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Stewart Lee's Hilarious Red Button Activities

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David Thair | 16:25 UK time, Monday, 16 March 2009

Stewart Lee Red Button
We're all very excited because tonight sees the long-awaited return of celebrated stand-up Stewart Lee to television, with Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle at 10pm on ±«Óãtv Two.

But that's not all: tonight and for the next 6 weeks we're offering you extra comedy on the red button (where normally you might find extra tennis, extra snooker or bits of the news).

Stewart Lee Vs Armando IannucciAfter each episode of Comedy Vehicle, Stewart will be called to account by the show's Executive Producer Armando Iannucci. It's The Frost/Nixon of comedy and if you think of Stewart as the driver of the comedy vehicle and the arguments as his wheels, then I suppose you can think of Armando as the man who can have Stewart sacked.

This week, Armando gets Stewart to reveal his unrequited love for Russell Brand, to invoke the spirit of Adrian Chiles, and to explain precisely why he wants to decimate the Amazon chart position of the best selling author Dan Brown. To see all these things you'll just have to press the appropriate red button after the show tonight.

UPDATE:

Did you press the red button? If you didn't - perhaps because you don't have a red button to press, or were simply looking in the wrong direction - you can watch that special bonus content below. In fact, you'll be able to watch the red button content on the web each week, once it's been out on the telly, at the Comedy Vehicle programme page.


Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Tasty.

  • Comment number 2.

    Comedy Vehicle? I thought rogue traders was still on and they were catching out comedians. Not one funny gag, a small audience who seemed to be embarrassed into laughing along and a general bitter tirade of insults and jealousy from Lee. Am i alone in wondering how this was commissioned? Can i have my half hour back please?

  • Comment number 3.

    You are alone.

  • Comment number 4.

    Absolutely superb. Can't wait for next week. You been away too long Stew - you are a genius for our times. At last some intelligence wit. British Bill Hicks crown.

  • Comment number 5.

    i get the humour
    and what's with the legal action...... Dan Brown should look into comedy
    it takes a certain pernauche to do stand up gig's

    hope i dont get sued for this comment.....




  • Comment number 6.

    dachshundsteve - Yup, you are very much alone on this one, I imagine most of it went over your head? Have you watched "Parents of the Band" with Jimmy Nail? You might like it....

    Intelligent, witty, controversial and at times brutal. Exactly what comedy should be all about...thanks Mr Lee I cannot wait until next week.

  • Comment number 7.

    If this is supposed to be a "Comedy Vehicle," someone had better call the RAC to get it started.

  • Comment number 8.

    More Lee and Iannucci please.

  • Comment number 9.

    Well, I thought it was rather good.

  • Comment number 10.

    genius! so glad he's back.. what a hero, finally some articulate clever comedy ..

  • Comment number 11.

    wow this blog is kicking man!

    Stuart Lee looks like Morrisey innit

    But it was funny in the middle bit for a while

  • Comment number 12.

    If some people did not enjoy this, they could have always of spent this spare half hour, reading their Chris Moyles book...on the toilet!

    Good to See SL back on the box, always a pleasure.

  • Comment number 13.

    I also wonder how this got commissioned, simply because it is so good!

    So nice to have some quality television that's not 'dumbed' down to the lowest common denominator.

    I can understand how some people would miss the jokes and cultural references but not all TV can be Strictly come dancing, cop chase shows, or bland inoffensive garden makeover programmes.

    Television and especially comedy should challenge us and raise the bar, it should poke fun at those culturally bankrupt celebrity parasites!

  • Comment number 14.

    I saw Lee at the Edinburgh Festival in 1997 (his Moby Dick tour) & my wife & I were the only people in the audience. Rather than refuse to perform, he delivered the whole gig on first name terms to us. As such, this man will always be a comedy legend to me.

  • Comment number 15.

    Brilliantly understated, and sticks in your brain. I jsut can't get his bit about rappers out of my brain. I keep thinking about it at work and laughing to myself. When people ask me what's funny I try and explain the sketch, and they look very strangely at me.

    "Yeah, he was talking about rappers, running along banisters and going kind of 'hey!'. Rappers, you nkow, running along, behind the, multi-story, and ur..."

    I'm looking forward to the next one!

  • Comment number 16.

