Lee and Herring rewatch

[Alberon]

The thing about the edits. There's the one about M*rris M*ttchner (which is somewhat reasonable) and one about Princess Diana (which is not). I believe there's a third as well, but I've forgotten what.

But, if you have the release with the extras, then all the episodes are actually complete on the full studio recordings.

[Magnum Valentino]

I have all the extras for whoever wants them. Do support Go Faster Stripe in general please, but out of print is out of print.

[non capisco]

Agree that the second episode is much stronger than the first. The material is more consistent and everyone seems much more confident and natural in the studio bits. Roars straight out of the gate with Rich's impression of Stew's vain hair flicking head movements, the Bill Oddie bit and the brilliant urban man sketch. 

* Kevin Eldon as the urban man pelting up to the fence and stopping dead was a sublime bit of physical comedy.

* Peter's "This is an old broken child's typewriter. You can get these from the Cancer Research shop on Balham High Road last July" really made me laugh. The specificity of this stuff is key to why I love it. 

* "I like their little Welsh hats they've got, there."
"I dislike those, actually."
^ Can't quite pinpoint why but that aside is the highlight of the episode for me.

[Ferris]

I have all the extras for whoever wants them. Do support Go Faster Stripe in general please, but out of print is out of print.

GFS are brilliant, but DVDs in general are on their way out. It's all proprietary downloads these days granddad. Also helps those of us who are region-locked out of UK DVDs.

If Chris Evans (not that one) is reading, do some more of those for Lee and Herring. I'll buy them, I'm an idiot. I've bought online/streaming stuff off GFS that I've never watched just to send them a few quid. I've setup bandcamp and Vimeo accounts just to pay for standup sets (Kitson and acaster respectively).

Come on, take my money!

[Mobbd]

GFS are brilliant, but DVDs in general are on their way out. It's all proprietary downloads these days granddad. Also helps those of us who are region-locked out of UK DVDs.

If Chris Evans (not that one) is reading, do some more of those for Lee and Herring. I'll buy them, I'm an idiot. I've bought online/streaming stuff off GFS that I've never watched just to send them a few quid. I've setup bandcamp and Vimeo accounts just to pay for standup sets (Kitson and acaster respectively).

So what's the problem? You want downloads and they offer downloads.
https://www.gofasterstripe.com/cgi-bin/w.cgi?showfull=11569

EDIT: Oh, wait, there's no option to buy FoF downloads in particular right now. Sorry. I think if you buy the DVDs though, you get a streaming option.

I've been streaming FoF in my GFS downloads area.

[Ferris]

Yeah I'm happy to pay for the streams, but I don't think I can at the mo.

[markburgle]

I liked the plates gag at the beginning. Something about the way Lee delivers a line like "there's loads of plates in 'ere", sort of like a diluted parody of a blokey bloke, he still does that in his standup and I always enjoy it

[Mobbd]

I'd wondered about the dreadlocked "it makes me mad with power" fellow in the opening titles. Ben Moor explains in his commentary that he's called Harmon Leon, a San Francisco comedian and writer who was involved with Might magazine edited by Dave Eggers.

He's alive and well. Looks like he's done a hell of a lot of stuff. https://www.harmonleon.com/

I think I remember Stew briefly having something to do with that Eggers/Sedaris/Believer lot at some point. I guess Harmon was part of that connection.

[Mobbd]

Is Fist of Fun, the title, a naughty reference to fisting or what?

[Magnum Valentino]

Don't think so. Doesn't really fit their MO.

[madhair60]

by Dave Eggers.

Like a bird's egg

[Senior Baiano]

Doesn't really fit

Well, no

[Pete23]

"Feast of fun" was something you read a lot in comics in the 70's - perhaps it's a pun on that?

[Shaxberd]

I have a strong but annoyingly vague old memory of reading a Classics From The Comics compilation as a kid and there's a strip, I think about a cat and dog who are always fighting, where one of them set up a sort of slapstick violence fairground ride. Featuring, amongst other attractions, the "fist of fun" - a boxing glove on a spring that bops you in the face.

It's extremely niche but if it's stuck with me as a phrase all this time I can imagine something they read in the Dandy as kids rattling around Rich and Stew's heads as well.

[Magnum Valentino]

I have a strong but annoyingly vague old memory of reading a Classics From The Comics compilation as a kid and there's a strip, I think about a cat and dog who are always fighting, where one of them set up a sort of slapstick violence fairground ride. Featuring, amongst other attractions, the "fist of fun" - a boxing glove on a spring that bops you in the face.

It's extremely niche but if it's stuck with me as a phrase all this time I can imagine something they read in the Dandy as kids rattling around Rich and Stew's heads as well.

Might explain why Lucy has a boxing glove on in the credits too.

[buzby]

On an uninteresting trivia note, the set dressing for FoF Series 1 included a what lookslike an army surplus Ptarmigan radio microwave dish antenna up against the column on the right (only seen in the first episode), and the nosecone from an RAF Matra 155 SNEB rocket pod on the left hand side of the backstage area behind the gate:


In an even more tenouous link, in the Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle '' sketch, Paul Putner's time machine used a number of surplus Ptarmigan 'Triffid' dish grid antennas:

[Menu]

Is Fist of Fun, the title, a naughty reference to fisting or what?

