Rhod Gilbert

Rhod Gilbert on the horrors of undergoing a 97% bodywax

"I can honestly say that one of most horrific things I've ever done is to walk into a pub quiz in Aldershot dressed as a 6ft 3in woman" says Rhod Gilbert.

First raft of shows for 2012 Edinburgh Fringe programme

Stewart Lee, Jimmy Carr, Rhod Gilbert and more to appear at Fringe 2012.

Now revamped as a panel show, Room 101's new incarnation benefits from the boisterous banter between the guests as they compete to have their pet peeves consigned to the dumpster. Tonight's hopefuls include Countdown crew members past and present, with current host Nick Hewer squaring up against the show's former number cruncher Carol Vorderman. Brash comedian Rhod Gilbert joins them as they bemoan personal horrors including advertising slogans, Facebook, and opening ceremonies.

Rhod Gilbert barely made a peep in 2011, but this year looks set to be more productive for the comic, with a new stand-up show, The Man With the Battenburg Tattoo, on its way. In the interim we'll have to make do with this, a reshowing of his first filmed live show. Award-Winning Mince Pie sees Gilbert leaving whimsy behind to try his hand at "real life" comedy, though an altercation with a mince pie at Knutsford service station soon has him tumbling back into fantasy.

This week saw the return of Rhod Gilbert's panel show in which he, his two regulars (Greg Davies and Lloyd Langford) and a selection of celebrity guests attempt to answer all manner of odd questions.

This week's guests included Phill Jupitus (good comedian) and Kimberly Wyatt (not sure who she is). There was also David Hasselhoff in the role of the "Authenticator", making sure everything discussed was correct and providing extra information. I suppose it is a suitable title as you can't really call him an "Expert", unless you want to know how to make rubbish TV programmes and make it big in the German music charts.

Ask Rhod Gilbert mixes obscure knowledge and debate with very cheap laughs. In the first edition of the new series we learnt that a dog is as clever as a two-year-old, how many words we use on average in a lifetime, and that it was Hugh Heffner who brought Pamela Anderson into Baywatch (I think we can skip past that last one).

However, we also experience the traditional end-of-show humiliation in which Langford always gets mocked in some stupid way. In this week's edition it was to see which was the most dangerous foodstuff, which was tested by firing different items of food at him. This included water balloons filled with gravy and a gun firing 99 ice creams at him.

One issue I have with this show is that Gilbert announces who has won each round, despite the fact that there is no winner. Now, obviously there are some panel shows in which the scoring is irrelevant like I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, but it's not as if there is any "competitive element" in it like ISIHAC has, so why have winners in the first place?

Ask Rhod Gilbert does have some laughs, but it's not the most brilliant show by any stretch of the imagination.

David Hasselhoff wields milk gun on Ask Rhod Gilbert

David Hasselhoff goes from Baywatch to spray-watch as he fires a milk gun at a human target.

Rhod Gilbert on driving killer roads

TV funny man Rhod Gilbert has spoken exclusively to Autoblog about his brush with death on one of the world's most dangerous roads.

#AskRhod returns!

Rhod Gilbert is back with answers to all the important questions in life for a second series of Ask Rhod Gilbert... Have you got a question you've always wanted answered?

Watching this series's parade of classic comedy clips, chosen by comedians of today, confirms the theory that some people just have funny bones. It wouldn't matter if Tommy Cooper were clipping his toenails or performing the elaborately shambolic glass bottle trick from 1974 that is replayed here tonight: the fez-wearing comedian induces guffaws just because of who he is. Similarly, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore go wildly off-script in their "Pete and Dud" sketch in the art gallery and start giggling, but they're naturally funny together, as Phill Jupitus and Rhod Gilbert attest here. Funny comes in many packages, and while the American stand-up Joan Rivers, chosen by Graham Norton and Jo Brand as a favourite, is well-known for her shock tactics, her outrageous quips about growing old on The Graham Norton Show appeared to take even Norton aback at the time. Other treats featured are the University Challenge scene from The Young Ones in 1984, co-starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, and the bit in the Monty Python film Life of Brian in which Graham Chapman's Brian Cohen exhorts his followers to think for themselves. It may be a clip show and most of the clips are more than familiar, but it surely contains more laughs per minute than any of the newer comedies on television tonight.