    Poor show with poor timing from a alledged comedian,just watch, when he has finished his punch line, he stares at the camera waiting for the small audience to laugh.

  • Comment number 17.

    Both Lee and Iannucci appeal to people who like to think they are clever. They are both exercises in smugness and try to be clever. People only laugh at them because they don't want to appear stupid. Credit where it's deserved though - Ianucci can be a good comedy writer (i.e. Alan Partridge).

  • Comment number 18.

    I only watched it cause I was off work with the cold and playing about with I player.

    I loved it and set it up for my husband to watch when he got back from work. He loved it as well and unfortunately, it's now the source of in jokes in my house. Which it quite sad.

    It was witty, intelligent and truthfull. I have always wondered by adult read Harry Potter.

    Can't wait for the rest of the series.



  • Comment number 19.

    I saw the ad for the show and thought "great" Stew Lee on the tele box!
    this has gotta be good!

    but.... oh.... my..... god......zzzzzzzzzzzzz

    welll done stew!?! a fantastic workshop showing up and coming comedians exactly how to take a midly funny joke and stretch it out beyond belief until the entire audience really couldn't give a monkeys about why it was funny in the first place and just want you to give up talking about 'the top of the pops'....

    speed it up mate!

    ps. milk boy has let himself go hasn't he? (recently spotted in an M5 costa servive station) - you know who you are!

  • Comment number 20.

    Brilliant. More please!

    Finally, something not aimed at morons. Sharp and funny with a wonderful dead-pan delivery.

    Not enough of this on T.V.

  • Comment number 21.

    Wanted to like this guy, given that he's revered by comics, apparently. Why? It was dire. Dan Brown? What's new to say? Chris Moyles? Chatter that 13year old boys have to pass a long bus journey. JK Rowling? Even I said "Im 40!" to my children years ago and I'm not funny.

    And what else? Long repetitious passage (which I can't recall the content) to fill out the set. Now that's why he's revered!

    PS How come quoting SL's word fails to pass 'the profanity filter'?

  • Comment number 22.

    Saw the Stewart Lee Comedy Vehicle, and thought it was excellent, I have been to seen Stewart Lee live and he is a comedy legend in my eyes, and it is about time we had him back on the television.

    Loved the show, can't wait to see the rest

  • Comment number 23.

    I think I'll go and watch my Bill Hicks back-catalogue. It's better than watching Stewarts poor attempt at nicking BH's comedy genius. Mind you, he's not the 1st to try. Just ask Denis Leary.
    Lying on the floor, repeating the joke over and over. C'mon Stewart! Maybe the sycophants in your audience kept laughing on cue, but I certainly wasn't.
    The shame is you had some relevant comments to make.

  • Comment number 24.

    No red button stuff online for this week yet... will it be up soon?

  • Comment number 25.

    Second show? Style over content. Worse than the first. Just because he's heard of William Tyndall doesn't make him funny. The stuff about Adrian Chiles was illuminating. So, AC looks like a Toby jug. Not witty. Full of p? Pullease! AC is popular because HE is funny and droll. And effortlessly, unlike SL who puts all sort of effort to disguise lack of a basic wit. Enough!

  • Comment number 26.

    Stewart Lee is one of the best and most original comedians currently working in this country. There are few other comedians so adept at story-telling or milking something until the audience are simply forced to find it funny. This is his style. I have seen him live many times and I am never disappointed.

    So I just wish that the ±«Óãtv could have been brave enough to just give him a straightforward half-hour of stand-up. The little sketches inserted into the show not only break up the flow, but seem to completely negate the requirement for imagination. Maybe the program makers think my attention span can't manage more than three minutes of one thing?

  • Comment number 27.

    Well, at the close of the first two shows, I thought "oh, is that it already?" but at the close of last night's show it was more like "Thank God that's it."

    Political Correctness gone mad? Recycling BEN ELTON sketches from the late 80s?!! What next? A routine about the repeal of the Corn Laws? The Phlogiston theory of combustion? The Copernican Theory??

    Anyway, it was great to see Armando backtracking on his position of 10 years ago when he wrote a dour, straight-faced article for the Telegraph lambasting Jasper Carrott for using the word 'Muslim' in a joke (some of us have long memories...) - IT WAS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD!

    I'm writing this here, where no one will read it...

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