Pappy's Fun Club's new show seems turbo-charged - which is remarkable, given that the comic quartet generates its considerable energy using fun alone. Their unseen proprietor Pappy has demanded ethical living from his young charges - hence this loopy eco-themed gang-show from last year's If.Comedy nominees. In the past, the Fun Club has not always had the material to back up its cheerful silliness. But 2008 finds them at the height of their fun-generated powers, with some great jokes, an overarching story that unites a stuntman with a vengeful whale, and a warmth that should render electricity redundant by the end of August.
No matter the sketch, the Fun Club are always just themselves in silly clothes - both performing a routine, and laughing at one another performing a routine, which works only if the jokes are good. That is certainly the case here, as Matthew Crosby's wise old owl takes on Tom Parry, dressed as the internet, to see which is the best information source. Then there is the fight between bullying Nottingham (Parry, with a map of the city pinned to his chest) and defenceless Hinckley, Leicestershire. And a stream of adroit one-liners. "Riles is not a word in my vocabulary." "The word is rules." "How would I know?"
In the midst of all this, the eco theme is just about sustained, as an adopted blue whale ushers in the climate-change apocalypse. Then the foursome climax with an environmentalist hymn, Listen to Our Planet, in which the Earth stubbornly refuses to share our touchy-feely sentiments. Such an effective combination of intelligence and idiocy almost prompts the thought that perhaps wind, coal and nuclear really should stand aside, and let fun have its day.
