COMEDY — all episodes — Fantasy/Animation

Episode 169 - Leeds Animation Workshop (with Terry Wragg)

Episode 169 marks the Fantasy/Animation podcast’s first engagement with the work of the Leeds Animation Workshop, a pioneering women’s animation collective formally established in 1978 to produce and distribute animated films on a variety of social, cultural, and educational issues. A not-for-profit, grassroots cooperative, the Workshop has been at the forefront in developing animation’s role as a tool for activism and action, not just organising screenings and providing workshops for adults and young people, but working “in consultation with organisations and individuals” to “specialise in making complex or sensitive issues more accessible to audiences, and at times offering an alternative point of view.”

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantMarch 9, 2026COMEDY, GENDER, REPRESENTATION, POLITICSComment

Episode 168 - Space Ghost Coast to Coast (Mike Lazzo, 1994-2008) (with Jacqueline Ristola)

In Episode 168 of the podcast, Chris and Alex are delighted to be joined by Dr Jacqueline Ristola, Lecturer in the Department of Film and Television at the University of Bristol, to discuss the Cartoon Network’s adult live-action/animated talkshow parody Space Ghost Coast to Coast (Mike Lazzo, 1994-2008). With research areas including animation, anime studies, media industry studies, and queer representation, Jacqueline is the ideal guest to introduce listeners to the surrealist tone, irreverent comedy, and generic subversions of Space Ghost, with a focus in this instalment on the specific episodes “Sleeper” (S2E7) (1995), “Rehearsal” (S4E1) (1997), and “Fire Ant” (S6E6) (1999).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFebruary 23, 2026PERFORMANCE, REFLEXIVITY, SURREALISM, COMEDY, TELEVISIONComment

Episode 163 - Babes in Toyland (Gus Meins & Charles Rogers, 1934) (with Rob King)

Chris and Alex make their first foray into the world of Laurel and Hardy with this reflection on Babes in Toyland (Gus Meins and Charles Rogers, 1934), a film based loosely on the Mother Goose fairytale albeit with a few other nursery rhyme characters thrown in for good measure, all supported by the iconicity of Laurel and Hardy and the duo’s particular brand of slapstick comedy. Joining them to separate their Tom-Tom Piper from their Bo Peep is Rob King, Professor of Film at Columbia University, a film historian who has written wildly on American genre cinema, popular culture, and cultural history with a particular emphasis on silent-era stardom and comedy.

Episode 114 - The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Mike Rianda, 2021)

The Netflix feature The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Mike Rianda, 2021) gets the Fantasy/Animation treatment, as Chris and Alex offer up a discussion in this episode of the film’s dysfunctional family dynamics, road movie structure, and its spectacular sentient robots techno-narrative.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFebruary 20, 2023COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMS, NETFLIX, FAMILY, CHILDREN, VIOLENCE, COMEDYComment

Episode 75 - Chicken Run (Peter Lord & Nick Park, 2000) (with Lynn Ferguson)

For Episode 75, Chris and Alex revisit the work of Aardman Animations, taking a look at their debut feature film Chicken Run (Peter Lord & Nick Park, 2000), whose narrative of meat pies and morality remains underwritten by the Bristol-based studio’s signature stop-motion style and very British sense of anarchy. Joining them for this discussion of the art of poultry-in-motion is Chicken Run’s very own Mac, the loveable Scottish genius engineer chicken voiced by writer, actress, and story coach and consultant Lynn Ferguson.

Episode 74 - WandaVision (Jac Schaeffer, 2021)

In this latest episode, Chris and Alex sit down with the Disney+ series WandaVision (Jac Schaeffer, 2021), a spectacular fantasy of U.S. television history that continues the citational practices and narrative complexities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet does so by working through the industrial, cultural and stylistic lexicon of the sitcom.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantMay 24, 2021MARVEL, TELEVISION, COMEDY, COMICS, VISUAL EFFECTSComment

Episode 68 - The Prince of Egypt (Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner & Simon Wells, 1998) (with Francesca Stavrakopoulou)

Episode 68 marks Chris and Alex’s first look at popular animation studio DreamWorks, turning to the California-based company’s early cycle of cel-animated cartoons to examine The Prince of Egypt (Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner & Simon Wells, 1998). Joining them to separate the historical realism from the packaged Westernised fantasy is biblical scholar and broadcaster Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter, whose research encompasses ancient Israelite and Judahite religions, and portrayals of the religious past in the Hebrew Bible.

Episode 59 - Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) (with Peter Adamson)

Episode 59 heralds Chris and Alex’s first foray into silent film comedy via the work of performer Buster Keaton, looking at his feature Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) that celebrates the dreams and psychology of a movie theatre projectionist. Joining them as the lights go down is Peter Adamson, Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Münich and King's College London, and host of the successful History of Philosophy without any gaps podcast that examines the “ideas, lives and historical context” of both major philosophers and more lesser-known figures.

Episode 31 - The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (Peter Lord, 2012) (with Richard Haynes)

For episode 31, Chris and Alex are joined on their swashbuckling adventure by stop-motion animator Richard Haynes (Arts University Bournemouth) to discuss his work on Aardman Animations’ The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (Peter Lord, 2012), as well as a few other animated feature films and television series along the way. Topics include how The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! differs from the traditional shape of Aardman’s exaggerated and lavish fantasy worlds; the production pipeline of stop-motion feature films; the Britishness of the clean and crisp homemade style of the Aardman studio; and the philosophies of performance with (and around) the ‘animated’ character of the camera.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantOctober 7, 2019STOP-MOTION, AARDMAN, CREATIVITY, PRACTICE, COMEDY, BRITISHComment