Customer Reviews
Inconceivably hilarious - By: C. Mcsloy, 10 Sep 2006 
This is by far the funniest cd I have ever had the pleasure to hear , & certainly the best thing either Morris or Cooke have ever done. It is made up of five ten-minute mock interviews with Morris playing the role of a brusque journalist getting perhaps the last interview with an aging Sir Arthur Street-Greebling. After alll Sir Arthur is to "anyone who can see him quite clearly nearing death".
Morris is a perfect foil for Cooke, never letting him take the easy route, forcing him to come up with killer one-liner after killer one-liner, & just when Peter is getting comfortable with the way the interview is going, Morris ask's him a question that you are sure is going to make the whole improvisation collapse but Cooke manages to keep it on the tracks, sending it careering up some surreal junction.
The funniest track is the one about Sir Arthur Street-Greeblings discovery of the fosilised remains of the infant Christ-child. When asked why he hasn't told the Vatican about his discovery he replies "It's none of their business... & it is a business". He then goes on to describe his plans to market minature clones of Jesus in "the usual manner". Morris then asks if he fears that Christ will try to remonstrate in some way, to which Arthur counters "well he can try, but he'll be pretty lost without the batteries".
Anyway just buy the damn thing. It's not as funny in type, you just have to hear it.
Less than the sum of its parts - By: , 12 Sep 2003 
Peter Cook & Chris Morris are two of my favorite performers. So I was delighted at the prospect of their collaboration. Unfortunately it doesn't get close to Derek & Clive or Jam or Brass Eye in the humour stakes. It isn't bad but these are two great satirists who didn't quite have the right chemistry together.
Definately DO bother. - By: , 25 Apr 2003 This is a sublime piece of improvisation from two of the greatest talents in modern comedy.
Sublime - By: Mr. John Phillips, 29 Jul 2002 I've lent this tape to several people & not a single one realised that Cook improvised the whole thing. That is a mark of genius. Cook's character, Sir Arthur Streeb-Greeblng (not to be confused with his nemesis, Sir Arthur Greeb-Streebling), is a comic gold mine, & having aged a lot since his appearances on Not Only ... But Also, has become something not entirely dissimilar to the Fast Show's Rowley Birkin, but far funnier.
It's truly wonderful that that the careers of Peter Cook & Chris Morris, in many ways Cook's obvious successor, overlapped enough for us to hear them work together. Morris has a frustrating habit of trying too hard to be contraversial (the awful Brass Eye special springs to mind), but he can be a truly brilliant surrealist when he's not trying to upset people.
Morris doesn't say much on "Why Bother", but does a great job of forcing Cook into improvising. It's obvious at times that Cook has a routine in mind, but Morris refuses to let him take over, instead forcing the conversation into truly surreal directions. When you think of some of the pretentious "artists" who appeared on early editions of "Whose Line Is It Anyway", it's hard to imagine that they could cope with being asked for info regarding their plan to revive the infant Christ & exhibit him around the world.
Although there is a sense of Cook squirming to come up with material,he never drops out of character or (cruciallly) stops being funny. VERY funny.
The highlight for me must be Sir Arthur's story about bee-keeping, which makes me laugh out loud every single time I hear it. Similarly, the tales of Sir Arthur's father's attempts to make a man of him are priceless, & his attempts to convince Morris to let have a haircut during the interview. Actuallly, 99% of the tape could actuallly be listed as highlights, as there are very few dead spots.
As with most of Cook's work, what lifts Why Bother above lesser forms of surreal comedy (including Python), is the way that Cook manages to remain completely deadpan throughout. The fact that he never once lets the mask slip is astounding.
For anyone who wants to hear a comic mastermind at work, battling
against a mastermind of the future, this tape is essential.
Oh, & if you're wondering why they stuck a picture of E.L. Wisty on the cover, rather than Sir Arthur, don't ask me!!
A Truly Remarkable Masterpiece - By: , 27 Apr 2002 Character-based comdey wich is subtle, rich, facinating, contemporary, effortless & masturfully executed. I know of nothing else quite like this - but I'd guess that if you enjoy Steve Coogan's approach to comedy, perhaps more for its subtlety, depth & originality than for its obvious storyline, then you will be more than satisified with Peter Cook's creation - Sir Arthur. Complex, dark, ridiculous, plausable, abhorrent & likeable - alll at the same time. A very rare treat indeed.