Isn't it a play on "Fist of Fury" (a film I have little or no intention of watching)?

With perhaps an insinuation of wanking.

[Alberon]

Back when the first series was airing Lee and Herring had some Q&A pages up on the BBC website. They said this about the title.

Why is the show called Fist of Fun?
It is because the phrase conveys the feeling of the twin worlds of delight and aggression that characterise our writing. Also, we wanted to see if we could get a reference to an anal sex technique into the Radio Times, and we have!

[Alberon]

Actually, since it is very relevant to this thread here's the whole Q&A page from the first series Fist of Fun website, spoilered for length.

Spoiler alert

CA Stephens asked about Histor. I'm afraid we don't have any plans to incorporate Histor, the Historical Pirate crow from our R1FM show onto the telly, but we'll do him again on the radio and maybe in a second series? We thought we might do it with glove puppets.

Matt/Cannibalise Legalbis, thanks for saying I look like Mark Lamarr. I have one of those all-things-to-everyone faces, and over the years have also been confused with Todd Carty, the other Mark Fowler, Roland Gift of FYC, Terry Christian and a medieval engraving of a human faced lamb. - Stu.

Robert Woodman and Alpine Staff at Kew, our Welsh Pete is not the same as your Welsh Pete. Incidentally, I worked about 3 days a week at Kew in the library from November 1989 to Oct 1990 doing research for MacMillan's RHS Encylopedia of Gardening. I had a brilliant time, suffered from a terrible crush on a blonde science looking woman that worked there who I never even spoke to, and met a gardener called Matthew who now presents a programme on Channel 4. I loved hanging out in the gardens but I'm afraid I can't honestly say the Alpine House was my favourite. I liked the big water lillies in the Princess of Wales house. Thanks for writing in. Save all the plants and don't let them economise you out of existence. - Stu.

Dafydd Thomas wrote in with a sexual allure table of new comedy.
1) Chris Morris
2) Stewart Lee
3) Patrick Marber
4) No one
5) No one
6) No one
7) Richard Herring
8) Steve Coogan
9) No one
10) No one
He notes that we are obsessed with Gay Culture, Religion and Wales. Well, Pete's Welsh, I'm interested in Religion so that just leaves Rich. - Stu.

MP Greenwell and JA Peters both mailed in to say they were at an awful gig we did at Bangor Uni last Autumn, when we were heckled off by drunk sports fans. Carzy night. The Security Staff hassled me at half time saying I was inciting trouble. Thanks for writing. - Stu.

Paul Laws and Andrew MacCormack both said they were Christians but still loved the show. Thanks lads! Oh yeah, and Andrew has a message for you all - "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Cheers!

Rich Wale warned of the unhealthyness of weak lemon drink and signed off "This e-mail might appear like it was written by a 21 year old Computer Science student. Because it WAS!"

Abigail - Thank you for your kind words. I am not going to "dump on you" in anyway, as, even if I wanted to, which I don't, I do not know where you are. The me on television is a false television me and must not be trusted. Thanks for writing - Stu.

Melissa Davey asks if "David Mitchell who left a message is the one who was in the excellent 'Innocent Millions Dead and Dying'?" We don't know what this is about. Can anyone help?

K Lewis, your Julia Sawalha shrine request will soon be answered.

Neil Stewart spotted the Star Trek quiz. He's right. The 2 Bussard Ramscoop episodes of STTNG are "Night Terrors" and "Samaritan Snare". We'll post you something soon.

David John Patrick asks about Manga reference in show 3 - Stu watches some Manga and Rich has seen "Akira" and "Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend I". Overfiend is a truly repulsive and shit film, which uses rapes in the way most films use car chases, as simple action sequences to cause a bit of excitement. Japanese sexual morality is an unfathomably alien thing. Akira is the only good Manga, yet it's also one of the ten best films of all time as far as I'm concerned. The live action "Tetsuo The Iron Man" is brilliant, but Tetsuo II isn't as good. I like all the crazy shouting in all Japanese films. Japan is so wierd. It's like another planet isn't it. - Stu.

Ed Ricketts - someone will call you.

