Well, Michael, tastes vary. Jerry Sadowitz I also find utterly boring and very unfunny. However, sometimes the assumptions of society have to be challenged, and the stupidities and prejudices of society have to be questioned and exposed. There are several ways of doing this, from political activism to printed polemic, and comedy is one of them.

Bill Hicks was very funny - had us in fits of laughter. I liked Lenny Bruce as a young man but find him too over-wrought for my tastes these days.

Dick Gregory, being black and born in 1932, has had to put with the racial prejudice, hatred and lack of opportunity of a black man of his generation. He fought that with his wit and comedy and observation - and why shouldn't he? If you want to brand it "alternative", with a sneer as you do so, then that's your choice - but put yourself in Dick Gregory's place and imagine how you might feel.

I don't care for many of today's current crop of comedians - "alternative" or otherwise, to be honest. They seem to be too self-consciously clever and too smug for my taste. But genius arises occasionally, and Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory were in that category in their prime.