Review of the year 2005

Yeah but, no but - oh all right then

Stephanie Merritt
Sunday December 18, 2005
The Observer

The most controversial and brilliant live show of the year was Stewart Lee's 90s Comedian, a riposte to the fundamentalist Christians whose wrong-headed and misinformed protests against the BBC's screening of Lee's West End hit Jerry Springer The Opera, last January have cost Lee dearly, financially and psychologically. Deluged with hate mail and threatened with the cancellation of the Springer tour and a prosecution for blasphemy, Lee attempted to meet prejudice with thoughtful explication.
When that didn't work, he wrote his sell-out Edinburgh show, which demonstrated what blasphemy really could be when it tried. Let's hope the BBC will uphold free expression by televising that too.

Greatest dignity in the face of bigotry: Stewart Lee