# Russell Howard. Most unfunniest comedian on tv?



## cypher79 (Nov 27, 2011)

I am the only one who finds this guy painfully unfunny?

I sometimes watch his show before Family Guy (if theres nowt else on) and i NEVER laugh at any of it. His jokes are simply awful. His attempts at 'shock humour' are totally cringeworthy. At whats with those 'heartwarming' segments at the end? How do they fit in with anything?

And whats worse, is that most people i know seem to like him. Why?


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

He's nearly as bad as David Mitchell.


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## clicker (Nov 27, 2011)

Can anyone be unfunnier than Lee sodding Evans?


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

clicker said:


> Can anyone be unfunnier than Lee sodding Evans?



And he's back aswell. He was doing promo on radio 2 on Friday.


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## killer b (Nov 27, 2011)

david mitchell & lee evans are both funny though. or they can be anyway.


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

Then there's the other really shit one. They are all shit tbh, except Gervais and Frankie Boyle.


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## killer b (Nov 27, 2011)

lol. boyle & gervais as the benchmark?


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

killer b said:


> david mitchell & lee evans are both funny though. or they can be anyway.



I was watching David Mitchells soapbox and it was just so dull. Yes he was commenting on everyday situations but that's all it was, commentary, nothing else. His voice is annoying aswell. And he even looks like a cunt.


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

killer b said:


> lol. boyle & gervais as the benchmark?



I like Boyles column in the Sun.


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## binka (Nov 27, 2011)

jesuscrept said:


> They are all shit tbh, except Gervais and Frankie Boyle.


oh dear


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

Joking aside, they are probably two of the most slimey celebs ever. They both do this smirk/sneer after they've told a ''joke.''


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## andy2002 (Nov 27, 2011)

As far as British stand-up comedians go, I only really like Sadowitz and Stewart Lee. Boyle's good on panel shows but his stand-up is lazy. Russell Howard's shit.


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

andy2002 said:


> . Boyle's good on panel shows but his stand-up is lazy. Russell Howard's shit.



Quite. No structure just joke after joke that he probably stole from Sickipedia.


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## Fedayn (Nov 27, 2011)

Whilst Lee Evans and Michael McIntyre are still alive he's nowhere near the unfunniest.


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

Alan Carr is pretty poor. I was talking about him the other day with a workmate, the only reason people think he's funny is because he plays up to the ''poof'' stereotype. Much like Kenneth Williams in the carry on films.


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## krtek a houby (Nov 27, 2011)

jesuscrept said:


> I like Boyles column in the Sun.


 A seriously unfunny misanthrope coasting on several self generated "controversies". Suits the tabloid in question perfectly.

 But hey, humour's subjective, of course.


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## krtek a houby (Nov 27, 2011)

jesuscrept said:


> Alan Carr is pretty poor. I was talking about him the other day with a workmate, the only reason people think he's funny is because he plays up to the ''poof'' stereotype. Much like Kenneth Williams in the carry on films.


 Williams was another misanthrope but genuinely amusing and a good raconteur. Carr just sounds like a wasp in a jar.


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## andy2002 (Nov 27, 2011)

Alan Carr and Jimmy Carr are both fucking terrible. I witnessed Alan Carr on the Comedy Roadshow last week and his material was so weak even Audley Harrison would have put it away inside a couple of rounds. Jimmy Carr used to be good with a one liner but I saw his stand-up show on Channel 4 on Friday night and was shocked at how poor his material is these days. Nothing clever, just piss-poor sex gags and weak homophobia.


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## DotCommunist (Nov 27, 2011)

Michael fucking Mackintyre by a country mile is the unfunniest plumsy braying twat. The sort that you want to follow into the toilet and flush his head down the bog while nicking his watch


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## Espresso (Nov 27, 2011)

Fedayn said:


> Whilst Lee Evans and Michael McIntyre are still alive he's nowhere near the unfunniest.


And both of them would need to kill Peter Kay to be in with a shout.


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

Phoenix nights and Max and Paddy were brilliant though.


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## andy2002 (Nov 27, 2011)

Not so keen on Max and Paddy but Phoenix Nights and That Peter Kay Thing were superb.


