I used to like Ben Elton and Lenny Henry. When did everyone decide they were shit?

Thin Blue Line

True Identity.

Nothing wrong with Ben Elton, Lenny Henry on the otherhand is a complete mystery to me, I'd like to know what he has got on the BBC Chief Execs, must be juicy

Lenny Henry Television show was quite good.

That's right I'm back and its not a repeat,
So turn up the volume and rock to da beat,
I'm on a b-line to your funny bone,
So lock all the doors and disconnect the phone,
It's the Lenny Henry Show,
It's wicked.

Or something similar wasn't it? Not a bad show but when was this? Surely he hasn't done anything since this or his Delbert Wilkins character that has even been half way decent. I mean what was Chef! all about, absolute dire.

He had a brief period of success, when I suspect he had really good writers.

There's a nasty rumour he was plucked up by the BBC in the 70s, becuase they needed a black comic, any black comic.

So he was part of the whole comic strip crowd of the 1980s, but more for balances sake.

I mean uptil the 70s there'd been very, very few black comics on UK TV.

And unlike the US there's been a real tendency towards tokenistic recruitment 9Richard Blackwood, Little Ms Jocelyn).

Either that's really uncomfortable, or I'm a racist.

I mean Little Ms Jocelyn is no worse than any other skit show.

Might just be the cycle. They'll probably pull a Monkhouse in about 10 years and everyone will decide they liked them all along.

I think Monkhouse is of the generation of hard working club comics who perfected their act.

His professionalism shines through, through years of practice.

To watch Lenny Henry doing real standup(and not his latest daft project), he's as good(and a lot funnier than his missus).

It took years of people who got fast tracked to see what we're missing.

Ben Elton has always been shit, with strange hiccups of 'good' spanning Blackadder and The Thin Blue Line.

Young Ones, and Saturday Night Live was ace, even his TV series was pretty good.

And to watch him do standup, was in it's day an unfettered power house of comedy.

The Young Ones was only 'ace' because it was different. On its own, it is really quite, quite shit.

In any case, it's arguable as to how much influence he had over the show. I have a feeling I saw somewhere (the Comedy Connections episode perhaps) that pretty much the only thing he brought to the show were those peculiar talking inanimate objects?

Either way, still crap.

Quote: sootyj @ August 6 2008, 10:56 AM BST

Young Ones, and Saturday Night Live was ace, even his TV series was pretty good.

And to watch him do standup, was in it's day an unfettered power house of comedy.

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I quite agree. To lump him with Lenny Henry in this thread is just odd. Elton has proved himself to be a very good writer and his stand up was fantastic in it's day as it took us away from the more traditional racist humour of such comics as Bernard Manning and Roy 'Chubby' Brown.

I wouuldn't worry about Aaron, he has no idea what comedy is

It was inovative and I enjoyed it when I saw it (I was about 6 arf arf!)

But it was also highly topical, and if you're not up on the events of the day, I suppose a lot of the humour is easily missed.

The TV show was definitely the turning point. it kinda got worse as he went on.

I saw him live twice, and he was a power house.

That said he has a reputation as not a very nice person.

I wonder if Elton went crap when his nemesis, Thatch, was defenestrated. He was a bit toothless especially after Blair was elected. "Tut, this bloody government, eh? Isn't it great?"

Quote: Graham Bandage @ August 6 2008, 11:07 AM BST

I wonder if Elton went crap when his nemesis, Thatch, was defenestrated. He was a bit toothless especially after Blair was elected. "Tut, this bloody government, eh? Isn't it great?"

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Absolutely. Politics works in comedy particularly well when the country is in the shit. Elton was supreme as the anti-thatcherite but Blair took away his muse. Nice to see that Brown and his gang are bringing politics right back to the top of the comedy charts