Paul Morley Showing off ... Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip

"... nothing is more entertaining than fucking with words and their arrangement" – Scroobius Pip. If there is a golden zig-zagging line of art, entertainment, music, writing, comedy and philosophy that the psych-preaching, slang-slinging, dicky punsters, tragi-jesting, shabby electro-tweethearts, post-Zappa rappers, post-Aphex clowns, post Prodigy Gilbert and Sullivans, post-Boosh pop critics, post-Conchords Bernard Levins, post-Union Jackasses, post-Lily Chas and Daves, post-Streets Max Bygraves Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip are at the end of, considering that they are the post-modern post-Warp version of Cyril Fletcher on a version of That's Life presented by the love child of Philip K Dick and Victoria Wood, hip hop as a roasting high-spirited outdated but always lively combination of news, nonsense, satire, silliness, nicked beats, novelty noises, semi-fictional documentary, charming/nefarious/daft rhymes, nerdcore obssessiveness, whose final album will be called The Novelty's Worn Off, then you can imagine where they are and what this line might mean by thinking of the following in, in the immortal words of Philip Schofield, no particular order: Sir John Betjeman/especially his albums on Charisma with Jim Parker Squarepusher Jilted John Joe Orton Anthony Moore Mike and Bernie Winters Iain Sinclair Charlie Drake Ivor Biggun Luke Haines Richard Stilgoe The Fall John Dowie Mos Def Johnny Morris Roy Harper Bernard Bresslaw Arthur Conan Doyle/Askey/"The Bee Song" Chris Morris Cliff Michelmore Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs Patrik Fitzgerald Screaming Lord Sutch Terry Scott Noel Coward Hale and Pace Jack Rosenthal Seymour (to be Blur) Ivor Cutler Ray Gosling Max Wall Spike Jones Vivian Stanshall Frank Muir Small Faces Jimmy Cricket Alexei Sayle Eric Idle XTC Galton and Simpson Russ Abbott Pete Doherty Dame Edith Sitwell Ian Carmichael/Dury Tommy Trinder Scaffold Frank Randle Sir Isaiah Berlin Jake Thackray Art of Noise Neil Innes Auberon Waugh Rolf Harris Chicory Tip Martin Amis E.P Thompson Flanders and Swann Ray Alan and Lord Charles Faust Dick Hebridge Benny Hill The Barron Knights/the Grumbleweeds Mike Harding Benjamin Zephaniah The Kinks Spike Milligan/"The Ying Tong Song" (a birth of hip hop) George Melly Stanley Unwin The Good the Bad and the Queen The Goodies Edward Lear Vic and Bob Danny Baker John Cooper Clarke Adrian Mitchell Paul Kaye Terry Gilliam Lance Percival Peter Kay Stanley Holloway Alex Harvey Willie Rushton Eric Sykes/Hattie Jacques Bill Tidy Tommy Steele Singing Postman Deryck Guyler Slits Slade Joan Sims Hinge and Brackett Max Miller PG Wodehouse Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias John Otway and Wild Willie Barratt Billy Bragg Michael Crawford John Hegley Herman's Hermits Lemn Sissay Harry Hill KLF Roy Hudd Philip Larkin Lonnie Donegan Charles Bukowski Kenny Everett Bernard Cribbins Napoleon XIV Joyce Grenfell etc etc etcetera.