[ COMEDY is needed most when there is very little to laugh about... ]

COMEDY is needed most when there is very little to laugh about but this grim year hasn't really produced a Lenny Bruce or a Bill Hicks who could channel all the horror and absurdity into a defiant, apocalyptic howl at the moon.

Even at this year's Edinburgh Festival the mood among the joker elite seemed a bit sulky and timid. The proposed boycott of the Perrier Award (because of the allegedly exploitative practices of Perrier's owners Nestle) provoked more irritation than support, and there was little transgression or inspiration. The winning act, Garth Marenghi's self-regarding, portentous horror writer, wasn't much more than an obvious, amusing sketch (Paul Putner's spoof American entertainer Earl Stevens was a funnier, darker example of this growing vogue for theatrical stand-up) and the competition in general was dismayingly conventional.

There were some broad, smutty laughs at the Glasgay festival, where Scott Capurro and diva-mimic Craig Hill went down extremely well, and both the Bottom boys (Adrian Edmonson and Rik Mayall) and Roy "Chubby" Brown enjoyed sell-out tours, proving the evergreen appeal of "shit" humour.

If the year belonged to anyone, it was to Johnny Vegas - the cuddly, self-loathing drunk. Now known better for playing second fiddle to a cynical sock-puppet monkey on those ITV Digital ads than for his shambling, endearing stand-up, the almost over-familiar Vegas somehow won "Best Newcomer" at the recent TV Comedy Awards.

Stephen Phelan's top 5 Bottom Scott Capurro Craig Hill (pictured) Earl Stephens Johnny Vegas Playing away from home: There wasn't a damn thing funny about Takashi Miike's war-of-the-sexes freakout movie Audition - in a year of dreadful films, here was a film full of dread. It made you feel confused, fascinated, terrified and sick, but never passive or disappointed. Most movies let you down, this one f***s you up.

Copyright 2001
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