I was a pawn in one of the great comedy crimes - February 2018 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - February 18th, 2018

The weekend before last, my curator friend worried there had been a burglary at his Bloomsbury Museum of Comedy, but nothing was taken. Perhaps some obsessed comedy fan had wanted to caress the stuffed bear from Steptoe and Son with Matthew Corbett’s Sooty puppet while dressed in Freddie Starr’s yellow teddy boy jacket? Aware of…

Satire only makes Jacob Rees-Mogg stronger - February 2018 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - February 11th, 2018

Take heed, the metropolitan liberal elite! Cower, all you Conservative moderates!! Weep, environmentalists, and prepare your online petitions!!! Jacob Rees-Mogg is upon you, a black darkness over the shire, a shade upon your allotments, a frozen shadow upon all your back garden gazebos. And your ancient weapons will not work upon his impervious hide, their…

How I became the king of cetacean comedy - February 2018 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - February 4th, 2018

On my way to pick up fresh cat litter in the car on Wednesday, I suddenly heard the following snippet of radio news: “A hulking and senseless creature, driven only by instinct and self-interest, has nonetheless learned to emit recognisable human words through its blowhole.” But I am sick of hearing about Boris Johnson all…

Stewart Lee on the ‘nerveracking thrill’ of being a fan of the Fall - January 2018 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - January 28th, 2018

In among all the post-match analysis of MES’s genius way with words and his theatrical gift for apparently effortless vocal dramatics, amid all these sociological meditations upon what the Fall told us about the world, let it not be forgotten what fun it was to be a Fall fan! Our great big brilliant secret. And…

My desperate bid to match Boris Johnson’s colossal lies - January 2018 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - January 28th, 2018

When Boris Johnson announced in a press conference on Thursday his intent to fly to the moon in a basket carried by enormous swans, as part of an ongoing quest to seek out new post-Brexit trading partners outside the EU, it seemed the logical end point of a political career characterised by the propagation of…

I’m drunk, shrunk and still shunned by Virgin - January 2018 The Observer - By Stewart Lee - January 21st, 2018

Last week’s research reveals that three in five of us drink to cope with the stress of everyday life. For others, the stress of everyday life serves as a respite from the relentless romantic demands of dame alcohol and her salty handmaidens, crisps. Like many functioning alcoholics, I quit drinking on New Year’s Day, as…