Alexei Sayle's Stuff

If any single individual epitomised the alternative comedy movement of the '80's, it was Alexei Sayle. Looking like a newly released convict whose suit has gotten too small for him, he bludgeoned audiences into submission with a powerful blend of surreal humour and satire. Love him or hate him, you couldn't ignore him. 'Stuff' was a good vehicle for his talents, in which the man himself sped round London on a moped, ranting on topics as diverse as fox hunting, The Royal Family, and Margaret Thatcher, as well as sketches penned by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall, some of which wouldn't have looked out of place in their L.W.T. show 'End Of Part One'. I remember one funny ( and politically incorrect! ) item about a Japanese car factory in the Midlands run like a W.W.2 P.O.W. camp! Three different title sequences were used ( the best was the Walt Disney spoof with Alexei as Mickey Mouse! ), all ended with someone asking: "Who's that fat bastard?". Genius more like.

Comedy, most especially contemporary comedy, seems to stand more chance than anything else of dating.

I was disappointed to see highlights of this series and realise that, just twelve years on, "Stuff" has lost its bite. What was hilarious at the time now seems strangely blunted, as Alexei's self-described "alternative new-wave Marxist comedy" meets cosy BBC light entertainment with muted results.

Of course, this leftwing, "screaming at the camera" style was very amusing at time of transmission, and that's what really counts. There are still some funny moments to be had, such as Sayle rallying against Dire Straits, or talking about his half-serious suicide attempt ("I tried to slash my wrists with a tomato"). Asking such irreverent questions as would Hitler's invasion of Poland be acceptable if he did it for charity still raise a wry smile, but some of the juxtaposition – a chat show where Islamic fundamentalism is discussed by three motorway café waitresses – lacks punch.

Some of the surrealism is too reactionary in the more accepting 21st century, largely because Sayle's chief target – the Thatcher administration – is now long gone, and so holds no real relevance to today's society. Other sketches – such as the fireman who suffers from Pyrophobia – are sub-Python, while the use of such "safe" BBC luminaries as Angus Deayton feel comfortable and unthreatening. What was yesterday's cutting edge is today's relative mainstream. The familiar variety staple of a song per week also offsets the attempted activism, particularly as none of the songs contain the aggression that made "Ullo John, Got A New Motor?" a hit.

Perhaps it's the fault of the writers. Alexei took third billing after Andrew Marshall and David Renwick. Whereas Renwick was to later devise and write the left of centre and curiously dark One Foot In The Grave (as well as the exceptional Jonathan Creek), Marshall would become the writer of middle of the road sitcom "Dad".

Stuff finished in 1991, while a slightly watered down - yet still fundamentally the same - "All-New" show carried him through the mid nineties. Yet when Sayle returned to BBC2 after a lengthy four-year break with "Merry Go Round" it felt, apart from the superb Bobby Chariot, uninspired and lacking energy. However, seeing "Stuff" again on the re-run channels leads you to realise that Alexei's humour hadn't changed at all – just that we, as an audience, had.

Stuff is the best comedy series, and it is amazing how a comedian can come up with such original stuff for so long. Unlike other comedians he does not constantly recycle jokes through various characters. Very funny stuff.

Alexi Sayle's style is extremely political, and if you listen to his audio-book of early comedy club recordings, you'll hear the prototypes for many of the gags which appear in Stuff. Marshall & Renwick have a distinctly different style - they came from the world of radio comedy - "The Burkis Way to Dynamic Living" was one of theirs (that mutated into a short-lived TV version on ITV with the same cast, but it was too surreal to last on the low-brow ITV). They also wrote the extremely funny "Whoops, Apocalypse!" (the TV version), and the famous "One Foot In the Grave". They also spoofed Lord of the Rings in the year that the epic BBC Radio 4 production aired, with "Hordes of the Things", a wickedly observed lampoon with first rate cast and writing. This is a very strong pedigree.

If you want to "spot" which is Marshall and Renwick, and which is Sayle, it isn't hard to do. The more Pythonesque it gets, the less likely it is to be Sayle, and the more political it is, the more likely it is him.

If you want some great examples of sketches which other reviewers haven't mentioned, I'd put the extended sketch/concept episode "Seal of the Soothsayer" as one of my favourites. The Mickey Mouse/Steamboat Fatty spoof is also priceless. One of my personal favourites is the "Who's a Jew?" sketch, where a businessman discovers that not only is HE Jewish, but so is Thomas the Tank Engine (original name: Thomasovitch Tankenstein)! The School Outfitter sketch rings true to anybody buying school uniform, even today. There are so many treasures in this series that it is a crime to be selective. I am glad that the BBC have finally allowed/negotiated rights/whatever to get this out on DVD in the UK - the whole series as opposed to the original compilation shown on the title page for this entry.

The "All New Alexi Sayle Show" appeared after a few years off, and Alexi had mellowed - no more ranting, but it just felt that he had lost his sharp comic edge. Most of the material revolved around perhaps 6 characters whom you would see in every episode in the same predictable order (Harry Enfield fell into the same trap, as does "Little Britain" today), and if the joke wasn't really funny once, it certainly wasn't funny twice, or six times, and when the series ended, I recycled the VHS recordings I'd made from the TV immediately rather than saving them. Stick to "Stuff", and you're in safer, if stranger territory, and it's much funnier there.

Sure, Alexei isn't always spot on, and sure, he's much easier to follow if the viewer is at least a little drunk (the more the merrier). Nevertheless, the way he opens his shows alone is worth the price of admission, whether it's the small children singing "Who's an ugly bastard and as fat as he can be..." a la The Mickey Mouse Club, or whether a handsome man with a glamorous woman drives up in a Jaguar convertible, walks in, and transforms himself into the familiar Alexei we all know and love only to have the receptionist ask in amazement, "Who's that fat bastard?!"

This is the 80s at their best, or perhaps their worst. Unemployment, political turmoil, pointless angst in a world where superpowers are still pointing ICBMs at one another, Thatcherism... it's all enough to drive one insane, and maybe in Mr. Sayle's case it did.

Funny and irreverent in its own right, Alexei's "Stuff" is even funnier to me since I had to watch on PBS, the local public TV station in California that at the time prided itself in its "open-minded" attitude and was mostly patronized by affluent, upper-class, left-wing "intellectuals." Picture these people sending in money in the name of art and enlightenment, only to have Alexei come on screen and announce he's fond of writing the numbers from the front of buses on small pieces of paper before crumbling them up and inserting them in his rectum! It still gives me a chuckle.

"Stuff" isn't for everyone. Between the gems there are, frankly, some moments where Alexei is off on some tangent or other and despite his best intentions it just doesn't always translate well to today's audience. Kids will love it though, as there's always a funny outfit and a silly song to chant, and Alexei does dance quite well when he initially comes out in a suite 2 sizes too small.

If you would like your kids to share the memories with you, and to be able to recite things like "Is it fat, bald, and Jewish in here or is it just me?" and of course "Who *IS* that fat bastard?!" then get the DVD release and indoctrinate them as early as possible. Alexei Sayle gets my vote over The Wiggles any day!