Cover of Viz (issue 57)

Viz is a popular British adult comic magazine that has been running since 1979. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (714x1000, 146 KB) Summary Cover of Viz (comic), a UK adult humour comic. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (714x1000, 146 KB) Summary Cover of Viz (comic), a UK adult humour comic. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ...

At its best, the comic's style parodies the strait-laced British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour and either sexual or violent story lines. It also sends up tabloid newspapers, with mockeries of articles and letters pages. It features competitions and advertisements for overpriced 'limited edition' tat, 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 politicians, 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 circulation has since dropped to just over 300,000 (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 £2.60 and it is now published 'monthly' ten times a year. This March 2007 does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Dandy is a British childrens comic published by D. C. Thomson & Co. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... It has been suggested that Duration of sexual intercourse be merged into this article or section. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Competition is the act of striving against another force for the purpose of achieving dominance or attaining a reward or goal, or out of a biological imperative such as survival. ... Commercialism redirects here. ... Shakin Stevens (born Michael Barrett, 4 March 1948) is a Welsh rock and roll singer born in Cardiff, who has the distinction of being the top selling UK singles artist of the 1980s. ... Rodney Bewes (born 27 November 1938 born in Bingley, West Yorkshire) is a British TV actor probably best known for playing the lovable Bob Ferris in the classic BBC sitcoms The Likely Lads and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? Bewes was RADA trained and got his break in the... Highlights The so-called iTunes Law, which Apple has called state-sponsored piracy, is approved by the French Parliament (coat of arms pictured). ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ...

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 humor magazine National Lampoon, which was itself more or less a sophisticated version of Mad Magazine. A pun (also known as paronomasia) is a figure of speech, or word play which consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words within a phrase or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. ... January 1973 cover of National Lampoon National Lampoon was an American humor magazine that began in 1970 as an offshoot of the Harvard Lampoon. ... Harvey Kurtzmans cover for the first issue of the comic book Mad Mad is an American humor magazine founded by publisher William Gaines and editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952. ...

In a recently released coffee table book celebrating 25 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". Coffee table book on coffee table A coffee table book is a hardcover book that rests on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. ... Graham Dury (born in Clifton, Nottingham) is a British cartoonist. ...

History

The comic was started in Newcastle upon Tyne 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. 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 went on sale for 20p (30p to students) in a local pub that hosted punk gigs, and within hours the run of 150 copies had sold out. 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. This article is about a city in the United Kingdom. ... Chris Donald (born 25 April 1960 in Newcastle, England) is the founder of, and one of the principal contributors to, the British comic magazine Viz. ... Jesmond is a residential suburb just north of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. ... Simon Donald is a co-founder and co-editor of the British comic magazine Viz. ... A punk zine (or punkzine) is a fanzine devoted to punk rock music, bands, or the DIY punk philosophy. ... A fanzine (also called a zine) is an amateur publication created by fans of a particular cultural phenomena (such as a literary genre or type of music) to address or correspond with others who share their interest. ... Falling A Records was a very important Essex, England based Independent record label formed in the late 1970`s, and heavily involved with the D.I.Y cassette movement of the early 1980s. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A freelancer or (freelance worker) is a self-employed person working in a profession or trade in which full-time employment is also common. ...

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 exploded, and at the end of 1989 passed one million, making Viz for a time the biggest-selling magazine in the country. Inevitably a number of imitations of Viz were launched but these never matched the original in popularity, and rarely in quality. North-East England is one of the nine official regions of England and comprises the combined area of Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and a small part of North Yorkshire. ... Jesmond is a residential suburb just north of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. ... ... Virgin Books is the book publishing arm of Virgin Enterprises, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. ... John Brown Publishing is a British magazine publisher with a stable including Viz and Fortean Times. ...

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. Editing may also refer to audio or film editing. ... // Loaded, first published by IPC in 1994, is the oldest British lads mag - For men who should know better. It was founded by James Brown, a former deputy editor of the music weekly New Musical Express. ... Dennis Logo Dennis Publishing Ltd. ...

