If the rest of Channel 4's latest round of 4Funnies pilots provides as many belly laughs as Friday night's opening effort, Dr Brown, there may yet be hope for the future of TV comedy.

But don't ask me to pinpoint why this half-hour collection of sketches made me laugh so much. Because I might say something unhelpful along the lines of its star Phil Burgers simply has one of those faces that can crack you up.

Either way, if you hear anyone exclaiming 'Deeeeeenied!' over the next few weeks you can be certain of one thing. They watched Dr Brown too.

Anyone who's seen Dr Brown's live work, including his triumphant Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning show this year, will be slightly taken aback by his TV pilot. He speaks! Brown - the clowning creation of American Phil Burgers - is largely silent on stage, performing slow-burning mime pieces with an unnerving edge. His small-screen debut is a bundle of short, snappy, subtle sketches, many taken from his Comedy Blaps series on the C4 website. Some skits are wordy, others not, but they're all brilliantly bizarre. We meet an upbeat hippy skateboarder, an emotionally unstable jogger, a jibberish-speaking Kimono-warring nuisance and many unsettling relationships. Much like his live work, the punchlines are often odd and unexpected, with his understated delivery and superb physical comedy skills raising the biggest laughs. Let's hope C4 gives Burgers a series; having been silent for so long, he must have plenty more to say.

Replacing the Comedy Showcase strand is 4Funnies, which provides promising comic talents a space to showcase their work. First up is Phil Burgers - AKA Edinburgh comedy award-winner Dr Brown. His trade - classically trained clowning, coupled with some disarmingly well-acted vignettes - might sound a bit highbrow, but Burgers is funny. There's some genuinely brilliant invention here, notably his tragic surf dude and the holy man with a penchant for getting his cock out.