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## binka (Nov 27, 2011)

i saw alan carr about 6-7 years ago doing a gig at the comedy night at bar xs in fallowfield, manchester. at the time i thought he was really shit then didn't hear of him again for a couple of years next thing i know he's a household name


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## T & P (Nov 27, 2011)

The scouse bloke whose name shamefully escapes me seems to me the funniest stand up comedian around at the moment.


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## jesuscrept (Nov 27, 2011)

T & P said:


> The scouse bloke whose name shamefully escapes me seems to me the funniest stand up comedian around at the moment.



Frankie Boyle?


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## strung out (Nov 27, 2011)

frankie boyle's scottish


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## T & P (Nov 27, 2011)

I can't believe I can't remember his name. He's everywhere of late. Got a set of teeth on him. Proper scouse accent.

ETA: just came back. John Bishop.


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## DotCommunist (Nov 27, 2011)

ear length floppy hair?


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## DotCommunist (Nov 27, 2011)

John Bishop!


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## Dr Alimantado (Nov 27, 2011)

Unfunny: Russell Howard, John Bishop,  Michael McIntyre (but he can't half gas), Jimmy Carr (slick, but unfunny with it)
Was funny: David Mitchell,  Lee Evans (fleetingly),  Peter Kay
Funny: Gervais, Frankie Boyle, Sadowitz and Stewart Lee

Dr A, sweeping up on night cleaning duty.


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## Mumbles274 (Nov 28, 2011)

Howard makes me laugh. So do lots of the others mentioned on here. Horses for courses and all that.

Mickey Flanagan has been the funniest new comedian I have seen for a while though. Have got the Stephen Merchant dvd to watch at some point, am hopeful about that. have been working through a lot of the xmas dvd release, mostly good fun for the hour or so they last. Not sure i'd pay real money for them though!

But hey i'm easily pleased, and like music have a wide range of what does it for me

plus i'm fucking funny myself, maybe not liking comedians is a sign you are a miserable bastard? 

god, humour can be so serious!!!


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## Athos (Nov 28, 2011)

cypher79 said:
			
		

> I am the only one who finds this guy painfully unfunny?
> 
> I sometimes watch his show before Family Guy (if theres nowt else on) and i NEVER laugh at any of it. His jokes are simply awful. His attempts at 'shock humour' are totally cringeworthy. At whats with those 'heartwarming' segments at the end? How do they fit in with anything?
> 
> And whats worse, is that most people i know seem to like him. Why?



Doesn't your telly have an off switch?


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## scifisam (Nov 28, 2011)

Howard's funny on MtW, but seems to have forgotten to include jokes in his Good News show. There's a lot of competition for worst comedian, though - he definitely doesn't win.


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## danny la rouge (Nov 28, 2011)

andy2002 said:


> Boyle's good on panel shows but his stand-up is lazy.


A lot of the names mentioned here are good on panel shows, but can't draw it out over a whole solo performance.

I think David Mitchell is funny on panel shows, but I don't see what's funny about Peep Show at all.  If I hadn't been told it was a comedy, I'd never have guessed.


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## Boris Sprinkler (Nov 28, 2011)

Doug Stanhope, Stewart Lee, plus a few dead others.


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## Badgers (Nov 28, 2011)

Boris Sprinkler said:
			
		

> Doug Stanhope, Stewart Lee, plus a few dead others.



What about them?


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## Balbi (Nov 28, 2011)

Everything about Micky Flanagan makes me rage out - shit material, 'comedy voices' etc


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## Stigmata (Nov 28, 2011)

Joe Pasquale is a bit shite. I get him confused with that Alan Carr, because they both have annoying voices, glasses and no comic talent.


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## Boris Sprinkler (Nov 28, 2011)

Badgers said:


> What about them?


Are funny. Cutting. Intelligent.

If compared to the likes of Michael Mcintyre or Alan Carr.


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## Badgers (Nov 28, 2011)

Boris Sprinkler said:


> Are funny. Cutting. Intelligent.
> 
> If compared to the likes of Michael Mcintyre or Alan Carr.



