Viz (comic)
Encyclopedia
Viz is a popular British
comic magazine
which has been running since 1979.
The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano
and The Dandy
, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy
, surreal humour
and either sexual
or violent
storylines. It also sends up tabloid newspapers, with mockeries of articles and letters pages. It features competition
s and advertisements
for overpriced 'limited edition' tat, such as a cat which "shits its own weight in gold", as well as obsessions with half-forgotten celebrities from the 1970s and 1980s such as Shakin' Stevens
and Rodney Bewes
. Occasionally, it satirises current events
and politician
s, but has no particular political standpoint. Its success has led to the appearance of numerous rivals crudely copying the format Viz pioneered; none of them has managed seriously to challenge its popularity. It once enjoyed being the third most popular magazine in the UK, but ABC
-audited sales have since dropped to an average of 76,408 per issue in 2009 (from 1.2 million). This is mainly because its comic remit has become broader and its format more commonplace, but also partly due to the fact that price has increased sharply to £3.20 (as of issue 195) and it is now published 'monthly' ten times a year. The falling circulation and rising cover price are often referenced in the comic itself, often by disgruntled 'contributors' to the letters page.
Some of its comedic devices, for example, generating the illusion of an entire comic-strip "universe" with a "one-off" strip, often based on a surrealistic pun
, were widely employed in the earlier and now-defunct American humour magazine National Lampoon, which was itself more or less a sophisticated version of Mad Magazine.
In a recently released coffee table book
celebrating 20 years of Viz, cartoonist Graham Dury
is quoted as saying: "We pride ourselves on the fact that you're no cleverer when you've read Viz. You might have had a few laughs, but you've not learnt anything".
in December 1979 by Chris Donald
, who produced the comic from his bedroom in his parents' Jesmond
home with help from his brother Simon
and friend Jim Brownlow. Editor Chris Donald himself cannot remember exactly where the name of the magazine comes from. The most he can remember is: at the time, he needed to come up with a proper name for it, and he considered the word "Viz" a very easy word to write/remember, as it consisted of three letters which are easily made with straight lines. The word Viz itself comes from the Latin words vide licet, which is usually abbreviated
to "viz", meaning "more appropriately or accurately; namely", and is often used interchangeably with "i.e."; for example: "He was a minor Duke in the House of Lords, viz. the Duke of Rochester". The name "Viz Comic" is also close to the Latin phrase "Vis Comica", which means "Sense of Humour".
It came about at around the time, and in the spirit of, the punk
fanzines, and used alternative methods of distribution, such as the prominent DIY record label and shop Falling A Records
, which was an early champion of the comic. The first 12-page issue was produced as a fanzine for a local record label 'Anti-Pop records' run by Arthur 2 Stroke and Andy 'Pop' Inman, and went on sale for 20p (30p to students) in The Gosforth Hotel Salters road, which hosted 'Anti-Pop' punk gigs, and the run of 150 copies had sold out within hours. What had begun as a few pages, photocopied and sold to friends, became a publishing phenomenon. To meet the demand, and to make up for Brownlow's diminishing interest in contributing, freelance artist Graham Dury was hired and worked alongside Chris Donald.
After a few years of steady sales, mostly in the North East
of England, circulation had grown to around 5,000. As the magazine's popularity grew, the bedroom became too small and production moved to a nearby Jesmond
office. Donald also hired another freelance artist, Simon Thorp, whose work had impressed him. For over a decade, these four would be the nucleus of Viz. In 1985, a deal was signed with Virgin Books
to publish the comic nationally every two months. In 1987, the Virgin director responsible for Viz, John Brown, set up his own publishing company, John Brown Publishing
, to handle Viz. Sales exceeded a million by the end of 1989, making Viz for a time one of the biggest-selling magazines in the country. Inevitably, a number of imitations of Viz were launched, but these never matched the original in popularity, and rarely in quality.
Sales steadily declined from the mid-1990s to around 200,000 in 2001, by which time Chris Donald had resigned as editor
and passed control to an "editorial cabinet" comprising his brother, Simon, Dury, Thorp and new recruits Davey Jones and Alex Collier. In June 2001, the comic was acquired as part of a £6.4 million deal by I Feel Good (IFG), a company belonging to ex-Loaded
editor James Brown
, and increased in frequency to ten times a year. In 2003, it changed hands again when IFG were bought out by Dennis Publishing
. Soon after, Simon Donald quit his role as co-editor, in an attempt to develop a career in television.
Much of the non-cartoon material such as the newspaper spoofs are written by the editorial team - Graham Dury, Simon Thorp and Davey Jones - with contributions from Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley, Joel Morris and Alex Morris, the authors of The Framley Examiner
, and by James MacDougall and Christina Martin
.
Many Viz characters have featured in long-running strips, becoming well known in their own right, including spin-off cartoon
s. Characters often have rhyming or humorous taglines, such as Roger Mellie, the Man on the Telly
; Nobby's Piles
; Johnny Fartpants
; Buster Gonad
; Sid the Sexist
; Sweary Mary
or Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres
. Others are based on stereotype
s of British culture
, mostly via working class
characters, such as Cockney Wanker
. In addition to this, the comic also contains plenty of 'in jokes' referring to people and places in and around Newcastle upon Tyne
.
Many strips appear only once. These very often have extremely surreal
or bizarre storylines, and often feature celebrities. For example: "Paul Daniels
's Jet-Ski
Journey to the Centre of Elvis", and "Arse
Farm – Young Pete and Jenny Nostradamus were spending the holidays with their Uncle Jed, who farmed arses deep in the heart of the Sussex
countryside...". The latter type often follows the style of Enid Blyton
and other popular children's adventure stories of the 1950s. Several strips were single-panel, one-off pun
s, such as "Daft Bugger", which featured two bored, uninterested men engaged in the act of buggery
; the buggerer then states that he has forgotten his car keys (thus making him "daft").
Most of the stories take place in the fictitious town of Fulchester
. Fulchester was originally the setting of the British TV programme Crown Court before the name was adopted by the Viz team. Billy the Fish
plays for Fulchester United F.C. There is innuendo in the name: the Internet domain fuck.co.uk was at one time held by fans of Viz who claimed to be promoting the Fulchester Underwater Canoeing Klubb. A significant number of strips, most of which centre on child characters, are set in the fictional Barnton.
One of the most pun-based strips was "George Bestial", which centered on famous footballer George Best
committing bestiality. The strip was discontinued after the death of Best.
Viz also lampoons political ideas - both left-wing ideals, in strips such as "The Modern Parents
" (and to an extent in Student Grant
), and right-wing ones such as "Baxter Basics", "Major Misunderstanding
", "Victorian Dad
" and numerous strips involving tabloid columnists Garry Bushell
("Garry Bushell the Bear") and Richard Littlejohn
("Richard Littlecock" and "Robin Hood and Richard Littlejohn"), portraying them as obsessed with homosexuality
, political correctness
and non-existent left-wing conspiracies
to the exclusion of all else. Holocaust-denier David Irving
featured as Dick Dastardly
in the Wacky Races
spoof, "Wacky Racists".
In keeping with the comic's irreverent and deliberately non-conformist style, The Duke of Edinburgh
was once portrayed as a culturally insensitive, dim-witted xenophobe in a one-off strip "HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and his Jocular Larks" which centred on the Duke making outrageously ill-informed comments to a young Chinese victim of a residential housing block collapse.
Occasionally, celebrities get the 'honour' of strips all to themselves. Billy Connolly
has had more than one devoted to him trying to ingratiate himself with the Queen; Harold Shipman
and Fred West
got their own strip as rival neighbours trying to kill the old woman next door and trying to foil each other's plans (Harold and Fred - they make ladies dead!), and Bob Hope
had a strip of him trying to think up amusing last words to utter on his deathbed (but ended up with just a load of swearing). The singer Elton John
has also appeared frequently in recent issues as a double-dealing Del Boy
-type character attempting to pull off small-time criminal scams such as tobacco smuggling, benefit fraud and cheating on fruit machines. Most recently, he was seen posing as a window cleaner and conning customers to pay him, before being mistaken for a Peeping Tom and given a thorough hiding. The strips always end with Elton being beaten at his own game by one or more of his musical contemporaries from the 1970s and 80s. Other celebs to have been featured in their own strips include Jonathan Ross
, Russell Brand
, Esther Rantzen
, Stephen Fry
, Noel Edmonds
, Jimmy Savile
(as the headmaster of "Pop School", as "Sir Jimmy Savile, the Owl" and in "Jimmy Savile's Haunted Head"), Johnny Vaughan
, Adam Ant
, Jimmy Hill
, Noddy Holder
, Boy George
, Freddie Garrity
, Steve McFadden
, Morrissey
(constantly finding daffodils stuck into the seat of his trousers, parodying his appearances on Top of the Pops
), Busted, Eminem
, Big Daddy
and plenty more.
In 2002, British comedian Johnny Vegas
sold the exclusive rights to his wedding photographs to Viz for £1, in a flippant dig at celebrity couples who sold the rights to their wedding photos to glossy magazines such as OK!
for anything up to (and over) £1million. Viz subsequently printed the 'exclusive' photos of Vegas's big day in their next issue, but Vegas claims he never received the money.
Other stories include ludicrous "kiss and tell" and similar stories by people who are portrayed as mentally disturbed, often with highly bizarre elements; examples include allegations by a man who claimed that, on holiday touring in his caravan
, he found a campsite run by Elvis Presley
who, when plied with drink, admitted to the Kennedy assassination
; another from a retired toilet attendant who described the nature of faeces
from various little-known celebrities
and an elderly woman who blames anti-social behaviour in her area on bored Newsnight
presenters, as well as a mental home patient who claimed to have had sex
with a number of children's TV puppet
s.
