The funniest standup I’ve ever seen
Norm Macdonald. He’s so funny-boned. And he gives off an amazing aura of not giving a fuck, of just doing what he thinks is funny, come what may. This is why he’s not that famous, as that not-giving-a-fuck thing – such as when he refused to stop doing OJ Simpson jokes on Weekend Update during his short but brilliant stint on Saturday Night Live and got sacked as a result – tends to screw up his career.
The funniest thing that shouldn’t be funny
My late mother’s infidelity and my father’s dementia. Which is why I’ve made these the subjects of my new show.
The funniest sketch I’ve ever seen
I’m going to say Mitchell and Webb’s Nazis realising they are the baddies. Because not only is it funny, it’s also a very profound mediation on the nature of good and evil – honestly, it is – without ever stopping being funny. It’s like Nietzsche with studio-audience laughs.
The funniest book I’ve ever read
People tend here to go for something that will make them look good – Tristram Shandy, or A Confederacy Of Dunces – but it is unquestionably I, Partridge by Neil and Rob Gibbons and Steve Coogan. I think it should have won the Booker prize.
The funniest person I know
Frank Skinner.
The funniest TV show I’ve ever seen
A tie between Morecambe and Wise and The Simpsons. Commendations for The Office and Arrested Development; not the new series, sadly.
The funniest heckle I’ve ever had
Well, this heckle – which seems to be quite well-known now – I’ve heard other comedians say was shouted at me. It wasn’t. The confusion has happened because I told the story onstage. I saw it shouted at an open spot, at the Comedy Store, called Cynical Sid. Sid was not going well, and also gave off in general a very awkward air. Then a man at the back shouted: “Everybody hates you. Everybody hates you. You must know from school!” There was no coming back from that. Obviously, though, it gives me pause that people have come to assume it was shouted at me.
The funniest hairstyle I’ve ever had
I had a “the Cure” hairstyle, bigger even than Robert Smith’s for many years. I used to do jokes about it which went well, but which meant I had to keep sporting it long after it was fashionable. I assume that is also Robert Smith’s reasoning.
The funniest film I’ve ever seen
Borat.
The funniest joke I’ve ever heard
An Englishman, a Frenchman and a Jew sit on a bench. The Englishman says: “I’m so tired and thirsty, I must have beer.” The Frenchman says: “I’m zo tired and theersty, I must ’ave wine.” The Jew says: “I’m so tired and thirsty, I must have diabetes.”
David Baddiel’s My Family: Not The Sitcom is at the Vaudeville Theatre, WC2, to 15 Oct