I see. You had just chucked the names into the thread. I thought that it would be a bit tough to put Doug Stanhope and Stewart Lee into the unfunny box but one never knows on U75


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## susie12 (Nov 28, 2011)

I like David Mitchell.  Watched Andy Osho the other night and thought her stuff was really contrived and unfunny.  Did like Micky Flanagan at first but bored with him now, he is a one trick pony , look I'm a Cockney and I can read and write  - like Chris Addison most of the time and he is a local lad (to where I live anyway, obviously not for everybody) -


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## gabi (Nov 28, 2011)

Josie Long takes gold silver and bronze in the deeply unfunny stakes imo. Nobody can touch her. Her show on 6music is worst thing i have ever heard.


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## gabi (Nov 28, 2011)

Boris Sprinkler said:


> Doug Stanhope, Stewart Lee, plus a few dead others.



Doug Stanhope was fucking rubbish when I went to see him a coupla months ago


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## Maggot (Nov 28, 2011)

gabi said:


> Josie Long takes gold silver and bronze in the deeply unfunny stakes imo. Nobody can touch her. Her show on 6music is worst thing i have ever heard.


I don't believe you.


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## Boris Sprinkler (Nov 28, 2011)

gabi said:


> Doug Stanhope was fucking rubbish when I went to see him a coupla months ago


s'funny he says you were awesome.


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## Andrew Hertford (Nov 28, 2011)

Surely Howard's target audience are teens and twenty some things aren't they? I don't like him but my kids love him, I've seen them creased up in laughter watching him. How am I supposed to explain to them that "Actually, you do know he's the most unfunniest comedian on TV don't you?"

Lighten up you middle aged whingers, if people laugh then it's funny.


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## EastEnder (Nov 28, 2011)

Andrew Hertford said:


> Lighten up you middle aged whingers, if people laugh then it's funny.


Not true. Some people are too stupid to understand what's funny, so they rely on the reactions of others to gauge their own response. It starts a chain reaction - some dribbling halfwit inexplicably laughs at Russel Howard, next thing you know there's an entire room full of simpletons joining in.


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## Jon-of-arc (Nov 28, 2011)

EastEnder said:


> Not true. Some people are too stupid to understand what's funny, so they rely on the reactions of others to gauge their own response. It starts a chain reaction - some dribbling halfwit inexplicably laughs at Russel Howard, next thing you know there's an entire room full of simpletons joining in.



So what? Laughters infectious, and no laugjter even more so. Bill hicks in his prime could die on his arse, doesnt mean he wasnt funny, just means some of the first jokes missed the mark and that set the tone for the rest of the show....


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## andy2002 (Nov 28, 2011)

I suspect the only reason Jack Whitehall - another terrible stand up - hasn't been mentioned in this thread is because he was so good in Fresh Meat.


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## Andrew Hertford (Nov 28, 2011)

EastEnder said:


> Not true. Some people are too stupid to understand what's funny, so they rely on the reactions of others to gauge their own response. It starts a chain reaction - some dribbling halfwit inexplicably laughs at Russel Howard, next thing you know there's an entire room full of simpletons joining in.



Pure snobbery. But I suspect you're pulling our legs.


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## krtek a houby (Nov 28, 2011)

Rhod Gilbert & Sarah Millican currently crack me up


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## EastEnder (Nov 28, 2011)

Jon-of-arc said:


> So what? Laughters infectious, and no laugjter even more so.


People must be shown the error of their ways. Rather than joining in when someone laughs at something that's clearly not funny, everyone else should glare at them remorselessly until their spirit is broken and their soul knows only the pain of despair.


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## dessiato (Nov 28, 2011)

'Most unfunniest' comedian......either 'the most unfunny' or 'the unfunniest', and of the two the first is correct.

(As you were, pedant mode to off.)


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## Lord Camomile (Nov 28, 2011)

dessiato said:


> 'Most unfunniest' comedian......either 'the most unfunny' or 'the unfunniest', and of the two the first is correct.