Conor McMenamin asks "Who is Patrick Marber?" Marber was first seen by Stu and Rich wandering around in Edinburgh in 1986, when he was in a double act with a man called Guy Browning called Dross Bros, directed by a bloke called Peter Kessler who now produces the excellent Mrs Merton Show. Stu and Rich were in Edinburgh at the festiival in 1987 as students, but Dros Bros were there as grown ups. Stu saw them having a meeting in a cafe with Peter Kessler who was wearing green dungarees. Years later, in 1990, PK rang up Stu to ask him to do soemthing on the rubbish "Up Yer News" for BSB, and Stu freaked him out by knowing he had some green dungarees. Guy Browning left Dross Bros to be a journalist or something and was replaced by Dave Schneider (The Day Today, Up To Something, Adverts, Jewish Comedy Scene etc.). Marber also developed a stand-up act that involved taking children's toys out of a bag and talking about them in a high voice. He did this on "Saturday Night Live" in about 1988/9, and compered "Hey Rrradio" for Radio 1 at about the same time, although David Baddiel and Rob Newman wrote most of his material for this. Then, he left Britain to try and write a novel in Paris, but achieved nothing at all during his year's sabbatical. When Marber came home comedy had moved on a bit. He blagged into doing voices for "Weekending" and the first series of "On The Hour" on the radio in about 1990/91, which went on to become "The Day Today" on TV. At the same time he tried to get in on a children's show that Stu and Rich were writing to do voices. In 1991/2 he got some writing credits for the second series of "On The Hour" and was later to claim authorship of a character that Rich & Stu had made up. In Edinburgh in 1992 he did a show with Simon Munnery (Alan Parker Urban Warrior), and made Simon pay him to support him even though he was much better off than Simon. He stopped doing stuff with Simon after things took off with Steve. He also did the Dum Show with Stu, Rich, Simon and Steve Coogan in which we all fought and got on badly. He was sacked from directing a fringe play called "Revolver" but also directed Steve Coogan's one man show which won a Perrier award. At about this time the National Theatre made some overtures to him to come up with a play idea, even though his writing hsitory at this time was limited to about 10 minutes of "On The Hour". From then on he has become unstoppable. Today Marber is known and loved throughout the entertainment industry as the star of "The Day Today" and "Knowing Me Knowing You", and, having written "Dealer's Choice", as the finest West End playwright of his generation. At last, he is enjoying the success due to him, and the smile of deleight rarely leaves his laughing face.

Adrian Cook, we've given Tom your number.

Manchile congratulated us on the world's shortest catchphrase - "Ah!" "Ah!" to you too Manchile!

Andy Lowe asked us to put Patrick Marber's face on the punchbag. By the time you read this it will be there. He also asked us to dish the dirt on Chris Morris. There ain't none. He is, as you say, a "scorchingly talented genre-busting etfuckingcetera untouchable genius."

BIO-WIRE says the FOF theme tune should be sung in schools instead of hymns.

Rich Johnston found the real Simon Quinlank, Mark Stephan, on the net at mstephan@expert.cc.purdue.edu, discussing Doctor Who under the title "An Argumentative Paper Over Why the Seventh Doctor Is The Best Doctor To Write About in Science Fiction Novels About Doctor Who". You can find this hobby crazed missive also at http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~drwho/welcome.html

Alexis Manning mailed in to say we were dire, unwatchable and tedious.

Adrian D Bailey said, re complaints, "Bugger blasphemy! - What are they going to do, issue a Fatwa against you?" Ironically we did receive a scary, convincing, annonymous motiveless bombthreat that said if the third week's show went out people working on the show would be blown up. But, look, we're still hereeee ..... aieeeeeeeee .... my faaaaaayce ..... BAAANG!!!! Heeeelllllllppp meeeeeeeeeeeee!

Thanks to all of you who E-mailed in asking to win the signed urban men actors' pants. Lots of people have written in with pens too, so we will consider the best and act accordingly. There are 4 pairs to be given away.

Helen Ribchester said that Fist of Fun was better on the radio and asked, re the University of Life sketch, "Do we really need to see people being violently punched, stabbed etc? I think the best laughs come from what you don't see."

Helen, we're genuinely sorry if we upset you as you sound really nice. Personally, we loved the off license shooting and thought it was great and really funny, but I think you're right - there are times when it's best to leave things to the imagination, as we found with our tv version of the sick supermodels sketch which hopefully won't go out.

Paul D Price wrote in to say how much he enjoyed Peter at Brunel University, but failed to say that he liked Stew who was on on the same night.

Peter will be punished accordingly for his popularity. You're right though, Paul, the audience completely missed the point of all Peter Baynham's character stuff that night, and just assumed he was a real sad loser who for some reason had been mistakenly booked into a comedy act night.

Chaucer said Peter is good and should have more to do in the show, and that the Jesus parable was rubbish.

He is exactly wrong about both these points.

mktscan asked who the two guys in the newsagents in the title sequence flash frames are.

They are Raj and Billy, Pete and Rich's newsagents, who run Maston news on Bedford Hill in Balham. Pete hopes to get Raj on in show 6. He did some stuff for us on the radio. The "heads on sticks" you refer to are probably from the British Museum.

Robert Blake wrote in to say that there wouldn't have been a Tracey brother called Ian Tracey as "everyone knows that Jeff Tracey named all his sons after astronauts. How many astronauts do you know called Ian?"

The answer is:
1) That this was a joke, written by us and thus did not have to conform to Gerry Anderson's astronaut law.
2) Perhaps Jeff Tracey was so embarrassed by his freak son that he did not wish to sully an astronaut's name by giving it to such an ugly son.
3) What about the astronaut Ian Harris who was aboard Appollo 17. Aaaah!
4) Thunderbirds is not real. Try and make the most of the precious gift of life that has by infintissimal chance been bestowed upon you, by doing something constuctive with poor people or sick animals.
5) Good point.

Tim Caynes said we humiliated his friend Neil with the true caption about deep sea diving.

He's right. We did. That will teach him not to lie to Rich.

Paul W Wormald, a lecturer in Design and Technology at Loughborough University, recommends you freeze frame all the graphics, as he enjoyed the "batman on a stick".

