Ben Thompson and Sunshine on Putty

[Mobbd]

Ben Thompson was mentioned by Stewart Lee in the BBC broadcast of Snowflake.

(It was something like, "Ben Thompson, who is respected for writing critically about comedy, said this bit [of the show] was the apogee I've what I've been working towards for 30 years, which I found offensive because...")

The name sounded familiar to me because he wrote Sunshine on Putty: The Golden Age of British Comedy from Vic Reeves to the Office. (2004). Review here.

I found the namedrop an archaic one because I don't think he's written much about comedy since 2004. (Though it looks like he helped to ghostwrite Me, Moir and Gilliamesque). Oliver Double* strikes me as more currently active in writing studiously about comedy.

(*I have also heard him mention Oliver Double on a podcast. And Robert Wringham. I think it's nice that he might be giving nods to auditors of recent comedy history.)

Aaaanyway, I remember Sunshine on Putty being good and probably correct about the "golden age" it presents. A comedian friend told me they didn't like how they or others were represented at times though.

Did anyone else here read Sunshine back in the day or more recently? I'd love to hear opinions.

Or does anyone know anything about more recent comedy-related work Ben Thompson might have done?

Alternatively, does anyone fancy a read-along/book club experience of Sunshine on Putty because I'm idly thinking of reading it again and, if I do, I'll inevitably want to post curiosities to CaB.

[13 schoolyards]

I read it maybe 15 years ago? I can still see it on my shelf, so in theory I could pull it down and take a look if I dared risk pulling a whole bunch of other stuff down on me. I must have thought it was worth hanging onto at any rate.

At the time I was reading it more as a guide to things I only barely knew about (then) rather than to see if his opinions aligned with mine, so I mostly remember being impressed that he actually had opinions rather than just covered the scene in a bland way.

I do remember thinking the more I looked into UK comedy the more I found his views to be generally correct - the things he talked up I generally enjoyed, the stuff he dismissed wasn't usually worth my time.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I read it circa 2005 or so and found it interesting. I mentioned it on here once though and it got torn to shreds. Riddled with inaccuracies apparently.

[Mobbd]

I read it circa 2005 or so and found it interesting. I mentioned it on here once though and it got torn to shreds. Riddled with inaccuracies apparently.

Oof. I searched and found a few references here but this thread is pretty brutal. Oh well. https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=1836.0

[Famous Mortimer]

Oof. I searched and found a few references here but this thread is pretty brutal. Oh well. https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=1836.0

There's a bunch of names I don't miss even a little bit.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I vaguely remember thinking it was readable enough but it was two decades ago so it could just as easily be shite tbh

Another helpful contribution eh

[Gurke and Hare]

There's a bunch of names I don't miss even a little bit.

The "author of the appalling Sunshine On Putty" with the ever-present unspoken subtext of "Why didn't they just ask *me* to write it?"