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 now written by Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley, Joel Morris and Alex Morris, the authors of The Framley Examiner. The Framley Examiner (Framleys traditional favourite since 1978) is a parody of a newspaper in a small provincial English town. ...

Notable strips

For a complete list, see List of Viz comic strips Following is a list of recurring or notable one-off strips from the British adult spoof comic magazine Viz: Acker Bilk – (See Jimmy Hill). ...

Many Viz characters have featured in long-running strips, becoming well-known in their own right, including spin-off cartoons. Characters often have rhyming or humorous taglines, such as Roger Mellie, the Man on the Telly, Nobby's Piles, Johnny Fartpants or Finbarr Saunders and his Double Entendres. Others are based on stereotypes of British culture, mostly via working class characters. In addition to this, the comic also contains plenty of 'in jokes' that refer to people and places in and around Newcastle upon Tyne. A cartoon is any of several forms of illustrations with varied meanings that evolved from its original meaning. ... Roger Mellie (The Man on the Telly) is a fictional character featured in Viz magazine. ... Nobbys Piles is the name of a cartoon in the British comic Viz. ... Johnny Fartpants 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. ... Finbarr Saunders is a comic strip in the British comic book VIZ. It is about a boy (Finbarr) who is always listening in on conversations (often between his divorced mother and their neighbour, Mr. ... For the 1996 Blur single, see Stereotypes (song). ... Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... An in joke is a joke whose humour is clear only to those people who are in a group that has some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous. ... This article is about a city in the United Kingdom. ...

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. This photograph, a cow with antlers standing on a pole, is an example of surreal humour. ... Paul Daniels (born 6 April 1938 in South Bank, Middlesbrough) is a television magician from the United Kingdom. ... Jet ski is the brand name of Kawasaki Heavy Industries personal water craft. ... Elvis Aron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known as The King of Rock and Roll, or as just simply The King, was an American singer who had an immeasurable effect on world culture. ... Arse in English was first recorded circa 1400 (in arce-hoole) and is commonly used in English speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, some former parts of the British Empire. ... Sussex is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. ... It has been suggested that List of Enid Blytons books, 1960 be merged into this article or section. ...

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 an 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.[1] Fulchester is a fictitious town where most of the comic strips in the humorous Viz comic are based. ... Crown Court was an ITV afternoon television drama that ran from 1972 to 1985. ...

One of the most pun based strips was "George Bestial", which centered around famous footballer George Best committing bestiality. The strip was discontinued after the death of Best. For the 1987 album by The Wedding Present, see George Best (album). ...

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 "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. In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Student Grant is a cartoon strip in the British comic Viz featuring a University student named Grant Wankshaft. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... Victorian Dad is a character in the British comic Viz. ... Garry Bushell Garry Bushell (born May 13, 1955 in Charlton , South East London) is an English television critic, television presenter, and newspaper columnist. ... Richard William Littlejohn (born 18 January 1954 in Ilford, Essex) is a right-wing [1]British newspaper columnist. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ... Political correctness is the alteration of language to redress real or alleged injustices and discrimination or to avoid offense. ... Left-wing conspiracy refers to a purported cohesive network of political liberals who seek to discredit, smear and politically ruin conservatives in a more insidious and illegal way than is common in modern mainstream politics. ...

In keeping with the comic's irreverent and deliberately non-conformist style, The Duke Of Edinburgh was once parodied 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 earthquake victim in China. Sleeping Beauty character, see Sleeping Beauty (1959 film). ...

