Katy Brand's Big Ass Show

Katy Brand: loud, rude, brash and brilliant

Katy Brand has poked merciless fun at celebrities from Beyoncé to Kate Moss. But as she takes her 'Big Ass Show' on the road, who's next?

Katy Brand takes to the road by ass

The comedian who skewers such celebrities as Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse is on the road with her Big Ass Show.

Katy Brand on Kate Moss and that Sport Relief dance

If Katy Brand were a band, she'd play every instrument. Equally at home playing the role of Her Majesty The Queen as she is Lady GaGa, the 31-year-old tours her Big Ass show from next month.

Katy Brand 0 - Lady Gaga 1

When we heard that comedian Katy Brand was back with a new TV series we weren't surprised to hear that she would be 'lampooning' Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga is an artist who very quickly transcended musician or simple popstar status and is now simply a part of mass pop culture, meaning that she is a perfect subject for someone like Brand whose gags play on recognition as much as (or more than) actual jokes.

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I've always given this the steer on the basis that it was, as one unnamed colleague put it, "possibly the worst thing on TV... ever", but, recommissioned for its third series, it tempted me. It's not, as it happens, the worst thing on TV, far from it, in fact, though judging by a few YouTube clips it has improved considerably. Juvenile the opening Lady Gaga pastiche may have been but I couldn't help but giggle at bits of it ("you keep on asking how/ this lady's so big/ then you remember it's because I'm wearing no pants/ when I'm on the bus"). Ditto, the Queen's motivational speech to the other royals ("I always give it 110 per cent - that's why I'm on top"), and the east London kid preparing for the Olympics by eating Olympic fries. It may not be Monty Python, but it ain't that bad.

The defendant this time in the crimes against comedy court is Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, which at least can't be done under the Trade Descriptions Act of 1968. Katy Brand indisputably has a big ass. And she does show it, though thankfully in moderation. But that does not make her funny. Not even remotely. Apparently she's guested with Chris Moyles, which makes all kinds of sense.

Brand can carry a tune, which at least gives her mickey-taking music parodies an air of competence markedly missing when she enters sketch-show territory. But her targets are so wide of the mark - there are way more deserving cases for having a pop at than Lady GaGa, Kanye West and Coldplay - that they end up looking like pale imitations of French And Saunders.

Katy Brand is back on ITV2 for a third series of sketches, and though she's shifting things around a bit - a "fine" Jennifer Aniston is the new "normal" Kate Winslet - she still has a canny ability to dismantle the silliness of celebrity.

The un-subtle sketch show (yes, that title is a useful advert) is back for an astonishing third series. Although the targets are obvious, the musical spoofs are far and away the best thing here, from the calculated wardrobe malfunctions of Lady Gaga to Kanye West's overuse of Auto-Tune ("I got it half-price/I bought it off Posh Spice"). And it's all pretty quickfire, which is a blessing because many of the situations feel as if they were knocked together in a few minutes. Still, you might enjoy Lily Allen: paramedic, or Bea and Eugenie hosting How Clean Is Your Palace?

She may be as good at impressions as Jordan is at avoiding cameras, but that's missing the point of Katy's celebrity-spearing sketch show. What Miss Brand excels at is taking tabloid-taunting stars and popping them in totally bizarre, yet utterly logical, situations. This time round, look out for Lady GaGa, Jennifer Aniston, and, er, Chris Martin out of Coldplay.