JokePit The Comedy Box Office

23/08/2026

It's been years in the making but Plane Comedy is heading back to Northenden Untapped. for the first time since those weird in-between lockdown days 🤣
Wednesday 7th October, I will be hosting and introducing Dawn Bailey and Christian Reilly
Only 30 tickets are available for this so if you fancy it, grab your tickets now: https://www.jokepit.com/e/69267

It's been years in the making but Plane Comedy is heading back to Northenden Untapped. for the first time since those weird in-between lockdown days 🤣

Wednesday 7th October, I will be hosting and introducing Dawn Bailey and Christian Reilly

Only 30 tickets are available for this so if you fancy it, grab your tickets now: https://www.jokepit.com/e/69267

23/08/2026

It has now been five years since Britain lost Sean Lock, and somehow, watching his funniest moments still makes you laugh and feel desperately sad at the same time.

Sean died on 16 August 2021, aged just 58. Yet his brilliantly strange way of looking at the world lives on through the clips people continue to watch, quote and share every day.

Whether you discovered him through his stand-up, the wonderfully underrated 15 Storeys High, 8 Out of 10 Cats or his gloriously unpredictable appearances on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, there was simply nobody else like him.

You never quite knew where Sean was going with an idea.

A seemingly ordinary conversation could suddenly become something completely absurd—and the other comedians often looked as surprised as the audience. His jokes felt spontaneous, but behind that relaxed delivery was an extraordinary comic mind.

The affection audiences had for Sean was matched by the comedians who knew him best.

Bill Bailey described him as his “dearest friend” and “a true original,” while Ricky Gervais called him one of the funniest and most influential comedians of his generation.

Jimmy Carr’s tribute captured the mixture of laughter and sadness felt by so many: “I’m watching clips of him right now—laughing & crying. I’ll miss him so much.”

Jon Richardson, who spent years sitting opposite Sean on 8 Out of 10 Cats, said he had idolised him long before becoming a comedian himself. He praised Sean’s “incredible comic brain” and “truly unique voice.”

David Mitchell said working with him had always been “a privilege and inspiration,” adding that the world should have enjoyed many more years of his creativity.

Rob Brydon remembered “such a naturally funny man,” while Adam Hills described him as both a brilliant comedian and a lovely person.

Perhaps Josh Widdicombe summed it up best when he said Sean had a way of looking at the world like nobody else.

Five years on, that remains Sean Lock’s magic.

You can revisit a clip you have watched countless times, know exactly what is coming—and still laugh as though you’re hearing it for the first time.

Very much missed, but never forgotten.

Which Sean Lock moment makes you laugh every single time?

23/08/2026

She can turn a single blank stare or a minor pause into absolute comedy gold without ever forcing it.

Can we all just agree that Diane Morgan is an absolute national treasure? 🏆👑

Honestly, she is one of the greatest modern comedy actresses Britain has ever produced, and she makes it look completely effortless.

Look at the range of these four completely different characters:

Philomena Cunk: Her most iconic creation. Playing a character that is beautifully dim with a completely straight, serious face for over a decade is pure genius. Taking Cunk from Weekly Wipe to her own global series proved she can carry an entire show on her own.

Liz in Motherland: The ultimate, effortlessly cool single mum. While every other parent on the school run is having a minor panic attack, Liz is just floating through the chaos completely unfazed. We all know a Liz (or we desperately want to be her).

Kath in After Life: Tony’s painfully awkward, totally un-self-aware colleague at the local paper. Her absolute conviction in her own bizarre opinions gave Ricky Gervais some of the funniest, most uncomfortable scenes to work with.

Ann in Ann Droid: Her latest brilliant shift, proving yet again that she can step into absolutely any world and completely steal the spotlight.

Whether she is interviewing world-renowned historians about "civilisation" or dealing with nightmare parents at a school auction, her delivery is completely unmatched.

Settling this once and for all: Which of her roles is your absolute favourite?
Are you Team Cunk or Team Liz? 🍿👇

23/08/2026

Sean Lock heard the words “Margaret Thatcher’s funeral” and responded with one of the darkest jokes ever broadcast on 8 Out of 10 Cats.

When Thatcher died in April 2013, Britain was deeply divided over how the former Prime Minister should be remembered—and what kind of funeral she should receive.

Sean, unsurprisingly, didn’t tread carefully.

He began by joking that the important thing was that she was dead, before suggesting her coffin should be placed inside a cannon and fired directly into Buckingham Palace.

Most comedians might have decided that was quite enough.

Sean was only getting started.