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! [2]); and Bob Hope had a strip of him trying to think up amusing last words (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-like 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 attempting to sell off stolen roofing tiles before being outwitted at the end of the strip by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Other celebs to have been featured in their own strips include Jonathan Ross, Esther Rantzen, Stephen Fry, Noel Edmonds, Jimmy Saville (as the headmaster of "Pop School" and as "Sir Jimmy Saville, the Owl" and in Jimmy Saville's haunted head), Johnny Vaughan, Boy George, Freddie Garrity, Steve McFadden, Busted, Eminem, Big Daddy and plenty more. William Billy Connolly, CBE, (born 24 November 1942) is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter, and actor. ... Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946–13 January 2004) was a British general practitioner who was the most prolific known serial killer in modern history. ... Frederick Walter Stephen West (September 29, 1941 – January 1, 1995) was a serial killer who, together with his wife Rosemary West murdered at least 12 young women, many at the couples home in Gloucester, England. ... Bob Hope, KBE (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003), born Leslie Townes Hope, was an English-Born American entertainer who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, on radio and television, in movies, and in performing tours for U.S. Military personnel, well known for his good natured humor and career longevity. ... Sir Elton Hercules[1] John CBE [2] (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is a multiple Grammy and Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. ... Derek Reginald Trotter (born July 12, 1948 in Deptford),[1] more commonly known as Del Boy, is the lead character in the popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. ... Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is a highly successful English composer of musical theatre, the elder brother of Julian Lloyd Webber. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born on 22 June 1940 ) (age 66)) is a British journalist and television presenter who is best known for her long stint in Thats Life! and her anti paedophile activism activities as founder of the charity ChildLine. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948 in Ilford, Essex) is an British television presenter, DJ and executive who made his name on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. Edmonds has also worked closely with Richard L. Lewis, who has written and produced various programmes that Edmonds has worked on. ... Sir Jimmy Savile OBE (born James Wilson Vincent Savile in Leeds on October 30, 1926) is a British DJ and television personality. ... Johnny Randall Vaughan (born July 16, 1966) is a British writer and broadcaster. ... George Alan ODowd, better known as Boy George (born June 14, 1961 in Eltham, Kent) is a pop singer-songwriter. ... Album Cover Freddie and the Dreamers were a British musical band who had a number of hit records in 1963 and 1964. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known as Eminem or Slim Shady, is a Grammy and Academy Award-winning American rapper, record producer and actor from the Detroit, Michigan area. ... Big Daddy can refer to: Comic character in Buster (comic) Illustrator and Kustom Kulture pioneer Ed Big Daddy Roth. ...

Other content

Spoof news stories

Sprinkled throughout each issue are spoof news stories, serving to lampoon the tabloid media and obsess over celebrities. Viz invented a fictitious councillor called Hugo Guthrie, representing the real Black Country town of Tipton. Guthrie would be cited in spoof news stories as designing all kind of manic and incompetent schemes for the town, involving such ideas as a Disneyland to be called TiptonDisney. The Black Country is a loosely-defined area of conurbation to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton in the English West Midlands, around the South Staffordshire coalfield. ... The Tipton is also the name of a fictional hotel on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and a term to describe low-grade sportscards. ... This article is about a theme park in Anaheim, California USA. For other Disney parks and attractions, see Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. ...

Other stories include ludicrous "kiss and tells" 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 feces from various little-known celebrities and an exposé on the sex life of a 'mental hospital outpatient' who claimed to be having affairs with TV puppets such as Basil Brush, the Thunderbirds and Thomas the Tank Engine ("I'd never seen a train's cock before and it was huge.") A travel trailer or caravan is a small trailer in which people can live and travel simultaneously. ... Elvis Aron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often known simply as Elvis and also called The King of Rock n Roll or simply The King, was an American singer, musician and actor. ... John F. Kennedy The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 PM Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC). ... Feces (also spelled faeces or fæces) are the waste products from the digestive tract expelled through the anus during defecation. ... “Megastar” redirects here. ... Basil Brush in the 1970s Basil Brush is a reddish-brown fox glove puppet character who has appeared in British childrens (and later adult) television programmes from the 1960s to the present day. ... Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of puppetry dubbed Supermarionation. The series followed the adventures of International Rescue, an organisation created to help those in grave danger using technically advanced equipment and machinery. ... Thomas the Tank Engine. ...