Bruce Turner - "that little Scottish bloke" - are you that bloke who used to write for Punch and have a tweed jacket? Thanks for your message of support.

cof3019 says Pete has more talent in his little finger than the two of us put together.

Thanks. We will now be cutting his little finger off as punishment.

Jason Emmett asked what colleges we went to in Oxford.

Rich went to Saint Catherines, which is like a large comprehensive school on the outskirts of the town with a good entrance policy for people from state schools hence his attendance, and Stu went to St Edmund Hall, which was really old and is where Terry Jones from Monty Python went and he got taught by the Australian Olde English academic Bruce Mitchell, legendarilly the inspiration for the Monty Python "Bryces" sketch, about Australian academics.

James Hunter said he visited BW Barbour Macoll evangelical bookshop in Edinburgh last year after Stu's recommendation. It is on George IV Bridge street and is well worth a vsit for frightening evango-comix which are only 10p each.

m-steer slagged us off for using old radio material and then asked why we haven't used the old comedy bed idea.

It's because The Possee did it too on Channel 4.

100437.127 said he/she did not understand Fist of Fun and it was disjointed and completely unintelligible.

We do not understand his/her name. It seems to be just a collection of numbers. Are you from the future?

AR327 asked if it was Harmon Leon inbetween the sketches.

Yes. The dreadlocked San Franciscan foole is a friend of Stu and Rich and sleeps on their floors on his euro-jaunts.

David Holland asked if we'll do a second series.

We've had good press and OK audiences and the show's been well received, but whether or not we'll get a second series depends on how swiftly the BBC runs out of money, seriously. He also asks how long it takes to write one show. Well, the oldest piece of material in the series is 8 years old, so I guess the whole thing has been gestating about 8 years. Lots of the material in each show has been knocking around our files for ages, so it's really hard to say exactly. When we were a bit younger we used to write hour long radio shows from scratch in about a week by drinking loads of diet coke and staying up all night, but we're too old for that now.

Hello, TPPP Colman, do come and see us again.

Stephen J Kent-Taylor had four things on his mind, here are our replies:

1) Thank you Stephen for warning Peter Baynham about the dangers of staying in character all night. Also Stephen is the only one of you lot so far to spot the clever secret Star Trek TNG joke in show 2.
2) The reason Pete was only in one sketch in "The Day Today" is because his job on that show was to write material for all the others making them look good and then to be edited out of any publicity photos supplied to the press, and then to have his material used by Patrick Marber in his Observer column and not be paid for it.
3) See above.
4) Re: music on the radio. For years the only music Rich had in his possession was tapes of The Sex Pistols and Simon and Garfunkel. Honest. He loves Paul Simon and sings the line "I met my old lover on the street today" from the song "Still Crazy After All These Years" about 4 times a day. About 3 years ago I gave him a tape of Ice T, which he likes because of the brilliant words, aggressive satire of the capitalist world and swearing. Rich bought a cd player with some of the money from the telly and has been out buying records and has now got about 10 cds, including Cheryl Crowe, The Jam, Terry Hall's brilliant solo album, the soundtracks of "The Piano" and "Pulp Fiction", a Creation Compilation which was supposed to be a prize on our last tour, and a King Missile album, which he has copied off me. I like 60's American US psychedelia, all those early 80's California bands, folk stuff, American indie things, melodic hardcore and difficult bendy avant gardey music. I have thousands of records, all in perfect alphabetical order, and Rich says I deliberately like things that no-one else likes to try and appear interesting. To which I always say "Aaaah, yes, but I like REM" and he says "No, not aaaah" etc. etc. "Something To Eat" was by Donner Party, from San Francisco, who included Melanie Clarin from the Catheads and a bloke I think is now in X-Tal. They were great and made three albums, all called "Donner Party", but I've only ever found 2 of them. I've got the green one and the one with the medieval animals on it. If anyone knows where the other one can be found, tell me. I don't want a tape of it, as I actually want to possess it as an object. "Jesus Was Way Cool" was by King Missile, who are ace!! Alan Davis' stealing stuff from work routine must owe a debt to their song on the same subject as he is a big fan. Peter Baynham likes Bob Dylan (obsessively), The Manics, Lightning Seeds and American Music Club. His false Peter Character likes Coast To Coast who did "Do The Hucklebuck" - Stu.
5) Thanks for what you said about us, and I think being "accessible" is a good thing too! Cheers!

Paul O'Brien recommends you look at http://www.primus.com/staff/paulp/useless.html if you want to see dull things.

DE Hopkins asked if Lionel Nimrod, our BBC Radio 4 Show, will come out on tape. Well, hopefully it will soon, as I expect some people might actually buy it now. If you really want some tapes of it try writing to that fanzine, "Christs Fat Cock", they might help you. Good idea about the lottery, maybe series 2, if there is one.

Geoffrey Donald Hogg - write to Low Life, they'll tell you.

Johnny Boy asked for "more blasphemy, swearing and general offensiveness".

Well, Johnny, we'll do our best, but it's hard to please everybody.

David Holland. Stop sending us that Smurf porn. Smurf porn is a cliche of the internet.

