cat" Brexit where his own deal is simultaneously his unique achievement yet one that now needs complete reneging through a parliamentary bill which, if acted upon, amounts to breaking international law.

So I'll be frank. The UK is being ruled by the worst government for many generations. With triple digit inflation in the energy sector, which is unique to the UK, a government that is doing nothing to address it but is instead focussed on a right wing beauty pageant between a female clone of Johnson (Liz Truss); who, like Johnson, can't be bothered to do the hard work of her position but unlike Johnson can't wing it in interviews so comes across even more incompetent than he did and her adversary who appears to be a little more grounded in reality although given that both he and Truss must appeal to a tiny minority of ultra right-wing Tory voters, must attempt to outdo Truss in economic insanity.

Until recently Australia also had a very right-wing government who were subject to the Youtube comedy channel Juice media. Juice Media create the concept of "an honest government ad" where they mimic an official government campaign ad but share with the electorate what they their policies are really designed to do to enrich them and their donor mates while impoverishing the average person that votes for them. Being Australian, the ads are full of strong language which for me sort of acts as strong smelling salts designed to shock us out of our political apathy and get us motivated to be more careful about which party we cast our votes for.

In this video, Juice Media turn their attention and ire on the UK Conservative party creating a video with lots of very colourful language. However, they also made a PG version suitable for websites like this one so here is the version with all the swearing bleeped but you will get the idea. If you do not live in the UK and wonder whether our government could really be this bad the simple answer is: "Yes it really is this bad in the UK at the moment".

So staying with the two Ronnies for another week this sketch seems strangely appropriate given death is on everyone's mind given the sad passing of the Queen. This sketch also has quite a dark tinge to it now given the dreadful reality of one of Britain's most infamous mass murderers Harold Shipman. It is ironic to think when this sketch was made, he had probably already started murdering the many victims. As I said in my introduction to this collection, we live in a dark world where comedy gives us a powerful respite from the reality of our present existence.

This particular Youtube clip is not embedable so you can only watch it directly on Youtube by clicking here

Time for some more Mr Bean. My late Dad was a dentist so this little sketch always makes me smile. It is also good to see Richard Wilson (who played Victor Meldrew in One foot in the Grave) acting alongside Rowan Atkinson. In some ways, this sketch fits well with the character of Mr Bean given that a dental injection causes your face to change - a great excuse for Atkinson to show off his physical skills which was so much part of the comedy of this show

So last week I posted a compilation of sketches by Armstrong and Miller which captured the sometimes strange dynamics that occur in "high powered" workplaces full of alpha male (and sometimes female) middle managers and their underlings all vying for patronage from their boss. The Armstrong and Miller show often ran the same sketch each week developing it little by little each time. If you want to see how the striding man character developed during their comedy series then look at last week's post

The sketch below is the final instalment of the Striding Man and I guess the moral of the story is no matter how successful you are inside your workplace, there is always a chance it could all come crashing down in a moment. I guess this even applies to CEOs who can find themselves fired by their boards. Having said that, I think most CEOs know that even if they get fired they will walk away with a gigantic severance payment and into another CEO role in another large company such is the old boys revolving network that seems to exist at that level.

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.