Return of the Mac (Advert Bashing)

Just found these vids of my favourite comedy double act, Lee & Herring, back together again after some years apart: It's a one-off for some charity do earlier in the year, and it's only 20 minutes long, but it's a great reminder how good they were together; the painfully accurate targeting of their bile, the ludicrously layered in-jokes etc. I hope they do more.

I was struck though, by yet another kicking for fellow comedians Mitchell & Webb, and more specifically those online Mac adverts they did. I only saw a couple of the ads at the time, and while not being particularly impressed, they certainly didn't negatively impact my life in any real way.

Given that most of the criticism that I've noticed of Mitchell & Webb for doing that campaign does seem to have come - it has to be said - from other comedians (and Internerds, obviously), it's difficult not to wonder if any of the snidey-ness might simply be based on pure jealously. In fairness, Lee & Herring's own diatribe is ultimately subverted by Rich whingeing that it should have been them doing the ads instead, but there does seem a genuine underlying disdain for the other duo being, as they put it, 'sell outs'.

What exactly does that mean though? How are they sell-outs? Maybe if they'd built a Bill Hicks-esque career on the back of likening advertising executives to the spawn of Satan, or if for some reason they'd previously waged a public campaign against electrical retailers I could understand it, but as it is I don't really know what the big deal is. And they're only selling computers anyway - it's not as if they're flogging a new brand of asbestos nappies or something. As it stands, any criticism from 'fellow' comics only sounds like the sourest of grapes.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb are excellent comedians, and in many ways natural successors to Lee & Herring - intelligent, subversive, with a keen eye for the absurd. All of which may actually account for some of the needling - you know, threat assessment and all that.

I'm reminded of the time a few years ago when I was flicking around the TV one morning and I noticed Lorraine Kelly on GMTV sat on front of a table filled with 'hilarious' novelty items, such as that Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fish thing, and sitting round the other side on the sofa was none other than Richard Herring. I switched over too late, so I missed the feature, but it was clear they were doing some kind of Christmas novelty toy round up thing.

I don't know about selling out, but if you ask me, I know what I find more disappointing.