Why Vic Reeves is the strangest, most perfect presenter for BBC4’s dada season

The comedy of Reeves and Mortimer is as surreal as art by the original dadaists – so news that Reeves is restaging the artists’ antics in Gaga for Dada is a delightful surprise

There was a man on stage with a paper bag on his head, waving a stick about. There was a judge who tried people for lunatic “crimes”. There was Mr Wobbly Hand. It was all rather strange, but also terribly funny. This was the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich in 1916 where the dada movement began. No, wait – it was the TV comedy show Vic Reeves Big Night Out, which ran from 1990 to 1991, and also featured Les with his fear of chives, Morrissey the Consumer Monkey and a game show called Read the Anthony Trollope Novel.

Related: Vic Reeves goes gaga over Dada for BBC4 conceptual art season

Related: A century of Dada: from anti-war artists to mainstream con artists

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