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The Comical Brothers (from The Word magazine, Issue 78, August 2009)
The same character types have a mysterious habit of recurring in the imterrelated world of wit. WORD decodes the DNA of the comedy gene pool.
1. The Psychedelic Ensemble: The Mighty Boosh are The League of Gentleman, The Goodies, Monty Python, The Goons, The Marx Brothers...
2. The Danger Merchant: Sarah Silverman is Bill Hicks, Jerry Sadowitz, Denis Leary, Lenny Bruce...
3. The Bickering Twosome: Newman and Baddiel were the student Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, the bedsit Sid James and Tony Hancock, the grant-aided Pete and Dud.
4. The Monster of Id: Chris Morris is Peter Cook.
5. The Capering Doofus: Lee Evans is Norman Wison.
6. The Domestic Oddball: Harry Enfield is Stanley Baxter.
7. The Northern Natterer: Peter Kay is Al Read.
8. The Cockney Jack The Lad: Al Murray is Tommy Trinder.
9. The Well-Varnished Professional: Jimmy Carr is Bob Monkhouse.
10. The Charmingly Ladylike: Julian Clary is Danny LaRue.
11. The Considerably Less Ladylike: Matt Lucas is Barry Humphries.
12. The Total Identity Crisis: David Walliams is Frankie Howerd.
13. The Homegrown Dada: Ross Noble is both Spike Milligan and Ken Dodd.
14. The People's Poet: Mark Steel is Ben Elton (Early Years, Spangly Jacket).
15. The Magic Depressives: Both Jack Dee and Paul Merton are Tony Hancock.
16. The Bemused Salt of the Earth: Phill Jupitus is Will Hay.
17. The Erudite Twosome: Fry and Laurie were Flanders and Swann.
18. The Bawdy Rake: Russell Brand is Kenneth Williams plus Sid James.
19. The Loose Cannon: Vic Reeves is Malcolm Hardee plus Jacques Tati and less Eric Morcambe than you think.
20. The Confused Everybloke: Bill Bailey is both Cheech and Chong, plus Jasper Carrott and Spike Milligan.
21. The Scot with a Cob On: Billy Connolly is Chic Murray.
22. The Beanpole Cheesemonger: Vernon Kay is Bruce Forsyth.
23. The Gentle Northern Sage: Johnny Vegas is Les Dawson.
24. The Northern Gobshite: Johnny Vegas is also Freddie Starr.
25. The King of Corn: Michael MacIntyre is Jimmy Tarbuck crossed with Kenneth Williams.
26. The Beloved Homosexualist: Graham Norton is Larry Grayson - plus, inevitably, a bit of Kenneth Williams.
27. The Evolutionary Pinnacle of Comedy: Eddie Izzard is Danny LaRue, plus Spike Milligan plus Peter Cook plus Dick Emery plus Barry Humphries plus Richard Pryor with a soupcon of Denis Leary and - naturally - a whole lot of Kenneth Williams.
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