The week's comedy on demand

Demetri Martin: The Overthinker

Demetri Martin's first stand-up special in four years has just landed on Netflix, deploring his clever one-liners and hand-drawn sketches to offer his take on an eclectic range of subjects from doughnut holes to the alphabet's most aggressive letters.

The most notable gimmick is the sotto voce 'comedian's commentary' he has added to the recording, as well as the occasional subtitle exposing his bullshit. Watch here

What Is Music Videos?

Radio 1 goes visual with this new comedy show for the iPlayer, mixing sketch comedy and music videos. To be released as 12 monthly episodes - What Is Music Videos? - claims to look behind the scenes at how the music videos from the station's playlist were made. Green Wing's Pippa Haywood voices the  AiPlayer, a bot introducing the videos with her 'incoherent ramblings' trying to understand and explain the genre.

The opening episode features George Ezra's Shotgun and Ariana Grande's God Is A Woman, plus Radio 1's head of compliance, Charlie Sloth, attempting to teach the AiPlayer about the importance of censorship:

Watch here

King Cnut

This documentary about British comedian Dave Griffiths' run-ins with fashion industry giant French Connection over its trademark has just landed on Amazon Prime Video. It documents the wrangling that ensued when he launched a range of Cnut T-shirts in response to the store's Fcuk branding. When they tried to sue, Griffiths fought back, given the clothing company had itself breached the copyright of some of the biggest brands in the world.  Watch here

When Diane Met Ken

Radio 4 Extra this morning aired this three-hour special celebrating the eclectic and innovative work of Ken Campbell, hosted by Philomena Cunk star Diane Morgan.

It features interviews with the madcap genius from the BBC archive, as well as his performances of drama, poetry and comedy and interviews with friends, family and colleagues including the playwright Terry Johnson, his comic protege Nina Conti, his agent Maureen Vincent and his daughter, Daisy Campbell, who has just created as one-woman stage play about his eccentric life. Listen here.

Published: 11 Aug 2018