Additionally, there were the usual stories revolving around celebrities, some in the "tell-all" vein (such as a customs agent who claimed he found drugs in Pamela Anderson
's "plastic tits"). If one of a select band of frequently referenced stars is mentioned during these stories, they will be named humorously. Among others, Lemmy Kilmister
will invariably be referred to as "Lemmy out of Motörhead", Bono
as "Bonio
" (a brand of dog biscuit) and Sting as "Sting (real name Gordon Sting)", mixing the singer's birth and stage names. One particularly memorable piece of tabloidesque worldplay parody, involving a fictional plot to assassinate Paul McCartney by a disgruntled former roadie, read 'Mop Top Pot Shot Plot Flops', or with a gonad-focussed violent encounter with Mr T and a 70's playground toy, 'BA Baracus in Macca's clackers knackers fracas'.
Photos in Viz news stories are often edited and altered, much to the detriment of the subjects involved (teeth blacked out, facial features shrunken/enlarged, and so on). In the case of the aforementioned Lemmy, for one photo the editors simply took a picture of a man wearing a baseball cap and drew a crude approximation of Lemmy's facial hair and warts on his face (as well as writing "Motörhead" on the cap). Photos will frequently be captioned only with the name of the subject and a comma followed by "yesterday", e.g. "A train, yesterday".
Following the format common in tabloid newspapers, paragraphs within written articles include 'cross heads' which, in normal journalism, serve to indicate the theme of the following sections. In Viz however, while these words often start out being relevant to the story, they quickly stray for comedic value and therefore have little or no relevance to the following text. The words will often follow a theme, such as TV cops' names or types of curry, and will sometimes spell out a sentence, rarely relevant, if read separately from the story.
during bathtime, such as "playing with [his] pork sword
"; in this case, when the reader entered the bathroom, she discovered her son had indeed fashioned a sword out of pork sausages). Since Viz claims to offer £10 for the best letter published in a particular issue, many letters end with the inquiry, "Do I win £10?"
Many make observations about celebrities (especially those who have recently died; one letter printed after the deaths of Gianni Versace
and Princess Diana remarked on both their violent deaths and friendship with Elton John
, stating "I tell you what. If I was George Michael
right about now, I'd be shitting myself") or current events (a 2000 issue remarked "The Government spent £850 million
on the Millennium Bug, and the only thing that crashes is Q
[ Desmond Llewelyn
] out of the Bond films").
Most employ deliberate misunderstandings for comic effect (e.g. "These so-called speed bump
s are a joke. If anything they slow you down" or "I went to one of these so called Gentlemens' clubs and was shocked to see it was full of Women. To make matters worse many of them were wearing very little clothing"). Often letters feature simple yet absurd statements ("I'm heading off to the pub in a few minutes and wondered if any of your readers fancied joining me for a pint" or "They say size doesn't matter - if that's true, why can't I get these shoes on?").
A bizarre series of letters from a J Cursiter of Bristol
recounted his hobby of watching passers-by from "a series of cunningly-disguised hides". It is unclear whether Cursiter is a reader of the comic or a creation of the editors.
Often letters are printed that criticise Viz, accusing it of "not being as funny as it used to be", condemning it as being offensive or of complaining about the frequent price rises. These are often published and sometimes even framed in a small section titled "Why I Love My Viz!", blatantly mocking The Sun
newspaper's habit of printing (positive) comments in little frames titled "Why I Love My Sun!"
There are often invitations for readers to submit pictures, such as the request for examples of "Insincere Smiles", whereby people sent in pictures cut from newspapers and brochures of celebrities and politicians caught smiling in a manner which looks utterly insincere and forced (Tony Blair
featured at least twice). A similar series was of men who were wearing absurdly ill-fitting wigs. There's also "Up The Arse Corner", where photographs are submitted of people whose pose, and/or facial expression, could be misconstrued as being in the midst of an act of buggery
.
Letterbocks also formerly featured correspondence from, and has brought fame to, the late Abdul Latif
, Lord of Harpole
, proprietor of the (real) Curry Capital restaurant (formerly the Rupali), Bigg Market. His Lordship often promoted his restaurant with spoof competitions and offers. In December 2006, he appeared in a seasonal broadcast to rival the Queen's Christmas message.
"I once had a drink with a bloke who had caught Duran Duran
's Simon Le Bon
's dog after it had escaped from his big house", and "My sister once shagged Ringo
out of The Bootleg Beatles
."
Some tips are for ludicrous motives, such as "how to convince neighbours that your house has dry rot
", while others are for ostensibly sensible motives but with ridiculous and impractical suggestions for their application:
Some are just inexplicable:
Others inspire running jokes:
A more recent trend is for sarcastic tips to be offered that are observations by the readers regarding other people's behaviour, such as a barmaid who suggests male public house
customers who are "trying to get into a barmaid's knickers" should "pull back your tenner just as she reaches to take it when paying for a round. It really turns us on". In a similar vein, one reader (or Viz staffer) suggested "Old people – are you worried that people in a hurry might be able to get past you on the pavement? Why not try stumbling aimlessly from side to side? That should stop them".
was accused of plagiarising a number of Viz Top Tips in an advertising campaign they ran in 1996.
Some of the similarities are almost word-for-word:
The case was later settled out of court for an undisclosed sum (donated to Comic Relief); but many Viz readers believed that the comic had given permission for their use, leading to Top Tips submissions such as:
But Viz magazine did take it in good spirit and published them.
At around the same time, the following Top Tip was also published:
In addition, a burger bar McWonald's was used as a story setting and displayed a large W in the style of an inverted Golden Arches
M. This establishment had spotty-faced teenage staff vomiting and smoking; a child customer informs his mother that he does not want to finish his burger as it "tastes of pigeon and has cigarette butts in it".
In a further attack on the company, the map of Cuntinental Europe - given away free with Issue 118 and constituting a large cartoon depiction of typical British stereotype
s of themselves and their neighbours over the relevant geographical areas, displays the McDonald's logo on what may be considered to be insensitive locations, namely the Parthenon
and the vicinity of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
.
sets. These poke fun at the genuine adverts for such items in magazines found in the colour supplements of Sunday newspapers. Of course, those found in Viz are absurd, such as a breakfast plate depicting Princess Diana's
face in the middle of a fried egg
, "No. 22 Shit Street" (which was a diorama of a dilapidated council house
complete with rabid dog, youthful vandals and a "gently rusting" washing machine in the front yard), and "Little Ted West", a teddy bear
dressed to look like serial killer Fred West
. Recently, Viz actually manufactured some of these items for real and sold them, including a china plate depicting "The Life of Christ...In Cats", featuring tacky pictures of a cat in various stages of Jesus
's life, and the Elvis Presley Dambusters Clock Plate of Tutankhamen, a clock featuring Elvis in the style of Tutankhamun
's death mask in addition to Avro Lancaster
bomber planes. Many Viz gems are tucked away in spoof Terms and Conditions sections or application forms. Wry adverts for mail order "objets de tat" will require prospective buyers to commit to exorbitant, protracted payment arrangements and demand they give up the opportunity to put right their error, once the thrill of actually holding a "Lady Diana Full English Breakfast Plate of Hope" has faded. One "Ticky Box" is labelled "My statutory rights are not important".
Another staple of Viz advertisement parody are the adverts for public and government services which one would normally not expect to find advertised; for example, one ad consisted of the words "Raped? Burgled? Run over? Why not call the police", placed next to a picture of a grinning policeman
. Another ad exhorted male readers to join the British Army
, because "all the birds are gagging for squaddies" (with the fine print on the reply coupon having a tick box where the interested recruit indicates that spending years ducking for cover in Belfast
"should just about see [him] right" when it comes to the ladies). The 'PC Brigade' were also featured as if they were the fire brigade, stating they attended emergencies such as 'collapsed turbans', freeing gypsies from railings while leaving British people stuck tight. They also carried the slogan 'Fueling middle England's persecution complex since 1958'.
A long-running gag has been adverts for sheds, or rather surreal types of sheds ("TV Sheds", "Shed Bikes", "Shed Snakes", etc.). Testament to the quality of these is invariably provided by a Mrs. B. of Essex
.
Adverts for loan companies have been parodied frequently since approximately 2000, usually with an absurd twist, such as ones aimed at vagrants
, offering loans of between 5 and 10 pence for a cup of tea
. Roger Mellie
has frequently starred in such spoof advertisements, both in separate sections in Viz and also his own strip. Mellie is portrayed as someone who is willing to endorse any product whatsoever for money or freebies.
Scatalogical humour also featured heavily in the ads; one ad featured "Clag-Gone", which consisted of a stationary bicycle with no seat. Instead, the rider simply placed his naked bottom onto the "Clag-Gone"'s wire brush wheel, which then cleaned away "winnits", "tag-nuts" and "dangleberries". Another ad featured a tourist package where eggs were served in great quantities; a happy tourist was featured saying "I'm egg-bound
for Jamaica!".
Genuine competitions have been run by Viz, with proper prizes. One of the earliest was a competition to win 'a ton of money' a pointed satire of tabloid newspapers promising huge cash prizes to boost circulation - the prize was in fact a metric tonne
of one- and two-pence pieces, equivalent to a few hundred pounds sterling. Recently, they were giving away a plasma screen television provided by the producers of Freddy vs. Jason
. Viz poked fun at the movie, describing it as "shit
e" in the competition description, and described the runners-up prizes of DVDs of the film as "frankly worthless", which led to the producers refusing to hand over the prize, for insulting their film.
Another spin-off was "Roger's Profanisaurus
", a thesaurus
of (often freshly coined) rude words, phrases and sexual slang
submitted by readers. It has been published as several books, the 2002 print of which has a foreword by Terry Jones
. This also often features genuine regional slang. More recently Roger's Profanisaurus has become a popular downloadable app for Apple's iPhone.
Jimmy Carr
is one of the latest targets of Viz, being lambasted as a sham of a comedian by having photographs of himself posing with employees who have won mundane awards at meaningless corporate events, under the recurrent headline 'Carr for hire'. In issue 160, a genuine advert appeared promoting his latest DVD with the tagline "When he's not doing corporate gigs, Jimmy Carr is a stand-up comic".