Thank you!! I can't believe we got to post 53 before anyone pointed that out


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## purves grundy (Nov 28, 2011)

danny la rouge said:


> I think David Mitchell is funny on panel shows, but I don't see what's funny about Peep Show at all. If I hadn't been told it was a comedy, I'd never have guessed.


Folk are getting carried away with themselves on this thread - Peep Show is top-notch, and both Mitchell and Webb are great in it. When they take it upon themselves to write their own material, that's when things begin to fall apart.


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## Badgers (Nov 28, 2011)

I don't really mind Howard but the word 'comedian' is a bit strong for him.


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## Ranbay (Nov 28, 2011)

I'm on the extras of his first DVD, well me shouting out a question anway

True Story


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## Jeff Robinson (Nov 28, 2011)

i watched Howard's good news show the other day and I realised that I've warmed to him  a bit. Sure he has mastered almost to an artform 'the lowest common denominator' method of populist joke telling but he does so in a relatively likeable way. To be fair, I think it's the clips that carry that show rather than his commentary and I think he sucks on panel shows etc.

Tangentially related, I saw the NMTB with James Blunt as the presenter yesterday, whom I'd never seen before (knowing that he's a posh ex-army cunt who performs his shit fucking boring crap musak shit to the occupying armies of British imperialism made me want to avoid the turd at all costs). He was even worse than I'd imagined.


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## danny la rouge (Nov 28, 2011)

purves grundy said:


> Peep Show is top-notch,


Nope.  It's crap.


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## krtek a houby (Nov 28, 2011)

Hardy Bucks is excellent.


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## EastEnder (Nov 28, 2011)

purves grundy said:


> Folk are getting carried away with themselves on this thread - Peep Show is top-notch, and both Mitchell and Webb are great in it. When they take it upon themselves to write their own material, that's when things begin to fall apart.


I did not find Peep Show funny, therefore it is not funny.


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## gabi (Nov 28, 2011)

Peep Show's good. Altho I think they made a few too many.


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## andy2002 (Nov 28, 2011)

Andrew Hertford said:


> Lighten up you middle aged whingers, if people laugh then it's funny.



As a middle-aged whinger myself I think the reason I loathe Howard, the Carrs, Whitehall etc is because I lived through the alternative comedy wave of the 80s. Ben Elton and Alexei Sayle were a godsend after years of Tarby, Brucie, Russ Abbot and Frank Carson. And it seems to me a lot of modern comedians are just updates of those horrible old gits, replacing jokes about 'Paddies' and the mother-in-law with gags about fat people and paedos. It's almost as if that whole 80s movement never happened.


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## Maggot (Nov 28, 2011)

andy2002 said:


> I suspect the only reason Jack Whitehall - another terrible stand up - hasn't been mentioned in this thread is because he was so good in Fresh Meat.


Nope it's  because the thread is about Russell Howard.


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## andy2002 (Nov 28, 2011)

Maggot said:


> Nope it's because the thread is about Russell Howard.



But seemingly not limited to him as digressions about Peep Show and a host of other Howard-like comedians seem to prove.


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## Andrew Hertford (Nov 28, 2011)

andy2002 said:


> As a middle-aged whinger myself I think the reason I loathe Howard, the Carrs, Whitehall etc is because I lived through the alternative comedy wave of the 80s. Ben Elton and Alexei Sayle were a godsend after years of Tarby, Brucie, Russ Abbot and Frank Carson. And it seems to me a lot of modern comedians are just updates of those horrible old gits, replacing jokes about 'Paddies' and the mother-in-law with gags about fat people and paedos. It's almost as if that whole 80s movement never happened.



Does he do irish and mother in law jokes? I didn't think he was as bad as that. Like I said, his audience are teens and twenty somethings and they seem to like him. My parents would've hated Elton and Sayle too but I don't want to end up sounding like them!

I do think the climate's about right for another Ben Elton though, but when he or she does arrive it'll probably be people younger than us who get it first.


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## EastEnder (Nov 28, 2011)

Andrew Hertford said:


> My parents would've hated Elton and Sayle too but I don't want to end up sounding like them!


Don't fight the urge, let your indignant disapproval and judgmental self-righteousness rise majestically to the surface. Free your inner curmudgeon, realise it's true potential.


