Quote: Martin Holmes @ December 18, 2006, 8:03 PMIs it imaginative though?
Yes! Very!! See, I imagine that now you agree with me.
Greatest comedy writer Page 3
lol Stop patronising me.
Ok, sure (HE SAID IN A PATRONISING VOICE) Hee. hee . . .
Quote: steve by any other name @ December 17, 2006, 7:24 PMFor me it has to be Richard Curtis. I liked Not The Nine O'Clock News when it first went out, loved all of Blackadder. Adored The Tall Guy. Four Weddings, in my view, is a classic, still makes me laugh. So, imagine how pissed off I was to discover the same bloke wrote at least a part of all of these. Then when he went on to do Notting Hill, contribute to Bridget Jones and produce Love Actually, I really began to hate him. Obviously there's no forgiving him for Bean and the Vicar of Dibley - probably unfair but hey. All this and trying to feed the poor souls our Government promised to help but acidentally spent all the money on an illegal war......
Ooops, luckily am too tipsy to stay on the soap box for long.
Richard Curtis. There, I've said it.
What's wrong with Bean?!
Quote: Martin Holmes @ December 17, 2006, 10:51 PMI know humour is subjective so it's only my opinion when I think something is or isn't funny...but when you see lists of great comedy writers from The Two Ronnies to Peter Cook to Chris Morris to Armando Iannucci and then suddenly you see Julian Barret and Noel Fielding..who have never wrote a 'joke' in their lives or anything that makes any sort sense and rely on pure whimsy it kind of makes me a little bit sad..haha
Could not agree more.
Could not disagree more.
In response to the earlier posts, Ronnie Barker wrote a lot of material for The Two Ronnies, including the fork handles sketch, and it is all collected together in a book entitled 'What I Wrote'. Ronnie Corbett didn't do any writing as far as I know.
It's amazing just how many of the other writers who worked on that show went on to write great sitcoms. John Sullivan, David Nobbs, and David Renwick must be 3 of the great comedy writers.
I don't have favourites , it's like how can you have a favourite record? If you like music it's all different. But on the subject of the Mighty Boosh, which has never thrilled me, I'd like to add that I saw Noel Fielding at JUST FOR LAUGHS in Montreal 2005 and the man embarrassed me. He possessed no discernible aptitude for comedy, had no charm and put up no fight when it was obvious that his material was poorly prepared and being badly received.
I've just noticed Nick's posting re. Ronnie Barker. Undoubtedly a comic talent both as an actor and writer Ronnie B did not write the Fork Handles sketch. However many times they tell us he did as I understand it the sketch was written by Colin Bostock-Smith. There are many sketches collected in the book Nick mentions and a friend of mine has one, for which he still receives payment, in there credited to Ronnie B. There was no malicious intent just poor research. I think you could argue that the Fork Handles sketch was as memorable as it became because Ronnie Barker performed it and cast the other way round it may not have worked so well.
Quote: Charlie Adams @ December 21, 2006, 9:15 AMThere are many sketches collected in the book Nick mentions and a friend of mine has one, for which he still receives payment, in there credited to Ronnie B. There was no malicious intent just poor research.
Bloody hell. Really? Wow. I shan't pulp my copy quite yet, but still, I'm surprised by that.
I think it's common knowledge, nobody gets all that bothered about it now but, on shows I worked on, sometimes a sketch would be rewritten and the PA would credit it to the person who brought up the rewrite. It's up to the script editor or associate to be vigilant. I rewrote dozens of sketches in my day but I always left the credit as the original writer(s). Other script editors would take a name credit but my feeling is it's easier to rewrite than to write in the first place. I used to say to one well-known team whose material I rewrote, often completely, 'When you two die they'll play one of my sketches.
Oh go on, indulge us; who?! 
Okay, it was Minett and Leveson. They wrote a lot of Russ Abbot, Les Dennis shows as well as Two Ronnies. I think they might be doing My Family now and certainly wrote The Booze Cruise which was a big ITV hit last year. I said it to them so I'm not betraying anything here and I would say the reason for the rewriting was to match it to the particular show's style. Plus I hate puns and when they wrote stuff for Noel Edmonds shows they naturally assumed puns were in order and I would take them out. I hate puns, I believe a pun is your first thought when writing a joke and I don't think we should take money for writing what anybody could think up.
Interesting, thanks! 
Late to the debate but even though Steven Moffat was mentioned it was for Coupling and not Joking Apart which I thought was the best written sitcom I can remember. All the stories and twists to them were excellent and it was classic farce.
Dan
Chalk. Another example of Moffat, and a great example of classic farce.