Xander Armstrong : Hello everyone!
Chat Ed : And here they are!
Ben Miller waves, helloooo
Chat Ed : Ready to get started guys?
Ben Miller : Yep!
Xander Armstrong : Oh yesss...
Chat Ed : Here we go...
AllanKeller : Where did Armstrong meet miller or vice versa?
Ben Miller : Where did we meet, Xander? Hmmm... we met at the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill after Xander had appeared in a particularly sweaty sketch...
Xander Armstrong : heehee
Ben Miller : Called TBA... 1993?
Xander Armstrong : Yes. And we'd been introduced... we were put together, by a mutual friend, who's called Jez Butterworth, for the record. And he thought that we would work together very well, so we were paired!
Ben Miller : Yeah, matchmade!
SOS : What other comedians have influenced you?
The Jazz_kat : where do u get the inspiration for your material?
Ben Miller : We were... well, our influences are, recently: Steve Coogan, Peter Kay, Harry Hill... and influences that go back years are: Monty Python and...
Ben Miller thinks
Ben Miller : Tony Hancock.
Xander Armstrong : Yeah, hmmm... usually anything that really bugs us in real life! We make a note.
Ben Miller : He he he
Xander Armstrong : I think in any one day two or three things will happen that just invite a good comedy treatment... and I mean, I think the trick is carrying a notebook around with you, and when funny ideas occur, which they invariably do in every waking moment, you write them down. The worst thing is when you wake up in the middle of the night...
Ben Miller : Yeah.
Xander Armstrong : ...and you have a GEM and you are CONVINCED you'll remember it in the morning.
Rosy : Has there ever been something that one of you has written & thought was really hilarious, only for the other one to think it was crap? And what do you say?
Ben Miller falls about laughing
Ben Miller : YES! There is a sketch that I have proposed EVERY SERIES FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS! It is now a running joke with the... er... people who work on the show.
Xander Armstrong : The Templar Graves.
Ben Miller : I think it's high time that prime time television saw a sketch about two science fiction writers looking for the missing graves of the Knights Templar, which were disbanded in the 11th Century.
Xander Armstrong cuts in
Xander Armstrong : I actually think that's a very funny idea. It's brilliant! Basically it's these two investigators who have such a strong sense of incidence and coincidence that they find links anywhere they look and they become really neurotic.
Ben Miller : Why have you never let me do it! ??? Can we do it next year?
Xander Armstrong : Yes! OK!
Ben Miller : Mmm.
Xander Armstrong : As long as it doesn't disappear... heehee... er we keep it, um... we keep THEM being weird rather than the sketch?
Ben Miller : Right, yeah, OK.
mozzer : being a bit of a musician yourself mr miller, did you have anything to do with the music for the show?
scytheethics : What's the theme song all about, eh? Would you have fancied being in a band if you weren't in comedy?
Ben Miller : Is that THE mozzer? We've got a friend called mozzer? I bet it is, isn't it Xander.
Xander Armstrong : I bet it is.
mozzer : too right
Ben Miller : Hahahaha - That's so funny!
Ben Miller : YEAH! As far as I can work out, the song is about doing things your own way or something like that... it doesn't make all that much sense, it has to be admitted, the words go something like: 'Behind the outside of within, behind the outside of within, you can start it all again'.
Xander Armstrong : Willie was SO missed from Duran Duran.
Dru : Do either of you ever feel uncomfortable about doing any scenes?
Dean : The girl is Naked Practice is very cute - ever had anything embarrassing...'pop up'?
Xander Armstrong : HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ben Miller : ahahaha - oh Dean
Xander Armstrong : Ohhh Dean. Oh Dean!
Xander Armstrong laughs
Kiiiiiiiittie : i think they mean yes
Ben Miller : People will always tell you that doing nude scenes is just work... and everyone behaves in a highly professional manner. It's not true!
Ben Miller laughs and laughs
Ben Miller : It is amazing when we are filming, how many more crew members seem to be necessary to film any given scene when Sarah Alexander is naked in it! That's absolutely true.
Xander Armstrong : Suddenly our drivers seem to have a key role!
Ben Miller : That's so true!
Xander Armstrong : And as to uncomfortable scenes... last series we filmed a sketch involving... erm.. a group of some 1936 Nazis going off for a Friday night out to the cinema.
Xander Armstrong giggles
Xander Armstrong : And when they discovered their film only has two spare tickets, arguing about what they want to do on a Friday night.
Ben Miller : Heh
Xander Armstrong : Anyway a Polish Bristolian mounted a one-man campaign against us on grounds of bad taste.
Ben Miller : But it was worse than that! He.. .er... he thought we were nazis, I think. So that was all pretty uncomfortable.
dougalreal : do you get comedy groupies?
Xander Armstrong : Alas, no.
