Comedy in the 90s - it's paranoid?

Sorry for plagiarizing Blur's seminal 1990s hit Girls and Boys (whom, incidentally a former colleague of mine thought was written about bisexuality?!) but this is when I really got into comedy in a huge way.  The zeitgeist was very pro-lad mag and the comedy star is God - do you recall Newman and Baddiel being the first comedy duo to play Wembley?  Although, fact fans the first actual comedy performer to take the stage was Sean Lock, whom I had a huge crush on until I found out that he smoked roll-ups and wasn't married to the mother of his children.  Anyway, as per usual, I digress.

Talking of Newman and Baddiel, whom I don't think I've discussed before on this blog and of course, the mighty The Mary Whitehouse Experience which also launched Punt and Dennis onto the scene after many years of playing skits on programmes such as Jasper Carrott's Canned Carrott and writing for other comedy performers as part of the omnipresent Cambridge Footlights alumni.  It's such a shame that the BBC have lost the master tapes of the MWE as it was pretty funny at the time, however like many comedies I've re-rented in recent years, such as Alexei Sayle's Stuff I have found them less than hilarious a few years on.

Newman and Baddiel in Pieces was N&B's follow up from the MWE which launched on BBC2 and was therefore much cooler than P&D's The Imaginatively Titled Punt and Dennis Show, which I believe was aimed at a much more mainstream BBC1 audience.  I bought the VHS 'best of' compilation of the latter ages ago from my parents' favourite emporium of shite, the late-lamented Primus Stores, formerly of Sea Street Retail Park, Herne Bay; I think I paid fifty pence for it, so I wasn't expecting much.  I wouldn't mind seeing parts of N&BIP again though, especially the joke about Fred Brewster's 'Geronimo' - which basically took the mickey out of a condom advert at the time, which was Mr B taking about how thick 'rubber johnnies' were in his days and that he had to rinse his very own 'Geronimo' out after every use and leave it to dry on the line.  Nice.

Finally, I just didn't get Reeves and Mortimer, despite my ex from years ago thinking that they were hilarious.  A friend of mine has offered to try and demonstrate, via DVD, just how amusing they are, so watch this space!