Dee Allum picks her comedy favourites

Edinburgh Fringe comedian Dee Allum picks her Perfect Playlist of comedy favourites

Rothaniel:  Jerrod Carmichael

For my money the best standup special of the last two years. Jerrod Carmichael is an absolute magician. It should not be possible for an hour of sitting in a chair be so riveting, and yet it is. 

A lot of the themes hit very close to home, and I first saw Rothaniel while I was going through some similar things with my own family and so I am sure it will always have a special place in my heart. But he is so warm and so honest that I think it’s impossible not to get on board. And that moment towards the end, looking straight into the camera for just a second? Goosebumps.

What: Bo Burnham

This is the piece of comedy I have seen most in my life. While basically everything Bo Burnham has ever touched is excellent (including, but not limited to Make Happy, Inside, and directing Eighth Grade and the aforementioned Rothaniel), I was lucky enough to see what live at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013, aged 15 with two schoolfriends. 

This show has burrowed its way into my brain and my vocabulary like very little else, and I think I could repeat the whole thing verbatim if prompted. The only issue I have with what is that Burnham wrote it aged only 22, which is a fact I think everyone should find upsetting. 

Sheeps 

The sketch trio of Liam Williams, Daran Johnson and Alastair Roberts, who have all gone on to bigger and better things, still hold the honour of being the thing that I have laughed the hardest at in my life, which I am sure is something that makes them all incredibly proud. 

I saw their debut hour all the way back in 2011, and has more than stuck with me: it is probably what led me more than anything else to becoming a comedian, so thanks lads. 

The geography song, the on-location news crew with a long delay, the night classes that help you name things you’re better at doing than cats. I understand this will not mean a lot to people who weren’t there, but I can promise you it was wonderful.

Monty Python's Life of Brian

Controversial opinion this one: Monty Python’s Life of Brian is a very funny film.

But not just that, it is, for lack of a better word, a miracle of a film. From its incredibly troubled production, which required £3million of George Harrison’s generosity to go ahead after the original producers withdrew their support, to its highly controversial (for its time) subject matter, it is a movie that really should not exist at all. Not to mention that most Python does not quite hold up in the way that I think my dad hopes it does.

 I’ve seen a lot of the original Flying Circus, for which I am very grateful as part of my comedic upbringing, but in this film every single sketch across the whole 90 minutes really is a peach. And to top it off, it’s also shot funny - Brian’s mum opening the window to the sea of enthusiastic onlookers springs to mind. So few comedies these days even attempt this sort of thing. It’s very good.

The Blues Brothers

Another classic from another generation but which also played a big part in my childhood, the Blues Brothers is a film I love dearly. 

It parodies cool, but in a way that is also in itself cool, which is cool. It’s also a massive, larger-than larger-than-life, maximalist romp, that refuses to take anything seriously. 

You know what’s funnier than a car crashing into a ditch? Sixty cars crashing into the same ditch. 

Wherever the Blues Brothers go they create new enemies, including a rival band, the Catholic Church, the Illinois law enforcement community, and Carrie Fisher. Oh and also Nazis for no particular reason. 

In being so unapologetically loud, brash and in-your-face, it might be the most American movie ever made. And it’s undoubtedly got the greatest soundtrack of any comedy of all time. What’s not to love?

Futurama

In my humble opinion, Futurama is the most underrated comedy show of all time. There may be some recency bias in this assessment, because I am currently in the midst of a rewatch of the entire show with my girlfriend, who had never seen an episode before. And I had forgotten just how full of incredible lines it is: ‘If I die, tell my wife: hello’, ‘I got your distress call and came here as soon as I wanted to’, ‘Come, join us, you’ll enjoy being dead! That’s exactly what they said about being alive!’. 

Not to mention its ability to make you feel incredibly sad: Fry’s dog anyone? Fry’s nephew? Fry’s whole family really. 

It also stands as a fascinating artefact of the 1990s. It is littered with pop culture references which have already lost a great deal of relevance (Beck, Ross Perot, Pauly Shore). These are all things that meant a great deal to audiences at the time, but already they are almost as alien to us (or at least, to me born in 1997) as they are to the people and robots of the year 3000. 

It’s a masterpiece of a show, which, much like the Simpsons, has undergone something of a decline in quality over the many, many years its been on, but take any episode from its original four year run and tell me they don’t stack up with the very best animated TV shows of all time. 

• Dee Allum’s debut show Deadname is on at 4:30pm at Pleasance Courtyard

Published: 3 Aug 2024