‘I think he is one of the funniest guys I have ever met,’ he said.
Comic legend Pat Shortt has hit back at critics who lambast Brendan O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys series. Each year, the TV ratings of “Mrs. Brown’s Boys” Christmas specials get bashed by critics as viewership tumbles after the show’s Christmas and New Years specials air.
But Pat said he believes Brendan O’Carroll is “one of the funniest guys” he’s ever met. The D’Unbelievables star and Brendan have been pals for decades and would often cross paths in the showbiz world.
Speaking about Brendan, the Tipperary funnyman said: “Brendan is a good friend of mine. We all started doing the Tivoli and we used to go to each other’s opening nights. We used to have the craic. We did TV shows together out in Ardmore. I think he is one of the funniest guys I have ever met.”
Asked what he thought about Mrs Brown’s Boys and the criticism the Dubliner receives, Pat said the series is “very broad humoured”.
“Mrs Browne’s is very broad humour. You either like it or you don’t. It’s as simple as that. It’s very funny. Technically I think it’s really good as a comic series.
“But it’s very broad. He’s one of the funniest guys I ever met.”
Pat recalled Gay Byrne and Kathleen Watkins being huge fans of the award-winning BBC series.
“I remember sitting with Kathleen Watkins when it first came out at the IFTAS and herself and Gay (Byrne) asked me what I thought of it and she said she thought it was very, very funny.
“She said it was the funniest thing she’d seen in years. It’s humongous over there (in the UK).”
Pat admitted that being popular leaves you open to backlash.
“When you’re popular, you’re going to be open to backlash. If they’re just starting out, they’ll be looked at as an alternative,” he said laughing.
Pat was speaking ahead of their final leg of their Irish tour, Knuckle Down, which they will perform two nights in the Olympia in Dublin on March 20 and 21. ‘Knuckle Down’ shows off the incredible talent of these two performers, as they glide seamlessly from stand up to hilarious characterisation of everyday Irish people.
They have the genius of taking ordinary situations and making us laugh at the mundane. Characters such as “Michael” (Pat Shortt) the hapless builder (Followed weekly on Tik Tok, X, Insta and Facebook by hundreds of thousands) seems to have the answer to all things that are wrong in the world and shares the advice gifted to him by his late grandmother from Tipperary.
Another outrageous character is the “mother of the child” (Faye Shortt) at the school railings waiting to pick up her child PJ, it’s not like her at all to talk bad about anyone but she just can’t help herself, sharing her views on the school principal and her tummy tucking friend back from Turkey.