In November 1987, a free mini-issue of Viz was given away with issue 23 of computer magazine Your Sinclair
. This was done in response to Your Sinclair's competitor, CRASH
, giving away a mini-copy of Oink!
comic with their issue 42.
s are included. These parody the format of supernatural and true-love British comics which were popular with young girl readers in the 1970s
and 1980s
, such as "Chiller" and "Jackie
", as well as the "real life dilemma
" photo strips often found in the advice column
s of tabloid newspapers.
For example, a young woman is convinced that the spirit of her dead husband has possessed the family dog, and after some soul-searching, begins a sexual relationship with the dog. A running joke in these stories is that they often feature a car accident in which one of the characters is run down— in every case, the same man is driving the car, and always responds with the same line: "Sorry mate, I didn't see her!". The locations for the photo-stories are (probably deliberately) recognisable as the suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne
where the Viz team are based.
On occasion, this is explicitly recognised: the one-off strip Whitley Baywatch, a spoof of the popular American TV show Baywatch
, is based in the North East coastal resort of Whitley Bay
. But other stories purporting to be set in London, or without a set location, are often also identifiably near to the Viz editorial offices in Jesmond
. In "He just loved to dance" (no. 103), for example, Komal's Tandoor
i restaurant in West Jesmond is visible. In "Four minutes to fall in love" (no. 107), the Gateshead Millennium Bridge
provides a backdrop to the dénouement. An occasionally recurring actor in these strips is Arthur 2 Stroke, now acknowledged as the "Guru of Viz" by Chris Donald founder editor. Arthur, former lead singer of the band The Chart Commandos, still continues to perform with "Big Black Bomb" and is still considered to be an innovating force on the Newcastle music scene.
One such photo-strip was called "I Believe in Father Christmas", where an adult man believes in Father Christmas
. His wife, named Virginia, attempts to convince him otherwise. He visits a department store Father Christmas, just like a child, although he asks for a CD from either Dire Straits
or Phil Collins
. On Christmas night, the man goes downstairs to the living room, as he hears a noise and figures Father Christmas must have come. However, he is surprised to see that an armed robber has broken into his house, who promptly shoots him and flees. His wife, in shock, tends to her husband as he is badly hurt, and he tells her he was wrong to believe in Father Christmas like some small child. However, the wife tearfully says that Father Christmas did indeed come, and left presents for them. The strip ends with the husband saying to his wife "Yes Virginia, there is a Father Christmas
".
In his book Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz, the comic's creator Chris Donald claimed that the first legal action ever taken against Viz was initiated by a man who objected to the use of a picture of his house (taken from an estate agent's catalogue) in one of these photo-strips, and that the British tabloid newspaper Sunday Mirror
tried to provoke media outrage over another photo-strip which, if taken out of context, could be misconstrued as making light of the problem of illegal drugs being offered to children.
Actor Sean Bean
made an one-off appearance in 1996 titled "I've Bean to Paradise" where the main character, unhappy with his long term relationship, attempts to seek out for more physically attractive women by undergoing a makeover as a lookalike of the actor (played by himself) and passing himself off as the actor with references to his past screen roles.
Trinny
and Susannah
also threatened to sue the comic after being portrayed as school bullies in a cartoon strip (Fat and Skinny: Suzanna and Trinny). An official Viz spokesman said “We are too busy laughing to comment”.
A one-off TV programme "Viz - The Documentary" was shown on Britain's Channel 4
in 1990, spoofing serious investigative TV shows like Panorama
or Dispatches while telling the story of Viz.
A computer game
using Viz characters was produced in 1991 by Virgin Interactive
.
The Fat Slags appeared in TV ads for Lucozade
, a drink which they hate with a passion. These ads included a mixture of cartoon characters (the slags) and live actors (the men who drink Lucozade).
A movie based on The Fat Slags was produced in 2004, but was disowned by the magazine's editors who threatened to stop running the strip in response.
A novelty single was released in 1987 for Viz and its Buster Gonads comic by the band XTC
as "Johnny Japes and His Jesticles". The A-side was "Bags of Fun With Buster" b/w "Scrotal Scratch Mix".
During the Gulf War
of 1991, Sepecat Jaguar
GR1A bombers of the Royal Air Force
featured such Viz characters as Johnny Fartpants, the Fat Slags and Buster Gonad as nose art
.
after featuring a strip called "The Thieving Gypsy Bastards" During the resulting court case, UK newspaper The Sun ran a story revealing that the principal Roma man who initiated the action against them was in fact also being tried for (and was later found guilty of) handling stolen property. In the same issue Viz ran a short strip called "The Nice, Honest Gypsies", featuring a kindly Gypsy woman selling pegs door-to-door and helpfully returning forgotten change.
The strip "Wanker Watson", a parody of the children's comic character Winker Watson
, led to litigation by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
, the owners of the Winker character. In retaliation, Viz featured a new character called 'D.C. Thompson The Humourless Scottish Git'. D.C. Thomson then sought revenge by publishing a new cartoon "The Jocks and The Geordies", a revival of an old strip from The Dandy, in which the Geordies (clearly representing Viz) competed with the Jocks (clearly representing Thomson) in a competition to design funny cartoon characters. The Geordies' miserable efforts bore sharp similarity to actual Viz characters, such as 'The Boy with Big Pants' - a reference to Felix and his Amazing Underpants. (Chris Donald's book Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz, notes the good-humored nature of the latter stages of this episode).
Sports clothing manufacturer Kappa
insisted that the comic drop the name of one of its characters, "Kappa Slappa", as it had no permission to use the brand name. Kappa also believed that the character in question insulted its customer base. "Slapper" was an obnoxious, uneducated, highly unattractive and sexually promiscuous 14-year-old single mother living on a Tyneside council estate, always donning her Kappa shellsuit. After several runs of the strip, Viz agreed to change her name to "Tasha Slappa
".
In his book Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz, Chris Donald mentions that he was interviewed by police after giving the go-ahead to publish a Top Tip which could have been interpreted as an incitement to carry out a bomb plot. Donald claims that he then accidentally included the offending statement in that year's Viz annual, and had to have it covered with a sticker by the publishers.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comic magazine
Comic magazine
Comic magazine may refer to:*A periodical containing comic strips, in the UK referred to as comic.*In the U.S., more commonly referred to as a comic book.*In Japan comic magazines are called manga.*See also Franco-Belgian comics magazines....
which has been running since 1979.
The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano
The Beano
The Beano is a British children's comic, published by D.C. Thomson & Co and is arguably their most successful.The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly. During the Second World War,The Beano and The Dandy were published on alternating weeks because of paper and ink...
and The Dandy
The Dandy
The Dandy is a long running children's comic published in the United Kingdom by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The first issue was printed in 1937 and it is the world's third longest running comic, after Detective Comics and Il Giornalino...
, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
, surreal humour
Surreal humour
Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
and either sexual
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
or violent
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
storylines. It also sends up tabloid newspapers, with mockeries of articles and letters pages. It features competition
Competition
Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...
s and advertisements
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
for overpriced 'limited edition' tat, such as a cat which "shits its own weight in gold", as well as obsessions with half-forgotten celebrities from the 1970s and 1980s such as Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens, also known as "Shaky" is a platinum selling Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter who holds the distinction of being the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s . His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, although it was not until 1980 that he saw...
and Rodney Bewes
Rodney Bewes
Rodney Bewes is an English television actor and writer who is best known for playing Bob Ferris in the BBC television sitcom The Likely Lads and its colour sequel Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? , and in the various radio series based on them , and in the big screen film The Likely Lads...
. Occasionally, it satirises current events
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
s, but has no particular political standpoint. Its success has led to the appearance of numerous rivals crudely copying the format Viz pioneered; none of them has managed seriously to challenge its popularity. It once enjoyed being the third most popular magazine in the UK, but ABC
ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations UK)
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, ABC has two roles:* To manage and uphold standards which reflect media industry needs...
-audited sales have since dropped to an average of 76,408 per issue in 2009 (from 1.2 million). This is mainly because its comic remit has become broader and its format more commonplace, but also partly due to the fact that price has increased sharply to £3.20 (as of issue 195) and it is now published 'monthly' ten times a year. The falling circulation and rising cover price are often referenced in the comic itself, often by disgruntled 'contributors' to the letters page.
Some of its comedic devices, for example, generating the illusion of an entire comic-strip "universe" with a "one-off" strip, often based on a surrealistic pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
, were widely employed in the earlier and now-defunct American humour magazine National Lampoon, which was itself more or less a sophisticated version of Mad Magazine.
In a recently released coffee table book
Coffee table book
A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...
celebrating 20 years of Viz, cartoonist Graham Dury
Graham Dury
Graham Dury is a British cartoonist. He is known for his work with adult comic Viz, having contributed to the magazine from its early years...
is quoted as saying: "We pride ourselves on the fact that you're no cleverer when you've read Viz. You might have had a few laughs, but you've not learnt anything".
History
The comic was started in Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
in December 1979 by Chris Donald
Chris Donald
Chris Donald is the founder of, and one of the principal contributors to, the British comic magazine Viz...
, who produced the comic from his bedroom in his parents' Jesmond
Jesmond
Jesmond is a residential suburb and is split into two electoral wards just north of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The population is about 12,000. It is adjacent to, and to the east of, the Town Moor, providing pedestrian and cycle paths to Spital Tongues and the city's two Universities...
home with help from his brother Simon
Simon Donald
Simon Donald is a co-founder and was co-editor of the British comic magazine Viz until 2003.He set up the magazine in 1979 with his brother Chris from a bedroom in Newcastle. His most famous creation for the magazine is probably Sid the Sexist....
and friend Jim Brownlow. Editor Chris Donald himself cannot remember exactly where the name of the magazine comes from. The most he can remember is: at the time, he needed to come up with a proper name for it, and he considered the word "Viz" a very easy word to write/remember, as it consisted of three letters which are easily made with straight lines. The word Viz itself comes from the Latin words vide licet, which is usually abbreviated
Scribal abbreviation
Scribal abbreviations are the abbreviations used by ancient and mediæval scribes writing in Latin and, later, in Greek and Old Norse...
to "viz", meaning "more appropriately or accurately; namely", and is often used interchangeably with "i.e."; for example: "He was a minor Duke in the House of Lords, viz. the Duke of Rochester". The name "Viz Comic" is also close to the Latin phrase "Vis Comica", which means "Sense of Humour".
