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Lead book review

Should vintage comedy be judged by today’s standards?

A successful joke relies on rhythm, tempo, cadence, pause – so why does David Stubbs find comedy and music so antithetical, wonders Joel Morris

22 July 2023

9:00 AM

22 July 2023

9:00 AM

Different Times: A History of British Comedy David Stubbs

Faber, pp.416, 20

The British sense of humour is a source of power, soft and otherwise. The anthropologist Kate Fox observed that our national motto should be ‘Oh, come off it’, and a patriotic raised eyebrow has been cited as our chief defence against demagogues. We see ourselves through a comic lens, a nation of Delboys and Mainwarings, Brents and Leadbetters, Gavins and Staceys.

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