Saturday Night!

There’s little better time to start the Quintessential Comedy blog than on a Saturday night.

In recent times we’ve been spoilt for choice comedy wise, whether family friendly stuff like Harry Hill’s TV Burp or the mixed but generally fun to watch Thank God You’re Here, or repeats of Have I Got News For You, Saturday evening comedy entertainment is light years ahead of what we have had during any period over the last 20 odd years.

My personal favourite – despite a fondness for anything Paul Merton does – is Harry Hill’s TV Burp. On a weekly basis Hill deconstructs and even takes part in some of the most notorious and most popular television shows, often focussing on the bizarre (“Freaky Eaters”) and the ridiculous (bonkers astrologer to the stars lady whose name I will remember after watching tonight).

In recent weeks we’ve seen Hill poke fun at Hugh Fearnley Whittinstall and his campaign to rid the world of battery farming (which, as I have since found out, does not involve a battery-induced electric shock to coerce the hens into laying eggs…) and incorporate film of Jamie Oliver bashing up some biscuits into his own mini routine of having lost his glasses.

It’s all done gently and with genuine warmth, and puts Harry Hill in an unenviable position – “superstars” like Gervais, Brand and the Carrs can only dream of audience figures like TV Burp gets.