Poor Rudolf Bing must be spinning in his grave - August 2016 The Observer - August 21st, 2016

As the third most consistently critically acclaimed British standup comedian of the 21st century, I usually spend my summers at the Edinburgh fringe, trying to intimidate younger comedians into quitting while simultaneously manicuring my own legend. I have attended the metrosexual arts event every August since 1987, except for 2001, when I was too broke…

I’m not saying Michael Gove is a bit of an animal… - June 2016 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - June 19th, 2016

The so-called EU Referendum debate on so-called ITV (let us not dignify either by naming them) filled me and all my ABC1 liberal friends with despair. Oh! The humanity!! Drunk on Belgian wine, I watched the Barrier Reef of the Britain I know bleach to nothing in the twin glare of Brexit’s burning certainties and…

Here’s a piece about the BBC recipes fiasco that I prepared too early - May 2016 The Observer - May 22nd, 2016

Six days ago, this week’s column looked like it would be a piece of cake so basic it wouldn’t bother a BBC Bake Off reject. It was the sort of column I could knock out in a cafe in a couple of hours, I imagined, on the back of an old G2, after the morning…

Pity David Attenborough – the BBC’s Galápagos tortoise - May 2016 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - May 8th, 2016

In 1997 I looked into the pre-atomic age eyes of Harriet, the then 166-year-old Galápagos tortoise, in an Australian zoo, and saw myself reflected back, a traveller in time. And earlier this year, I looked into the pre-digital-age eyes of David Attenborough, on the platform of Oxford station, and saw myself reflected back, a traveller…

The EU debate is a cynical battle of big beasts, not beliefs - May 2016 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - May 1st, 2016

Last weekend I found myself trapped on an isolated, monster-infested Pacific atoll with a pair of twin psychic Japanese schoolgirls. A skyscraper-sized lizard, with three fire-breathing heads, the result of careless radioactive experiments in the 50s, and now a huge clumsy metaphor for both the dangers of human scientific meddling with Mother Nature and postwar Japanese identity…

Defy John Whittingdale and a dominatrix will whip you into line - April 2016 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - April 24th, 2016

Today, if I worked as a cartoonist for a tabloid newspaper, I could simply hand in a hurried scrawl of heaven, where Victoria Wood now plays the piano alongside Prince on guitar and John Whittingdale’s political credibility on slap bass. But instead, I must write. Does it matter that the torture-porn fan, free-market fundamentalist and…