Placeholder - Yeah, I know they're old buddies, but that shouldn't have blinded him to reality. He should have said nothing rather than publicly backing Leno.

I don't like this revisionist history that people are applying to make Jerry Seinfeld seem unfunny or an asshole. Sure, Bee Movie and The Marriage ref stink, and his support of Leno over Conan was baffling, but Seinfeld is the arguably the greatest sitcom of all time and his stand-up is beloved.

Flaubert - Fair enough. To be honest that's exactly how I feel about Patton Oswalt's stand-up. I really like the guy in general, and I know how adored his stand up is, but I didn't care for it at all.

Flaubert - Obviously comedy is entirely subjective, one man's opinion is as valuable as the next, but to call Gervais' stand up "terrible" is flat out bizarre. His first two sets, Animals and Politics, are magnificent.

The collected output of Gervais (Office, Extras, podcasts, stand-up etc) is better/funnier than the collected output of Rock. 50% of Rock's act seems to be speaking at an unnecessarily high volume.

It's a one off. Essentially it's a Gervais vanity project, just an excuse for him and his buddies to shoot the shit on their specialist subject.

To be fair, being the least funny in this particular group is like being the least talented Beatle. Less talented than the rest, sure, but a Beatle nonetheless.

Dean Norris
Cranston's Breaking Bad castmate, Dean Norris, was in the original Total Recall. So there's that.

The only true UK comedy classics of the last 15(ish) years are The Office, League Of Gentlemen, Alan Partridge, Spaced, The Day Today/Brasseye and Peep Show.

It's a show that I know is brilliant, but I forget just how brilliant it is until I rewatch it. It's amazing to think about how different the TV landscape would be without it, especially in America. There'd be no US Office, no Parks & Recreation, no Modern Family, no Party Down, probably no Arrested Development etc.

I'd love too see it too, but the odds of getting Pegg, Hynes, Wright (and Frost) into the same place to write the thing are very slim. Pegg and Wright especially have very full calendars these days.

The show is emintently rewatchable, but I find it more satisfying to only watch it every couple of years.

I urge all of you to buy Pegg's autobiography, the aptly named 'Nerd Do Well'. Great stuff.

Nicely done
Permit me a rare moment of sincerity: That was a rather lovely write-up, Todd. In fact all your Spaced write-ups have been great, and I eagerly await your Office reviews.

I use it all the time too, especially at work.

I think reviewing this show weekly would have been rather redundant as the each episode followed a similar formula to the last one. There's only so many ways you can say "Karl moaned about…", or "Karl didn't understand…".

Yeah, you're thinking of Hyperdive, and it was truly shit.

Heap's all over the place. He's currently on UK TV in both Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4) and Lark Rise To Candleford (BBC).

Great stuff
The Fuckest Uppest and War Bastard are the two greatest names for anything ever.

I agree. When I watched the Simpsons as a kid I didn't understand a lot of the America-specific references (as I'm English), but more often than not the context of the gag, plus the quality of the gag, would make it funny anyway. And, as you say, going back and rewatching those old episodes, and getting the stuff you…