History Creator / StewartLee

!Tropes associated with Stewart Lee

** He revisited this bit and turned it UpToEleven in his 2022 show ''Snowflake'', in which his nan is now complaining that you can't wish anyone "Happy Christmas" anymore, you actually have to ''invoke Yog-Sothoth''.

** ''Snowflake'' has a routine in which he does this to the formerly liberal, now right-wing journalist Tony Parsons, who'd attacked him in a ''GQ'' for using the c-word onstage; Lee dug out a 2004 quote from a Parsons article comparing women to bananas, and argued that the particular Tony Parsons used demonstrated that he, Parsons, likes women to be beaten up and sold into slavery.

** His 2022 show ''Snowflake'' has one of these in which he parodies the idea that Creator/RickyGervais "says the unsayable" in his stand-up shows by coming onstage and then emitting a series of [[EldritchAbomination incoherent, tortured groans and shrieks]], in an attempt to ''literally'' say the unsayable. He lampshades it by saying that someone had complained that the gag went on too long, and commenting that he liked the idea that that person thought the gag must after all have "a correct length".

** His 2022 show ''Snowflake'' has one of these in which he parodi the idea that Creator/RickyGervais "says the unsayable" in his stand-up shows by coming onstage and then emitting a series of incoherent, tortured groans and shrieks, in an attempt to ''literally'' say the unsayable. He lampshades it by saying that someone had complained that the gag went on too long, and commenting that he liked the idea that that person thought the gag must after all have "a correct length".

** One joke revolves around a lengthy argument between himself and film director Creator/AngLee over the phonetic similarity between the director's name and part of the famous CatchPhrase of ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk

--> ''" My Grandfather built his house out of old [[UsefulNotes/ThePoppy discarded poppies]]...now remember that because I'll be coming back to my Grandfather and, um, his nest of poppies and it'll be, um, extremely satisfying.''

* CrazyPrepared: The opening routine of his fourth DVD 'If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One' has a classic example. Ostensibly he starts by complaining about a piece of officiousness from Caffe Nero refusing to recognise that he has enough stamps on his card for a free coffee. However, the routine would constantly fail because no-one in the audience could see what was wrong with the card (there were three stamps in blue) which made it look as if Lee was complaining about absolutely nothing. However, he would suddenly reveal that this was all a set up by going off stage and coming back on with a '''huge''' painted mock-up of the card painted by himself to show the three blue stamps.

* DontExplainTheJoke: Lee's humour often revels in subverting this comedic rule, sometimes deliberately pushing it deliberately to reveal the absurdity of the jokes, other times just to save Daily Mail journalists a long and pointless email correspondence. His book "How I Escaped My Certain Fate" is basically him dissecting his routine and explaining the thought process behind each joke.
** Taken to the extreme in "If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One" when he deconstructs an entire satirical routine involving irony; by speaking atrociously about how he wishes ''Series/TopGear''[='=]s Creator/JeremyClarkson and Creator/RichardHammond suffer and die horribly, he follows it up by [[TakeThat promptly making a forced, poor apology about how he doesn't think that.]] Cue Lee then looking straight into the camera and explaining the humour and the structure of the joke itself, before mentioning it's a shame to break character but entirely necessary as some ''Top Gear'' fans will definitely send him hate mail if he doesn't.

* HypocriticalHumour: From 'How I Escaped My Certain Fate'. "I'm sick of reading on Daily Mail message boards that I am 'one of these foul-mouthed modern comedians' when I am absolutely not. Honestly, who are these cunts?"

He has so far released five stand up specials:

** He's also been on the other side of this; in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrXVaytvJtQ&ab_channel=StEdmundHall this]] lecture he discusses reading a bunch of ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' comics to his young son, finding them more enjoyable than he'd expected, and discovering that they were read by Creator/DanAbnett, an old university acquaintance who had also written other comics he'd enjoyed. He called Abnett to express his appreciation, and at one point commented that the ''Scooby Doo'' comics were "much better than they were necessary to be". Abnett, of course, immediately asked to use that as a pull quote.

** Taken UpToEleven in his rant [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Xg51oCJdo about the countryside from his Comedy Vehicle series]]; when he mentions the countryside has nothing but has-been celebrities, he mentions that Paddy [=McGuinness=] will undoubtedly turn up "with his joke", before moving on and mentioning that [[spoiler:the horse in the field he was previously discussing noticed a flyer for [=McGuinness=]' appearance, and it responded by slowly killing itself over four hours by sawing it's neck on a barbed wire fence.]]

* RantInducingSlight: Several of his shows build up to a point where, having stretched his "embittered failure" persona throughout the entire evening, he reaches a final indignity which just makes him drop the microphone and start yelling at the audience. often while getting off the stage and wandering through the crowd.
** "41st Best Stand-Up Comedian" has him reach this point after describing how the collapse of a potential show on the BBC resulted in him having to deliver a routine of insect-themed jokes to a convention of entomologists for no reason while wearing a large and expensive grasshopper costume.
** "If You Prefer A Milder Comedian" involves him furiously snapping after describing how his family's (supposed) ancient and beloved saying[[note]]"Give it to me straight, like a pear cider made from 100% pears."[[/note]] was co-opted and twisted by an advertising campaign for Magners Pear Cider.

* StylisticSuck: One of the modern masters of it in stand-up, as explained by the title quote. He - or the character he plays - frequently fumbles his routines, goes on long tangents, [[DontExplainTheJoke explains the jokes]], especially the ones that don't need explaining, storms off stage, and [[YouBastard berates his audiences]] for not appreciating his TrueArt. All intentional, of course, which is why it works.

** Also on his website, several of the pages have a flash animation that pops up quotes from various people criticising his work. This starts with fellow stand-up comics, goes through to newspaper critics, and then works through a truly bewildering amount of negative comments from social media, most of latter basically describing him as a talentless alcoholic hack who's an asshole to everyone he encounters [[CrossesTheLineTwice and whose death would be no great loss to humanity]].

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: Strongly opposed to people invoking this. He points out that even health and safety regulations [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmsV1TuESrc are twisted into hatred of the "PC Brigade".]]

* PoliticalCorrectness: One of the few comedians to come out in favour of Political Correctness (or at least defend the principles behind it).
** PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: Strongly opposed to people invoking this. He points out that even health and safety regulations [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmsV1TuESrc are twisted into hatred of the "PC Brigade".]]

* TakeThat: Radio/ChrisMoyles, Creator/DanBrown, Jeremy Clarkson, Jim Davidson, Joe Pasquale, Creator/MichaelMcIntyre=]...When discussing common traits of his comedy, he mentions that it often involves "disproportionate hatred towards relatively innocuous figures."

** Taken to the extreme in "If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One" when he deconstructs an entire satirical routine involving irony; by speaking atrociously about how he wishes ''Series/TopGear'''s Clarkson and Hammond suffer and die horribly, he follows it up by [[TakeThat promptly making a forced, poor apology about how he doesn't think that.]] Cue Lee then looking straight into the camera and explaining the humour and the structure of the joke itself, before mentioning it's a shame to break character but entirely necessary as some Top Gear fans will definitely send him hate mail if he doesn't.

He has so far released five stand up [=DVDs=]: