The Godfather of YouTube

Kenny Everett (born Maurice Cole in Seaforth, Lancashire; 25 December 1944, – 4 April 1995) was an English radio DJ and television entertainer. He is best known for his career as a radio DJ and for the Kenny Everett television shows.

Growing up in Australia in the 1970s I was exposed to The Kenny Everett Video Show by my parents. I now realize that such an experience has played a role in my humor and art as an adult (maybe a worrying thing).
Watching videos of 'Cuddly Ken' today I can see how much his work on television pushed the boundaries of the medium and anticipated later digital video. Kenny Everett's humor is part surrealist, part pantomime, part Nam June Paik and part drag show. I feel we have a debt to Everett, who has surely played a major role in creating the media ecology we have today in an aesthetic sense.

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Quotations and catchphrases

* "It's all done in the best PAH-SIBBLE taste!" -- regular punchline uttered by the character 'Cupid Stunt', accompanied by her swapping her crossed legs over in the most vigorous way possible.
* "'Ello my leetle chickadees" (and variations, in heavy French accent) -- introductory remark uttered by character 'Marcel Wave'.
* "Round 'em up, put 'em in a field, and BOMB THE BASTARDS!" -- all-purpose solution to any perceived social problem, declared by 'Marvin Bombthebastards', a handgun-waving US General with immense shoulders (equipped with retractable cannon) and chest to support many medals.
* "Brother, Brother, Brother Lee Love!" -- gospel-style sung introduction to huge-handed US minister 'Brother Lee Love', whose frenetic sermons called for the 'congregation' to echo the last two syllables of some sentences, with amusing (and occasionally very rude) results.
* "I hate pornography ... I haven't even got a pornograph!" -- 'Angry of Mayfair'.
* 'This morning, I spilled coffee all over my wife's dressing gown! Serves me right for wearing it! -- 'Angry of Mayfair'.
* "Colonel Muriel Kleen here, of the Campaign for Nice Things on Television!' (A couple of bars of 'Hallelujah!' from the 'Hallelujah Chorus'.) 'We believe in goodness, truth and beauty! We believe that Julie Andrews should get her own series, and that Joan Collins should get her own breakfast! And remember: you don't have to watch this endless display of perversitude and fleshybollery! You've all got a knob there! SO USE IT!" -- 'Angry of Mayfair.'
* (Electronic rendition of Bach's choral prelude Wachet Auf) - reminiscent of and perhaps the work of Wendy Carlos - musical accompaniment to all sketches featuring 'Maurice Minor', parody of French mime artist Marcel Marceau.
* "Ello, I'm Gizzard Puke, mugger to the gentry, and anyone who says punk's dead, will be."
* Ladies and gentlephones... pun based on "ladies and gentlemen"

In the 1983 election campaign, the Young Conservatives invited Kenny to their conference in an attempt to attract the youth vote. Egged on by film director Michael Winner, Kenny bounded onto the stage, wearing the enormously oversized foam rubber hands familiar from his mock-evangelical character Brother Lee Love. He shouted slogans like "Let's bomb Russia!" and "Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away!" (Michael Foot was the elderly leader of the Labour Party.)


Brother Lee Love