Armando Iannucci : Hello Im here and in one piece!
Helena : Armando, Just wanted to say that I think the show is brilliant!! It is really spot on it feels like you have crawled into peoples brain and taken out their most silly thoughts. Will there be a video out of the show?
RichJohnston : Any plan to release any of your work on DVD? It is rather spiffy!
Armando Iannucci laughs
Armando Iannucci : Spiffy! Thank you very much. I dont know, is the answer. I never do something with an aim beyond the transmission. The thing about DVDs is that you have to do something extra, like do a commentary. But I already do that so it would just be a commentary on the commentary so Im not sure that it would be worth the extra money. And I havent got a DVD player anyway, so I would find the whole exercise futile.
thegroak2 : you could do some animal impressions?
Armando Iannucci laughs at thegroak 2.
Armando Iannucci : Yes I do a very good dead cow and an excellent vaccinated pig.
Derek and Clive : Im organising a Armando Iannucci DVD release pressure group...watch this space...
Armando Iannucci laughs
Evil Demons : your show is surreal, who are your influences??
Tascam Holiday : Surely youre completely insane?
Armando Iannucci : My influences are just people. No one I know. I wanted to do something that felt like it wasnt feeding off the media or politics, so really the influences are all other people minus people who work in the media and in politics. The man barber who appeared last week, and will be appearing in every episode from next week, is based on my actual barber who is mad and who told me that he believes he is the re-incarnation of both Romulus and Remus.
MegaT : Im an aspiring comic and I often find I have my best ideas in the bath. Where do you come up with your best ideas, and do you have any tips for the Armanda Iannuccis of the future?
Armando Iannucci : I sometimes have mine in my shower. Or walking the dogs. So my advice is get a dog and bring it into the shower.
Davie : Does getting on TV automatically get you a lady with big babylons?
Armando Iannucci laughs
Armando Iannucci : I shall pass on that one as my wife is staring at me!
Crotch Metal Orgasm : have you ever wanted to be a bad-ass rapper?
Armando Iannucci : No! I was once and I didnt enjoy it.
paul : Tell me all about the new Alan Partridge Show please sir.
Armando Iannucci laughs
Armando Iannucci : Well I can tell you very little. Thats not for security reasons. Its just that we havent written any of it yet. But we think Alan might have a spring in his step because he has landed a contract to record a hundred episodes of a quiz show called Skirmish in one week. Its for the Norfolk area.
Uncle Boggin : dear mandy, how did you get your break on the telly? i heard it was as an extra on Hogans Heroes..is this true?
Armando Iannucci : Well Boggy, my break came from doing radio really. I was lucky to be born in an era where TV executives were usually quite impressed by funny radio programmes and frequently thought Thats good, lets put that on the tele. That still happens now, but now they are putting any radio programme on the tele, including The Pips, which will be a 5 part series, which will consist of 5 half hour episodes, followed by a slightly longer 6th one.
Chat Ed guffaws
Armando Iannucci : Starring Johnny Vaughan.
Ray Kogitans : Are you Italian? Or an electrical appliance? Your name suggests both.
Armando Iannucci laughs
Armando Iannucci : Im half Italian and half electricity. No, Im Scottish, but my Father was born in Naples. My Mother was born in Scotland but her parents were Italian.
LeShafto : The scene where the woman got smacked in the face for her teeth was really funny, but i fell bad for laughing. Did you feel bad for thinking oit was funny?
Alan74 : Armando, is there anything comedians shouldnt joke about?
Armando Iannucci : Yes but there are no hard and fast rules as to what they are. Usually its a question of timing. You wouldnt tell a joke about a disaster as it happened. But 5 minutes later is probably alright. LeShafto...clearly not! Although I have rung in to Channel 4 to complain about them showing it.
Bobby McPants : What is the worst sketch you have ever done?
Armando Iannucci thinks
Armando Iannucci : I used to do this double-act with David Schneider in which we thought it would be a good idea to have, on stage, a duel between a sumo wrestler and snooker player. We never really worked out what would happen but every night we would do it anyway, to see what would happen and it would die on its arse.
Gary Johnson : What do you feel is your best work to date...?
Armando Iannucci : Im very pleased with this series, but I wont really have formed an opinion about it until a year or so from now. So to date I think, Im Alan Partridge is the one that I am most happy with.
irnmike : Have you ever considered starring in, directing or writing a film?
