It's time the BBC put Have I Got News For You out of its misery

It was once the sharpest satire on TV. Now it's complacently predictable liberal-left pap.

Let's give these woke comedy hypocrites a taste of their own medicine

Threats to free speech are far more damaging and offensive than any joke Jerry Sadowitz could tell.

The new Ricky Gervais Netflix special has exposed woke comedy's biggest problem

In his SuperNature show the comedian has been accused of punching down, but those on the Left who make this supposed rule rarely follow it.

The BBC wouldn't dare make a comedy like Python today

Comedy isn't just a form of entertainment. It's also a form of social history.

Why shouldn't Al Murray mock Brexit?

The show was very funny. But it was also risky. Brexit is a sensitive subject, and some people take mockery of it personally.

But comedians are biased

This is the truth about political comedy today: pretty much everyone is Left-wing.

Modern comedy's unlikely hero: Bob Monkhouse

From panel shows to stand-up, you'll find imitations of his writing style, his assured but snappy onstage technique, even his work ethic.

In defence of punning

In the right hands, punning is a minor art, says Michael Deacon.

Monty Python. You resent this reunion, don't you?

I wish Yentob had pushed them all on this point. "Look," he should have said, to each Python in turn. "Be honest. Not mock-honest - none of your ha-ha-we-can't-stand-each-other's-company-and-we're-only-doing-it-for-the-money-ha-ha. Give it to us straight. You actually quite resent this reunion, don't you?"

The Trip - or, as it's now titled, The Trip to Italy - returned on Friday on BBC Two. Essentially it's the same show: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, playing caricatures of themselves, talk rubbish and swap impressions in restaurants. It's very funny.

Now and again it threatens to turn into a deeper, more mature sort of programme, about Coogan and Brydon's relationships with their families.
Personally I'd rather it didn't. I could easily take half an hour of solid nonsense from them. There's almost no plot, but in the interests of more nonsense I'd accept less.