Comedy

Ever wondered what Big Brother would be like if it was shortened to two minutes instead of 90-something days? Produced by telly comedians Mitchell and Webb and animated by David Firth, this video fast forwards through an entire series worth of Big Brother - it's got everything, complicated voting rules, ghosts of goats and even a velociraptors (if only these existed on the real show...)

Meet Flint Lockwood - eccentric inventor who never really lived up to his dreams of creating something supercool. But then, Flint's the ultimate outsider - a geek living in a remote island whose economy revolves around sardines.

Things take a sour turn for the islanders when the rest of the world wakes up to the fact that "sardines are kinda gross". The worldwide market for the fishy goods drops off overnight and the island faces certain bankruptcy. Enter the ambitious Flint with a plan to create real food out of rainwater. His initial experiment is a bit of a disaster, but shows promise.

So, what do you do when you need to supercharge your fantastic famine-quenching invention? You hook it up to the local power station, of course. This part of the movie plays out hilariously, with Flint trying to elude the local policeman Earl (voiced to great effect by Mr T) and inadvertently shooting his machine into the stratosphere. Within minutes, the town receives the first recorded rainfall of hamburgers in history.

The acid-tongued Antipodean author Kathy Lette has teamed up with Radox for a project that encourages women to ‘be selfish’. It’s part of an alliance with the brand that includes the launch of her latest novel, the appropriately-named All Steamed Up.

Lette - described by The Telegraph’s Lucy Cavendish as “the doyenne of the chick-lit novel” - has been writing since her first novel Puberty Blues became a cult classic in her native Australia. She’s got quite a catty turn of phrase, evident in comments about women who are “human handbags draped on the arms of men” or “a life-support system around a pair of breasts”. I could go on for hours - she has such a range of withering put-downs and one liners.

Just a quick article! I was surfing through YouTube the other day and I came across this hilarious parodied music video. Basically, YouTube is filled with "literal video versions" of songs. The best of these is Bonnie Tyler's 1982 smash Total Eclipse Of The Heart. What we see here is the normal music video but the lyrics of the song are changerd to match every scene in the music video. This is laugh out loud funny. Watch for yourself!

Someone forwarded me this hilarious YouTube video by Spoken Groove. At first, I thought the singer's (Peter Nevland) gurning was going to annoy me, but the song is priceless. The song isn't new, but it's quirky and if you haven't heard it before, you're going to love it.

Get more Spoken Groove on their official website.

Ouch. One review on Rotten Tomatoes says that "Despite a promising turn by newcomer Yara Shahidi, Imagine That is another pedestrian family comedy that squanders Eddie Murphy's comedic talents."

A glance down the list of other reviews chides Imagine That for "an ironic lack of imagination".

The problem is that Eddie Murphy seems to be stuck in a rut of making films for kids. He's churning them out at such a rate, there doesn't seem to be any distinction between them. I'd like to suggest, however, that Imagine That isn't quite as bad as the critics suggest.

What's it about though? Well, Murphy plays high-flying divorcee Evan Danielson. He's engrossed in his work and staring at a major promotion. He ends up looking after his daughter for a week (the estranged father reconnecting with child cliche) just as he faces a challenge from Native American colleague, Johnny Whitefeather, whose Indian schtick has captivated the suits in the office.

Warning: The following clip contains swearing. Lots of it.

I'm not a comedy fan. There are times when I've seriously considered if I was joyless because I can sometimes sit through a channel's entire comedy night without even sniggering. Then one day, it dawned on me, those five words which cross everyone's mind at some point:

I made the horrible mistake of watching a full episode of Al Murray's sketch show tonight. Since I already consider Murray to be the epitome of dumbed-down-Brit syndrome, this was not a good idea.

ITV's ideas of sketch comedy differ widely from mine - I enjoy sharp writing, clever contemporary commentary and the complete avoidance of cliches. ITV delivered exactly the opposite: a pointless half-hour of lowest common denominator crap. The sketches are stretched too thin, like the West Country porn stall or the "Only Gay in the Third Reich" schtick which shamelessly and unimaginatively rips off Little Britain.

I can think of very few funny moments. Murray's firebrand vicar shouting at a couple to give their child a sensible name might have been funny if they'd drafted in Chris Martin and Gwynneth Paltrow lookalikes, or at least Bob Geldof. Duncan Bannatyne sending himself up in a Dragon's Den sketch looked like he'd lost the will to live - I know I had by that point.

In a climate where television shows hang under the threat of cancellation and some promising shows like Heroes turn to mush before our eyes, it's nice to have a show that you can rely on to entertain on just about every level.

And just in case the title and prominent cast photo didn't give it away, that show is NBC's Chuck.

To get you up to speed - Chuck is a regular underachiever working in a tech support job at a large retailer. An old college friend emails him a computer programme called the Intersect, a massive database of national security secrets, which gets embedded in Chuck's brain. The CIA and NSA have to work together to protect Chuck, who is the only link to this valuable information. They assign the sexy Agent Walker and gruff Major John Casey to protect him. In the meantime, Chuck has to live his life without letting his family and friends know about his double life as a spy.

Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler), a mild mannered introverted man meets Dr Buddy Ridell an off-the-wall therapist with a difference! Though an odd chain of events that seems all too unfair to Buznik.

The film begins by showing the viewer a scene involving a childhood embarrassment of Buznik, which later explains Buzniks main problem. We then meet Dave, an employee for a company that demands it all and gives thanks for nothing. He is about to go on a business trip and we witness him answering a phone call from his boss. The call is to the point, thankless and disconnected before Buznik has finished his sentence. He is then walking through the airport with his partner Linda, but uncomfortable with public affection, and noticing a man watching, he boards his flight without kissing her goodbye.