PLEASE YOURSELF, THE POINTS ARE ROUND THE BACK
Beloved stalwart of UK comedy Barry Cryer has died aged 86. Held in high regard for his quick wit, Cryer was inclined towards comedy from a young age. Although his snowtop head and rimmed glasses would eventually become a familiar face, careerwise he quickly decided to focus on behind-the-scenes roles after frustrations with having to mask his eczema. After a humble beginning of writing male genitalia jokes for Danny La Rue, he soon went to the man who later interviewed Dick. Yep, David Frost hired him for the writing team on The Frost Report, joining the likes of John Cleese, Graham Chapman, and Marty Feldman. He established his reputation there as one of the premier comedy writers who would develop an extensive knowledge of the big names in the field, helped by the vast amount of them he would work with!
The Frost Report was a launchpad to working for many top comedy acts of the era, such as the Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise, among many, many others. Decades before cell phones, Cryer struggled with a shite attention span and preferred to have a writing partner, with Chapman an early favourite. The typical writing process would see the partner write the basic backbone of a script, and Cryer pepper it with the jokes. And he had many, from the one-liners to the lengthier dialogues. He was particularly adept at parrot gags, with stories of a swearing parrot scared into good behaviour by a brief refrigeration and a bargain parrot raised in a brothel among his best. Another avian classic features a man apologising to a woman for accidentally killing her cockerel, and after asking if he can replace it, she responds “Please yourself, the hens are round the back”!
Before his comedy career took off, he also topped the pop charts – not in the UK, but in Finland thanks to a weird technicality. As Sheb Wooley’s novelty record “The Purple People Eater” enthralled the world in 1958, contractual reasons prevented Mr. Wilhelm scream’s version from being released in Scandinavia. This meant that in Nordic countries, Barry Cryer instead of Wooley was the definitive voice of the tale where a devourer of lavender folk becomes a rock star.
His voice would become far better known on his native radio, though, with a popular presence as a mainstay panelist of longstanding offbeat BBC programme I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue soon after its 1972 inception. Between his prolific career, his encyclopaedic comedy knowledge, and his kind and humble personality (to the point where many of his gags were self-effacing), he was seen as an authoritative voice on British comedy who was frequently summoned for relevant documentaries and tributes to the many contemporaries he outlived. He leaves a sound legacy of laughter.
Cryer was not widely parroted among the DDP collective, instead settling for six teams. He is the first faller for them all, including Willz’s Comedy Cremations.
Barry Cryer
23 April 1935 – 25 January 2022, aged 86
6 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀💀 6 POINTS)