Tiernan Douieb on Hey Duggee, Radio Nonsense Live and his top five comics doing kids cartoons
Published: Tuesday 20th September 2022
Kids must be very confused these days, with so much complex stuff going on. Three cheers then, for Tiernan Douieb, who is actively encouraging their questions. We'll come to an exciting bit of Tiernan-doing-TV news in a minute, but first, there's a big live show at London's Southbank Centre...
"Radio Nonsense Live is, well, as it says on the tin, a live version of our Comedy Club 4 Kids podcast, Radio Nonsense. The show involves myself and guest comedians answering questions children send in, usually in a very unhelpful and completely stupid way, but we do also take the questions very seriously.
"Just recently we have had some very in-depth discussions about how many farts it would take to fill up a hot air balloon, 'when am jellyfish?' and 'what are your favourite chip flavours?' amongst others.
"The podcast is getting listened to by children all over the world and I wake up most days with some sort of weird email from a child asking something completely bonkers. There are few better ways to start the day than reading a message saying, 'what if you could turn into a giant that couldn't stop vomiting?'"
What indeed. And the live version?
"So, the live show is this, but you know, not just in sound form. I'll be joined by Athena Kugblenu who has previously appeared on the show answering four questions about poo (which she is qualified to do as she has a 'PooHD') and Joz Norris who answered the incredible question of 'if letters were like numbers and were odd or even, which would be odd, which would be even and why?'
"We may or may not also be joined by Linda who may or may not exist. Children will be able to ask us their questions live and the three of us will not answer them properly at all. I can't wait!"
In the meantime, Douieb has written a few episodes in the new series of Hey Duggee, which sounds pretty exciting - is that a big deal, with the kids?
"It is exciting! I don't think I've ever been more over the moon to get a bit of work come my way. I found out I'd get to write an episode not long after the first lockdown and a year's worth of stand-up work being cancelled overnight, so it was incredible timing.
"Hey Duggee is the TV show that got us through the pandemic as our daughter adores it, and the joke rate and references in it mean that it's brilliantly fun viewing for adults too. It had over 67m iPlayer views during the pandemic, has won an Emmy and at different points has had nods to Apocalypse Now, Back To The Future and The Cure.
"So, loads and loads of kids and their parents love this show and I was chuffed and a bit intimidated being trusted not to let them down with my writing. I've always wanted to write for animation so I'm really lucky this is what I get to do as my first go at it."
What is he finding most interesting about working in this field then, so far?
"Despite the high gag rate, there are some obvious differences to writing stand-up. For a start, you're very much working with others on it, including the brilliant script editor Jenny Landreth and the show creator and director Grant Orchard, and bouncing off their notes, direction and ideas.
"In my case, I was also only joining as a writer after there had already been three seasons of 52 episodes each, so you can't do anything that's been done before or is too similar to something that's already happened. Luckily, I've watched every episode billions of times already with my daughter, so it was nice I could class that as research.
"The best thing is that you can be so creative and imaginative in ways that live action or stand-up could never allow. Visual gags really come into their own. The biggest challenge for me though, was having my kid as a super big fan. She told me after we watched the episode I wrote that she did like The Accessory Badge but I prefer Norrie's First Day. Harsh but fair (especially as that episode by James Walsh is excellent fun)."
There are clearly some very funny people involved in kids cartoons - half the cast of Absolutely in Peppa Pig, for example - so we asked Tiernan to pick a few fellow comics who've taken the plunge:
Tiernan Douieb's Five Comedians that Also Conquered Kids Cartoons
In The Rubbish World Of Dave Spud, Johnny Vegas is the voice of Grimsby boy Spud, who goes on bizarre misadventures with his ordinary but not at all ordinary family, and his pet starfish Gareth. It manages to balance being very silly, with a darkness and bleakness that makes it all even more funny. Vegas's voice is perfect for Edward Foster's creation, the calamitous Dave. This show is for kids, but if you're an adult and don't watch it, you're missing out on one of the best comedy shows.
Messy Goes To Okido is the reason I could get away with listening to Adam Buxton's podcasts in the car, as my daughter just thought I was tuning in to hear Messy talk for ages. Messy Monster is a small blue creature who eats socks and wonders how things work, so to find out he visits his friends Felix and Zoe in the magical world of Okido. Adam Buxton is very Adam Buxton as Messy. There are few people that can pronounce 'capacitator' as beautifully wrongly as he can.
Hannah won awards for her stand-up when she started but has since moved on to win Emmy awards for writing on the amazing Adventures Of Paddington. It's hard for anything to be as good as the film, Paddington 2, but Adventures Of Paddington manages it in every 11 minute episode. Hannah has written for many other brilliant shows for kids, and adults too, and is also one third of the very, very funny Drunk Women Solving Crime podcast.
Howard was nominated for his stand-up show that featured animated six year-old Little Howard, and that led to the Writer's Guild Award-winning Little Howard's Big Questions for CBBC. Since then, Howard has continued to do stand-up for adults while writing on animation for kids such as Danger Mouse and the Rabbids films, as well as one of the best comedy live action shows for, well, all ages, Horrible Histories.
James was part of the sketch group Casual Violence, and did several successful shows as a solo act at the Edinburgh Fringe in the early 2010s. But since then he's gone on to write for cartoons such as the Amazing World of Gumball, Bravest Warriors and Space Chickens in Space. More recently he was head writer for the very funny Dogs In Space, the second season of which has just been released, on Netflix.
And Tiernan's first Hey Duggee episode is here: iPlayer
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