Lorna Rose Treen picks her comedy favourites

Chortle best newcomer winner Lorna Rose Treen is at the Edinburgh Fringe performing her debut show Skin Pigeon at the Pleasance Courtyard at 4.35pm. Here she picks her Perfect Playlist of comedy favourites.

The Simpsons 

The Simpsons is really funny. Have you seen the Simpsons? It is so funny, man! You’ve got to check it out! The Simpsons is a little American cartoon about a stupid balding man called Homer and his terrible family. I love the Simpsons. It is my dream to write for the Simpsons. I would swap my first-born baby for a day in the writer’s room. It’s a weird system they’ve got going on there but whatever Matt Groening wants Matt Groening gets! 

My favourite characters are voiced by the legendary Phil Hartman. Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz are two peripheral characters who steal every episode. He also plays the monorail man whose episode is one of those really good ones that has a moral lesson threaded into all the stupidity. His timing is phenomenal and he sells every joke superbly well, and the animators draw him so charmingly. I don’t know how they do it because I am not a drawer, but you can see the sadness in all their eyes. 

NB. I am not willing to comment on the declining quality of the Simpsons in their later seasons. If I ever grow as old as 34 (yeah right!) then maybe I will feel able to comment. 

The Vicar of Dibley

The Vicar of Dibley came out when I was born (which was very recently). We had all the BBC VHSes and would heap together as a family to watch them. The Vicar of Dibley is wholesome and kind. Especially in the 2000s when there was a wave of quite cruel comedy, the Vicar of Dibley was comforting and optimistic. Mainline those saccharine rural English storylines into my veins! 

My grandad was a priest so I found the setting pretty relatable, except at the centre of Dibley’s parish is Geraldine - this gorgeous, high-status, hilarious, powerful and silly woman played by icon Dawn French.

I remember people around my grandparents being outraged the programme centred on a female priest - and I loved how rad that felt! 

Geraldine’s idiotic and sweet sidekick Alice, played by Emma Chambers, gives a masterclass in comedy acting. Paul Mayhew-Archer and Richard Curtis’s scripts are tight - every line is funny, or makes you cry. I still genuinely believe that when I get married (one day mum, I promise!) I will fly into the sky like the car from Grease. 

One of my favourite moments is Geraldine’s fantasy It Should Have Been Me lip sync. Dawn and Emma’s timings is perfect, it's so camp, directed superbly and the boys' dancing is super stupid. 

3. Harry and Paul's Story Of The 2s

I love Harry and Paul. The Story Of The 2s is a particular favourite of mine because it does satire in such a creative way. My friends and I still regularly quote it, even though it was a one-off special to celebrate 50 years of BBC Two in 2014. The spoof documentary doesn’t waste a moment. It’s surreal and silly and absolutely savage. It's like old school Bouffon. 

Whose Line Is It Anyway? British version 

Sorry if this makes you cringe to death but I love improv comedy! I got into comedy through doing short-form Keith Johnstone style improv with the Improverts at Edinburgh Uni, and, unfortunately for my street cred, it is my favourite pastime. 

I can’t think of anything better than getting to play pretend with your funny and talented and good-looking friends. (They asked me to put that last bit in.) 

Watching repeats of Whose Line Is It Anyway? filled my childhood. There was something so radical about seeing adults play, fail and use their imaginations. It just looked like the perfect waste of time. 

And Josie Lawrence is one of the most talented people in the world - we are not worthy to walk the same Earth as her. When very few women were on our screens, she lit a huge torch for me and my pals, and she’s still absolutely decimating (in a good way) the comedy and theatre scene. 

The Rubber​bandits: Dad’s Best Friend

The Rubberbandits were baby’s first live comedy experience! I saw them do Continental Fistfight in a gig at the Edinburgh Fringe when I was a student. I left feeling on fire. 

They are outrageous and rude and silly and so so so clever. 

Dad’s Best Friend is one of my favourites because it’s unhinged, odd and beautiful. It's grotesque, but also accurate and observational satire. It's my favourite sort of alternative comedy because its accessible and satirical, but also surreal and expansive of reality. 

I love the prosthetics and the VHS footage of him chasing the brothers with the antique sword. It’s edited really funnily too, I love funny editing. They are proper artists. Their song Waiting gave me a good few days of non-stop joy during the pandemic. 

Rik Mayall’s Do You Love Me (Comic Relief 1986) 

It was difficult not to just list six of Rik Mayall’s shows here. This clip is such a good example of why Rik’s characters are incredible - they are stupid, sold so bloody well and only Rik could have done them. In every one of his characters you can see him taking risks and reaching out beyond himself. He’s a living cartoon. 

I think I watched him first in Blackadder as Lord Flashheart. Then, when I was a little bit older my dad showed me and my sister The Young Ones. I’d never laughed liked that before - I remember erupting. He had like seven coffees worth of energy at ALL times. Rik was always at the top of his game. 

And as a writer, he blew form apart. When I got a bit older I delved into his back catalogue (and yes, I would gladly). The Comic Strip Presents has one of the best ensembles ever, and is a super creative and risk-taking series. It looked so fun to make. Bottom’s TV series and live shows are outrageous, philosophical and a masterclass in physical theatre. The outtakes are also hilarious - they're having so much fun. 

The Man Behind the Green Door is an absolute cocktail of brilliance for me. I trained as a journalist before I did comedy, and Kevin Turvey - an investigative journalist from Redditch - is running around my very specific home town being an absolute idiot. It is low-budget and mundane. It’s gorgeous. My sister and I annually watch Ade Edmonson’s Keith Marshall and His Musical Anarchy, filmed at Redditch’s finest football stadium.

Published: 10 Aug 2023