Quote of the day

"We were never good enough to write proper punchlines. Non sequiturs and that, we can write all fucking day. But bringing things to a conclusion is not easy."

Bob Mortimer, in conversation with Vice's Joe Zadeh.

Vic Reeves is of course bloody hilarious, but his act only really took off when Bob came onboard and many people have a sneaking feeling that it's Bob who's actually the funnier of the two. They are to an extent the product of their region, somewhere where "it hits me immediately how fucking obsessed people are at making you laugh up there" (he's right that "You can take the piss out of a Geordie and he's absolutely fine with it").

The interview traces the pair's path from eating yoghurt very slowly upstairs at the Goldsmiths Tavern to cheering on a young lad boxing a garden shed in front of a judging panel of jockeys in a primetime Saturday evening slot on BBC1. "If other comedians of their generation held up a mirror to society", writes Zadeh, "then Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves held up a watercolour painting of Sylvester Stallone staring at a potato."

All of which is a chastening reminder that I still haven't reviewed Vic's BBC4 documentary on Dada art...