Comedians You Should Know: Phill Jupitus

We’re lucky in the US to get so much good TV (and some not-so-good TV) from Britain. PBS stations all around the country have been showing “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, “Are You Being Served?”, “Fawlty Towers”, “Red Dwarf” and more for years. They used to show the original “Doctor Who”, too. The History Channel, The Science Channel and other documentary channels give us access to some of the best non-fiction programming the BBC has to offer. And BBC America will show any old daytime-TV-caliber crap 24/7. But one thing we do NOT get over here is panel shows. British panel games are unlike anything we have Stateside: teams of 2-3 people, usually comedians or celebrities du jour, compete to be the most entertaining depending on the subject, whether it be music (“Never Mind The Buzzcocks”), current events (“Mock the Week”), statistics (“8 Out of 10 Cats”) or interesting trivia (“QI”).

I first found out about Phill Jupitus by watching all the panel shows I could when I lived briefly in Britain and have tried to use YouTube to keep up as best I can since. He is a team captain on “Buzzcocks” and has appeared on “QI” more times than any guest save Jo Brand (who gets her own feature later in the series). Because of this, I always know whenever I make it back to Britain, all I need to do is turn on Dave (yes, they have a TV channel called “Dave”) and he’ll be there…somewhere.

Phill Jupitus as himself and as Edna Turnblad in the West End production of "Hairspray". Photo by Hugo Glendinning from DailyMail.co.uk

Since I know Jupitus best from his work on panel games, I’ll introduce him with a couple of my favorite clips. This first one is a collection of his best bits from “QI”, the panel game hosted by Stephen Fry. The best part about this clip, other than Jupitus himself, is that you get a preview of some comedians who will be featured later in this series. (All clips may have adult themes and/or swearing. He’s like that.)

I read somewhere (can’t remember where just now, sadly) that Jupitus’ favorite moments on QI are the ones where he’s allowed to ad-lib and take the piss out of Stephen Fry. Honestly? Those are some of my favorite bits, too. He’s also pretty good at imitating other comedians. In this clip, he makes fun of someone I’ve already featured:

And speaking of impressions, here he is doing Eddie Izzard…with Eddie Izzard in the audience!

Definitely my favorite stand up bit! I’d have to say this next one runs a close second, though. It’s Briiiiiiiiits Iiiiiiin Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! (with a Welshman as crew! And a Geordie in Mission Control!)

But Phill Jupitus isn’t all stand-up and panel games. As you can see from the picture above, he did a (pretty successful actually) turn as Edna Turnblad in the West End production of “Hairspray” and he’s recently released a book called “Good Morning Nantwich” about his stint as a breakfast radio DJ on BBC 6 Music. He also does a (sporadic?) podcast called “Phill and Phil’s Perfect Ten” and has fully embraced the power of Twitter.

Back in February, he set out to find the perfect canned tomatoes for a very British snack of Tomatoes on Toast. He taste tested numerous cans and took pictures and rated various brands. He even inspired others to embark on their own #tomsontoast taste test. More recently, he and Marcus Brigstocke (another future Comedian You Should Know) took a train from Cornwall back to London without having procured Cornish pasties before leaving Cornwall. They sent out a Twitter entreaty for people to meet them at stops along the way with pasties, which they would buy from the kind people at each stop. In the end, they wound up with twelve pasties of varied fillings. An impressive haul. Truly what the Internet was made for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuS268mQx7E

I might file this one under “you had to be there”, but I enjoyed it immensely while the Great Pasty Hunt was in progress. Should you wish to see the rest, here are part 2, part 3 and part 4.

I sent a message to Phill Jupitus via his Twitter account asking if he had any favorite clips he wanted to share in this feature. I had meant any favorite clips starring him, but the 140 character nature of Twitter sometimes makes it hard to be clear. He responded right away with four interesting clips from eclectic sources. I think it turned out better this way.

Of the four clips he sent, my favorite by far is “Upular”, a catchy tune composed of clips from the Pixar movie Up:

The other clips are Bert and Ernie doing gangsta rap (which disturbs me – Ernie’s no gangsta!), and two songs created through (with? by?) Thru-You.com: Someday and The Mother of All Funk Chords. I had no idea such a thing existed. I am spellbound. Thank you, Phill!

Some additional links:

• Twitter: @JupitusPhillip
• YouTube: BillJuniper
• Video: WereGeek’s favorite “Never Mind the Buzzcocks” episode: part 1, part 2, part3. (Host Simon Amstell, team captains Phill Jupitus and Bill Bailey, guests Robin Ince, Daniel Bedingfield, Kelli Young and John Barrowman from Torchwood/Doctor Who!)
• Video: Dappy offends Phill on Buzzcocks.
• Video: Elephant incident at London Zoo.
• Video: More of Phill on “QI”.

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Okay, enough with the disclaimer, right? You’ve gotten this far, you can see this feature is not meant to exclude anyone outside the US. I don’t think we need it anymore, do you?