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 or various observations, such as the "children say the funniest things" type. Many make observations about celebrities (especially those who have recently died) 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 bumps are a joke. If anything they slow you down.") Letterbocks is a humorous letter page appearing in Viz magazine which contains both genuine readers letters and made-up letters by the editors. ... The year 2000 problem (also known as the Y2K problem and the millennium bug) was a flaw in computer program design that caused some date-related processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after January 1, 2000. ... Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. ... Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn (September 12, 1913 – December 19, 1999) was a Welsh actor, famous for playing the fictional character of Q in the James Bond series of films. ... Speed bump made of asphalt A speed bump (British English a speed or road hump, sometimes colloquially a sleeping policeman) is a traffic calming tool designed to slow traffic or reduce through traffic. ...

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. This article is about the English city. ...

Often letters are printed that criticize 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!" This article is about a British tabloid. ...

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 that 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. For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency... This article needs cleanup. ... Anal sex or anal intercourse is a form of human sexual behavior. ...

Letterbocks also frequently features correspondence from, and has brought fame to Abdul Latif, Lord of Harpole, proprietor of the (real) Curry Capital restaurant (formerly the Rupali), Bigg Market. His Lordship often promotes his restaurant with spoof competitions and offers. In December 2006 he appeared in a seasonal broadcast to rival the Queen's very own Christmas message. [3] Harpole is a small village located some six miles to the west of the county town of Northampton in the English county of Northamptonshire. ...

Lame to Fame

A semi-regular feature in Letterbocks is the "Lame to Fame" column, where readers can send in "claims to fame" where they explain how they are related to well-known celebrities. However, the relations are purposefully so distant or commonplace that the claim does not make the reader any more notable than any other bloke off the street. for example: "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." Duran Duran is an English pop/rock band notable for a long series of popular singles and vivid music videos. ... Simon John Charles Le Bon (born October 27, 1958) is the lead singer and lyricist of the pop band Duran Duran. ...

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 that offer domestic and everyday tips to make life easier. In Viz, naturally, they are usually absurd, impractical or ludicrous - for example: "A small coniferous tree in the corner of your living room is an excellent place to store Christmas decorations". Some tips are for ridiculous motives, such as how to convince neighbours that your house has dry rot, whilst others are for possibly sensible motives but with ridiculous and impractical suggestions of how to go about it, such as "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." and "Save money on sex-lines by phoning up the Samaritans and threatening to kill yourself unless they talk dirty." Some are totally inexplicable: "To make your husband's trousers heavier, hang onions from the belt loops". Some inspire volleys of running jokes: "Fun-sized Mars Bars 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 size Mars Bars for giants." -- "Normal-sized Mars Bars make ideal king-sized Mars Bars for dwarves." Dry rot is a disease of trees, often caused by the fungal species Merulis lacrymans, Poria incrassata, and/or Serpula lacrymans. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

A more recent trend is for extremely sarcastic tips to be offered that are observations by the readers regarding other people's behaviour, such as someone (obviously a barmaid) who suggested male pub 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." Sarcasm is the making of remarks intended to mock the person referred to (who is normally the person addressed), a situation or thing. ... A bartender is the person behind a bar in a pub, tavern, inn, bar, or restaurant that serves alcoholic beverages. ... An amusingly named pub (the Old New Inn) at Bourton-on-the-Water, in the Cotswold Hills of South West England A pub in the Haymarket area of Edinburgh, Scotland A public house, usually known as a pub, is a drinking establishment found mainly in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada...

McDonald's 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: McDonalds Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is the worlds largest chain of fast-food restaurants, primarily selling hamburgers, chicken, french fries, milkshakes and soft drinks. ...

"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), however many Viz readers had 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." Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character or scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. ...

