What to say of you liked it

A hilarious compendium of comic observations about the florid fauna of the world from one of Britain’s funniest men.

What to say of you disliked like it

A comic actor hijacks the stage as an interloping stand up in a cynical cash-in reminiscent of Adam Rickett’s short lived pop career.

What was good about it?

• Ricky hijacking the continuity announcement before the show after the nice lady warned about the bad language. “Like I couldn’t get you sacked,” remarked Ricky.

• Explaining how a lion’s life revolved solely around eating and copulating, and then showing a lion seemingly buggering a half-eaten zebra and saying: “And sometimes he likes to combine the two.”

• The acerbic comments from behind the camera in the behind-the-scenes episodes.

• Comparing the Nazi-obsessed History Channel with the similarly shark-obsessed Discovery Channel. “A shark would have found Anne Frank like that!”

• The bit about spiders going bald if they are stroked too much. “A bald spider goes back to the nest. ‘Why have you got a baseball cap on?’”

• Ricky’s manic hand gestures adding colour to his observations and descriptions.

What was bad about it?

• Many of the behind-the-scenes excerpts were unnecessary padding and broke up the flow of the performance, the most indulgent being when Ricky was shown in bed with his pet cat Colin.

• The section on the Bible lacked potency and originality except for the part on the serpent in the Garden of Eden, “Perfect diction, you haven’t got a mumbling snake.”

• The pictures showing animal homosexuality were like the fillers on music albums that are needed to take the duration up to 45 minutes.