It should go without saying that there are as many working-class people who hold socially liberal views as there are public-school bigots.
— Robert Webb
If I told my 18-year-old self that one day I'd have a sitcom and a sketch show on TV, I think he'd just drum his fingers and go, 'When? How long is that going to take?'
When I present those clip shows and movie mistakes and things, the persona the writers adopt for me is unimpressed, superior, very sarcastic - I'm not any of that. I can do it, but that's not what I'm like.
There was a lot of terrible, terrible comedy in the seventies along with 'Fawlty Towers.' It's easy to forget.
I grew up watching British comedy on TV, really.
We call ourselves comedy writer-performers, and that encompasses everything, and I certainly have a very open mind about it.
I suppose if I went to Turkey - I mean, I can't imagine going that far away, but if I did go to Turkey, yes, I would probably try to know 'please' and 'sorry' and 'thank you', and 'a beer please', and all the useful words.
I grew up in Lincolnshire, trying to get the daughters of farmers and policemen to like me. It didn't go well until I got to college where, suddenly, there were different sorts of humans.
I don't do much lying in real life because I don't get away with it.
He likes 'Confetti,' and he doesn't like 'Star Wars.' I think that just relieves us from the burden of ever having to take Mark Kermode seriously again.
Feminism is an attack on social practices and habits of thought that keep women and men boxed into gender roles that are harmful.
When the Mac ad campaign was in full swing, I quickened my pace as I went past certain bus stops. My wife told me that she loyally took a piece of chewing gum off my nose once.
I snootily say I can't take too many dramatic parts, as it's taking work from actors who aren't funny.
Basically I try not to knock other comedians.
Ambiguity around ambiguity is forgivable in an unpublished poet and expected of an arts student on the pull: for a professional comedian demoting himself to the role of 'thinker', with stadiums full of young people hanging on his every word, it won't really do.
I think jokes can actually go to places that drama can't.
I proposed to my wife on Brighton Beach, and she said yes. That's pretty romantic. Even though I forgot to go down on one knee because I was too busy trying to compose the question.
My first proper kiss was from Cara Shucksmith when I was 13 or 14 at her birthday party.
It's odd because some actors are very scared of comedians.
I've been sort of coasting on 'Peep Show.' So now it's kind of, 'When I grow up, I'm going to have to be an actor if I'm not careful.'
I'd kill to be 'Doctor Who.' Maybe they could make the Doctor two people? He has got two hearts, after all.
I was in the play 'Fat Pig in the West End,' which is a comedy but has dramatic moments.
To do comedy, you have to be a pretty good actor to start with.
I don't really have that much contact with Americans. I mean, I see the oddest things on the Internet, I suppose. And I've got a couple of American friends, but they are Anglophiles anyway because they've decided to come live here.
We got our revolution out of the way long before the French and the Americans. The monarchy was restored, but the sovereignty of our parliament, made up of and elected by a slowly widening constituency of the people, has never been seriously challenged since then.
Car-essential is a real turn-off to me, so yeah, I just want a friendly holiday resort with a villa and a pool, but which is really private, but there again, there's a supermarket and a doctor's and a beach a five-minute walk away. That's all I want, and it's quite difficult to find.
The only thing I've cooked while entertaining is stir-fry.
If I hadn't got into comedy, I wouldn't have met Abbey, my wife, and I wouldn't have my two girls, and the whole thing unravels. That's the thing about being basically - whisper it quietly - happy, is that you don't really want to change anything, because once you start changing stuff, then what you've got all disappears.
I can't imagine getting bored with comedy or thinking comedy is beneath us suddenly.
I'm feeling around for what happens in a post-'Peep Show' world.
