Nana's favourite comedians

[Petey Pate]

My grandparents were big fans of Everybody Loves Raymond. My nan also mentioned seeing Jackie Mason live which surprised me as I thought he was relatively obscure in the UK (though he must have performed here a number of times).

[non capisco]

My grandparents were big fans of Everybody Loves Raymond. My nan also mentioned seeing Jackie Mason live which surprised me as I thought he was relatively obscure in the UK (though he must have performed here a number of times).

Jackie Mason was definitely doing a run of a topical West End show in London in 2001. There was a massive picture of his face above one of the theatres near Piccadilly Circus with a speech bubble coming out saying "If it's in the news....it's in the show!" I remember this because on September 11th of that year amongst all the other thoughts whirling around my mind as the second plane hit was "Good fucking luck with that tonight, Jackie Mason mate."

[Gulftastic]

Just remembered that my Mum despised Stanley Unwin. If he popped up on telly she'd almost go into a rant about how unfunny she found him.

[Shaxberd]

Can't remember my paternal grandmother ever talking about or watching comedy, ever. Not her thing, although my grandpa loved Father Ted and, unexpectedly, Friends.

On my mum's side, my grandma had a tape of Tommy Cooper I'd often watch at her house, and records of Rolf Harris and Hancock's Half Hour. I strongly associate that side of the family with watching the Good Life and the Morecambe and Wise Christmas specials, but that's probably just the time of year when I saw them.

[Old Nehamkin]

Slightly strangely my Nana always used to rave about A Night At The Roxbury, which was an SNL spin-off film starring Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan that was a critical and commercial failure but which she had on video for some reason. Never actually got round to watching it myself and also have never spoken to anyone else who's seen it.

Other than that she always really liked Robin Williams and in more recent years she has been been a big fan of "every comedian who has ever appeared on Mock The Week."

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

My Grandad used to hate it when Bottom was on telly. "It's just two grown men acting like children" he'd say. I don't think he quite got it.

Side note: According to my Dad, in the sixties whenever Liberace was on telly, Grandad would get up out of his chair, start shaking his fist, and shouting homosexual slurs at the screen.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I remember being at my grandparents when they were watching the 90's repeat of the original two series of Auf Wiedersehn, Pet and they seemed to really enjoy it apart from being a bit disgusted at Wayne being a dirty git. I think later on one relative started gifting them Mash dvd's and they were in to that.

My dad's tastes informed mine a lot, Python, but then later the 80's/90's alt stuff, he was into Comic Strip, Blackadder, Bottom, Red Dwarf, Day Today etc.

I don't recall my Mum watching any traditional sit-coms at all but she did like longer proper comedy dramas and was into the first couple of series of Teachers, Crockodile Shoes, Hamish MacBeth and dramas with the odd joke in them (like ER).

Actually, tell a lie, both parents loved The Royle Family.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

i never met my grandmother but my grandparents were apparently big fans of Milo O'Shea and my grandmother's jokingly comparing herself to the titular character of Me Mammy was still brought up in mid-90s discussions of offensive tv. much like milligan, in the older generations eyes o'shea could get away with all the begorrah bullshit he wanted because "he's showing you how foolish it is" - although having seen some of O'Sheas comedy from london tv in the 60s it does seem obviously ironic so maybe i shouldnt sneer. and he was a bit bloody good, wasnt he?

god knows if they saw ulysses or barberella or any of the edgy plays he was in. gonna guess the narrative was "he went over there to london and they ruined him, but not after everyone else got rich imitating him" just like my parents were about dave allen.

[JesusAndYourBush]

My mum and my nan once went to see Ken Dodd and apparently he went on for about 4 hours and as it got later and later more people kept leaving (because they had a bus to catch etc not because they weren't enjoying it) and the audience got smaller and smaller.

Apparently in the 60s my parents attended parties that were also attended by Peter Cook & Dudley Moore but I don't have any details other than that, I just remember it being mentioned once.

[Maurice Yeatman]

I'm spending this weekend looking after my grandmother-in-law who is 92 and has dementia. She's from Margate and saw "all the comedians" at the Winter Gardens there. Morecambe and Wise were very good and also "very nice". She met them and they said they liked Margate and fish and chips. I looked up the gig and found Eric got married in Margate.

Yes, Nana definitely liked Morecambe and Wise.



I am funny.

[PlanktonSideburns]

My mum and my nan once went to see Ken Dodd and apparently he went on for about 4 hours and as it got later and later more people kept leaving (because they had a bus to catch etc not because they weren't enjoying it) and the audience got smaller and smaller.

Apparently in the 60s my parents attended parties that were also attended by Peter Cook & Dudley Moore but I don't have any details other than that, I just remember it being mentioned once.

