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Barry Humphries 

The Guardian/BBC/The Telegraph. I had heard through a friend of Barry’s that Barry wasn’t doing well. I’d been in correspondence with this friend who alerted me to Barry’s appreciation of Frederick Rolfe’s Hadrian the Seventh, an edited volume that I’m currently working on. Barry was to have provided some blurb for the book.  barry humphriescomedydudley…

Chico Marx

Born on this day: Chico’s on-screen persona was the prototypical “foreign man” to Andy Kaufman’s Latka character. According to his daughter Maxine, Chico’s off-screen character can be summed up as a . . .  Bon vivant, compulsive gambler, congenital liar, and faithless husband who, as manager for the Marx Brothers, steered them to phenomenal success from vaudeville…

Duelling Bowies

Steve Coogan​ & @RobBrydon​ reenacting the moment David Bowie​ followed Rob on @Twitter is possibly Scene Of The Year 2017. #TheTripToSpain pic.twitter.com/ZhBjI5wryt — Sky Atlantic (@skyatlantic) April 21, 2017 Also check out Ricky Gervais’ proto-The Office cringe-fest for a good giggle. comedyDavid Bowiemusicricky gervaisRob Brydonsteve coogan

John Oliver as Ben Elton

Glad I’m not the only one to realize that North Americans are oblivious to the fact that John Oliver is really a “mini-me” Ben Elton, but without the talent, even though I thought, in the day, Elton as a stand-up, was tiresome. This said, I concede we needed a foil like BE. BE was a superb writer…

The left has made itself ridiculous

Andrew Doyle, co-writer (along with Tom Walker) of the very scathing Jonathan Pie, gets why intersectionalism is a vulgarly nihilistic embarrassment. Andrew, I don’t think, is holding his breath about the regressives’ reforming sometime soon, since their hold on the academy (at least) is now purely functional to self-interest, power and careerism masquerading, of course, under the guise of care…