James P Mcbride writes "Patrick Marber deserves all he gets, he seems too smug by half on Knowing Me Knowing You, which was nowhere near as funny on TV as it was on the radio."

Salim Fadhley says "Fist of Fun is the best comedy programme on the TV at the moment, despite the fact that we have heard all of the material before on Radio 4, Radio 1 and on stage." .. and then says please can we see the All Things Bright And Beautiful thing on TV.

Make your mind up. I don't think ATBAB would work on Fist of Fun as it takes about half an hour, would make bad TV, and is essentially funny because it is so boring, but might just actually turn out really boring. I'd like to do it in a big theatre one day, so maybe it could turn up on a live video if we/I ever do one. - Stu.

Joseph M Farrugia said he was "sorry" but did not find FOF funny at all.

We are sorry too. Try and watch another programme which you do think is funny.

Mark Redman asks:
1) "To what extent do you think your very existence as BBC light entertainers merely serves to perpetuate some kind of Oxbridge-comedy hegemony?" Firstly, Pete didn't go to Uni at all and was actually in the Merchant Navy etc etc. But, seriously... I don't think TV comedy was "Oxbridgey" in the 1980's. Fry & Laurie etc were the last gasp of the Seventies and then people, quite rightly, looked to the stand-up circuit for new talent. But, I think the increasing commercialisation of the stand-up circuit means that it's harder to be original on it - promoters can't afford to put on a 'risky' act, and thus all the best, most original new TV comedy shows have come from people who weren't especially active on, or approved by, the circuit, namely, Reeves & Mortimer, The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You, Fast Show, Mrs Merton Show etc. Mrs Merton (Caroline Hook), Coogan, John Thompson etc were allowed to develop in splendid isolation in Manchester, doing character acts that might not have been able to blossom in London. Chris Morris came out of local radio and was, I think, blissfully unaware of the "comedy laws" of London. Reeves & Mortimer, Tommy Cockles etc seem to have been able to make their own little South London enclave where they got on in peace, and us and all the Oxbridge wankers were plugging away trying to freelance stuff into radio . Personally, if I'd only had stand-up I'd have been more determined to be commercial, and thus probably not as good, but Me and Rich were always trying Weekending etc as well. None of this is to say that circuit acts aren't any good, or that its a total dead loss. Harry Hill has managed to be both really good and really popular on the circuit, and obvioulsy there's loads of brilliant stand-ups who never get the credit they deserve. This is a really personal mad biased view and I hope it doesn't piss anyone off. - Stu. If going to Oxford or Cambridge is such a great help how come I've been living in disgusting rented accommodation for 6 years and living off as low as GBP 5000 a year. We have got to this point through hard work in a number of media and not because of any false mafia system. On the other hand it didn't do us any harm knowing Armando Iannucci before he became famous, although ultimately it didn't do us all that much good either as anyone who knows the story behind "On the Hour" will tell you. The reason lots of people form Oxbridge do well is because you (generally) have to work very hard to get into Oxbridge and working hard is the best way to succeed in this life. That is what I think. I only went to a comprehensive in Somerset after all. Plus I hated all the posh twats at University and I don't see why I should be punished by being associated with them. Does that answer your question? Good. Love Rich.
2) We're using the old green desk material from On The Hour on the radio because all our stuff was edited out of the best of the series radio release due to arguing about who was the best and we want more than 10 people to see it.
3) Mark writes "Make me a copy of "Mystical Shit" by King Missile. Please use dolby c." Buy your own. It's on Shimmy Disc records. Actually I think Shimmy Disc has just gone bust... look if you really can't find one send a tape to the office and I'll do it, but don't anyone else ask for this kind of stuff otherwise you just run out of time to have a life - Stu.

JRM Wills writes "I am a student and live with five other blokes, but we are all just mates." and said his friend thought the show was "quite good".

Thanks. We find your unnecessary insistence that you are just mates suspicious. Do not be ashamed of your sexuality JRM Wills. All sexual tastes are equally dirty and wrong and should be punishable by a ten pound fine.

mktscan asks "Where do you get all your crazy ideas from?"

Well spotted. We are glad your freeze frame works on your video.

Colin Campbell and G White both asked for less of Peter.

We'll try.

Chris Perkin - Stu was a Smiths fan as a lad, but Rich hates them. I've always liked the line "The Devil will find work for idle hands to do" that we opened show 1 with, because the "to do" part of it seems so unecessary, like what else were the idle hands going to do with the work other than... er... do it. - Stu.

To everyone else, thanks for your positive/negative/indiscriminate comments. Please keep them coming in. We do read them all, but are only troubled by those which display an obvious innate intelligence.

Neil said it was a mistake using "famous comedy bloke" John Thomson, as he was enjoying having no established comedians on the show, and it leaned towards "a great comedic camaraderie".

We don't think it was a bad move. John Thomson has been doing stuff for us on the radio for about 3 years, and is the best at doing the parts, especially of grumpy blokes from Manchester. It's nice that we used loads of new people, but by your logic what are we supposed to do if we get a 2nd series? Use people that look like us instead of ourselves. Also, you'd be hard pushed to find any people less a part of "a great comedic camaraderie". We're almost never asked to be on anything else by anyone else, and Ben Elton himself wrote to London's "Time Out" magazine last week saying he had no idea who we were. Thanks for the other nice comments though Neil. Hope you enjoy the rest of the series.