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## andy2002 (Nov 28, 2011)

Andrew Hertford said:


> Does he do irish and mother in law jokes? I didn't think he was as bad as that. Like I said, his audience are teens and twenty somethings and they seem to like him. My parents would've hated Elton and Sayle too but I don't want to end up sounding like them!



No, Howard doesn't do Paddy and mother-in-law gags but his stuff is equally as lazy, safe and predictable. That's my point - the advances in British comedy made in the 80s have been totally abandoned by most modern comics.


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## Andrew Hertford (Nov 28, 2011)

andy2002 said:


> No, Howard doesn't do Paddy and mother-in-law gags but his stuff is equally as lazy, safe and predictable. That's my point - the advances in British comedy made in the 80s have been totally abandoned by most modern comics.



Yeah, it's not cutting edge but he's aiming mostly at kids. I reckon there'll be another new wave of anti establishment comedy along eventually like there was in the 80s and the 50s/60s


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## DexterTCN (Nov 28, 2011)

Did no-one see Russell break his wrist last week on the show?  That was funny.  "At least it's not just your eye that's wonky now"


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## Jeff Robinson (Dec 5, 2011)

Jeff Robinson said:


> i watched Howard's good news show the other day and I realised that I've warmed to him a bit. Sure he has mastered almost to an artform 'the lowest common denominator' method of populist joke telling but he does so in a relatively likeable way. To be fair, I think it's the clips that carry that show rather than his commentary and I think he sucks on panel shows etc.



I don't know what came over me when I wrote this. I saw his show again on saturday and have remembered that in actual fact he's just an annoying, unfunny, mediocre dickhead. End of.


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## Riera (Dec 5, 2011)

jesuscrept said:


> I like Boyles column in the Sun.


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## Riera (Dec 5, 2011)

Russell Howard = shit.


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## cypher79 (Dec 5, 2011)

Changed my mind, I forgot about Lee Nelson


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## billy_bob (Dec 5, 2011)

I don't like any of these 'Russell' comedians they have now.


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## Badgers (Dec 5, 2011)

billy_bob said:
			
		

> I don't like any of these 'Russell' comedians they have now.



Stewart Lee?


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## billy_bob (Dec 5, 2011)

Badgers said:


> Stewart Lee?



I hesitate to confirm or deny, given that admitting to either loving or loathing Stewart Lee is an effective way of derailing just about any conversation...


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## barney_pig (Dec 6, 2011)

There is no hell deep enough, no torment harsh enough for that unfunny turd John Bishop.


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## Badgers (Dec 6, 2011)

billy_bob said:
			
		

> I hesitate to confirm or deny, given that admitting to either loving or loathing Stewart Lee is an effective way of derailing just about any conversation...



Thought you were quoting him regards the 'Russels'?


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## billy_bob (Dec 6, 2011)

Yes.  I generally agree with him about the Russells, although Kane is occasionally ok.  It was more that I was expecting a torrent of "oh so you think Lee's better than them do you? You're obviously a self-satisfied middle class liberal-elite unfunny politically correct smug twat" and so forth.  To me the sheer frustrated rage Lee seems to provoke from people who don't get it is almost reason enough to find him funny without him even doing/ saying anything.


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## Kaka Tim (Dec 6, 2011)

John bishop is pretty shit. Like a medicore turn at a working man's club suddenly and bewielderingly catapualted onto peaktime telly. Nostaligia or something? Not shit in a smug annoying way like Gervais and Mitchel - just really really average.
Jimmy Carr makes me laugh on Qi. Not seen his stand up.
The present generation of comedians all came through in the last 15 years when it was all post politics, cynicism and irony, now we are in an age of austerity, mass unemployment and burning city centres alot of them (like 'indie' music) look out of step with the times.


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## danny la rouge (Dec 14, 2011)

Rhod Gilbert.  There is nothing funny about him at all.  He has no wit or charm, and his delivery surgically removes the comedy even from jokes written for him.


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## skyscraper101 (Jun 14, 2013)

He keeps wheeling out that Chinese guy as a kind of recurring gag. It was lame the first time.


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