If you didn’t have to do Russell Howard’s Good News, would you read newspapers?
No. When you constantly read something like the Daily Mail . . . you get this baffling, misplaced version of the country where everyone is just whingeing about things that don’t really matter. I think a lot of papers misrepresent us.
Do you feel angry about that?
For me, it isn’t so much the Mail and the Express, it’s the message boards that get me. Like when Paul and Rachel Chandler were released [after being held hostage by Somali pirates for longer than a year], a woman wrote: “Ooh, she’s got a nice haircut for someone who’s ‘apparently’ been away for a year.” You look at something like that and you’re not better for having read it. It just leaves me utterly depressed.
Would you describe yourself as left-wing?
I guess so. I don’t really have a political agenda, I just like things to be fair – I get angered by pomposity and privilege. I saw a bloke the other day in Tesco throw some money at a woman behind a checkout. It fucking killed me. I thought: “You prick. Just hand her the dosh.” But he was picking on her.
How much do you police your jokes for potential offence?
The test I always like to do is: would I do that in front of the person? If I wouldn’t, I won’t say it. There was a story last year about a guy who had banned gay people from coming into his bakery and we did a whole load of jokes about that. I put forward the joke that any man who makes a living by pumping cream into buns is in no position to criticise the gay community. We’re sort of tucked away on BBC3, really, and they let us get on with it.
How do you feel about the accusation that left-wingers dominate the BBC’s comedy output?
There are some really firebrand left-wing satirists, but I’m sure there are some right-wing comics that are on telly. Do you think the BBC sits there ticking boxes? “He’s a fan of Hitler? Get him in – we need to even it up.” It’s just whether you’re funny or not.
Your family sounds incredibly relaxed. Do you think you would have been able to become a stand-up if it had been more strait-laced?
No, definitely not! I always found it strange, when I went round to other people’s houses for tea and that, how strict their parents were. Because my mum and dad – they’re wonderful, they’re brilliant people, but they just don’t give a shit.
Do they ever offer you comedy advice?
My dad occasionally will give me ideas and stuff like that, and I have to politely turn it down. My mum is unwittingly funny.
You live in Leamington Spa. Were you ever tempted to move to London and do the celebrity party circuit, eat at the Ivy?
I’ve been once – I really enjoyed it. But I think it should be wildly exciting, because if you lose that, you won’t be a particularly good stand-up comedian. It would be stuff like: “Y’know in the Ivy when the service is ridiculously good and everything tastes great, what’s up with that?” Or, “Y’know when your butler’s really uppity in the morning? Would it kill him to chew gum? He stinks!” So I try and lead a normal life.
You worked with Frankie Boyle, who one day last year became public enemy number one. Does that worry you?
If the front-page news is a comedian doing a joke that people think is naughty, that proves there’s no real news that day, does it not? The other day in the Sun, literally in the middle of Libya on its knees, the front page was: “How did this fox climb all the way up this 1,000ft tower?” I just find it odd.
Why don’t you do adverts or corporate gigs?
I don’t need that. It’s just money, isn’t it? Turning up to host the Stamp of the Year Awards or something like that, I’d fucking kill myself. It’s just greed, really. I’m lucky; I only have to do things that I enjoy.
Do you vote?
I did. I don’t want to come out either way, but I was absolutely fascinated by the election process last year. I watched with bated breath.
Is there anything you’d like to forget?
Loads of things. But probably best you don’t – because you may do those things again.
Is there a plan?
Not really. I’ve got to do a few series of Good News, a tour and record a DVD. Obviously I have other plans, like I’m desperately going to try to convince my girlfriend to get another dog. I would like to say that the DVD and two TV shows were higher than the acquisition of another hound, but I don’t know.
Are we all doomed?
We’re all going to die, but we have one chance to live, so we might as well go for it. We are doomed, but crack open the bottle and let’s have some fun.
Defining Moments
1980 Born in Bristol to David Howard and Ninette Veale. Eldest of three siblings
2004 Commissioned to write and perform for BBC Radio 1’s The Milk Run series
2006 Begins two-year stint co-hosting The Russell Howard Show on BBC 6 Music
2006 Joins Mock the Week on BBC2, with Dara O Briain and Frankie Boyle
2009 First series of his stand-up show Russell Howard’s Good News airs on BBC3. The fourth and fifth series go out this year
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