When the discussion turned to Thatcher being cremated, he delivered the line that completely finished the room:

It would be a fitting tribute if they “ran out of coal.”

It was brutal, beautifully constructed and unmistakably Sean Lock.

Behind the punchline was decades of political history. Thatcher remained an enormously divisive figure, particularly in former mining communities following her government’s confrontation with the unions and the miners’ strike of 1984–85.

Sean somehow compressed all of that anger, history and division into five devastating words.

For clarity, Thatcher didn’t receive a full state funeral. She was given a ceremonial funeral with military honours at St Paul’s Cathedral on 17 April 2013, followed by a private cremation.

It was an incredibly sensitive subject—and one that many comedians might have avoided, especially so soon after her death.

But Sean Lock never became one of Britain’s most loved comedians by choosing the safest possible joke.

His comedy could be surreal, silly and wonderfully playful, but when he wanted to go dark, very few comedians could match his timing or nerve.

Some viewers will still consider this joke far too harsh. Others will regard it as a perfect example of how comedy can capture a complicated national mood more effectively than any serious discussion.

Was this classic Sean Lock—or did even he go too far on this occasion?

22/08/2026

👑 KINGS OF COMEDY! 👑

🚨 BRAND NEW COMEDY NIGHT AT THE KING’S HEAD, WICKHAM! 🚨

We’re kicking things off with a fantastic line-up:

⭐ Bennett Arron – Award-winning comedian, writer & performer

🏆 – 2026 Komedia New Comedy Award Winner

😂 Mike Vaughan

🎙️ MC: Potts

A brilliant night of LIVE STAND-UP COMEDY brought to you by Potts Comedy! 😂

📍 The King’s Head, Wickham
🎟️ £15 + booking fee

👑 KINGS OF COMEDY!
Come and join us for the very first one!

22/08/2026

Billy Connolly’s journey from a desperately difficult childhood in Glasgow to becoming one of the world’s most loved comedians is even more remarkable when you understand what he survived.

The little boy repeatedly told he was “useless” grew up to make millions of people laugh.

Born in 1942, Billy grew up in poverty in a Glasgow tenement. When he was just three, his mother Mamie left, leaving Billy and his older sister Florence behind while their father was away serving with the RAF.

The children were eventually taken in by their aunts, Mona and Margaret—but the home Billy entered was far from a happy one.

He has spoken openly about suffering physical and verbal abuse from his aunt Mona. She repeatedly told him he was useless and would never amount to anything—words that followed him long after childhood had ended.

After his father returned from the war, Billy’s life became more painful still. He later revealed that his father sexually abused him over several years, beginning when he was around ten. Billy carried that secret for decades before eventually speaking about it to those closest to him.

One of his few places of escape was the library.

Billy later said that reading changed his life and “may even have saved it.” Books gave him somewhere safe to go and allowed his imagination to carry him far beyond the world in which he was growing up.

He left school at 15 and became an apprentice welder in Glasgow’s shipyards—a life seemingly as far removed from showbusiness as it was possible to imagine.

Then music offered him another route.

Billy taught himself to play the banjo and formed The Humblebums with Tam Harvey, with Gerry Rafferty later joining them. But during their performances, something unexpected began to happen.

Audiences loved the funny stories Billy told between songs.

Gradually, the stories grew longer and the music became less important. Almost by accident, one of Britain’s greatest stand-up careers was born.

The boy who had been told he would amount to nothing became the Big Yin—filling theatres, appearing in major films and television programmes, writing books and making generations of people laugh.

Billy once explained that being made to feel useless had left him determined to prove his aunt wrong.

He certainly did that.

Behind the wild stories, unmistakable voice and enormous laughter is a remarkable story of survival. Knowing what Billy overcame makes everything he achieved feel even more extraordinary.

What is your favourite Billy Connolly routine or memory?

22/08/2026

“He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy!” 😂

Forty-seven years ago, one of Britain’s funniest—and most controversial—films arrived in cinemas.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian had its world premiere in New York on 17 August 1979, before reaching British audiences later that year. Nearly five decades on, people can still quote entire scenes from memory.

Written by all six members of Monty Python and directed by Terry Jones, the film follows Brian Cohen, played by Graham Chapman: an ordinary man born at roughly the same time as Jesus who becomes mistaken for the Messiah through a gloriously ridiculous series of misunderstandings.

Remarkably, the film nearly never happened.

Its original financial backing collapsed shortly before filming began. George Harrison—an enormous Python fan—stepped in to help finance it through the company that became HandMade Films. Harrison reportedly wanted to see the film so badly that the Pythons jokingly described it as the most expensive cinema ticket ever purchased.

