Alex Edelman's Peer Group

A week in radio: Alex Edelman's Peer Group

Ooh, a Radio 4 comedy that made me snort tea down my nose with laughter. You don't get many of those to the pound of Darjeeling. But Alex Edelman's Peer Group on Tuesday night at 6.30pm did just that.

Radio review: Alex Edelman's Peer Group

Alex Edelman's Peer Group debated what "cool" means. He did this at Westminster University, with students. He is 31. He's probably not sure that's a cool age to be, so feels obliged to lay down the laws of cool very firmly. "No one can pull off pink hair," he says, and "the idea of cricket is cooler than the actual thing". His frequent use of "like" (as in "I was, like...") betrayed his essential uncoolosity. Perhaps his audience thought whichever age they are is definitely cooler than his. But they're polite about it. Is polite the new cool?

Alex Edelman interview

Alex Edelman on antisemitism, millennials and being treated badly by the Baftas.

Searching for more funny, I listened to US comedian Alex Edelman lampoon his own generation, those born between 1982 and 1992 and usually called millennials. His half-hour stand-up routine on Radio 4 (there's a second part next week) was nicely pointed at a UK audience, with jokes about Nigel Farage, The Inbetweeners and ITV2. God, there is such a beautiful slickness to US comedians. Edelman packs in the jokes and he sells them, hard. Nothing is shambolic, no line wasted or fluffed. It makes for a wonderfully easy, hilarious listen. I recommend.

Alex Edelman on Millennials

'Millennials are funny because they're so misunderstood'.