For comedians around the world, the laughs often end as democracy fades Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel sets US on course similar to that charted by authoritarian regimes from Egypt to India

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

I wrote about Luke McQueen's new show; densely inventive, it's an audacious bonfire of the vanities - both his own and the comedy ecosystem more generally.

humourinthearts.com/2025/09/02/c...

Comedy’s Safest Slur Left, right, center — everyone is using it. How stand-up has all but killed a controversial term’s taboo.

www.vulture.com/article/come...

Replaced by bots? No, AI needs academics more than we need it Many fear algorithms will displace academics but the technology is already eating itself and its long-term business model remains unclear, says Martin A. Mills. Here he explains why bots will not wipe...

Replaced by bots? No, AI needs academics more than we need it www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/replac...

Luke McQueen @ Pleasance Dome: Edinburgh Fringe 2025 review - The Skinny Artificial intelligence, comedy gatekeepers, the podcast industrial complex and his own ambitions – Luke McQueen tackles all-comers in his new show.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Toussaint Douglass @ Pleasance: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Toussaint Douglass weaves stories of family, class – and pigeons – in his Best Newcomer-nominated show.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Chloe Petts @ Pleasance Courtyard: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny With a fourth great Fringe hour in as many years, stadium-filling stardom surely beckons for Chloe Petts.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

DeliaDelia! The Flat Chested Witch! @ Underbelly: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Amando Houser's sideways glance at the witch hunt on trans rights is a classic piece of clowning mayhem.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

CVNT @ Assembly George Square: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Sophie Power's show – breaking down barriers around the body, pleasure and fear – is clown as exposure therapy.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Degenerate @ Pleasance Courtyard: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Degenerate is a fevered collage of pop culture old and new with a maniacal edge.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Trygve Wakenshaw and Barnie Duncan @ Underbelly: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Hot Chops is an hour of joyful mime-clown improv from Trygve Wakenshaw and Barnie Duncan.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Cat Cohen @ Pleasance Courtyard | The Skinny In an excellent return to the Edinburgh Fringe, Cat Cohen offers a newfound vulnerability alongside her ironic flamboyance and camp narcissism.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Alan Resnick @ Monkey Barrel: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Alan Resnick's Fringe debut is an hour of stand-up as a Trojan horse for something else entirely.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Just The Two of Us! @ Pleasance Courtyard: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Soft Play's Edinburgh Fringe debut is a scrappy, high-energy cabaret of double acts from across pop culture history.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Edinburgh Fringe review: Ayo Adenekan @ Monkey Barrel - The Skinny In his Edinburgh Fringe debut, Ayo Adenekan proves to be a charming, laid-back performer yet to fully hit his stride.

www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/ed...

Jonathan Coe · Don’t we all want to be happy? Satie against Solemnity Erik Satie is the progenitor of torch songs and lounge music, systems music and minimalism, even (with his later...

‘For Ian Penman, Satie is more than a joker. He is the supreme practitioner of a species of art forever undervalued by solemn-minded dullards, and which is anything but trivial.’

@jonathancoe.bsky.social on Erik Satie: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Jordan Gray @ Assembly George Square: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Musical comedy star Jordan Gray returns to the Edinburgh Fringe after her spectacular run in 2022.

Musical comedy star Jordan Gray returns to the #EdFringe with Is That a C*ck in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Here to Kill Me? – read @emma-sullivan.bsky.social's ★★★★ review

Old God @ Assembly Roxy: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny Alec Jones-Trujillo's Old God offers sublime moments and masterful comic portraits.

"Finely tuned into the audience, but to call it crowd work seems wrong, and a clumsy description of his divinations"

OLD GOD at #EdFringe gets ★★★★★ from @emma-sullivan.bsky.social – read the full review of this masterful comic portrait

Su Mi @ Underbelly Cowgate: Edinburgh Fringe review - The Skinny An extraordinary clowning persona and a glorious reclaiming of space, Su Mi throws the rules of respectability out the window in their debut Fringe show.

Su Mi throws the rules of respectability out the window in their debut Fringe show – @emma-sullivan.bsky.social gives ★★★★ to the extraordinary clowning persona at this #EdFringe

I wrote about Aristotle's Cuttlefish, Matthew Dooley's much anticipated follow-up to his debut graphic novel, Flake.

humourinthearts.com/2025/06/27/a...

And Just Like That ... The Sex and the City spin-off’s surprising take on race In its third season, the show leans into the cringe again – and rings true when it allows its white liberal characters to mess things up

AJLT: 'exploring the whiteness of Miranda/Charlotte/Carrie as they move through this changed and changing world' - 'acting 'as a kind of anti-racist exposure therapy for its middle-aged, white, liberal core audience'
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Latex, Teletubbies and Miranda July: putting my way through feminist mini-golf course Swingers Designed by nine artists from around the world, this playful, playable exhibition at Melbourne’s Rising festival celebrates mini-golf’s rebellious history

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

A celebration of Taskmaster's innovative and gently subversive approach:

humourinthearts.com/2025/06/03/t...

Cancellation, Conspiracies, Cocaine: Jamie Foxx, Sarah Silverman, Seth Meyers Let Loose on THR’s Stand-Up Comedy Roundtable Six top comics — including Hasan Minhaj, Chelsea Handler and Roy Wood Jr. — on finding the funny in tragedy, death and losing 'The Daily Show.'

"I want to go on the record to say I hate cocaine. I just like how it smells" -Jamie Foxx

www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-featur...

Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth review – a riotous roadtrip Two sisters reckon with their past selves and the muddles of midlife in a comic tale of secrets, desire and ferocious loyalty

'Perhaps this is symptomatic of the Fleabagification of women’s stories – where farce somehow feels more truthful than straight-up trauma. Is comedy a deflection or a pragmatic approach to getting on with things in a world of misunderstanding and confusion?'
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

so delighted to be part of this 'Tasting Funny' EJHR special issue ed. by Anne-Sophie Bories and Nils Couturier.

My article 'Sex comedy: the new vulva and dick jokes' is available now, open access
europeanjournalofhumour.org/ejhr/article...

Larry David: My Dinner With Adolf www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/o...

🔥 TICKETS ON SALE NOW

We are delighted to announce that Abnormally Funny People is BACK at #EdFringe2025 – celebrating 20 years of top-tier disability comedy!

🎟️ Tickets: pleasance.co.uk/event/abnorm...

#EdFringe #BookNow #DisabilityComedy #StandUp #LiveComedy #AFP20 #ComedyLegends #FringeMustSee

Sky in talks to bring hit US series ‘Saturday Night Live’ to the UK The broadcaster is in advanced negotiations to produce a version of the long-running comedy series for the first time

www.ft.com/content/354c...

Corrections and Clarifications to Everything I’ve Ever Said I said that because I was possessed by an ancient, malevolent spirit who I’m also really mad at.

www.newyorker.com/humor/shouts...