And what a film his support gave us.

“What have the Romans ever done for us?”

Biggus Dickus. The stoning scene. The People’s Front of Judea—and definitely not the Judean People’s Front. Brian addressing an enormous crowd and desperately insisting that they must all think for themselves…

“Yes! We’re all individuals!”

The controversy surrounding Life of Brian became almost as famous as the comedy itself. Its religious satire prompted protests, accusations of blasphemy and bans in several areas.

John Cleese and Michael Palin even appeared in a famously heated television debate to defend it, arguing that the film’s real targets were religious dogma, hypocrisy and people blindly following a crowd—not Jesus himself.

Then came one of cinema’s most wonderfully unexpected endings: Eric Idle singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” a song that became famous far beyond the film and is still sung today.

Forty-seven years later, Life of Brian remains clever, fearless, endlessly quotable and—for many people—one of the greatest British comedy films ever made.

What is the one Life of Brian line that still makes you laugh every single time?

22/08/2026

It was the perfect programme for families to watch together. Saturday-night television hasn’t felt quite the same since Harry Hill’s TV Burp disappeared from our screens. 😂

It was brilliantly daft, completely unpredictable and somehow capable of making you laugh at programmes you had never even watched.

Every week, Harry took ordinary moments from British television and transformed them into glorious nonsense. A dramatic look in EastEnders, yet another cup of tea in Coronation Street or a strangely delivered line from a daytime programme could suddenly become the funniest moment of the week.

Then there were the wonderfully ridiculous recurring features: “Star of the Week,” the knitted characters, the suspiciously unconvincing lookalikes and Harry mysteriously appearing in the background of random television clips.

And whenever two subjects needed settling, there was only one solution:

“FIGHT!”

What made TV Burp so special was that it rarely felt cruel. Harry poked fun at television because he clearly loved television—and he invited viewers to notice all the wonderfully strange details they might otherwise have missed.

It was the perfect programme for families to watch together. Children laughed at the silliness, while adults enjoyed the clever observations and references. Everyone could join in, even if they hadn’t seen any of the shows being featured.

There really hasn’t been anything quite like it since. In an age overflowing with television, TV Burp would have more material than ever.

If it returned tomorrow, would you watch—and which TV Burp moment still makes you laugh? 😂

21/08/2026

It was loud, boozy, unpredictable and unlike anything you would see on mainstream television today.

You didn’t simply watch The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club—you could practically smell the ci******es and beer through the television. 😂

The smoky room. Pints covering every table. A slightly questionable raffle. Colin Crompton ringing that unmistakable bell while Bernard Manning tried to keep the evening moving.

Launched by Granada in 1974, the programme recreated a northern working men’s club inside a television studio. Instead of sitting politely in theatre rows, audience members gathered around tables, eating and drinking as though they were enjoying a genuine Saturday night at their local club.

And the entertainment never stopped.

Comedians including Norman Collier, Frank Carson, Charlie Williams, Duggie Brown, Jim Bowen, Mike Reid, Little & Large, The Krankies, Cannon & Ball and The Grumbleweeds all appeared.

But Wheeltappers wasn’t only about comedy. Viewers might see Bill Haley and His Comets one week, followed by The Three Degrees, Roy Orbison, Lonnie Donegan, Matt Monro, Gene Pitney, The Dubliners, Brotherhood of Man or The Platters.

Then came the magicians, dancers, novelty performers and speciality acts—the kind of entertainers who once packed working men’s clubs across Britain but have almost completely disappeared from television.

Paul Daniels became particularly associated with the programme. Although his television debut had already taken place on Opportunity Knocks in 1970, Wheeltappers gave him valuable national exposure and helped propel him towards becoming one of Britain’s biggest television stars.

That was something the programme did brilliantly. It took performers who had spent years grafting around the club circuit and placed them before millions of viewers at home.

Watching it now is like opening a door into another Britain.

Some of the humour—particularly Bernard Manning’s—would be considered deeply controversial today, and much of it would never be broadcast on mainstream television. But the programme remains a fascinating record of British clubland at its height: unfiltered, imperfect and full of characters.

Then Colin Crompton would ring that bloody bell…

“On behalf of the committee…”

If you remember those words, you probably heard his voice while reading them.

For anyone who grew up around working men’s clubs, The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club wasn’t merely an entertainment show.

It was Saturday night—and a time capsule of a culture that has almost completely vanished.

Did your family watch Wheeltappers—and which performer do you remember most fondly?

21/08/2026

24th August is our next secret TV headliner show!!!

Join us for Monday Club 👇

https://www.jokepit.com/e/69131