Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Stewart Lee said in an earlier broadcast that "no one is equipped to review me". That's me told, bless him. The alleged theme of last week's Comedy Vehicle was patriotism. He could so easily have been lazy. Stew is many bastarding things, but lazy isn't one.

Somehow, he managed - mouth-farting into a mic - to turn a full three minutes of the sounds of a cat's diarrhoea into the most plosive and gorgeous argument against deference. It was wonderful, and I still stand and applaud its sculpted perfection. A man mouth-farting into a microphone, while mumbling the national anthem badly and talking about cat shit shouldn't have been subtle, but somehow it and its wider points were, and clog-brained oversentimental deference might want to pipe down for a bit.

Stew looks at patriotism this week, in particular our difficult relationship with the St George's flag and what it has come to represent. He's revered - and rightly so - for his lengthy, repetitive, borderline operatic gags but, unfortunately, it's questionable whether the 20 minutes or so spent relating a story about his cat - called Jeremy Corbyn - and an exhausting case of its violent diarrhoea is worth the investment. It all feels a bit leaden come the punchline. But even at his worst, he's still better than most.

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle preview - Patriotsm

The most interesting point Stewart Lee makes in the third episode of his current series, subtitled 'Patriotism', comes at the start when he talks about the biggest problem the modern satirist faces. The news is in such flux, says Lee, it is hard to get a handle on it for comedy. And if Lee is having that problem, spare a thought for lesser mortals out there trying to monetize their social commentary.