It came about at around the time, and in the spirit of, the punk
Punk zine
A punk zine is a zine devoted to punk culture, most often punk rock music, bands, or the DIY punk ethic. Punk zines are the most likely place to find punk literature....
fanzines, and used alternative methods of distribution, such as the prominent DIY record label and shop Falling A Records
Falling A Records
Falling A Records is a Essex, England based independent record label formed in the late 1970s, and heavily involved with the D.I.Y cassette movement of the early 1980s...
, which was an early champion of the comic. The first 12-page issue was produced as a fanzine for a local record label 'Anti-Pop records' run by Arthur 2 Stroke and Andy 'Pop' Inman, and went on sale for 20p (30p to students) in The Gosforth Hotel Salters road, which hosted 'Anti-Pop' punk gigs, and the run of 150 copies had sold out within hours. What had begun as a few pages, photocopied and sold to friends, became a publishing phenomenon. To meet the demand, and to make up for Brownlow's diminishing interest in contributing, freelance artist Graham Dury was hired and worked alongside Chris Donald.
After a few years of steady sales, mostly in the North East
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
of England, circulation had grown to around 5,000. As the magazine's popularity grew, the bedroom became too small and production moved to a nearby Jesmond
Jesmond
Jesmond is a residential suburb and is split into two electoral wards just north of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The population is about 12,000. It is adjacent to, and to the east of, the Town Moor, providing pedestrian and cycle paths to Spital Tongues and the city's two Universities...
office. Donald also hired another freelance artist, Simon Thorp, whose work had impressed him. For over a decade, these four would be the nucleus of Viz. In 1985, a deal was signed with Virgin Books
Virgin Books
Virgin Books is a United Kingdom book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Enterprises, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company.-History:...
to publish the comic nationally every two months. In 1987, the Virgin director responsible for Viz, John Brown, set up his own publishing company, John Brown Publishing
John Brown Publishing
John Brown, previously called John Brown Publishing, is one of the world’s largest customer communication agencies. While originally formed as a magazine company it now offers a broad range of services under a single umbrella - these include divisions for catalogues, digital, customer magazines,...
, to handle Viz. Sales exceeded a million by the end of 1989, making Viz for a time one of the biggest-selling magazines in the country. Inevitably, a number of imitations of Viz were launched, but these never matched the original in popularity, and rarely in quality.
Sales steadily declined from the mid-1990s to around 200,000 in 2001, by which time Chris Donald had resigned as editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
and passed control to an "editorial cabinet" comprising his brother, Simon, Dury, Thorp and new recruits Davey Jones and Alex Collier. In June 2001, the comic was acquired as part of a £6.4 million deal by I Feel Good (IFG), a company belonging to ex-Loaded
Loaded (magazine)
Loaded, first published in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag". Its motto is "For men who should know better".-History:...
editor James Brown
James Brown (editor)
James Brown is a British journalist. He is best known for creating the modern men's magazine market with the launch of his title Loaded in 1994, a magazine that was said to define a generation...
, and increased in frequency to ten times a year. In 2003, it changed hands again when IFG were bought out by Dennis Publishing
Dennis Publishing
Dennis Publishing Ltd. is an independent publisher. It was founded in 1974.As of April 2010 the company publishes 31 magazine or online titles, predominately in the UK....
. Soon after, Simon Donald quit his role as co-editor, in an attempt to develop a career in television.
Much of the non-cartoon material such as the newspaper spoofs are written by the editorial team - Graham Dury, Simon Thorp and Davey Jones - with contributions from Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley, Joel Morris and Alex Morris, the authors of The Framley Examiner
The Framley Examiner
The Framley Examiner is a parody of a newspaper in a small provincial English town.Very little happens in Framley, so the highlights in the newspaper are the absurdist classified ads The Framley Examiner ('Framley's traditional favourite since 1978') is a parody of a newspaper in a small...
, and by James MacDougall and Christina Martin
Christina Martin
Christina Martin is a British comedian, actor and writer.She came third in the 2006 Funny Women Awards. She was a feature writer for Viz Comic between 2006 and 2009 and wrote for New Humanist magazine between 2007 and 2009...
.
Notable strips
- For a complete list, see List of Viz comic strips
Many Viz characters have featured in long-running strips, becoming well known in their own right, including spin-off cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s. Characters often have rhyming or humorous taglines, such as Roger Mellie, the Man on the Telly
Roger Mellie
Roger Mellie is a fictional character featured in Viz magazine. His catchphrase is "Hello, good evening and bollocks!", satirising David Frost's catchphrase "Hello, good evening, and welcome". The character is foul-mouthed, an obnoxious misogynist who manages to maintain a career as a television...
; Nobby's Piles
Nobby's Piles
Nobby's Piles is the name of a cartoon in the British comic Viz. It is one of the longest running strips, having been appearing with some regularity since the mid-1980s....
; Johnny Fartpants
Johnny Fartpants
Sex Maniac was arguably the first character in Viz magazine to achieve UK-wide notoriety, and was certainly on a lot of teenagers' T-shirts in the late 1980s. He is, on the face of it, an ordinary boy; except that he suffers from extreme, excessive flatulence which is not only offensive to the nose...
; Buster Gonad
Buster Gonad
Buster Gonad is the name of a cartoon character in the British comic Viz. It involves the surreal adventures of "the boy with unfeasibly large testicles". During a storm, Buster's gonads were zapped by cosmic rays which enlarged them to an enormous size. Buster's gonads are so large, in fact, that...
; Sid the Sexist
Sid the Sexist
Sid the Sexist is a character from the English comic book Viz. The strip was created and mostly drawn by Simon Donald until he left the magazine in 2003, when Paul Palmer took over as artist...
; Sweary Mary
Sweary Mary
Sweary Mary is a fictional character in Viz magazine, who appeared briefly in 1994-95. Bearing more than a passing physical resemblance to The Beano‘s Minnie the Minx, her sole purpose in life was to say as many rude words as possible; and the comic's story - such as it was - revolved around her...
or Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres
Finbarr Saunders
Finbarr Saunders is a comic strip in the British comic magazine Viz.The strip is about a boy who is always overhearing ambiguous conversations, usually between his divorced mother and their neighbour, Mr. Gimlet, with whom she always eventually ends up having sex...
. Others are based on stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s of British culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, mostly via working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
characters, such as Cockney Wanker
Cockney Wanker
Cockney Wanker is a character from Viz based on a stereotype of the male Cockney. He is a thief, conman and charlatan who speaks in impenetrable rhyming slang and spends his days drinking, selling stolen or unworkable goods to passers-by on the streets and being violent to his wife...
. In addition to this, the comic also contains plenty of 'in jokes' referring to people and places in and around Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
.
Many strips appear only once. These very often have extremely surreal
Surreal humour
Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
or bizarre storylines, and often feature celebrities. For example: "Paul Daniels
Paul Daniels
Paul Daniels, born Newton Edward Daniels on 6 April 1938, is a British magician and television performer. He achieved international fame through his television series The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which ran on the BBC from 1979 to 1994.-Early life:...
's Jet-Ski
Jet ski
Jet Ski is the brand name of a personal watercraft manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The name is sometimes mistakenly used by those unfamiliar with the personal watercraft industry to refer to any type of personal watercraft; however, the name is a valid trademark registered with the...
Journey to the Centre of Elvis", and "Arse
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
Farm – Young Pete and Jenny Nostradamus were spending the holidays with their Uncle Jed, who farmed arses deep in the heart of the Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
countryside...". The latter type often follows the style of Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
and other popular children's adventure stories of the 1950s. Several strips were single-panel, one-off pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s, such as "Daft Bugger", which featured two bored, uninterested men engaged in the act of buggery
Buggery
The British English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It may be, also, a specific common law offence, encompassing both sodomy and bestiality.-In law:...
; the buggerer then states that he has forgotten his car keys (thus making him "daft").
Most of the stories take place in the fictitious town of Fulchester
Fulchester
Fulchester is a fictitious town in North East England where most of the comic strips in the humour-based Viz comic are set. From the accents used and the cultural references, it is presumed that Fulchester is either close to, or based upon, Newcastle upon Tyne. The name was taken from the British...
. Fulchester was originally the setting of the British TV programme Crown Court before the name was adopted by the Viz team. Billy the Fish
Billy the Fish
Billy the Fish is a long-running cartoon strip in the British comic Viz that first appeared in 1983.Created by artist Chris Donald and writer Simon Thorp Billy the Fish is, like many Viz strips, a lampoon of British comics – In Billy the Fishs case, that of football-themed strips such as Roy of...
plays for Fulchester United F.C. There is innuendo in the name: the Internet domain fuck.co.uk was at one time held by fans of Viz who claimed to be promoting the Fulchester Underwater Canoeing Klubb. A significant number of strips, most of which centre on child characters, are set in the fictional Barnton.
One of the most pun-based strips was "George Bestial", which centered on famous footballer George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
committing bestiality. The strip was discontinued after the death of Best.
Viz also lampoons political ideas - both left-wing ideals, in strips such as "The Modern Parents
The Modern Parents
The Modern Parents is a comic strip from the British comic Viz created by John Fardell who both writes and illustrates it. One of the most enduring and frequent strips in Viz, having appeared regularly since the early 1990s, it is a parody of 'ethically aware' middle-class parents and the new age...
" (and to an extent in Student Grant
Student Grant
Student Grant is a cartoon strip in the British comic Viz. It first appeared in 1992 and featured regularly for the rest of the 1990s. The strip, created by Simon Thorp, features a University student named Grant Wankshaft, a student at the fictional Spunkbridge University. Grant does little or no...
), and right-wing ones such as "Baxter Basics", "Major Misunderstanding
Major Misunderstanding
Major Misunderstanding is a character in the British adult comic Viz.He is a retired major who dresses smartly, has a bushy walrus moustache and wears his medals on his chest for all to see; things which suggest that he is very pompous. He seems senile and certainly set in his ways, ranting against...
", "Victorian Dad
Victorian Dad
Victorian Dad is a character in the British comic Viz.First appearing in Viz in the 1990s, Victorian Dad lives in the contemporary age but dresses and acts like a parody of a stereotypical gentleman of the Victorian era. He has a large top hat, always wears a suit, and sports a walrus moustache and...
" and numerous strips involving tabloid columnists Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell
Garry Bushell is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Oi! band The Gonads and manages the New York City Oi! band Maninblack. Bushell's recurring themes are comedy, country and class...
("Garry Bushell the Bear") and Richard Littlejohn
Richard Littlejohn
Richard William Littlejohn is an English author, broadcaster and journalist. He is noted for his Conservative views and currently writes a twice-weekly column for the Daily Mail....
("Richard Littlecock" and "Robin Hood and Richard Littlejohn"), portraying them as obsessed with homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
and non-existent left-wing conspiracies
Left-wing conspiracy
See also Right-wing conspiracy.Left-wing conspiracy refers to an alleged network of political liberals who seek to discredit conservative politics....
to the exclusion of all else. Holocaust-denier David Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
featured as Dick Dastardly
Dick Dastardly
Dick Dastardly is a fictional character and antagonist who appeared in various animated series by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Dastardly's most famous appearances are main character in the series Wacky Races and its spin-off Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines...
in the Wacky Races
Wacky Races
Wacky Races is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America, with each driver hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer." Wacky Races ran on CBS from September...
spoof, "Wacky Racists".
In keeping with the comic's irreverent and deliberately non-conformist style, The Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
was once portrayed as a culturally insensitive, dim-witted xenophobe in a one-off strip "HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and his Jocular Larks" which centred on the Duke making outrageously ill-informed comments to a young Chinese victim of a residential housing block collapse.
Occasionally, celebrities get the 'honour' of strips all to themselves. Billy Connolly
Billy Connolly
William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin...
has had more than one devoted to him trying to ingratiate himself with the Queen; Harold Shipman
Harold Shipman
Harold Fredrick Shipman was an English doctor and one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history with 218 murders being positively ascribed to him....
and Fred West
Fred West
Frederick Walter Stephen West , was a British serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, he alone, and later, he and his wife Rosemary, tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, many at the couple's homes. The majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and September 1979 at...
got their own strip as rival neighbours trying to kill the old woman next door and trying to foil each other's plans (Harold and Fred - they make ladies dead!), and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
had a strip of him trying to think up amusing last words to utter on his deathbed (but ended up with just a load of swearing). The singer Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
has also appeared frequently in recent issues as a double-dealing Del Boy
Del Boy
Derek Edward Trotter, better known as "Del Boy", is the fictional lead character in the popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses and one of the main characters of its prequel, Rock & Chips...
-type character attempting to pull off small-time criminal scams such as tobacco smuggling, benefit fraud and cheating on fruit machines. Most recently, he was seen posing as a window cleaner and conning customers to pay him, before being mistaken for a Peeping Tom and given a thorough hiding. The strips always end with Elton being beaten at his own game by one or more of his musical contemporaries from the 1970s and 80s. Other celebs to have been featured in their own strips include Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross (television presenter)
Jonathan Stephen Ross, OBE is an English television and radio presenter, best known for presenting the BBC One chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross from 2001 until he left the BBC in 2010. Ross began hosting a new chat show on ITV1 starting 3 September 2011...
, Russell Brand
Russell Brand
Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...
, Esther Rantzen
Esther Rantzen
Esther Louise Rantzen CBE is an English journalist and television presenter who is best known for presenting the BBC television series That's Life!, and for her work in various charitable causes. She is founder of the child protection charity ChildLine, and also advocates the work of the Burma...
, Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, Noel Edmonds
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...
, Jimmy Savile
Jimmy Savile
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile, OBE, KCSG was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops...
(as the headmaster of "Pop School", as "Sir Jimmy Savile, the Owl" and in "Jimmy Savile's Haunted Head"), Johnny Vaughan
Johnny Vaughan
Jonathan Randall Vaughan is an English broadcaster and journalist. Vaughan has become well known as a television and radio personality and has also built a reputation as a film critic. He co-presented Capital Breakfast alongside Lisa Snowdon on 95.8 Capital FM between 2004 and 2011...
, Adam Ant
Adam Ant
Adam Ant is an English musician who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave/post-punk group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s...
, Jimmy Hill
Jimmy Hill
James William Thomas "Jimmy" Hill OBE is an English association football personality. His career has taken in virtually every role in football, including player, union leader, coach, manager, director, chairman, television executive, presenter, analyst and match official.-Early life:Hill was born...
, Noddy Holder
Noddy Holder
Neville John "Noddy" Holder MBE is an English musician and actor. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist with the rock band Slade....
, Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
, Freddie Garrity
Freddie Garrity
Freddie Garrity was a singer and actor who was frontman and comical element in the 1960s pop band, Freddie and the Dreamers.-Biography:...
, Steve McFadden
Steve McFadden
Steve McFadden is an English actor, known for his role as Phil Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, which he has played since1990.-Early life:...
, Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
(constantly finding daffodils stuck into the seat of his trousers, parodying his appearances on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
), Busted, Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
, Big Daddy
Big Daddy
- Politicians :* Idi Amin , President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979* Robert Byrd , American senator * Jesse Unruh , American Speaker of the California State Assembly- Sportsmen :...
and plenty more.
In 2002, British comedian Johnny Vegas
Johnny Vegas
Johnny Vegas is an English actor and comedian. He is known for his angry rants, portly figure, high husky voice and support of St Helens rugby league club. More recently he has moved into dramatic acting.-Early life:He was born in St Helens, Lancashire, the youngest of four children of Laurence...
sold the exclusive rights to his wedding photographs to Viz for £1, in a flippant dig at celebrity couples who sold the rights to their wedding photos to glossy magazines such as OK!
OK!
OK! is a British weekly magazine specializing in celebrity news. Originally launched as a monthly, its first issue was published in April 1993. In September 2004, OK! publishers Northern and Shell launched in Australia as a monthly title – the magazine went weekly in October 2006...
for anything up to (and over) £1million. Viz subsequently printed the 'exclusive' photos of Vegas's big day in their next issue, but Vegas claims he never received the money.
Spoof news stories
The comic also prints regular satirical pastiches of typical tabloid and local media news stories. One issue featured a small write-up of a wedding. However, in true Viz style, the wedding featured a lecherous groom marrying his pregnant (and significantly underaged) girlfriend, eyeing up her younger sister while being called a "cradle-snatching cunt" by her father (with the resulting fight prompting the bride's mother to cry out "less it, for fuck's sake" before the police arrived). Another such story revolved around a man who won an inconsequential amount of money on the pools, and began living an inordinately lavish lifestyle ("I bought the wife a new cover for her ironing board" being one such example of his largesse), which collapsed when the money inevitably ran out, much to his chagrin ("I wish I'd never set eyes on the money").Other stories include ludicrous "kiss and tell" and similar stories by people who are portrayed as mentally disturbed, often with highly bizarre elements; examples include allegations by a man who claimed that, on holiday touring in his caravan
Travel trailer
A travel trailer or caravan is towed behind a road vehicle to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent . It provides the means for people to have their own home on a journey or a vacation, without relying on a motel or hotel, and enables them to stay in places...
, he found a campsite run by Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
who, when plied with drink, admitted to the Kennedy assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
; another from a retired toilet attendant who described the nature of faeces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
from various little-known celebrities
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
and an elderly woman who blames anti-social behaviour in her area on bored Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
presenters, as well as a mental home patient who claimed to have had sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
with a number of children's TV puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
s.
Additionally, there were the usual stories revolving around celebrities, some in the "tell-all" vein (such as a customs agent who claimed he found drugs in Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Denise Anderson is a Canadian-American actress, model, producer, author, activist, and former showgirl, known for her roles on the television series Home Improvement, Baywatch, and V.I.P. She was chosen as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine in February 1990...
's "plastic tits"). If one of a select band of frequently referenced stars is mentioned during these stories, they will be named humorously. Among others, Lemmy Kilmister
Lemmy Kilmister
Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister is an English heavy metal musician....
will invariably be referred to as "Lemmy out of Motörhead", Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
as "Bonio
Bonio
Bonio is the most popular brand of dog biscuit sold in the United Kingdom. It was originally sold by Spratts Patent Ltd. of London some 75 years ago, but through various acquisitions it is nowadays marketed by Nestlé Purina PetCare, until recently under their Winalot brand....
" (a brand of dog biscuit) and Sting as "Sting (real name Gordon Sting)", mixing the singer's birth and stage names. One particularly memorable piece of tabloidesque worldplay parody, involving a fictional plot to assassinate Paul McCartney by a disgruntled former roadie, read 'Mop Top Pot Shot Plot Flops', or with a gonad-focussed violent encounter with Mr T and a 70's playground toy, 'BA Baracus in Macca's clackers knackers fracas'.
Photos in Viz news stories are often edited and altered, much to the detriment of the subjects involved (teeth blacked out, facial features shrunken/enlarged, and so on). In the case of the aforementioned Lemmy, for one photo the editors simply took a picture of a man wearing a baseball cap and drew a crude approximation of Lemmy's facial hair and warts on his face (as well as writing "Motörhead" on the cap). Photos will frequently be captioned only with the name of the subject and a comma followed by "yesterday", e.g. "A train, yesterday".
Following the format common in tabloid newspapers, paragraphs within written articles include 'cross heads' which, in normal journalism, serve to indicate the theme of the following sections. In Viz however, while these words often start out being relevant to the story, they quickly stray for comedic value and therefore have little or no relevance to the following text. The words will often follow a theme, such as TV cops' names or types of curry, and will sometimes spell out a sentence, rarely relevant, if read separately from the story.
Letterbocks
This section features letters both written by the editors and sent in by readers often with ridiculous names, usually in the form of obviously fictitious anecdotes (one reader claimed that by defecating on the high seas, he was able to expel a single unbroken "monster" turd; however, nobody wanted to grant him research funds for further attempts) or various observations, such as the "children say the funniest things" type (one issue featured numerous variations of a reader's young son making a reference to masturbationMasturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
during bathtime, such as "playing with [his] pork sword
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
"; in this case, when the reader entered the bathroom, she discovered her son had indeed fashioned a sword out of pork sausages). Since Viz claims to offer £10 for the best letter published in a particular issue, many letters end with the inquiry, "Do I win £10?"
Many make observations about celebrities (especially those who have recently died; one letter printed after the deaths of Gianni Versace
Gianni Versace
Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer and founder of Gianni Versace S.p.A., an international fashion house, which produces accessories, fragrances, makeup and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films, and was a friend of Madonna, Elton John,...
and Princess Diana remarked on both their violent deaths and friendship with Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, stating "I tell you what. If I was George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
right about now, I'd be shitting myself") or current events (a 2000 issue remarked "The Government spent £850 million
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
on the Millennium Bug, and the only thing that crashes is Q
Q (James Bond)
Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. Q , like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q Branch , the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service...
Desmond Llewelyn
Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn was a Welsh actor, famous for playing Q in 17 of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1999.-Early life:...
Most employ deliberate misunderstandings for comic effect (e.g. "These so-called speed bump
Speed bump
A speed bump is a speed-reducing feature of road design to slow traffic or reduce through traffic, via...
s are a joke. If anything they slow you down" or "I went to one of these so called Gentlemens' clubs and was shocked to see it was full of Women. To make matters worse many of them were wearing very little clothing"). Often letters feature simple yet absurd statements ("I'm heading off to the pub in a few minutes and wondered if any of your readers fancied joining me for a pint" or "They say size doesn't matter - if that's true, why can't I get these shoes on?").
A bizarre series of letters from a J Cursiter of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
recounted his hobby of watching passers-by from "a series of cunningly-disguised hides". It is unclear whether Cursiter is a reader of the comic or a creation of the editors.
Often letters are printed that criticise Viz, accusing it of "not being as funny as it used to be", condemning it as being offensive or of complaining about the frequent price rises. These are often published and sometimes even framed in a small section titled "Why I Love My Viz!", blatantly mocking The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
newspaper's habit of printing (positive) comments in little frames titled "Why I Love My Sun!"
There are often invitations for readers to submit pictures, such as the request for examples of "Insincere Smiles", whereby people sent in pictures cut from newspapers and brochures of celebrities and politicians caught smiling in a manner which looks utterly insincere and forced (Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
featured at least twice). A similar series was of men who were wearing absurdly ill-fitting wigs. There's also "Up The Arse Corner", where photographs are submitted of people whose pose, and/or facial expression, could be misconstrued as being in the midst of an act of buggery
Buggery
The British English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It may be, also, a specific common law offence, encompassing both sodomy and bestiality.-In law:...
.
Letterbocks also formerly featured correspondence from, and has brought fame to, the late Abdul Latif
Abdul Latif (restaurateur)
Abdul Latif, FRSA was a British restaurateur of Bangladeshi origin. He was well-known for his dish "Curry Hell" — a curry reputedly so hot that it was offered for free to patrons of his Newcastle restaurant who could finish the entire meal.-Biography:Abdul Latif was born in 1954 near the city of...
, Lord of Harpole
Harpole
Harpole Northamptonshire, England, is a village west of Northampton, in the district council area of South Northamptonshire where it is part of Harpole and Grange ward, together with the parishes of Milton Malsor, Kislingbury, Rothersthorpe and Gayton. It is within the area of Northamptonshire...
, proprietor of the (real) Curry Capital restaurant (formerly the Rupali), Bigg Market. His Lordship often promoted his restaurant with spoof competitions and offers. In December 2006, he appeared in a seasonal broadcast to rival the Queen's Christmas message.
Lame to Fame
A semi-regular feature in Letterbocks is the "Lame to Fame" column, where writers can send in "claims to fame" where they explain how they are related to well-known celebrities. However, the relations are so purposefully distant or commonplace that the claim cannot make them any more notable than a man on the Clapham omnibus; for example:"I once had a drink with a bloke who had caught Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
's Simon Le Bon
Simon Le Bon
Simon John Charles Le Bon is an English musician, best known as the lead singer, lyricist and musician of the band Duran Duran and its offshoot, Arcadia.-Early life:...
's dog after it had escaped from his big house", and "My sister once shagged Ringo
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
out of The Bootleg Beatles
The Bootleg Beatles
The Bootleg Beatles are a Beatles tribute band. They have performed over 4,000 times since their establishment in March 1980.- History :The band's first performance was at a small student gathering in Tiverton, Devon, England. Following more low-profile gigs, the band performed a 60-date tour of...
."
Top Tips
A long-running segment has been the Top Tips, reader-submitted suggestions which are a parody of similar sections found in women's magazines offering domestic and everyday tips to make life easier. In Viz, naturally, they are always absurd, impractical or ludicrous:- A small coniferous tree in the corner of your living room is an excellent place to store Christmas decorations
- Why waste money on expensive binoculars? Simply stand closer to the object you wish to observe
- To stop blue tits pecking at your milk bottles, don't buy any
- Dead moths make ideal handgliders for woodlice
- Don't invite drug addicts to your house on Boxing DayBoxing DayBoxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
. They may find the offer of cold turkey embarrassing or offensive
Some tips are for ludicrous motives, such as "how to convince neighbours that your house has dry rot
Dry rot
Dry rot refers to a type of wood decay caused by certain types of fungi, also known as True Dry Rot, that digests parts of the wood which give the wood strength and stiffness...
", while others are for ostensibly sensible motives but with ridiculous and impractical suggestions for their application:
- Convince friends that you have a high powered job in the City by leaving for work at 6 am every morning, arriving home at 10 at night, never keeping social appointments and dropping down dead at the age of 36
- Save money on sex-lines by phoning up the Samaritans and threatening to kill yourself unless they talk dirty
Some are just inexplicable:
- To make your husband's trousers heavier, hang onions from the belt loops
Others inspire running jokes:
- Fun-sized Mars BarMars BarMars is a chocolate bar manufactured by Mars, Incorporated. It was first manufactured in Slough, Berkshire in the United Kingdom in 1932 as a sweeter version of the US Milky Way bar which Mars, Inc. produced...
s make ideal normal-sized Mars Bars for dwarves - Normal-sized Mars bars make ideal fun-sized Mars Bars for giants
- King-size Mars Bars make ideal normal-sized Mars Bars for giants
- Normal-sized Mars Bars make ideal king-sized Mars Bars for dwarves
A more recent trend is for sarcastic tips to be offered that are observations by the readers regarding other people's behaviour, such as a barmaid who suggests male public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
customers who are "trying to get into a barmaid's knickers" should "pull back your tenner just as she reaches to take it when paying for a round. It really turns us on". In a similar vein, one reader (or Viz staffer) suggested "Old people – are you worried that people in a hurry might be able to get past you on the pavement? Why not try stumbling aimlessly from side to side? That should stop them".
McDonald's
McDonald'sMcDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
was accused of plagiarising a number of Viz Top Tips in an advertising campaign they ran in 1996.
Some of the similarities are almost word-for-word:
- Save a fortune on laundry bills. Give your dirty shirts to Oxfam. They will wash and iron them, and then you can buy them back for 50p". – Viz Top Tip (published May 1989)
- Save a fortune on laundry bills. Give your dirty shirts to a second-hand shop. They will wash and iron them, and then you can buy them back for 50p".– McDonald's advert
The case was later settled out of court for an undisclosed sum (donated to Comic Relief); but many Viz readers believed that the comic had given permission for their use, leading to Top Tips submissions such as:
- Geordie magazine editors. Continue paying your mortgage and buying expensive train sets ... by simply licensing the Top Tips concept to a multinational burger corporation".
But Viz magazine did take it in good spirit and published them.
At around the same time, the following Top Tip was also published:
- McDonald's advertising executives. Why not steal someone else's idea and then claim you overheard it in a bar, you fucking cunts".
In addition, a burger bar McWonald's was used as a story setting and displayed a large W in the style of an inverted Golden Arches
Golden Arches
The Golden Arches are the symbol of McDonald's, the global fast-food hamburger chain. Originally, real arches were part of the restaurant design...
M. This establishment had spotty-faced teenage staff vomiting and smoking; a child customer informs his mother that he does not want to finish his burger as it "tastes of pigeon and has cigarette butts in it".
In a further attack on the company, the map of Cuntinental Europe - given away free with Issue 118 and constituting a large cartoon depiction of typical British stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s of themselves and their neighbours over the relevant geographical areas, displays the McDonald's logo on what may be considered to be insensitive locations, namely the Parthenon
Parthenon
The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...
and the vicinity of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa or simply the Tower of Pisa is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa...
.
Spoof advertisements and competitions
Viz has had many different spoof adverts for various items, such as ornaments, dolls, sheds, china plates and novelty chessChess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
sets. These poke fun at the genuine adverts for such items in magazines found in the colour supplements of Sunday newspapers. Of course, those found in Viz are absurd, such as a breakfast plate depicting Princess Diana's
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
face in the middle of a fried egg
Fried egg
A fried egg is a food made from an egg fried whole with minimal accompaniment. They are traditionally eaten for breakfast in western countries, but may be eaten at other times of the day.-China:...
, "No. 22 Shit Street" (which was a diorama of a dilapidated council house
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
complete with rabid dog, youthful vandals and a "gently rusting" washing machine in the front yard), and "Little Ted West", a teddy bear
Teddy bear
The teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...
dressed to look like serial killer Fred West
Fred West
Frederick Walter Stephen West , was a British serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, he alone, and later, he and his wife Rosemary, tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, many at the couple's homes. The majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and September 1979 at...
. Recently, Viz actually manufactured some of these items for real and sold them, including a china plate depicting "The Life of Christ...In Cats", featuring tacky pictures of a cat in various stages of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
's life, and the Elvis Presley Dambusters Clock Plate of Tutankhamen, a clock featuring Elvis in the style of Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
's death mask in addition to Avro Lancaster
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
bomber planes. Many Viz gems are tucked away in spoof Terms and Conditions sections or application forms. Wry adverts for mail order "objets de tat" will require prospective buyers to commit to exorbitant, protracted payment arrangements and demand they give up the opportunity to put right their error, once the thrill of actually holding a "Lady Diana Full English Breakfast Plate of Hope" has faded. One "Ticky Box" is labelled "My statutory rights are not important".
Another staple of Viz advertisement parody are the adverts for public and government services which one would normally not expect to find advertised; for example, one ad consisted of the words "Raped? Burgled? Run over? Why not call the police", placed next to a picture of a grinning policeman
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
. Another ad exhorted male readers to join the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, because "all the birds are gagging for squaddies" (with the fine print on the reply coupon having a tick box where the interested recruit indicates that spending years ducking for cover in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
"should just about see [him] right" when it comes to the ladies). The 'PC Brigade' were also featured as if they were the fire brigade, stating they attended emergencies such as 'collapsed turbans', freeing gypsies from railings while leaving British people stuck tight. They also carried the slogan 'Fueling middle England's persecution complex since 1958'.
A long-running gag has been adverts for sheds, or rather surreal types of sheds ("TV Sheds", "Shed Bikes", "Shed Snakes", etc.). Testament to the quality of these is invariably provided by a Mrs. B. of Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
.
Adverts for loan companies have been parodied frequently since approximately 2000, usually with an absurd twist, such as ones aimed at vagrants
Vagrancy (people)
A vagrant is a person in poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income.-Definition:A vagrant is "a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging;" vagrancy is the condition of such persons.-History:In...
, offering loans of between 5 and 10 pence for a cup of tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
. Roger Mellie
Roger Mellie
Roger Mellie is a fictional character featured in Viz magazine. His catchphrase is "Hello, good evening and bollocks!", satirising David Frost's catchphrase "Hello, good evening, and welcome". The character is foul-mouthed, an obnoxious misogynist who manages to maintain a career as a television...
has frequently starred in such spoof advertisements, both in separate sections in Viz and also his own strip. Mellie is portrayed as someone who is willing to endorse any product whatsoever for money or freebies.
Scatalogical humour also featured heavily in the ads; one ad featured "Clag-Gone", which consisted of a stationary bicycle with no seat. Instead, the rider simply placed his naked bottom onto the "Clag-Gone"'s wire brush wheel, which then cleaned away "winnits", "tag-nuts" and "dangleberries". Another ad featured a tourist package where eggs were served in great quantities; a happy tourist was featured saying "I'm egg-bound
Constipation
Constipation refers to bowel movements that are infrequent or hard to pass. Constipation is a common cause of painful defecation...
for Jamaica!".
Genuine competitions have been run by Viz, with proper prizes. One of the earliest was a competition to win 'a ton of money' a pointed satire of tabloid newspapers promising huge cash prizes to boost circulation - the prize was in fact a metric tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
of one- and two-pence pieces, equivalent to a few hundred pounds sterling. Recently, they were giving away a plasma screen television provided by the producers of Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
. Viz poked fun at the movie, describing it as "shit
Shit
Shit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...
e" in the competition description, and described the runners-up prizes of DVDs of the film as "frankly worthless", which led to the producers refusing to hand over the prize, for insulting their film.
Another spin-off was "Roger's Profanisaurus
Roger's Profanisaurus
Roger's Profanisaurus is a compendium of profanity, featuring the foulmouthed Viz character Roger Mellie, the man on the telly. The title is a word play on Roget's Thesaurus. The book is published in the United Kingdom by Viz, and described as "the foulest-mouthed book ever to stalk the face of...
", a thesaurus
Thesaurus
A thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning , in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations...
of (often freshly coined) rude words, phrases and sexual slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
submitted by readers. It has been published as several books, the 2002 print of which has a foreword by Terry Jones
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
. This also often features genuine regional slang. More recently Roger's Profanisaurus has become a popular downloadable app for Apple's iPhone.
Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr is an English-Irish comedian and humourist. He is known for his deadpan delivery and dark humour. He is also a writer, actor and presenter of radio and television....
is one of the latest targets of Viz, being lambasted as a sham of a comedian by having photographs of himself posing with employees who have won mundane awards at meaningless corporate events, under the recurrent headline 'Carr for hire'. In issue 160, a genuine advert appeared promoting his latest DVD with the tagline "When he's not doing corporate gigs, Jimmy Carr is a stand-up comic".
In November 1987, a free mini-issue of Viz was given away with issue 23 of computer magazine Your Sinclair
Your Sinclair
Your Sinclair or YS as it was commonly abbreviated, was a British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum.-History:...
. This was done in response to Your Sinclair's competitor, CRASH
CRASH (magazine)
Crash was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published from 1984 to 1991 by Newsfield Publications Ltd until their liquidation, and then until 1992 by Europress.-Development:...
, giving away a mini-copy of Oink!
Oink! (comic)
Oink! was a British comic for children which was published from 3 May 1986-22 October 1988. It set out to be deliberately anarchic, reminiscent of Viz but for children....
comic with their issue 42.
Photo-strips
Occasionally photo-stripFumetti
Fumetti is an Italian word which refers to all comics. In English, the term refers specifically to photonovels or photographic comics, a genre of comics illustrated with photographs rather than drawings. Italians call these fotoromanzi...
s are included. These parody the format of supernatural and true-love British comics which were popular with young girl readers in the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
and 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, such as "Chiller" and "Jackie
Jackie (magazine)
Jackie was a weekly British magazine for girls. The magazine was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd of Dundee from 11 January 1964 until its closure on 3 July 1993—a total of 1534 issues....
", as well as the "real life dilemma
Dilemma
A dilemma |proposition]]") is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is practically acceptable. One in this position has been traditionally described as "being on the horns of a dilemma", neither horn being comfortable...
" photo strips often found in the advice column
Advice column
An advice column is a column in a magazine or newspaper written by an advice columnist . The image presented was originally of an older woman providing comforting advice and maternal wisdom, hence the name "aunt"...
s of tabloid newspapers.
For example, a young woman is convinced that the spirit of her dead husband has possessed the family dog, and after some soul-searching, begins a sexual relationship with the dog. A running joke in these stories is that they often feature a car accident in which one of the characters is run down— in every case, the same man is driving the car, and always responds with the same line: "Sorry mate, I didn't see her!". The locations for the photo-stories are (probably deliberately) recognisable as the suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
where the Viz team are based.
On occasion, this is explicitly recognised: the one-off strip Whitley Baywatch, a spoof of the popular American TV show Baywatch
Baywatch
Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. The show ran in its original title and format from 1989 to 1999, sans the 1990-1991 season, of which it was not in production...
, is based in the North East coastal resort of Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the North Sea coast and has a fine stretch of golden sandy beach forming a bay stretching from St. Mary's Island in the north to Cullercoats in the south...
. But other stories purporting to be set in London, or without a set location, are often also identifiably near to the Viz editorial offices in Jesmond
Jesmond
Jesmond is a residential suburb and is split into two electoral wards just north of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The population is about 12,000. It is adjacent to, and to the east of, the Town Moor, providing pedestrian and cycle paths to Spital Tongues and the city's two Universities...
. In "He just loved to dance" (no. 103), for example, Komal's Tandoor
Tandoor
A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. The tandoor is used for cooking in Azerbaijan, India, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Central Asia, as well as Burma and Bangladesh.The heat for a tandoor was...
i restaurant in West Jesmond is visible. In "Four minutes to fall in love" (no. 107), the Gateshead Millennium Bridge
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge spanning the River Tyne in England between Gateshead's Quays arts quarter on the south bank, and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank. The award-winning structure was conceived and designed by architects...
provides a backdrop to the dénouement. An occasionally recurring actor in these strips is Arthur 2 Stroke, now acknowledged as the "Guru of Viz" by Chris Donald founder editor. Arthur, former lead singer of the band The Chart Commandos, still continues to perform with "Big Black Bomb" and is still considered to be an innovating force on the Newcastle music scene.
One such photo-strip was called "I Believe in Father Christmas", where an adult man believes in Father Christmas
Father Christmas
Father Christmas is the name used in many English-speaking countries for a figure associated with Christmas. A similar figure with the same name exists in several other countries, including France , Spain , Brazil , Portugal , Italy , Armenia , India...
. His wife, named Virginia, attempts to convince him otherwise. He visits a department store Father Christmas, just like a child, although he asks for a CD from either Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
or Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
. On Christmas night, the man goes downstairs to the living room, as he hears a noise and figures Father Christmas must have come. However, he is surprised to see that an armed robber has broken into his house, who promptly shoots him and flees. His wife, in shock, tends to her husband as he is badly hurt, and he tells her he was wrong to believe in Father Christmas like some small child. However, the wife tearfully says that Father Christmas did indeed come, and left presents for them. The strip ends with the husband saying to his wife "Yes Virginia, there is a Father Christmas
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
Is There a Santa Claus? was the title of an editorial appearing in the September 21, 1897, edition of The New York Sun. The editorial, which included the famous reply "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", has become an indelible part of popular Christmas folklore in the United States and...
".
In his book Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz, the comic's creator Chris Donald claimed that the first legal action ever taken against Viz was initiated by a man who objected to the use of a picture of his house (taken from an estate agent's catalogue) in one of these photo-strips, and that the British tabloid newspaper Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
tried to provoke media outrage over another photo-strip which, if taken out of context, could be misconstrued as making light of the problem of illegal drugs being offered to children.
Actor Sean Bean
Sean Bean
Shaun Mark "Sean" Bean is an English film and stage actor. Bean is best known for playing Boromir in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and, previously, British Colonel Richard Sharpe in the ITV television series Sharpe...
made an one-off appearance in 1996 titled "I've Bean to Paradise" where the main character, unhappy with his long term relationship, attempts to seek out for more physically attractive women by undergoing a makeover as a lookalike of the actor (played by himself) and passing himself off as the actor with references to his past screen roles.
Trinny
Trinny Woodall
Trinny Woodall is an English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author. She was raised in a wealthy family and was privately educated...
and Susannah
Susannah Constantine
Susannah Caroline Constantine is an English fashion journalist, advisor, television presenter, author and designer. Her second book, entitled What Not to Wear, has won her a prestigious British Book Award and sold 670,000 copies....
also threatened to sue the comic after being portrayed as school bullies in a cartoon strip (Fat and Skinny: Suzanna and Trinny). An official Viz spokesman said “We are too busy laughing to comment”.
Viz in other media
Some of the characters have had their own television cartoon series. They are:- The Fat Slags
- Roger Mellie (featuring the voices of Peter CookPeter CookPeter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
and Harry EnfieldHarry EnfieldHenry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...
) - Sid the Sexist
- Billy the FishBilly the FishBilly the Fish is a long-running cartoon strip in the British comic Viz that first appeared in 1983.Created by artist Chris Donald and writer Simon Thorp Billy the Fish is, like many Viz strips, a lampoon of British comics – In Billy the Fishs case, that of football-themed strips such as Roy of...
A one-off TV programme "Viz - The Documentary" was shown on Britain's Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in 1990, spoofing serious investigative TV shows like Panorama
Panorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
or Dispatches while telling the story of Viz.
A computer game
Viz (game)
Viz: The Computer Game is a single player racing game based on the Viz adult comic which was released in 1991 by Virgin Interactive...
using Viz characters was produced in 1991 by Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive was a British video game publisher. It was formed as Virgin Games Ltd. in 1981. The company became much larger after purchasing the budget label, Mastertronic in 1987. It was part of the Virgin Group...
.
The Fat Slags appeared in TV ads for Lucozade
Lucozade
Lucozade is an umbrella name for a 6 series of energy and sports drinks, produced by GlaxoSmithKline in Gloucestershire. The former company became part of Beecham and, after the mergers of SmithKline and Beecham in 2000, GlaxoSmithKline....
, a drink which they hate with a passion. These ads included a mixture of cartoon characters (the slags) and live actors (the men who drink Lucozade).
A movie based on The Fat Slags was produced in 2004, but was disowned by the magazine's editors who threatened to stop running the strip in response.
A novelty single was released in 1987 for Viz and its Buster Gonads comic by the band XTC
XTC
XTC were a New Wave band from Swindon, England, active between 1976 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Senses Working Overtime" , but are perhaps even better known for their long-standing critical success.- Early years:...
as "Johnny Japes and His Jesticles". The A-side was "Bags of Fun With Buster" b/w "Scrotal Scratch Mix".
During the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
of 1991, Sepecat Jaguar
SEPECAT Jaguar
The SEPECAT Jaguar is an Anglo-French jet ground attack aircraft, originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Armée de l'Air in the close air support and nuclear strike role, and still in service with several export customers, notably the Indian Air Force and the Royal Air Force...
GR1A bombers of the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
featured such Viz characters as Johnny Fartpants, the Fat Slags and Buster Gonad as nose art
Nose art
Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of a military aircraft, usually located near the nose, and is a form of aircraft graffiti....
.
Controversy
The comic was reprimanded by the United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
after featuring a strip called "The Thieving Gypsy Bastards" During the resulting court case, UK newspaper The Sun ran a story revealing that the principal Roma man who initiated the action against them was in fact also being tried for (and was later found guilty of) handling stolen property. In the same issue Viz ran a short strip called "The Nice, Honest Gypsies", featuring a kindly Gypsy woman selling pegs door-to-door and helpfully returning forgotten change.
The strip "Wanker Watson", a parody of the children's comic character Winker Watson
Winker Watson
Winker Watson is a fictional character who had his own comic strip in the UK comic The Dandy for almost half a century.Winker first appeared in the 1961 Dandy Book , and then appeared in the weekly Dandy on April 1, 1961 in issue Number 1010, and was quickly established as a character of great wit...
, led to litigation by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, is a publishing company based in Dundee, Scotland, best known for producing The Dundee Courier, The Evening Telegraph, The Sunday Post, Oor Wullie, The Broons, The Beano, The Dandy and Commando comics...
, the owners of the Winker character. In retaliation, Viz featured a new character called 'D.C. Thompson The Humourless Scottish Git'. D.C. Thomson then sought revenge by publishing a new cartoon "The Jocks and The Geordies", a revival of an old strip from The Dandy, in which the Geordies (clearly representing Viz) competed with the Jocks (clearly representing Thomson) in a competition to design funny cartoon characters. The Geordies' miserable efforts bore sharp similarity to actual Viz characters, such as 'The Boy with Big Pants' - a reference to Felix and his Amazing Underpants. (Chris Donald's book Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz, notes the good-humored nature of the latter stages of this episode).
Sports clothing manufacturer Kappa
Kappa (company)
Kappa is an Italian company specialized at the manufacture of sporting clothes and accessories, that started as a sock and underwear manufacturer in 1916 in Turin.-Logo:...
insisted that the comic drop the name of one of its characters, "Kappa Slappa", as it had no permission to use the brand name. Kappa also believed that the character in question insulted its customer base. "Slapper" was an obnoxious, uneducated, highly unattractive and sexually promiscuous 14-year-old single mother living on a Tyneside council estate, always donning her Kappa shellsuit. After several runs of the strip, Viz agreed to change her name to "Tasha Slappa
Tasha Slappa
Tasha Slappa is a character in the British adult comic Viz.The strip satirizes "chav" culture and the popular image of chav teenagers, including other fictional characters such as Vicky Pollard in Little Britain and Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show...
".
In his book Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz, Chris Donald mentions that he was interviewed by police after giving the go-ahead to publish a Top Tip which could have been interpreted as an incitement to carry out a bomb plot. Donald claims that he then accidentally included the offending statement in that year's Viz annual, and had to have it covered with a sticker by the publishers.
Annuals
- The Big Hard One (Issues 1 - 12)
- The Big Hard Number Two (Issues 13 - 18)
- The Big Pink Stiff One (Issues 19 - 25)
- The Dog's Bollocks (Issues 26 - 31)
- The Spunky Parts (Issues 32 - 37)
- The Sausage Sandwich (Issues 38 - 42)
- The Fish Supper (Issues 43 - 47)
- The Porky Chopper (Issues 48 - 52)
- The Pan Handle (Issues 53 - 57)
- The Big Bell End (Issues 58 - 63)
- The Turtle's Head (Issues 64 - 69)
- The Full Toss (Issues 70 - 75)
- On the Bone (Issues 76 - 81)
- The Rusty Sheriff's Badge (Issues 82 - 87)
- The Thick Repeater (Issues 88 - 93)
- The Clown's Pie (Issues 94 - 99)
- The Bag of Slugs (Issues 100 - 105)
- The Bear Trapper's Hat (Issues 106 - 111)
- The Hangman's Noose (Issues 112 - 121)
- The Butcher's Dustbin (Issues 122 - 131)
- The One String Banjo (Issues 132 - 141)
- The Pearl Necklace (Issues 142 - 151)
- The Last Turkey in the Shop (Issues 152 - 161)
- The Council Gritter (Issues 162 - 171)
- The Five Knuckle Shuffle (Issues 172 - 181)
- The Cleveland Steamer (Issues 182 - 191)
Themed collections
- Holiday Special (1988)
- More Crap Jokes (1989)
- Billy the Fish Football Yearbook (1990)
- The Pathetic Sharks Bumper Special (1991)
- The Bumper Book of Shite for Older Boys and Girls (1993)
- Letterbocks Top Tips (1994)
- The Viz Big Fat Slags Book (1994)
- Letterbocks Top Tips 2 (1995)
- Sid the Sexist: The Joy of Sexism (1996)
- The Best of Letterbocks (1996)
- Roger's Profanisaurus (1998)
- Summer Special 2000 (2000)
- Summer Special 2001 (2001)
- Wigwatching (2002)
- Roger's Profanisaurus: The Ultimate Swearing Dictionary (2002)
- The Sexist Book of Records (2002)
- Roger Mellie's Ad Break (2003)
- The Fat Slags "Kama Sutra" (2003)
- The Bulging Sack: The Best of Letterbocks (2003)
- Silver Anniversary Collectors' Edition (2004)
- Roger's Profanisaurus Rex (2005)
- Roger's Profanisaurus IV: The Magna Farta (2007)
- The Big Hairy Almanackers 2009 (2008)
- Top of the Tips (2010)
- Roger's Profanisaurus: Das Krapital" (2010)
- Anus Horribilis: A Year of stuff to read on the Thunderbox (2010)
Non-fiction
- 25 Years of Viz - Silver Plated Jubilee (William Cook, 2004)
- Rude Kids: The Unfeasible Story of "Viz" (Chris Donald, 2004) (aka: The Inside Story of Viz: Rude Kids)
- Him Off the Viz (Simon Donald, 2010)
See also
- British comics
- PytonPytonPyton was a Norwegian comic book series which was produced by the company Gevion, and afterwards Bladkompaniet, between the years 1986 until 1996...
was a similar comic from NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
which was quite popular in the Nordic countriesNordic countriesThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
in the '90s; the Finnish translation of the Pyton comic continues as the comic MyrkkyMyrkkyMyrkky was a comic book published by the Finnish branch of the Nordic publisher Egmont. The comic dealt mainly with toilet humour, including sexual, toilet, and fart jokes...
External links
- Independent Supply of Back Issues of Viz Comic and other Viz related Items
- The official Viz print website containing imagery of many classic Viz characters and pull-outs
- Viz Artwork
- BBC report about Viz, concerning its cartoon based on Fred WestFred WestFrederick Walter Stephen West , was a British serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, he alone, and later, he and his wife Rosemary, tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, many at the couple's homes. The majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and September 1979 at...
and Harold ShipmanHarold ShipmanHarold Fredrick Shipman was an English doctor and one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history with 218 murders being positively ascribed to him.... - Fat Slags celebrate Viz birthday BBC News
- Cartoonist Alex Collier's MySpace entry
- Review of Rude Kids: The Unfeasible Story of Viz and 25 Years of Viz
- Nick Tolson's homepage Viz & Private Eye contributor
- Fulchester.com Independent Viz enthusiasts' website