The Top 100: The Oxbridge Connection

 

Some numbers: 100 people on our list went to university, with only 9 not going. (There are 14 unknown – the total is well over 100 because of double acts, Monty Python and comedians attending multiple universities).

 

Cambridge contributes 15, with Oxford pitching in 11, with each contributing slightly different types. 

 

Oxford brings us cerebral stars like Armando Iannucci, Stewart Lee, Josie Long and Richard Herring, plus masterminds Richard Curtis, Rowan Atkinson and Jon Plowman. 

 

Cambridge students seems to blend a flair for performance with some archetypal English sorts, with alumni including Sacha Baron Cohen, Jimmy Carr, Mark Watson, Stephen Fry, David Mitchell and Mel and Sue. Uberwriters John Lloyd and Andy Hamilton also started off at Cambridge, while Sheffield graduate Tim Key went as far as to join the Footlights after graduation.

 

Two acts mix the two approaches: the six-strong Monty Python is half Cambridge, two thirds Oxford, and one third Occidental College in LA (also the alma mater of Barack Obama, fact fans). Smith and Jones are half Ox, half Bridge. 

 

So what do we make of all of this? It's easy to say that Oxbridge acts as an incubator for new comedy. But there is also a line of argument which says that they just provide practice grounds to build tomorrow's stars of Radio 4, and that our list of the top 100 has just ended up reflecting the tastemakers' favourites.

 

Consider as an alternative the three current holders of the populist comedy flag (none of whom, incidentally, made our list): Keith Lemon actor Leigh Francis (Leeds College of Art), Benidorm writer Derren Litten (Central School of Speech and Drama), and Mrs Brown's Boys' Brendan O'Carroll, who eschewed university in favour of becoming a milkman. They're three diverse routes, but none are Oxbridge. It's certainly something we'll be bearing in mind when we do this list again.

 

A few other interesting trends to pick up on: the various universities of London contribute another quarter of our list, with 24 going to university inside the M25. London covers a multitude of sins, from the art school education of Jonathan Ross, Noel Fielding and Festival Republic's Tania Harrison, to Ricky Gervais's stint as a UCL entertainment officer and several comedians at Brunel and Middlesex. 

 

Edinburgh is the place to go to get into positions of comedy power – Lucy Lumsden at Sky, Shane Allen at Channel 4, and Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood at the Underbelly all studied there, while The Stand's Tommy Sheppard studied a train ride away at Aberdeen. 

 

There must be something about Manchester University that epitomises the university experience, as both the Young Ones' Ben Elton, Mayall and Edmondson, and Fresh Meat's Bain and Armstrong, studied there. Fresh Meat actor Jack Whitehall even attended for a couple of years before dropping out.

 

One other unlikely comedy bubble: Bristol in the early nineties spawned Lucas and Walliams, Simon Pegg and new ITV comedy honcho Myfanwy Moore.

 

And to end in tribute to those who started and didn't finish, it will of a surprise to no-one that Russell Brand got expelled, or that Charlie Brooker failed to graduate because he wrote his thesis on video games. 

 

Top 100: Intro | 100 - 81 | 80 - 61 | 60 - 41 | 40 - 21 | 20 - 1 | Ten to watch

 

Includes comedians dropping out. Listed by city rather than university (eg, Bristol covers Bristol University and UWE, Manchester includes Salford, London includes everything in the M25, etc).

 

London 24

Cambridge 15

Oxford 11

Manchester 10

Bristol 7

Edinburgh 5

Brighton 4

Coventry 4

Birmingham 3

Sheffield 2

Dublin 2

Aberdeen 1

Bretton Hall, Yorkshire 1

Cardiff 1

Cork 1

Glasgow 1

Liverpool 1

Los Angeles 1

Leicester 1

Norwich 1

Newcastle 1

Perth, Australia 1

Southampton 1

York 1

 

No university 9

Unknown 14