Ben Miller : Heehee - I think we had one once?
Xander Armstrong : Was she a groupie of a traffic warden?
Ben Miller : We had one briefly in 1997, but not since.
Xander Armstrong : Ho ho - She's now our producer, anyway.
mrs peacock : can we have one of the naked vets going to a clotheist colony?
Tracy : Xander, do you really have your hand up a cow's behind in the vet series??
Xander Armstrong : Yes I do,
Ben Miller : No you didn't!
Xander Armstrong : I f**king did!
Ben Miller : He did not have his hand up a cow's arse in the series... NO XANDER I'M GONNA TELL THIS... he mistakenly put his hand up the vagina instead of the arse, and no-one noticed.
Xander Armstrong : That is absolutely true. But the cow seemed to like it.
Ben Miller pisses himself laughing
Wonky Bob : Doing any live shows any time soon?
Xander Armstrong : Yes! We hope - we anticipate - doing a live show in the winter of this year, so it might be spring next year, but sometime around next winter.
Ben Miller : Yeah.
>
Xander Armstrong : And it will be a cracker!
Ben Miller : He he he
denise : xander is also currently starring in beast, ben is there ne chance of seeing u on any other projects?
Ben Miller : Yeah. How kind of you! No... Er... Yes. I am in a new series on Channel 4... called the Book Group. Which will be on sometime this spring... and I'm in a film with Steve Coogan called the Parole Officer, which is being released in June.
Nicky : ben is there any chance of seeing you on any naked calendars?
Xander Armstrong : Ah ho ho ho - Only if it's long enough!
Ben Miller : Bless you, the calendar hasn't yet been invented with enough months to accommodate the range of poses I have in mind.
Xander Armstrong : Hee hee hee
CRAZEE_LADEE : what where u like @ skool? I play pranks, What pranks did u play and what where the consequences?
Xander Armstrong : Um, Oh god!
Ben Miller : Pranks? I... all I can remember is water bombing Simon Groom, not the Blue Peter presenter, and getting detention. Apart from that, I had a clean sheet!
Xander Armstrong : My favourite prank on a school trip to the East Germany, was on an aeroplane. Waiting for a member of staff to go to the loo and .. heeheehee it's so brilliant... and sprinkling a line of talcum powder along the join at the bottom of the door, so that when he flushed the loo in the aeroplane, the decreased pressure in the loo meant that the whole aeroplane bog was FULL of talcum powder. It's a cracking scam! - heeheeheehee - WHOOMP!
Ben Miller falls about
Xander Armstrong : They think they're like out of an Adam and the Ants video.
tootsie : What was the inspiration for Mr Chuffle?
Marshy : Tonight's show was very funny but is this the end of chuffy?
Ben Miller : Ahh.
Xander Armstrong : Um.
Ben Miller : Mr Chuffy is a man's man.
Xander Armstrong : Heeh
Ben Miller : He is Jack Force's imaginary childhood friend. He shall return.
Xander Armstrong : Yeahhh. Being a figment of the imagination works wonders in intensive care!
Hannah Laing : Which sketch is your favourite?
Grazza : What comedy sketch by another artist do you wish you had written?
Xander Armstrong : There was a fantastic Big Train sketch, in which Simon Pegg and Julia Davies are on a safari... and they ..heehee.. have to duck down to avoid a stampede of jockeys to which Julia Davies says: I will never understand Africa.
Xander Armstrong falls about
Ben Miller : In the series, my favourite sketch is about the history of the sweet trolley. It's er... in the style of a spoof Open University programme, and we re-enact important scenes in the evolution of the device, which even today courageously displays cheesecakes and meringues and bakewell tarts at a temperature somewhere above the melting point of rock.
Chat Ed : We're just about out of time unfortunately, so here's the last question:
jongo : do you think you 2 could hack going on tv live and unplanned?
Xander Armstrong : Yes! I think we could! Our first ever major job was live on ITV in 1996, and you can't whack the real thrill of something... of doing something that is actually going out as you do it. TV-wise it's the nearest thing to our original live comedy show.
Ben Miller : Mmm.
Chat Ed : That's it everyone! Thanks so much Xander and Ben for chatting to us.
Xander Armstrong : Awww you're all sweet.
jim21 : thanx
denise : bye thanks for the chat
BilboBaggins : Thank you for your time.
Mike Brown : Thannx, chat ed!
Xander Armstrong : Thanks loads for logging on! See you all soon!
Ben Miller : Yeah! Rock your face!
Steve Creek : Cheers guys!
denise : hope to c more of u both this year
ThighIcker : I LOVE U
Lucy : Keep up the good work... want more!
Chat Ed : Good one everybody
Chat Ed is still giggling
Xander Armstrong leaves the room
Ben Miller leaves the room
