This week sees the release of the eagerly-anticipated The World’s End, the final installment in the Cornetto Trilogy (along with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), a series of films straight out of the brain heads of director Edgar Wright and comedy best buds Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Before they were big fancy schmancy Hollywood stars though, this holy trinity of talented thespians were responsible for the wonder that is the television sereis, Spaced.
To celebrate the winning combination of Pegg and Frost, JOE takes a look at some of the best onscreen comedy duos that your little telly box has to offer. And no you donkey, the Chuckle Brothers do not make the list. Oh dear, oh dear.
Zig and Zag
First up is everyone’s favourite furry extraterrestrial twins, Zig and Zag, who arrived on Earth from Planet Zog with the sole intention of brightening up all of our childhood days. And boy didn’t they flippin’ well do it.
Watching old clips just serves to remind us how funny they were and how much happier we all were back then.
*starts crying everywhere uncontrollably*
Sorry about that.
So, just to upset you even more, here are the furry funnies performing one of the great traditional Irish ballads, “Them Girls, Them Girls”
Is that Gary Glitter!? What the fu*k is going’ on?
Vic and Bob
Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. These lads are geniuses. Simple as.
Bonkers, surreal, anarchic geniuses.
The comedy duo have contributed to so many different programs over the years but, for this JOE, it’s hard to top the amazingly brilliant Shooting Stars with the Dove from Above, UVAVU and Ulrikakakakakakaka…
Here’s a crackin’ selection of some great bits from the show over the years – it’s even got George Dawes’ Baked Potato Song!
Morecambe and Wise
One of the original and best comedy duos to ever grace the TV stage, Morecambe and Wise were on the go together for a whopping FORTY-THREE years and were probably most famous for their traditional and hilarious Christmas specials.
Here’s one of our favourite clips, an excerpt from their 1971 series when world-famous conductor and pianist Andre Previn was a guest for what remains one of their best-loved sketches:
French and Saunders
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, as well as starring in their own brilliant television comedies (The Vicar of Dibley and Absolutely Fabulous respectively), are the iconic comedy pair of female funnies who really showed the lads how it was supposed to be done.
Hugely popular during the late 80s and early 90s especially, French and Saunders specialised in perfectly satirising popular culture, movies and celebrities. Here’s a mini-collection of five of their best sketches:
Itchy and Scratchy
They made us laugh, they made us, well, laugh again. And then they made us puke.
The best cartoon within a cartoon ever, Itchy and Scratchy was often the gruesome highlight of many an episode of The Simpsons. Usually appearing as part of The Krusty the Clown Show, Itchy and Scratchy showed us just how funny cartoon violence really is.
Thankfully, some German boy agrees with us and he’s put together this clip of 14 minutes of their best work.
Danke schon Herr German man:
