"Paul Foot is, in the kinda vernacular he'd use himself, something of a curate's egg.
"His nervy, do-I-really-wanna-be-here 'stance' could be a valid persona, or just a Woody-Allenesque excuse to turn his own ineptitude into a positive boon. His dodgy, allow-me-to-explain-the-gag punctuation may be a neat post-modernist kick up comedy's proverbial bottom, or simply a cop-out to pad out his set and kick his cheesy material up its own bottom. And his pretentious archaisms might be a jolly silly way to ensure the audience's rapt response, or merely a right royal pain and yet another excuse to detract our attention from the meat of what he actually has to offer.
"Anything else? Oh yeah, I like Paul Foot.
"I ain't a member of his fanclub, the groaningly-ironically-entitled 'Guild of Connoisseurs'. And I'm the first to admit there's a little too much froth and not quite enough beer. But when he cuts the poo and settles down he's inimitable... His poncey personality irritates some, it just makes me laugh as I share his send-up of countless Cambridge dorks. His relentless pushing of icky ideas lies dangerously close to the desperation of latter-day Ben Elton, but also joyously near to the sheer bravado of early Eddie Izzard. And when he summarises an entire episode of 'You've Been Framed' into two or three acid asides it could almost be Jo Brand speaking.
"So Paul Foot isn't for everyone. But he's for me. Most of the time, anyway."
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