My Comedy Hero: Daniel Foxx on French & Saunders
In another edition of comedians describing their favourite funny person, Daniel Foxx takes on two icons of sketch comedy
Edina Monsoon from Ab Fab, the Fairy Godmother from Shrek2 and Jennifer Saunders herself: three gay icons, one extremely silly woman. It takes a lot of star power to pull off the gay icon hat-trick. I think the first time I ever laid eyes on Jennifer was in her and Dawn’s parody of The Lord Of The Rings. It was 2002 (I would have been eight) and I was absolutely kicking my feet with glee.
I couldn’t believe my eyes: these two women, complete with fake feet and wispy beards (Jennifer in a full prosthetic Gandalf face), tearing apart the movie I’d just seen at the cinema. It was utterly ludicrous and my first introduction to sketch comedy, something which would end up becoming my full-time job.
So many sketches of the 80s and 90s don’t stand up to a rewatch today, but French & Saunders buck that trend. Their film parodies would be right at home among all the most viral TikTok and Instagram reels of recent years. What they made was sharp and catty but always done with a loving wink to the actors they were rinsing. From the incredible eyebrow choreography and giant stuck-on breasts of their Titanic parody to Saunders’ ultra-sincere take on Meryl Streep in the Red Nose Day satire of Mamma Mia!, I often genuinely find myself forgetting who is the original cast and who is Jennifer in yet another wig.
I saw a quote by Jennifer recently that said ‘I’m not afraid to look ridiculous... to make someone laugh. That’s not embarrassment, that’s freedom.’ And it’s that willingness to be totally grotesque but with the most deadpan commitment to the part that made me fall in love with her immediately. She taught me that sometimes the highest form of art is to be totally, unapologetically silly.
Daniel Foxx: How Lovely tours until Friday 13 November; picture: Matt Crockett.