it's just you .

Eric Morecambe quality. I just have to look at him and it makes me laugh.

I like 'em, but I've hardly ever laughed at them.
(Except for that one when they were on the desert island with the coconuts)

but I don't mind Harry Hill too much. Typically I hear that someone is supposed to be incredibly funny and then sit stone-faced in front of the TV as said person's act leaves me cold.

I think it stems from the fact that I detect an off-putting desperation in many comedians. Pleeeease find me funny, pleeease love me. And from the fact that many of them just aren't very amusing.

but seems to be peddling the same schtick. That's fine when the act involves telling gags but Hill's character-based act wore thin for me at the time of the Fruit Corner series.

then I guess there'd be a number of the Massive who'd disagree. I don't see any problem with any of this.

Tie-in with other threads: not everyone is obliged to find the Beatles wonderful.

as a stand-up. He was fresh, funny and managed to do his act without recourse to peppering it with swearing. Almost unique in that respect. (Alright, I know you can't be almost unique, but you know what I mean.) He walks a fine line between warmth and menace, which is also quite a feat. His comedy is from off the beaten track, and he steers away from the usual stand-up subjects. He has generated a great deal of goodwill from me over the years. That is why I overlook some of the outright silliness of TV Burp, it has my kids roaring with laughter, and I enjoy it on that level. He's OK. Sometimes still completely hilarious.

Much as the Poet Laureate seldom lays down the phattest rhymes and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year usually has no personality at all, comedians who are declared to be national treasures are generally about as funny as earache for at least than half the population.

Between them, the Four Funnymen of the Apocalypse - Arthur Askey, Norman Wisdom, Harry Worth and Dick Emery - totalled more "why, God, why?" hours of abject television than historians will ever be able to explain. And I still shudder when I remember the bleak, desolate period that seemed to last for decades when the comedians laureate of England, Scotland and Wales were Benny Hill, Stanley Baxter and Max Boyce, respectively.

Laugh? I nearly hurled a steam iron at the telly.

That Harry Hill is the only point of having ITV1 available on a TV set. And that is a belief I am happy to hold. Even though I don't watch many of the programmes he's sending up (the soaps, the Apprentice, Strictly, X factor) there's generally enough in his jokes for me to get the point and laugh.

When a comic's forename and surname begin with the same letter, it's always a sign to proceed with extreme caution: Arthur Askey, Colin Crompton, Frankie Filcher, Jimmy Jewel, Max Miller, Nobby Nubbins, Tommy Trinder....

(I might have made a couple of those up. But only a couple, mind.)

A lot of his show seems to rely on you having watched a lot of crap telly so that you know what he's taking the piss out of. As with most comedians it's to do with getting the references.

in not liking HH, but Jason Manford ? Just not funny. I also don't understand people rolling around to the new Tarbie, John Bishop. Both of them carry that old-school aura and just don't make me laugh.

And before anyone chips in that Lee Mack is the same - no he isn't. Funny, funny, funny.

is a firm favourite in our house. Sometimes he misses by miles but at least he tries. When he gets it right however......

that has made me want to go and see his show recorded. Went toi a TV Burp taping a couple of years back and he made the whole thing a joy, telling extra jokes to get us laughing and then doing retakes off the back of it so that the jovial atmosphere was the same

And he once pulled me out of the audience to dance onstage at the end of one of his live shows. Wouldn't do taht for many others either.

I find it doesn't matter if you've seen the shows he's taking the pee out of or not cos its very rarely about contect or storyline, its about strange lines or images.

... that I'll go out of my way to watch, or at least record.

Speaking of comedy, I listened to a few episode of The Goons on radio last weekend, and found it to be tremendously unfunny. Each to their own, as they say.

Don't get Harry Hill at all. And Al Murray's Pub Landlord is another one which goes "whoosh" miles over the top of my head.

I just don't think he's funny.

It's probably a bit like 'fancying' or 'not fancying' someone. There's no point in trying ... it's either there or it isn't.

I just don't think he's funny.

It's probably a bit like 'fancying' or 'not fancying' someone. There's no point in trying ... it's either there or it isn't.

because his humour is so surreal, and silly. And he doesn't rely on punctuating his act with four letter words or being sick or obscene, just poking gentle fun at his subjects. He is light entertainment, don't start analysing him because if you dig too deep you'll scrape the veneer of humour off. He has to appeal to a wide range of ages as a pre-watershed act, and the comedy shirts show he doesn't take himself any more seriously than his subjects.

