Richard Herring
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Richard Herring is a British stand up comedian, writer and director, most famous for his work in double acts with Stewart Lee and later Andrew Collins. He is also a pioneer in Internet Comedy, being a long-running blogger and podcaster.
Herring began his career whilst at Oxford University, appearing with the Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and also struck up a partnership with Stewart Lee. As the double-act Lee And Herring, they wrote material for The Day Today forerunner On The Hour, created and starred in sketch shows Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World (Radio 4) and Fist Of Fun (Radio 1) and presented three series of Lee and Herring on Radio 1 which mixed sketches which music chosen by the duo themselves. They later starred in a television version of Fist of Fun and a live Sunday morning show called This Morning With Richard Not Judy (TMWRNJ).
Lee and Herring split up amicably after TMWRNJ was canceled, and Herring moved on to touring Stand Up as a solo act, an act which became notorious during 2009 and 2010 with his shows Hitler Moustache, which attempted to 'reclaim the toothbrush moustache for comedy' and Christ on a Bike which dealt with issues of religion. 2009 also saw the beginning of As It Occurs To Me (AIOTM), an 'internet stand-up and sketch show' which was recorded live in front of an audience and released for free as a podcast.
Other forays into online comedy include The Collings and Herrin Podcast with Andrew Collins and his Blog Warming Up which has been updated daily since November 25th, 2002, making it one of -- if not the -- world's longest-running daily blogs, and is now released in podcast form and on Soundcloud.
Herring's comic style is similar to that of his erstwhile partner Lee in that he regularly uses Deconstruction and CallBacks. He is also has a penchant for unwieldy acronyms.
Herring has released several of his stand-up shows on DVD, has various podcasts available, and has also written the autobiographical How Not To Grow Up.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Herring's show Headmaster's Son describes his time at a school where his father is the headmaster/principal.
- Biting the Hand Humour: Herring joked in AIOTM that he was using his good material from his position as a writer on Russel Howard show Good News to develop routines for AIOTM instead. Shortly after, he lost his job on Good News.
- Call Back: Even today, Herring makes CallBacks to his work with Stewart Lee, which happened over a decade ago.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: He regularly remarks that he doesn't tell jokes in his comedy, going as far as to say in AIOTM that he never told a joke in the entire series. Lampshaded in a routine where a man leans out of a taxi and shouts 'Tell us a joke mate!' leaving him unsure of how to respond despite being a comedian.
- Deconstruction: Another trope he shares with Stewart Lee. An example of this is in Hitler Moustache. He makes fun of the appearance of Carol Thatcher after noting that she was fired from a job for using the word 'Golliwog'. The show then breaks down into a conversation with himself debating whether he is as bad as Carol Thatcher for mocking her appearance when she did the same albeit more generally. Probably also an example of Hypocritical Humor.
- Malaproper: Herring mis-pronouncing the word 'pumpkins' as 'cumpkins' in an episode of AIOTM led to multiple CallBacks throughout the series riffing on the Cumpkin. In case you were wondering, 'You take a jack-o-lantern, get at least five men to cum in said jack-o-lantern, and then get a woman to put it on her head'
- Self-Referential Humor: Herring often refers to the fact that he is no longer on television as much as he used to be when part of Lee and Herring, and also often remarks on Stewart Lee's greater success of the duo.
- Take That: Peter Kay, Michael Mcintyre, Lembit Opik, Andrew Collins, Keith Allen, Patrick Marber. Much like Stewart Lee, the list goes on.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Herring often portrays himself as an idiot, when in fact he is a graduand of Oxford University.