BBC Two
If you were asked to explain to a curious channel hopper what Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle is the answer would be simple – it’s a taxicab. Stew spends most of his spare time in taxis harvesting material for his act. He learnt to drive many years ago but the day he stops getting taxis is the day 90% of his routine evaporates and he’s stuck on stage saying “so… comedy… that thing I do with the comedy, standing up… on stage” repeatedly for an hour before being dragged out and beaten senseless by enraged Guardian readers. This one cab driver he tells us of supported the BNP and Stew walked out of his cab in support of his made-up black wife. (And then he got off the bus, ah…)
Ridiculous really because Lee’s actual wife is a barely coherent pissed Mick bombing pubs and abortion clinics with gleeful abandon. Rumours that Mrs Lee is actually British can almost certainly be dismissed as can his claim to a cab driving Hindu homophobe that his wife is a gay man. Bigotry comes in many forms.
Lee’s actual wife is a barely coherent pissed Mick bombing pubs and abortion clinics with gleeful abandon.
Take the centuries of colonial rage the English have heaped upon the Scottish. These days that takes the form of Stewart Lee incorporating baffling English place names like “Dalston High Street” into his racially charged broadsides– exclusionist and othering. To help them out he explains that Dalston High Street is a bit rough, “like the 90 percent of Edinburgh that the Scots keep hidden behind that rock”.
He gets into Reginald D Hunter dropping the n-bomb during his set at the PFA Awards and the subsequent statement from Kick It Out declaring the word unacceptable “regardless of context”. He wonders if it’s possible to have a context free word and concludes that no you can’t. Not that this would bother Jimmy Carr on 10 O’Clock Live – inoculating himself against criticism by simply doing a shrug after a bad taste joke, much like Will the producer on TFI Friday. What was will be again.
The verdict: Taxi? Rank.
Marks out of 10: 7.5
