Alternative Comedy Scene

The Alternative Comedy scene arose in the very late 1970s in London. Inspired by the anti-establishment sensibilities of the Punk movement, Alternative comedians were not openly at variance with not only the dominant political ideology of the time (hello, Thatcher), but also with what the mainstream comedy scene had become. Alternative comedians did not reuly on the setup-punchline formula for jokes, instead creating their own mode of being funny, or irreverent; they did not rely on the prejudices so rampant in the comedy of their day. In the words of Alexei Sayle, "I'm an Alternative comedian; I'm not funny. The thing is, I'm not racist, I'm not sexist, so don't laugh at me you fucking fascist shitbag, all right!"

*

excerpt from "The Post-Alternative Rule Of Three: A Manifesto For The Creation, Restoration, And Integration Of Chaotic Disintegration, High Comedy, And Carnival Chic, as manifested by The Pathological Upstagers"

We Need To Tackle Rik And Ade(1)

"The fastest way to a man's heart is through his ribcage." (Bordello Of Blood)

At the tender age of (insert jail-bait age here), we realized that we, Vee Levene and Jill Summerville, needed to respectively ben Adrian "Ade" Edmondson and Rik Mayall. The result of this endeavor was our Manifest Destiny- controlling the world around us through the wilful creation of our ideal reality.

This interprise was not merely sexual in intent (although that was nice, too), but a tool toward a larger impetus. For Vee, the ideal ultimate outcome is the amorous pillage of Ade's wife, the lovely Dr Jenny Saunders; the path from husband to wife seems a natural transition to Levene, who hopes to prove by her actions that monogamy and polyamory can co-exist, big time. For Jill, the ideal ultimate outcome is to become Rik's poetic and personal muse; in helping him to discover his own ideal ultimate outcome of becoming the People's Poet, and in helping him to conquer a particularly nasty creative/sexual dry spell, she will prove that the courtship of a Jane Austen novel is not incompatible with a good lay.

(There is another facet to this venture which is the astonishing parallel we have seen in ourselves and in the characters of Ade and Rik respectively portrayed in the TV programme "Bottom". We see our transition into middle adulthood as an inevitable manifestation of these archetypes. We are not strong enough to resist fate, and so therefore wish to exert our willpower by confronting them before we become them. And changing them, maybe, so that we don't have to become them.(6))

Notes

1. I came up with that, rather cleverly I think, when referring actually to what we needed to write- i.e., "We need to tackle (the) Rik and Ade (section of our manifesto)." In the very words of Rik Mayall in "Bottom", "I think I'm coming down with double entendre disease." -Vee(2)

2. The "tackle Rik and Ade" story is a perfect example of what makes our collaboration so successful. Vee was talking about art, and I was thinking about sex, and somehow we managed to combine the two states. We make sexy art, or artsy sex, or...Just keep reading.(3)

3. Art is always more important than sex. Duh. It is a much more fruitful pursuit. -Vee, the asexual queer, or queer asexual, or frigid spinster, or spinning Frigidaire, depending on the day(4)

4. Point taken. My amourous pursuits are always fruitful (Read: Full of gay men and the accompanying heartbreak.) Therefore, romance only exists for me through art, and that principle forms the basis or my work as an Upstager. All I mean to say, Vee, is that you are right. Are is more important than sex. Hey, did I not tell the people to keep reading? -Jill(5)

5. Sorry. Do as Jill says; keep reading. -Vee

6. But I'm glad I know what Baby Cham is, just in case. -Jill

page views since 3.1.06