Maff Brown's Parade of This

He may not look it, but behind that big grin and mime-style stripy top, Maff Brown is something of a sadist. How else to explain the fact that so much of this show is geared towards eliciting groans rather than laughs?

Parade of This sees him batter through a series of heinously corny sketches, having enlisted the help of three standard-issue cronies. There's Laura, the screechy gamine; Will, the slightly effeminate one; and Dave, who is fat. Well, he's not actually all that fat, it's just that his weight is the punchline in virtually all his scenes.

As each of their pacey little snippets tumble their way to a conclusion, there's enough boisterous energy and off-script horseplay between the cast to keep us engaged. But then the punchline arrives and it becomes clear we've been cheated of anything more rewarding than a bit of Christmas cracker wordplay. 

The shortest sketches mean it's not too big an ask for us to concede defeat, release we've been had and give them the laughs their due — and even in the case of the weakest moments, nothing falls irredeemably flat. But all too often Brown and his goons serve up something that demands a sheepish sort of delivery, and today a couple of sketches end with an apologetic "That's it."

When it comes to the few sketches that don't rely on this sort of tricksiness, Parade of This is a bit of a blunt object. The dick jokes are proudly juvenile yet ultimately slightly flaccid, and it's disappointing to be offered fare as obvious as jokes about pandas with low libidos, a paedophiliac Willy Wonka and the Hulk in anger management.

Every sadist has his masochist, and some will get more of a kick than others out of Brown's gleefully tacky humour. But when he ends by inviting us to bark "fuck off!" as he and his troupe leave the stage, some are all too happy to oblige.