Spoof adverts and competitions

Viz has had many different spoof adverts for various items, such as ornaments, dolls, sheds, china plates and novelty chess sets. These poke fun at the genuine adverts for such items in magazines found in the colour supplements of Sunday newspapers. Naturally, those found in Viz are absurd, such as a breakfast plate that depicts Princess Diana's face in the middle of a fried egg, 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 that depicted "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. A long running gag has been adverts for sheds, or rather surreal types of sheds ("TV Sheds", "Shed Bikes", "Shed Snakes", etc.). Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. ... Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances;[2] née Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. ... A sunny side up fried egg A fried egg is an egg cooked by frying, typically in butter, cooking oil or margarine, for the purpose of eating. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Frederick Walter Stephen West (September 29, 1941 – January 1, 1995) was a serial killer who, together with his wife Rosemary West murdered at least 12 young women, many at the couples home in Gloucester, England. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... Nebkheperure Lord of the forms of Re Nomen Tutankhaten Living Image of the Aten Tutankhamun Hekaiunushema Living Image of Amun, ruler of Upper Heliopolis Horus name Kanakht Tutmesut The strong bull, pleasing of birth Nebty name Neferhepusegerehtawy One of perfect laws, who pacifies the two lands[1] Wer-Ah-Amun... The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). ... A shed is a small, normally wooden outbuilding, usually found in home gardens. ...

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. Vagrancy is a crime in some European countries, but most of these laws have been abandoned. ... Tea leaves in a Chinese gaiwan. ... Roger Mellie (The Man on the Telly) is a fictional character featured in Viz magazine. ...

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 "shite" in the competition description, and described the runners-up prizes as "frankly worthless", which led to the producers refusing to hand over the prize for insulting their film. A tonne or metric ton (symbol t), sometimes referred to as a metric tonne, is a measurement of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. ... A plasma display is an emissive flat panel display where light is created by phosphors excited by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass. ... Freddy vs. ...

Another spinoff was "Roger's Profanisaurus", a thesaurus of (often made up) rude words, phrases and sexual slang submitted by readers. It has been published as a book, complete with a foreword by Terry Jones. This also often features genuine regional slang. A play on Rogets Thesaurus, created by Viz. ... The word thesaurus is derived from 16th century New Latin, in turn from Latin thesaurus, from ancient Greek thesauros, store-house, treasury. Besides its meaning as a treasury or storehouse, it more commonly means a listing of words with similar, related, or opposite meanings (this new meaning of thesaurus dates... Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speakers dialect or language. ... Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, childrens author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. ...

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. In issue 160 a genuine advert appeared promoting his latest DVD with the tag-line "When he's not doing corporate gigs, Jimmy Carr is a stand-up comic." James Jimmy Anthony Patrick Carr (born September 15, 1972), ) is an Irish-born, British comedian known for his deadpan, satirical humour. ...

Photo strips

Occasionally issues feature a photo strip. These parody the format of supernatural and true love British comics such as 'Chiller' and 'Jackie' targeted at young girl readers that were popular in the late 1970s and the 'real life dilemma' photo strips often found in tabloid newspapers. Fumetti (or photo novels) are a genre of American comics illustrated with photographs rather than drawings. ... Jackie was a weekly British magazine for girls which was published by D.C. Thomson of Dundee. ...

One example is a young woman who is convinced 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 recognisably in 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. However, other stories purporting to be set in London or without a 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 Tandoori restaurant in West Jesmond is visible. In 'Four minutes to fall in love' (no. 107), the Gateshead Millennium Bridge provides a backdrop to the denouement. An occasionally recurring actor in these strips is Arthur 2-Stroke, of the band The Chart Commandos. This article is about a city in the United Kingdom. ... Baywatch was a popular American television series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the crowded beaches of Los Angeles County, California. ... Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. ... Jesmond is a residential suburb just north of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. ... An Indian chef places bread into a modern tandoor A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven used in Punjab region, northern India and Pakistan in which food is cooked over a hot charcoal fire. ... View of the bridge at night from the Newcastle side Gateshead Millennium Bridge when cars had been put in the River Tyne as part of Artwork. ...

One such photo strip was called "I Believe in Father Christmas", where a full grown man believed in the existence of Santa Claus. His wife, named Virginia, attempts to convince him otherwise. He visits a department store Santa Claus just like a child, although he asks for either a CD from the Dire Straits or Phil Collins. On Christmas night, the man goes downstairs to the living room as he heard noise and figured Santa 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, who tells her he was wrong to believe in Santa Claus like some small child. However, crying, the wife said that Santa did indeed come, he left presents for them. The strip ends by the husband saying to his wife "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." A typical depiction of Santa Claus. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Philip David Charles Collins (born January 30, 1951 in Chiswick, London) is an English singer, songwriter, drummer and actor. ... Robbery is the crime of seizing property through violence or intimidation. ...

