Amused Moose, Soho, London. June 2004.
The comedian & Jerry Springer The Opera creator Stewart Lee is performing a warm-up show for that year's Edinburgh set (since released on DVD as "StandUp Comedian").

He's doing a bit about the state of music today, and criticises The Darkness. Justifiably.
Infact, he rips into them. The audience are on his side. Everyone hates "The Darkness", it seems, and - buoyed along by this - he gets more & more scathing until a voice at the back of the room pipes up:

"Yeah, but surely you believe in a thing called love?"

The room laughs. Lee laughs. Taken off guard, but genuinely amused by this heckle.

"Yeah. I do believe in a thing called love. But, my definition of love is more metaphysical. A bond between people, a spiritual thing. It exists, I believe in it, but I don't associate it with a screaming man in a stripy lycra catsuit running around and singing badly." (I'm paraphrasing, of course..)
"But - that is the best heckle I've ever had."

He carries on.
20 minutes later, he's doing a bit about returning to stand up from the wilderness of musical theatre, a field he never thought he'd find himself in - as he hates it.
He cites such examples as "We Will Rock You" amongst his hatred of the genre.
He divulges, he moves on to attack 70s rockers Queen & their flamboyant, camp music - referring back to the Darkness ragging from earlier.

The same voice at the back pipes up: "Yeah, but surely you believe in a crazy little thing called love?"

Everyone laughs.
Lee responds, trying to stifle his own laughter:
"Yeah. I do believe in a crazy little thing called love. But, my definition of love is more metaphysical. A bond between people, a spiritual thing. It exists, I believe in it, but I don't associate it with a moustached, buck-toothed man in a stripy lycra catsuit running around and singing badly."

"You see, if you use the same heckle - you get the same response...."

Genius.
(Soupy Twist BEST BEFORE:, Wed 12 Apr 2006, 13:43, Reply)