Ben Lester asked if life at Oxford University is like the University of Life sketch.

No, it isn't, obviously. That's the point.

Dave Emmett, we are sorry to hear you died after putting Tippex in your mouth.

YOZ - Fist of Fun's theme music is indeed the B-side of Globo's 'Beautiful Feeling', but they have re-mixed it for us, and done all the incidental music and stings. They have a new album out called "Pro-War" which is good. Their live shows represent the kind of info-overload we wanted, plus they are nice blokes. Stu says: "I really like guitary moany music, to be honest, no technical stuff, but we didn't want to have some cool indie band do the sound-track so we'd look like hopelessly out of date twats in about 2 months time. Globo's stuff sounds kind of efficient and grown up and outside fashion. In reply to your question, YOZ, the last ace bargain record I got was The Windbreakers' first album, including a version of Televison's 'Glory' on which they are backed by the Rain Parade, for GBP 1 in a charity shop in Clapham Junction."

bsc4036 asked if we are going to done phone call things like we did on the radio. We can't really. They wouldn't make good TV and the format of the show is not really loose enough to accommodate that sort of thing. We'll do stuff like that on the radio again though.

William Mackintosh was an extra in the University of Life and asked how to get more extra work.

Er... apply to an extra agency? Don't know really.

Michael Buckely said the show is crap.

Neil Stewart asked if Pete got any audience in Edinburgh last year, as when he saw him there were only about 12 people. Well, he didn't get many, although his show was ace. Stu and Pete both lost about GBP 4000 each at Edinburgh last year, though Rich covered his costs due to a clever ticket auction gimmick for his show. If we get paid more for the 2nd series, if we get one, we want to stage some really extravagant things in E next year, 96. Like our own anti-Perrier award for more money than the real Perrier, which we give to the shows that are really the best, namely us and our friends, instead of the ones that the comedy establishment wants to suck up to.

A man at school with RaMpage used to paint his tongue with tippex, let the mixture dissolve, and spit it at people. He is now in the Police Force.

Ryan Andrews asked what happened to the "hilarious" (sic) American comedian Harmon Leon who supported Stu at student gigs last year.

He's back in SanFran, writing for National Lampoon, Might, Sky and others and runs a brilliant club which re-defines comedy as we know it. If you really thought he was rubbish then you are wrong. You say you spent all night ripping the piss out of him. That would explain why he turned up at my house all confused an upset the next day. He's in the show, with dreadlocks, shouting things to camera.

David Mitchell asked if the 'aubergines or death' sketch from our Radio 4 show, LNEW, will be in the series.

No it won't. We'd forgotten about that one and when you reminded us of it we laughed.

Andrew Simmons wrote to say to Richard "Hope you die and burn in Hell".

Rich says: "Thank you Andrew. I think you were joking anyway, but I will definitely die and may burn in Hell, but only because I don't believe in it."

Someone anonymous on compuserve wants us to desist from taking the piss out of the West Country and have a go at Suffolk. We do this anyway. The urban man came from Hoxne, near Diss.

Thank you Mark Bennett for all the stuff you sent and the scary sub-genius stuff. Spooky. He edits a magazine called Black Ice in Brighton that you might like to read. It is great.

Dave Hunt, we will ignore the god squad people. Although we were forced to cut Stew slapping Jesus out of the parable in show 2, which explains the slight odd edit. It was funny as well. Never mind. We annoyed 24 Christians who rang in to complain and that's a good start.

Nick, your mum Mrs James, did teach me Chemistry. My dad, Keith also taught me Maths. The Kings of Wessex Upper School rules.

Melissa, glad you like the show. Hopefully they will repeat the series so you can tape the shows next time round and also because we get paid again for doing nothing. TV is neat.

Richard Green, we did meet Ben Moor at University. He was in the Oxford Revues of 1988 and 1989 that Rich and Stew wrote/directed/appeared in. He's ugly isn't he? Rich wrote a couple of sketches for Up To Something. Well Dave Schneider adapted some of Rich's ideas for Zero Talent, the strange magician. You are wrong. The show was rubbish. Shane Ritchie has done well though. Rich says "I am called Richard Herring" because we enjoy writing unnecessary words in our sentences. Actually he is meant to say a different thing each week, but as we recorded show 1 and 2 together he got confused and messed it up. Watch out for the changes in future shows.

Ben Partridge, enquired about our use of flash frame images.

Well we don't care if we're not allowed. We've put them in and no-one's told us off. The attacks on Patrick Marber are entirely justified. He was the only one of the Day Today team who seemed to relish us leaving the show. Also he tried to jump on the backs of a succession of comedians and ride his way to fame before getting his claws into Coogan. We actually quite like him, but it's funny to bring pointless personal grudges on to the national TV arena. Also he has a grumpy cornish face. You're right about Eric Idle. He was great in Python, but oh dear, what has happened since. Watch us decline in a similar sell out fashion over the next 20 years. The girl in the titles is called Lucy. She's the daughter of an actress we know, but is just an ordinary kid and much more natural than all the stage school freaks who auditioned for the role.

