In last week’s post, Thoughts On Thursday, I mentioned that I was thinking of bringing back some of the occasional series I had started a couple of years ago. One of those was Saturday Smiles, in which I played some clips to make you smile, but now that I am taking part each week in Song Lyric Sunday I didn’t really fancy the idea of posts on successive days. I floated the idea of rebranding it as Friday Funnies and several of you agreed that would be a good idea, so here we are: the first in a new occasional series.

One of the songs I played in this week’s Tuesday Tunes was by Elton John, ahead of his headlining performance at Glastonbury on Sunday. I can recall seeing a couple of spoof interviews with him, one of which is markedly muckier, so I thought I’d start today by playing the cleaner one:

As if you needed telling, that was Rowan Atkinson ‘interviewing’ Elton John, which took place in June 1991 for a charity event called Hysteria 3, raising money for AIDS and HIV charities. It is beautifully scripted and performed, and Rowan has perfected the look of the interviewer who is completely disinterested in the replies he is getting. Stay alert to the end, though, or you might miss Elton’s punchline. And a quick footnote: Christopher Biggins, who is referenced at the start of that, is a Z-list UK tv performer, who does most of his work these days in panto season – hence the irony of that comment.

I expect that Rowan Atkinson is best known to many as his characters Mr Bean and Blackadder. What those of you outside the UK may not be aware of is that he first came to prominence here as one of a team of four in a very funny sketch show called Not The Nine O’Clock News, which ran from 1979 to 1982. The other stars were the late Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, and Pamela Stephenson. They usually closed the show with a musical piece, which explains why you will see the credits rolling at the end of this video, but that doesn’t detract from making me laugh:

Not that I’m planning this, or anything, but that leads me neatly into my next clip. You may be aware that after that show came to an end, Pamela Stephenson qualified as a psychotherapist and has become eminent in her field, with several books and tv documentaries to her name. She has also become the wife of one of my all time favourite comedians, Billy Connolly, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to link to something of his, could I:

That was part of a one-off tv show from 1985, An Audience With Billy Connolly. ITV ran several of these, with an invited audience of actors, comedians, musicians, tv personalities, footballers and other sports stars, plus a few friends. This was by far the best of them, though: when you can reduce an audience of your peers to helpless laughter you know you’re doing it right.

I can’t resist playing another extract from that show. This is how he closed:

I still think we missed a trick by not taking up that suggestion! For those outside the UK, The Archers is a radio soap opera – ‘an everyday story of countryfolk’ – which seems to have been running since Marconi’s time.

I thought I’d play you one more for this first set. Benny Hill is often viewed today as a sexist, who exploited the women who appeared in his shows. But underneath that he was a very clever comedian, adept at intelligent wordplay, as I think this piece shows:

For those who don’t know the original, that was a skit on the long-running tv show Mastermind, which at the outset was hosted by Magnus Magnusson. Benny’s version is just as good, and I love the way he is trying not to laugh all the way through.

Thats it for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed these and got a laugh or two from them. All being well, this revamped series may well be here again soon(ish). Have fun, and I’ll see you again on Sunday 😊