Being an early generation Xer, as a young man I grew up with the TV series friends. At the time Chandler was just one of the very funny characters that made this show so enjoyable to watch. It was only when the actor who played Chandler, Matthew Perry, passed away at the end of October this year that many interviews of him resurfaced where he openly spoke about his mental health issues and his struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse. Sadly, like many artistically talented folk before him, Matthew clearly had to battle for many years against his inner demons, a battle that finally he would lose although thankfully not at the tender age of 27 which is that strange age that appears to claim so many of rock stars. Below is a collection of funny moments from the first series of Friends.

After living in the UK for just over 30 years, I have come to the conclusion that one of the ways the British cope with their corrupt politicians is by laughing at them. Although this method helps makes coping with the worst excesses of the British class system bearable, I wonder if it might inadvertently stifle true political progress in the UK? Certainly Boris Johnson is one of the most terrible, lying corrupt Prime Ministers Britain has had for well over a century. Yet so much of his appeal to the voting public is he was able to play the fool and make people laugh. Although I enjoy British humour very much, I do hope that one day the Brits come to realise that the amount of corruption in their political system probably rivals some of archetypal African nations to which so many Brits feel superior in relation to their "mother of all Parliaments".

I think one of the funniest comedy series made in the teens of the 21^st was the IT crowd. The concept of the series is based around the IT department of a big multinational (Reynholme industries) that produces a product that is never revealed (part of the comical concept of the whole series). The IT department consists of two geeky guys: a classical geek (Moss) and a more subtle geek (Roy) who boasts to his boss Jen in the final episode of the whole series that his girlfriend thinks he is on the "emotional artistic spectrum". In some episodes (including this one) a goth called Richmond, who lives in the Server room, also puts in an appearance just to add to fun.

The series in general was brilliant but like all series, there were some episodes that were particularly funny. This clip is taken from the first episode of season 2 where Moss and Roy gate crash a date with their boss Jen who taken to the theatre by a bloke she hopes will be her next love interest. Unfortunately for her, he is gay and the musical he takes them to is not what one would describe as "mainstream". Yet given this is Moss's very first time at the theatre, he is very impressed, although, unbeknown to him and Roy, things are going to get interesting as the episode unfolds with Roy having to fake he is disabled and Moss ending up working behind the drinks counter and causing utter mayhem. All crazy stuff that generates a ton of very funny comedy. The clip below is the beginning of this very funny episode.

Time for change of comedy genre. The two Ronnies are the type of comedians that you could safely take you neighbourhood monk to and they would probably not be offended. Ronnie Barker was very gifted at coming up with clever ideas for sketches and this one, while not a play on words, is nonetheless clever in its execution. It also has a nice little punchline to bring the sketch to a fitting conclusion

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

If you're a nervous flyer perhaps best not watch this sketch. Aircraft have definitely been a setting for many comical scenes over the years

When I started this comedy list I decided I would work on the project for exactly one year. As such this is the final posting for my comedy section. I thought this sketch was worth leaving to the end as it is a very funny take on one of the greatest bands of all time: The Beatles. Obviously the Beatles feature heavily in my Covid Island Discs collection so this sketch seems an appropriate one to bridge the my two collections of comedy and music. Hope these collections bring as much joy to you as they do to me.