Peter Kay

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British stand-up comic from Bolton in Lancashire who rose to prominence at the end of The Nineties. As well as performing stand-up, he has written and acted in shows such as That Peter Kay Thing, Phoenix Nights and Britain's Got the Pop Factor (the latter being a parody of the talent shows of the late Noughties). His stand-up is based on observational humour, often centring around his family members and work colleagues. Despite its local focus, it proved to travel surprisingly well and he became popular across the UK.

After one of his earliest stand-up jobs was doing warmup for the audience on Parkinson, when he became a household name he was invited back on as a semi-regular guest, and was present for the show's final programme.

He went into semi-retirement after 2004, but has recently (2010) returned with a new stand-up tour entitled The Tour That Doesn't Tour Tour, Now On Tour.


Tropes:

  • Based on a True Story: Many of the more outlandish events in his sitcoms turned out to be this.
  • Catch Phrase: Many.
  • Crazy Prepared: His dad on holidays ("Always thinking!"), taking along anything from clothesline to teabags. Unfortunately, he also brought along Coffeemate powdered milk, which caused problems when 'trying to get through Spanish customs with lots of little bags of white powder'.
  • Does Not Like Spam: His hatred of Rola Cola.
    • Variation with his dad and "GARLIC? BREAD?!" and "CHEESE? CAKE?!" -- more a case of 'incredulous that anyone would combine those two things in one food' but did like them when he tried them by accident.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: Tends to do this for early jokes in a set as part of a Lampshade Hanging gimmick.
  • Dumbass DJ: He mocks wedding DJs in his "Mum Wants A Bungalow" tour.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His Uncle Nobhead. Even other family members seem to call him that.
  • Fail O'Suckyname: As a child he was part of a team working on a project making some sort of vehicle. After attempting to come up with some appropriately speed-related name, they ended up calling it "The Very Fast".
  • Foreign Queasine: A routine about how British holidaymakers will go to Spain, completely avoid "any of that foreign muck" and gravitate to the nearest British expat pub for pie and chips. "It's just like home, but you've got the weather."
  • Loads and Loads of Roles and Talking to Himself: Plays many roles in Phoenix Nights, Britain's Got The Pop Factor, etc.
  • Malaproper: His nan.
  • Man of a Thousand Voices: Although he doesn't make a big thing about it, Kay is quite a talented impressionist.
  • Memetic Mutation: "Garlic Bread?!"
    • "ME BISCUIT'S FALLEN IN ME BREW!"
  • Oop North
  • Rapid Fire Name Guessing: A routine about how alarmed he was when his mother went through female relatives' names before reaching his.
  • Small Reference Pools: Some chain emails have attributed jokes to him that are actually much older.
  • Spot of Tea: (Or rather "Wanna Brew?" as it's Oop North). He has a routine about dunking different biscuits.
  • Super Speed: Claims that wearing slippers give you this power. After he was knocked down by a car as a child, his mum put on the slippers, chased after the car and caught up to it!
  • The Unintelligible: The wedding DJ who turns out to actually talk like that all the time, not just having his voice blurred by a bad microphone as everyone had assumed.
  • You Keep Using That Word: Sometimes the basis for a joke.

Kay: I'm not homophobic, I'm not scared of me house!