Hobbies, Lifestyles, the Moon on a stick... (Fist of Fun)

Member Name: sugarflux

Product:	Fist of Fun
Date:	27/10/03 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Greatly influential 1990's television

Disadvantages: There's never been a repeat!

Described by Stuart Lee as '29 minutes and 15 seconds of impractical suggestions of ways to fill up those long, empty hours between your birth and your inevitable death', 'Fist of Fun' was some of the most inspiring comedy of the 1990's.

Originally launching as a radio series on Radio One in 1993, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring had begun to create a brand new and unique style of presentation. Enormously character based, with Lee acting a pessimistic and critical cynic with his hyper-active, cheerful, and somewhat naïve, Somerset-bred companion. The show consisted mainly of topical quips and discussion interlaced with sketches - including discussion of copulation with insects amongst other themes. Prior to this show, the duo had appeared in 'Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World' on Radio 4 (1992), which seemed to lack the 'youthful' edge that came with Fist of fun.

On each episode, the duo were joined by two guests including actors who would later appear in their BBC2 television series - Peter Baynham and Kevin Eldon to name just two. The series was first aired on BBC2 in February - March 1996 on Friday nights at 10pm. The transition between radio and the television series could have been disastrous - on the radio the content was free and largely unscripted, whereas the television series required a much more rigid format. However, the television series was something of a hit. The popular double act made well observed criticisms of the modern world and where a great many other shows of this style had failed, they still kept their audiences in stitches.

One of the most famous sketches (also the one that provoked the most complaints from viewers), was the sketch starring Lee in biblical times awaiting Jesus Christ to join him for a feast (Series 1, episode 2). During the evening, a great many beggars came knocking at his door asking for food and shelter but Lee turned them away, explaining that Jesus was
coming to dinner. (Even TV's Annabel Giles comes knocking to ask for a bite!) Jesus Christ does not turn up until the next morning when he explains that each of the visitors from the previous night had been Him (with the exclusion of Annabel Giles), and that Lee should have let The Almighty in. Lee retorts with the fact that Jesus had not stated anywhere that he would be coming to dinner in disguise and an argument breaks out.

This sketch moved Lee and Herring into a ground-breaking position in comedy sketch shows, for although there had been many other shows dealing with a comical angle on religion, none had gone to this depth and intelligence to do so. The religious sketches and ideas portrayed by Lee and Herring in Fist of fun were not intended to be 'shocking' (although severely politically incorrect), but 'poignant' and 'funny'.

Despite the wildly contemporary ideas exposed in the first series of Fist of Fun, it was described by critics as a 'kids comic'. When Lee and Herring were granted another series in 1996 by a less than half-hearted BBC, alterations were ordered to give the programme a 'more mature' status. Changes to the budget, set and theme music interspersed with adjustments in the attitudes of Lee and Herring were amongst the corrections. In the face of these modifications, the second series was even better than the first. Recorded the day before airing, up to the minute material was available for the pair but they didn't rely on it. In some instances, they would not even mention the front page news.

Peter Baynham had a weekly slot with his 'Lifestyle Choices' spoofing the in-house cooking and fashion slots often shown on morning television, with the slight difference that Baynham lived on a mattress in the corner of the studio and came up with ideas such as 'eating curry out of a cutlery tray so that you can pretend you're on a plane'.

Kevin Eldo
n had a weekly sketch as the 'King of the Hobbies' in which he would suggest an 'unconventional' hobby. One of
his hobbies was 'Train-ignoring' and consisted of ignoring trains and then ticking them off of a list. He also suggested 'Old people collecting'. This was a hobby that involved gathering old people and locking them in a room.

Another famous character from Fist of Fun (also played by Kevin Eldon), was Rod Hull who was being paid in the currency of green jelly. The Rod Hull idea had come from the last radio series of 'Lee and Herring' where Lee, Herring and Eldon had picked a name at random and decided to eat jelly together. Eldon was asked to do an impression of Rod Hull (the random name) and the outcome amused them so much that the Eldon Rod Hull (I am him) made it to a weekly feature.

Lee was asked why the show had been called Fist of Fun. He replied:
'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!'

sugarflux

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