[close]

Spoiler alert

The New Answers
Ian Coleman asked if Somerset is "a hotbed of rural violence" as he had heard it was. Well, I don't really know as I now live in London. The Cantonese takeaway incident is true. I don't think it is as violent as London - Rich
James Delap wrote to remind me of an incident where a naked woman's bottom appeared in a window when I was in Cheddar. Sadly I do not recall it. Apparently it was Debbie Paige's bottom. You do not win 5 pounds James as you ask, as the information you sent was in no way requested or sought by me, although I found it interesting - Rich.

Thank you also from Rich to whoever it is in Cheddar who is e-mailing and writing to me pretending to be Malcom Litten my English teacher and or Brian Bancroft's solicitor. It is funny, although obviously a lie. Would Malcom Litten send me pornography? Only very hard core stuff, not the pathetic rubbish you sent.

Peter wrote about Richard's shirts. They belong to the BBC, I can not answer your queries. He is in a band too but I can't work out what it's called... "Dog in the Wax"? Can't mention it on the telly now despite your offer of drugs and Wham Bars. Sorry.

Dave Haddock (yeah like that;'s a real name) e-mailed to say he thought we were hit and miss (yes but the bits you don't like someone else does, can't you even see that). He won Pete's set in Rich's show in Edinburgh last week, but couldn't get it home. If anyone has a film of it from a camcorder could they let us know. Ben Moor will be back in Edinburgh this year in a show called "The smallest Cinema in the World" so look out for that.

scindh wrote to say he had seen the jarred man joke 2.5 times as it had been on the radio and in our Edinburgh show. Yes, as we've explained before, that Edinburgh show was seen by maybe 1000 people, the radio show maybe a few thousand more. The TV show is watched by up to 2 million people, leaving a good 1.99 million who have never seen it before. Do you see why it is OK to use it? Plus it is different when you can see it, isn't it? So that leaves only those people in Edinburgh and most of them would have forgotten it by now. Thanks for being our fan though. You also ask how my dad got to be a headmaster if he is pickled in a jar. Well he is now a retired headmaster. He used to be fully healthy but then due to an accident, that I do not wish to discuss, his life could only be saved by Somerset's top onion pickler and surgeon and thus he was put in the jar only recently. He struggled on being a headmaster for a couple of years but then the govenors felt that even in Somerset children could not be taught by a jarred man so he retired. And also he could be a headmaster because the jarred man idea is just a joke - Rich.

Ben Smith complained about the treatment of Shipham. It doesn't just have a war memorial he says, but also a red telephone box and TWO benches, so Shipham isn't boring. He has answered his own complaint.

HEA Fulton. The "cute" presenter is Rich Herring. He does not have a fan club as yet. Perhaps you'd like to start one. We have a mailing list. The address is in here somewhere.

m-lobley mailed in to ask why we spell "hamster" "hampster". We spell it "hampster" because that is better. He also said he heckled Patrick Marber at the Woolwich tramshed years ago during a radio recording, but that the heckle was edited out.

MR JR Rogers asked why we were in the "On The Hour" writing team and not in the team for "The Day Today" on telly. I think we must have answered this somewhere else on here but here goes... For the last time, it's because we wanted a co-ownership deal on the TV show rather than just a straight weekly comission, as we felt like we'd created or co-created lots of characters that were successful in the radio show, i.e Patrick Marber's Brian O'hanrahanrahan which we made up, and had influenced the style/tone of the show more than we'd originally envisaged. They didn't agree and did a Stalinist re-write of hsitory which erased us from the annals.

cen noted that the Eel workshop host, Ken Zetty, was obviously based on the real person Kendrick Zetie, who has a funnier name. True. We met him 6 years ago, and once when me and Rich were doing a medieveal play called The Weakefield Second Shepherd's play we used to change the middle english line "There is none that knows nor trows a war than ken I nightly" to "There is none that knows nor trows a war than ken zettie" just to amuse ourselves - Stu.

Philip Mallard observed that the show is "completely lacking in intelligence and is based on only a few weak jokes, but is very good and a welcome change."

rc 1:
i) We'd love to do another series for Radio 1 but it's not up to us.
ii)In Edinburgh this year Rich is doing "Richard Herring is All Man", Stu's doing "Cluuub Zarathustra" with some other guys, and we're all doing a live show of Fist of Fun
iii) You can get the choc t-shirt in San Francisco.

Nice Guy Pauls asks if we've ever got into a fight with other comedians, re: Lee Hurst punching Geoff Boyz at the Comedy Store and says "is it only rough non-Oxbridge comedians who do this?" Well, me and Rich have had fights with each other, Rich's friend was fought by Keith Allen at Edinburgh in 1988, Stu once broke up a fight between Mark Lamaar and a man, but the fight King of fights is Simon Munnery aka Alan Parker, who punished Jeremy Hardy for his churlishness by fighting him at E Fest in 1988 resulting in the aged satirist being taken off by the police.

