Episode 3 Preview - March 2016 Beyond The Joke - By Bruce Dessau - March 16th, 2016

The most interesting point Stewart Lee makes in the third episode of his current series, subtitled ‘Patriotism’, comes at the start when he talks about the biggest problem the modern satirist faces. The news is in such flux, says Lee, it is hard to get a handle on it for comedy. And if Lee is…

Series 4 Episode 2 Review - March 2016 RTE.ie Blog - By John Byrne - March 15th, 2016

Fun might be stretching it, but Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (Thursday, BBC Two) continues its fourth season of his scorched earth approach to stand-up and real-life hypocrisy. This week the focus was on Islamophobia, but he also dealt with Quakers and porridge, Mormons* (their Watchtower magazine, to be precise), as well as the average angry…

BEST OF THE BOX - March 2016 The Metropolist - March 13th, 2016

Stewart Lee is a genius. Stewart Lee takes comedy and deconstructs it before your very eyes and then tells you why it isn’t funny, even though it really is. This is the fourth series of his award-winning stand up series, each episode tackling one subject… well taking a subject apart in his own unique style.…

TV Pick - March 2016 The Independent - By Gerard Gilbert - March 10th, 2016

“This is clearly the weakest of the four series you’ve done… is that deliberate?” asks Chris Morris’ hostile interrogator, but, joking aside, this is a weaker episode than last week. Perhaps it has something to do with the subject: Islamaphobia

Thursday’s best TV - March 2016 The Guardian - By Ali Catterall - March 10th, 2016

Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle – 10pm, BBC2 “I assure you, within three minutes, on this television programme, on this stage, a Muslim will have been lampooned.” Well, sort of. This is a Stewart Lee joint, after all: a safe space for a complicit audience well-versed in the man’s ziggurats of irony and meta-commentaries of unending…

Episode 2 – Islamophobia - March 2016 Beyond The Joke - By Bruce Dessau - March 7th, 2016

Warning. This episode contains skipping. Sure enough, Lee suckered his TV viewers in last week with a relatively benign look at the nature of modern comedy and a few cheeky swipes at his fellow entertainers. This week he goes for the jugular, addressing the more tricky question of the rise of Islamophobia and the acceptability…