The funniest book I’ve ever read
The Timewaster Letters by Robert Popper. I laughed so hard I fell off the toilet.
The funniest meal I’ve ever eaten
Chicken surprise. I cook it for my wife and children sometimes; the surprise is… there’s no chicken. Still makes me laugh.
The funniest standup I’ve ever seen
Nearly 30 years ago, I was at the Comedy Store and there was an American comic on. I’d been mildly amused, and then Jerry Sadowitz came on, like a raging gargoyle made flesh, and said: “I fucking hate fucking American comics like fucking” – and named the bloke – “they come over here and say things like: ‘Have you ever noticed how blind people can’t do crosswords?’” And then he was off, telling jokes at such speed that waves of different audience reaction criss-crossed the room: people would be still laughing at one joke while others were being appalled by the next.
The funniest TV show I’ve ever seen
Brass Eye: not only was it hilarious at the time, but it also made watching the actual news from then on a hoot.
The funniest item of clothing I’ve ever owned
I built an electric suit; tiny lightbulbs all over, powered by batteries with a switch in the pocket. I wore it in Prague just after the Berlin Wall came down and would walk round galleries self-illuminating if I liked a painting. Later that evening, in a club, I lit up whenever I saw a girl I fancied. It didn’t work, proving once and for all women are significantly different from moths.
The funniest hairstyle I’ve ever had
An inverse mohican.
The funniest sketch I’ve ever seen
One I wrote myself for BBC2’s Attention Scum. It wasn’t much on paper: a man runs around shouting “What am I?” at the sky over and over again for ages, then a booming voice from above answers: “You are curious”; and the man says: “Yes, but why? Why? Why?” But the performance of it by Kevin Eldon had me crying with laughter to such an extent I had to throw myself in a hedge so as not to ruin the recording.
Simon Munnery is at Cutty Sark, SE10, Sat; Battersea Arts Centre, SW11, Wed; The Stand, Edinburgh, 4 to 29 Aug