My grandparents took me to to see Ken Dodd about ten times, I guess that probably adds up to just under a hundred hours of doddwatching, dude was the original Stewart lee

[Jack Shaftoe]

This has reminded me that my grandparents on my mum's side, who showed zero interest in television comedy, would regularly go and see Ken Dodd, towards the end of his career, when his shows would go on for hours. They never said what they find funny about him or quoted any good bits or anything, they'd just sort of turn up, chuckle for a while then get tired and wish he'd stop. Then a year later they'd go and see him again.

Also, why did they like Ken Dodd? My mum's parents were proper middle-middle class and both from the Home Counties, it was my dad's parents who lived in Manchester, then near Blackpool and were much more lower middle class (took me a long time to realise my mum's parents really looked down on my dad for being a common scruff), so Dodd should have been more their sort of thing really.

I don't think either set of grandparents ever watched comedy on telly, which was for nature documentaries, Songs of Praise and very occasionally, a sporting event. Whenever I mentioned a comedian or a comedy show I liked, there'd be complete incomprehension or a furrowed brow that I liked something so 'silly'.

[notjosh]

My Gran loved Laurel & Hardy and was a big fan of the Eric Sykes/Arthur Lowe silent comedy The Plank, which I was very proud to have tracked down on VHS and presented to her one Christmas. We used to watch Chucklevision together.

[ros vulgaris]

My nanna died at 97 last year, she liked the Addams Family and we often had her VHS collection of old sitcoms on the go when we were over, from decent to ropey (Rising Damp, Steptoe, "the Bucket Woman", On The Buses, Love Thy Neighbour). I can't remember her opinion on anything more modern. She'd talk over everything anyway.

My father died a couple of months ago, he loved a lot of stuff but Tommy Cooper, the Goons and the Perry/Croft sitcoms seemed to be his favourites. He told me he loved the Marx Brothers growing up so I got him a box set -- said it wasn't as good as he remembered. He'd mention that he watched Lenny Henry get booed off stage at a place he was working at. And that Roy Castle gave him a £10 tip for a meal.

My mam always had a dislike of American comedy. Hated Joan Rivers in particular. Could never have The Simpsons on without her complaining.

[dissolute ocelot]

My Nana liked Bobby Thompson, AKA 'The Little Waster', i found him as funny as toothache, but she also liked Dave Allen, so that was a good intro to someone I'd never been interested in, about the time of his BBC series in the late 80's / early 90's

I remember watching Dave Allen on family tv while very young in the 70s. He seemed to appeal to everyone. Sadly less familiar w the Little Waster.

[letsgobrian]

One grandmother was a big fan of Russ Abbot and Michael Barrymore. On the other side of the family I remember them regularly watching Cannon & Ball and Lennie Bennett's Punchlines.

[Misspent Boners]

I only found out my mum had seen Jimi Hendrix when she was winding up my dad talking about dates she'd been on before she met him.

"Oh, Gareth, he was a dreamboat. He took to me see whatsisname, the guitar guy, y'know *mimes playing guitar with teeth*"

Off topic but reminds me of when my dad said to me "why don't you stick on some of that indie music? Naw naw naw nuh naw naw" (he started miming playing a sitar at this point,thought indie music meant Indian 😄)

My mum n dad saw Ben Elton and  Alexi Sayle at the comedy store; my dad apparently heckled Alexi Sayle and Sayle retorted "get back down the fucking mines!!" We're Welsh you see, and Welsh people love going down mines

That little bit of information led me to.always inherently hate Alexi Sayle for no good reason; it was a comedy show and he was just good naturedly responding to a heckler, but child me just couldn't warm to him ever after that

[mippy]

We went on one family holiday abroad, when I was 14, and my abiding memory is sitting over a plate of spaghetti bolognaise in a cafe in Rhodes while my dad spent an hour telling me why The Fast Show was very funny but Fist of Fun was terrible. A) I liked them both! B) I really wish I knew then how much I'd love Greek food later.

My mum thinks David Mitchell is 'the worst out of all of them' for swearing. I have no idea how or why. She also thinks Jerry Stiller 'looks like he smells. And he has a weird body shape, like a cockeyed triangle.'

[mippy]

My Grandad used to hate it when Bottom was on telly. "It's just two grown men acting like children" he'd say. I don't think he quite got it.

Side note: According to my Dad, in the sixties whenever Liberace was on telly, Grandad would get up out of his chair, start shaking his fist, and shouting homosexual slurs at the screen.

That's really strange given that a libel trial made it very clear that he absolutely was not gay at all.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

That's true, I forgot he was vindicated in court. He also caught AIDS from infected piano keys, and not, as it was alleged, from a young man's cock spunk.