Thank you, Britain, for making Taskmaster

Eugene Mirman shares his comedy favourites

American comedian and Bob's Burgers star Eugene Mirman is playing Soho Theatre next month for the first time since 2012 with An Evening Of Whimsy And Mild Grievances, working up material for his first comedy special taping in a decade this spring. Here he shares his Perfect Playlist of comedy favourites…

Coyle and Sharpe

Coyle and Sharpe are an amazing street-prank comedy team from the early 1960s in San Francisco. They had a radio show where they would interview people on the street and ask them absurd questions with the tone of serious, everyday news-reporters.

In Polylingua, they ask a man if they can erase his knowledge of language and replace it with a new language that they created. Why doesn’t this nice man want to go back to their laboratory with them?

In other street-pranks they try to trade someone a cake in exchange for a pronoun, they ask someone if they can grow coins in his head, and in another see if someone would shepherd apples that have been genetically engineered to have feet. Lastly, I also love Sandor 21, below, but it’s hard to describe:

Emo Philips

I listened to a lot of stand-up growing up, but by far my favourite two albums were Emo Philips’ Live From The Hasty Pudding Theater and E=MO2. His stand-up was incredibly silly, beautifully constructed and so funny.

His incredible one-liners were hidden in an other-worldly character and voice. One of my favourite jokes of all-time is still Emo’s Equustentialism (Golden Gate Bridge) — it’s probably the funniest and clearest critique of religious fundamentalism in standup-comedy form there is.

Season 5 Taskmaster Finale

My wife got very obsessed with Taskmaster and so we started watching it a lot. I think I’ve watched the season 5 finale maybe eight or so times, showing it to various friends who’ve never seen the show. I fucking love Rosalind Is A Fucking Nightmare. It makes me laugh so much. It’s just such a funny, silly, perfect show. Thank you, United Kingdom for making it. I just rewatched it to make sure I spelled Rosalind’s name right and it made me laugh again.

Bridesmaids

I think this is the funniest movie that has come out in the last 20 or 30 years. I don’t think a film has made me laugh more when I first saw it. Sorry this isn’t longer, but I also think this whole exercise is a bit of a trick to get comedians to make content for Chortle. But it works, so why not?

Weer: Natalie Palamides

I saw Weer in Edinburgh last summer and just loved it. Natalie’s ability to combine silliness, poignancy and craft is astounding and so, so funny. She seamlessly switches between male and female characters to create a wonderfully ridiculous romantic comedy. I don’t want to give too much away so I will stop describing it now.

[There’s no footage of this online, so here’s Palamides in her previous show, Nate]

Jon Benjamin’s Staples video

Many years ago Jon Benjamin bought a Staples shirt on eBay. He then went to Staples wearing it and filmed people coming up to him asking for help. He’d then pretend to be confused and say, ‘I don’t work here.’ I don’t think the video is online anymore, but it’s great.

I think the closest somewhat similar video might be his You Can’t Shoot Here Video, from Jon Benjamin Has A Van.