Kat Stiff : Or writing a book? Please write a book! I really want you to
Armando Iannucci : I would LOVE to direct a film - a comedy. I think thats what I would really like to do next, but I dont know what yet. Im trying to avoid doing a film thats all about people deciding to make money by stripping while in prison during a gangland heist.
benedict arnold : Could yo uplease direct a film with ugly people in it, we British do ugly so well.
Davie : How bald are you in real life?
Armando Iannucci laughs
Armando Iannucci : In real life I am a lot less bald than I am on the tele. It takes me 3 hours of prosthetics every morning to lose that amount of hair. But all the hair is kept and then individually stitched back on at the end of each days filming.
neonmeatedream : sell the hairs on e-bay
Damian_again : Is it possible to slap a man in a macho way?
Armando Iannucci chuckles
Armando Iannucci : People often ask me this and Ill give you the answer I always give, which is, I dont know what youre talking about!
thegroak2 : would you like to be an italian scottish woody allen?
Armando Iannucci : thegroak2...Id love to be a Chinese-Hungarian Harold Lloyd.
Jonsky : Armando - If u could make any show u liked with no restrictions what would it be?
Armando Iannucci : Good heavens. I would love to make a fantastic big sci-fi movie but as yet I have no idea what would happen in it. If there were no restrictions on budget it would be about a group of 19 planets that go looking for adventures.
Sickboy : What do you think of all the faked nude pictures of yourself on the internet?
Armando Iannucci : Im sorry!? Thats the first Im hearing of it!
Armando Iannucci laughs
Armando Iannucci : If you could post up the website... But also they do earn me an awful lot of money. More than youd get from putting out a sodding DVD.
Marcus Waller : Have you any weird hobbies?
lapdog : are we allowed to send you pornography?
Armando Iannucci : Certainly not! I live in a small respectable village which is awash with pornography anyway. Astronomy and masterminding international attacks.
Safia : Will you ever be doing anymore series of The Saturday Night Armstice?
Armando Iannucci : No. The last one we did was 2 years ago and it was for the BBC, upon whose grave I spit my juice.
Jimmy : What did you make of all the fuss surrounding Brass Eye?
Armando Iannucci : I was on holiday when it went out, so I missed most of it, although from what I gather, having missed most of it shouldnt actually stop me from having an opinion about it.
Chat Ed grins
Armando Iannucci : I thought the funniest thing was the outrage expressed by government ministers who were proud they hadnt seen the programme. But since I didnt actually see those interviews I couldnt possibly say whether they were tossers.
daviewilliams : who is best at picking up women - you, steve coogan or chris morris?
Armando Iannucci : What people dont realise is that Chris Morris is a character played by Steve Coogan and so am I.
Davie : Why does Oxbridge produce so many comedians?
Armando Iannucci : Well it doesnt really. People sometimes say Im part of an Oxbridge comedy mafia, but then I remember that Chris went to Bristol, Steve was at Drama College in Manchester and Peter Baynham went to Fleetwood Nautical College, so if anything, were an Oxford/Bristol/Manchester/Fleetwood mafia.
barneybee : Why does Oxbridge produce so many punts?
Armando Iannucci laughs
Armando Iannucci : It doesnt produce as many as Fleetwood Nautical College.
Kombat : whos your daddy?
Armando Iannucci : My Father.
Marcus Waller : What you doing after this?
Armando Iannucci : I am preparing a bottle of milk for our youngest and then going to bed. But Ill probably leave CNN running all night for the dogs.
Chat Ed : Thats it! Thanks for that Armando, that was fantastic.
thegroak2 : gizza kiss
Armando Iannucci : Thanks for all your very hard questions. I have run out of knowledge.
daviewilliams : THANKs ARMANDO
Motti : take me now!
Nightshade Pie : DVD DVD DVD!
sfjcody : The Spaced DVD is selling well I hear.
Kiraly : Cheerio!
Armando Iannucci laughs
nibbles : i love dat guy...
galen lockjaw : bye lovepumps!
Armando Iannucci : Im hoping to bring out a Spaced DVD as well!
MegaT : wub wub wub... thanks d00d
Luttrell Psalter : bye and thank you chat ed and all at c4 and of course armando
h : ta matey boy
AspAut : Cheers Armando!
jdanielp : Youre mad!
BIG T : What a great typist!
Kat Stiff : bye bye, lovely, wonderful man
Chat Ed chuckles
Chat Ed : OK folks, thats it...
Armando Iannucci : This is a strange language, whatever happened to the good old letter?
monty python : i ate it
Armando Iannucci leaves the room