I'm not a fan of Lee Evans, whose manic impersonation of Norman Wisdom is unnecessarily peppered with bad language, Jimmy Carr, who reminds me of a malevolent ventriloquist's dummy and is just as creepy, or Frankie Boyle who a while ago got his comeuppance from an audience member criticising his making fun of Down's Syndrome.

Having said that even these three can raise a chuckle, even if I feel guilty for it later.

I was a Harry Hill gig once and he told someone off in the audience for swearing. The lack or presence of "bad language" makes no difference in judging whether or not something is funny. Those words are there to be used, explored and celebrated as much as any other. Of course the constant repetition can be crass (that scene at the car rental desk in 'Planes Trains and Automobiles' is awfully misjudged) but as part of a character or diatribe adds weight and attack.

It's all down to personal preference, what you are emotionally capable of dealing with in humourous ways which is why saying 'X isn't funny' is a non starter. I personally love comedy that goes into new territories and examines the absurdities of life. Live stand up comedy is an artform in the hands of some and means to a series on BBC3 to others. You just pick and choose.

People are always saying about Connolly - "ah but he was funnier when he didn't swear" - when exactly was that? If you talking about his TV standup in the 70's and 80's then that was cos broadcasters were either self censoring or legally required to edit out such material. Yet live, on record and on the cutting room floor since he turned to comedy he swore, well like he was, a Glasgow docker. There is a beautiful rhythm in swearing that someone like Alexei Sayle injected into his early monologues, giving an authentic voice to his characters and on stage persona.

What's my point, do I have one? No. As you were

I've been to the show a few times and he's a lovely guy, but I do wonder how much longer her can do this schtick for. The big collars and wacky glasses - will he still be doing this aged 60?

I've gone of TV Burp, it's quite samey and repetitive, but it's had a good run.

Other comedy? As I've said before, most of it leaves me stone cold, though I did enjoy Miranda, the odd bit of Armstrong and Miller, and still Not The Nine O'Clock News, The Good Life and Dad's Army make me chuckle. But I'm not fan of Porridge and most stand-ups, especially Billy Connolly, don't do it for me.

I liked Monty Python when I was 12, but they don't do it for me now.

Otherwise I'd pick somethinglike Ellen or Frasier or Seinfeld as my top comedy picks.

but let's not confuse what he does - linking existing film clips in an mildly amusing way (for which he has a team of researchers) - with comic genius.

Often touted as a surreal Eric and Ernie, forgetting of course that Eric and Ernie were the surreal Eric and Ernie

I mean I get it, it´s medical drama mixed with Sherlock Holmes. Admittedly , Ive only watched 3 or 4 episodes but I don´t see what the fuss is about

sit there and get your breath back, and drink this nice tea. All better, now? There's a good boy. Now, say after me 'House is a character, he isn't real, it's just telly' Oh, and James Corden isn't funny.

I used to love his live shows, although badgers got a little old...

I defy you not to smile at the hornophone...

His gags used to be thick and fast, but one that I can remember is that he wanted to come up with a system (highly effective) for remembering celebrity names.
"Terence Trent Darby...but the Trent doesn't go through Derby !"

I like people who like Harry Hill, and I like people who don't like Harry Hill. But which are better? There's only one way to find out.. FIGHT!!!!

The odd thing with Harry Hill for me is that there's no consistency in what I like and dislike out of his work. I love his original BBC Radio show 'Harry Hill's Fruit Corner' (sadly no longer repeated on BBC7), but found pretty much all of his TV output hugely unfunny until 'TV Burp' came along. And even though I love 'TV Burp', I've still failed to raise a smile at his live material. It sometimes feels like two different acts...

his Channel 4 TV shows were often rehashes of a lot of the radio material but with the problem that a lot of the surreal ideas and concepts couldn't be reproduced visually.

And that Edna Dore wasn't Nana Hill on TV

oh and btw, the parade is off

None funnier than he.

Just thought I'd drop that in here.

It does seem to be increasingly full of tiresome in-jokes. I now Sky+ and fast-forward whenever the fat bloke dressed as Hannah appears (inevitably stealing sausages with hilarious consequences), or The Knitted Character or any sketch with Harry in it, and stop it before a reality TV star sings the end... Still worth it for about 10 minutes a show, but I wish the "Have you noticed...?" small clips sections at the start of each half went on for longer.
I've also heard the Smiths Medley that Johnny Marr refused permission to be included on Hill's new comedy album Funny Times. THe way it's been reported, Marr had a sense of humour failure, but he's done everyone a favour: it was Hill singing Panic, Girlfriend In A Coma and co in the style of George Formby, ending by saying "Turned out miserable again." A gag that wouldn't have passed muster on Spitting Image in 1987, let alone 2010. The rest of the album is bobbins too.