Mark LT Baker. We put stuff on the net because we've both enjoyed zipping about on it in the company of our more computer-literate friends, namely Danny O'Brien and Dave Green of Wired magazine, and cut and paste techno info exchange is all part of the Fist of Fun world view. Plus it helps to create a false air of subversion and interestingness amongst all you lot of net-divs and space-mongs.

Andy - there probably will be a repeat at some stupid late night useless time that the BBC wrongly thinks is appropriate as they have ghettoised us as cult youth TV that only 13 year olds could possibly like.

Sarah E Morgan - send your cv to the producer, Sarah Smith, via post, not us via internet. Good Luck. Did you know that the dead singer and guitar genius Nick Drake went to your school. I once drove to Marlborough at night when I was on acid - Stu.

James D O'Brien asks for transcripts of the subliminal texts and asks .... "When I didn't have a transcript of a humorous subliminal message were you there, were you there." No James, we aren't there. Tuff luk!

Tim Bentley asks if our dislike of Somerset extends to Cornwall. No. It doesn't. Cornwall has its own language, culture and food (pasties and ice cream) and is cool, and I know Cona Tevithen Jenkin the Cornish (not "cornish", Cornish) youth activist - Stu.

Scott Kay writes "Stewart - underneath that fringe is pure baldness." Scott.

Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the show called Fist of Fun?
It is because the phrase conveys the feeling of the twin worlds of delight and aggression that characterise our writing. Also, we wanted to see if we could get a reference to an anal sex technique into the Radio Times, and we have!

What is the address to send stuff in for The Gallery?

It's:

The Gallery
Fist of Fun
Room 3301
BBC TV Centre
Wood Lane
London W12

Pleeeeease send lots of stuff in, pleeeeeeease.

Are the subliminal messages just a shallow ploy to make sure that everyone wears out the video tape they've taped the show on so they then have to buy a deluxe boxed set later?

On the contrary. It's to make you tape the shows so you aren't tempted by corporate merchandising... and to use up all the hours of shit we've written over the years.

Why are you using mainly old material?

It is because our radio stuff has been heard by only a few thousand people, and our TV show is seen by 2 million plus, so it would be a shame to see all that old stuff wasted. Also, there is loads of new stuff anyway, and all the old stuff is changed for telly anyway, so even people who know all our stuff off by heart should find something to delight them in every show. Also, if you think we've done 5 years work in radio for sod all money just to have to start from scratch again for the telly then you are mistaken. And loads of people write in specifically asking for old stuff. Fair's fair, eh?

My video is crap and the pause control isn't any good. Can the events diary be put on the web pages?

Yes they can, plus all the other fast text stuff from the programme. All in good time. Be patient.

[close]

[Stinky Lomax]

Thanks for posting that. I have only just realised that for the past twenty years in my mind I've been amalgamating Ben Moor and Mark Watson into a single comic entity.

[Mobbd]

I've been amalgamating Ben Moor and Mark Watson into a single comic entity.

Wha-? Mark is the classic t-shirt comedian. Ben is an arts festival storyteller.

[Stinky Lomax]

Ahhhh, but they look slightly similar.

[Senior Baiano]

No, not ahhhh

[Stinky Lomax]

Ahhh, friend, it's an ahhh situation.

[madhair60]

This is a bit silly but I've compiled a load of Lee & Herring show notes/BTS/interviews and press releases etc. I didn't put much effort into organising it so it's all over the place and unformatted, but consider this the beta release. It's exported as an ePub so you can read it on Calibre or send it to your phone:

https://mega.nz/file/uw8WTRKI#Zrwuv57FUaNywxwCe2wrn6PQ5ItK8hXontIuoWy4eQ8

I called it "The Lee and Herring Reader", because I'm a cunt. I will revise it with actual formatting and a better structure, eventually.

Also if you have any L&H related text that might fit in well please get in touch.

in case anyone missed it and wants it. Bear in mind, again, it is a WIP and very messy

[Mobbd]

Ahhhh, but they look slightly similar.

racist!

[Mobbd]

in case anyone missed it and wants it. Bear in mind, again, it is a WIP and very messy

Arg, this looks brilliant madhair.

I've done typesetting as a HOBBY, off and on. Inspired by the pretentious title you gave this, I'm tempted to knock up a print-ready PDF that looks like a Fitzcarraldo edition.

Is the website content Alberon posted in here?

Spoiler alert

Gipp! Like a bird's... gipp

[close]

[madhair60]

I think it is in there yeah. I can't check right now

[lauraxsynthesis]

The Q&A was super interesting. Marber is more deserving of their ire than I expected! The details of their (and Peter's) being messed about re OtH / TDT are pretty grim. It turns out Rich really held back on the remonstrations when Iannucci was on RHLSTP. But then he doesn't like to burn his bridges, I think.

[Magnum Valentino]

Arg, this looks brilliant madhair.

I've done typesetting as a HOBBY, off and on. Inspired by the pretentious title you gave this, I'm tempted to knock up a print-ready PDF that looks like a Fitzcarraldo edition.

Is the website content Alberon posted in here?

Spoiler alert

Gipp! Like a bird's... gipp

[close]

This sounds great! @madhair60 do you have the liner notes from the Fist DVDs in there? I could provide series 1 at least, if Mobbd was to move ahead and formatting.