Top Ten Comedy Songs

About the series

On Channel 4. This episode was the last in season 2 of the series "Top Ten xxx", where xxx is a popular music genre or category. One of the recent shows was Top Ten One-Hit Wonders - many classic moments! Top Ten Eurovision was on 1st April, which was apparently the original date for Top Ten Comedy Songs.

The show - Easter Saturday, 22nd April 2000

Neil Innes was interviewed for this about his Python collaborations, which for this purpose included the Rutles.

Performers were considered based on:

having tunes and funny words
no novelty songs
no cheesy spoofs (e.g. Barron Knights)
success in the UK singles and album charts - earning points in the series' standard way

215 points - The Goons (including Peter Sellers' solo work)
69 - Monty Python team (including Neil Innes)
63 - Benny Hill
61 - Goodies
53 - Ray Stevens
51 - South Park
48 - Young Ones
26 - Rolf Harris
25 - Windsor Davies & Don Estelle
14 - Loadsamoney (Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse)

Clips shown or heard included Flanders & Swann, Noel Coward, George Formby, Fry & Laurie on Friday Night Live, Richard Digance, Mike Harding (Rochdale Cowboy), Jasper Carrot (Funky Moped), Kenny Everett, Lance Percival on TW3...

The most interviewed person was Sir George Martin, as he was involved in recording a significant proportion of the material which earned the points above.