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 British tabloid newspaper the Sunday Sport tried to provoke media outrage over another photo strip which, taken out of context, could be misconstrued as making light of the problem of illegal drugs being offered to children. The Sunday Sport is a British newspaper which established itself in 1986 as a tabloid. ...

Trinny and Susannah also threatened to sue the comic after being portrayed as school bullies in a cartoon strip. An official Viz spokesman said “We are too busy laughing to comment.”[4] Trinny Woodall (born Sarah-Jane Woodall[2] 1964 in London), is an award-winning English fashion guru, fashion and style advisor, television personality, presenter and author. ... Susannah Constantine, along with Trinny Woodall, is a host of the BBC style series What Not To Wear. ...

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 Cook and Harry Enfield)
• Sid The Sexist
• Billy The Fish

A one-off TV programme "Viz - The Documentary" was shown on Britain's Channel 4 in 1990. It told the story of Viz in a way that spoofed serious investigative TV shows like Panorama or Dispatches. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... It has been suggested that Channel Four Television Corporation be merged into this article or section. ... Panorama is a long-running current affairs documentary series on BBC television, launched on 11 November 1953 and focusing on investigative journalism. ... Dispatches is a British television documentary series on Channel 4. ...

A computer game using many Viz characters was produced in 1991. A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ...

The Fat Slags appeared in TV ads for Lucozade, a drink that they hate with a passion. These ads included a mixture of cartoon characters (the slags) and live actors (the men who drink Lucozade). Lucozade logo Lucozade logo Lucozade is an energy drink containing glucose syrup and caffeine, produced by GlaxoSmithKline plc. ...

A movie based on The Fat Slags was produced in 2004 [5], but was disowned by the magazine's editors who threatened to stop running the strip in response.

Trivia

• Editor Chris Donald himself cannot remember 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, he considered the word "Viz" a very easy word to write/remember as it consisted of three letters that are easily made with straight lines. The word Viz itself comes from the Latin words vide licet, which is usually abbreviated to "viz". It means "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 strip 'Wanker Watson', a parody of the children's comic book 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. Thomson The Humourless Scottish Git'.
• The comic got in trouble with the United Nations after featuring a strip called 'The Thieving Gypsy Bastards'; unbeknownst to the Viz editorial team at the time, Gypsies are classified as a race and thus the comic was inadvertently guilty of racism. [6]
• 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. [7] [8]

Winker Watson is a fictional character who has his own comic strip in the UK comic The Dandy. ... D. C. Thomson & Co. ... The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ... Languages Romani, languages of native region Religions Christianity, Islam Related ethnic groups South Asians (Desi) The Roma (singular Rom; sometimes Rroma, Rrom) or Romanies are an ethnic group living in many communities all over the world. ... Your Sinclair magazine logo Your Sinclair Issue 1, January 1986 Your Sinclair or YS as it was affectionately known, was a British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, specifically the ZX Spectrum. ... CRASH was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum home computer. ... Oink! was the title of a British comic for children which was published from 3 May 1986-22 October 1988. ...

See also

• British comics
• Pyton was a similar comic from Norway, that was quite popular in the Nordic countries in the '90s. The Finnish translation of the Pyton comic continues as the comic Myrkky.

British comics is the art form of comics as practiced within the United Kingdom. ... Pyton was a Norwegian comics series which was produced by the company Gevion, and afterwards Bladkompaniet, between the years 1986 until 1996. ... Political map of the Nordic countries and associated territories. ... Myrkky (Finnish for poison) is a comic book published by the Finnish branch of the Nordic publisher Egmont. ...

References

• Review of books commemorating Viz's 25th anniversary in The Guardian

External links

• Official site
• 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 West and Harold Shipman
• Cartoonist Alex Collier's MySpace entry
• Review of Rude Kids: The Unfeasible Story of Viz and 25 Years of Viz