Fist of Fun

BBC comedy show from the mid-1990s starring comedy double act Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. One of the last of an era of sketch shows presented in front of a studio audience that began with Monty Python's Flying Circus. Similar in style to a A Bit of Fry and Laurie and The Mary Whitehouse Experience, being quite intellectual and popular with students and 20-somethings. The main difference being that Lee and Herring were more self depricating, Genre Savvy, and played up their Generation X alter egos; Herring as the neurotic manchild and Lee being the aloof Morrissey lookalike who would "listen to music that nobody else would like just to show off". Other reccuring characters included 'Peter' (played and written by Peter Baynham, previously of The Day Today) a disgusting loser who provided "Lifestyle Tips", and Simon Quinlank (Kevin Eldon) an over-zealous hobbyist who has Nazi-esque enthusiasm for various bizarre hobbies ("Old Man Collecting").

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Provides examples of:

• Berserk Button: Any suggestion to "Rod Hull" that he isn't actually Rod Hull "I AM HIM!".
• British Brevity: Two series of six episodes.
• Companion Cube: Donny Oddlegs, Peter's only friend.
• The Danza: Peter Baynham as 'Peter'
• Epunymous Title: Parodied in the Spin Off book with a whole list of sitcom titles based on the theme of "X in the Y' ("Bird in the Hand" Ian Bird is manager of 'The Hand' pub' "God in Heaven" Ian Godd is manager of 'Heaven' pub.)
• Executive Meddling: The reason the studio went from a grungy warehouse look to a less suitable bright red and white set between series.
• Galaxian: "The product of the dark lord that is Satan"
• Hey, It's That Guy!: teenage Kelly Brook in the Cool Teacher sketch
  • There's quite a few comedy actors and comedians that had small roles in sketches before they went on to do (sometimes only mildly) bigger things: Rebecca Front, Sue Perkins, Alistair Mc Gowan, Ronni Ancona, etc.
• Jerkass: Rich throws Peter's only friend in a bin and sets him on fire. And teases the 'Girl Who Smelt of Spam'.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Lee & Herring have bought the rights to the show themselves and are self-releasing the DVD. Look out for it towards the end of 2011.
• Loners Are Freaks: Peter definitely qualifies.
• Reality Subtext: There's a dig at Lee and Herring's fellow "On The Hour" writer Patrick Marber (Peter O'Hanrah'o'hanrahan on The Day Today), who they really didn't like very much.
• Running Gag: Every episode starts with Lee and Herring jumping out of crates - or, rather, Lee and somebody else (be it a Frenchman or the gimp from Pulp Fiction) jumping out of crates.
  • The Hobby sketches also usually involve a reference to a weak lemon drink.
• Sound to Screen Adaptation: Started on BBC Radio.
• Special Guest: None other than the real Rod Hull!
• Spoof Aesop: "Stewart Lee's True Fables": The moral of The Ant And The Man? Well the ant, being an insect, had died of old age.
• Stalker Shrine: Rich has a shrine to Julia Sawalha (complete with a well) and wig that looks like her hair.
  • This was due to him having dated her for 18 months. Not sure if this was before or after the Sawalha shrine though, and I'm not sure which is weirder!
    • This was 5 years before he went out with her. She hadn't seen the sketche, and ended up watching it with Rich and his dad.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Rich would say something; Stew would point out it was nonsense, ending with a rhetorical reducto ad absurdum such as "Or do you want to swim in raw sewage?" Richard would then reply "Honestly, if I wanted to swim in sewage then I'd..." and proceed to outline a highly detailed plan for breaking into his local sewage plant during the guard's teabreak.
  • In the stage show, during a lengthy Stewart Lee monologue, Richard left the stage with Peter and came back later with Peter's hair looking suspiciously damp. When Stewart asked what had happened, Rich replied 'Well, someone definitely didn't flush his head down the toilet seven times'
• Take That is a popular trope, usually against Patrick Marber or anybody complaing to or about the show.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Rod Hull loves his jelly.
• Unreadably Fast Text: The end credits provided a spoof 'Events Guide' full of silly messages. One of these was an advertisement for the Lee and Herring Video Repair Shop, suggesting you visit if you broke your video player by pausing it too many times.