No Known Cure: The Comedy of Chris Morris Hardcover – Illustrated, 29 May 2013

Academic work about television can be deeply hit and miss for the "general reader". Theses that refer to countless other unpublished theses, desiccated tables of data analysis and opening paragraphs that conjure up a reading list as long as your arm before things have even started conspire to floor the layman. It also doesn't help that, for a long time, much academic writing on British television has preferred to treat it as a sociological phenomenon rather than an art form. This combination of dry seriousness and not taking the medium seriously enough can, at worst, produce an extended Mark Lawson column stuffed with Baudrillard quotes.This collection of essays on the much-venerated, little-analysed Chris Morris neatly avoids all this. While not making the fatal error of trying to lighten the tone because a comedian's being discussed (although there's a graph on page 114 that will make any Morris fan hoot), it largely manages to put the slipperiest of comic talents under the microscope without looking like someone, somewhere, has missed the joke in a big way. With the right approach, absurdity can be analysed.No Known Cure is especially strong on Morris's almost legendary early radio work, the highly-regarded return to form that was Four Lions and, surprisingly, the tail-chasing Hoxton squib Nathan Barley. It never makes the mistake of venerating Morris as a genius apart who can do no wrong - a chapter focussing on the 2001 Brass Eye Special (to my mind the most over-rated of his programmes) looks not at the show itself, but its reflection in the distorting mirror of "Cultural Capital" (aka cultural snobbery) and draws some interesting conclusions.Morris fans who own Lucian Randall's excellent biography and are hungry for more would do well to get this book, as would anyone interested in the smart, highly referential strain of comedy that's evolved in the UK over the last couple of decades. Doubtless Morris himself wouldn't approve, having a low opinion of "po faced" comedy discussion (possibly the only trait he shares with Hi-De-Hi's Ted Bovis). Like a prank Brass Eye interview, this book ran a high risk of being shown up by its subject. Instead, it's turned out a fine use of the academic cheesebox.

Chris Morris needed to have a book like this written about him because no other comedian makes you laugh as hard as they make you think. This book is serious but never lets you forget you're reading about someone who is extremely funny. The book is a collection of articles and think pieces from a broad selection of writers, journalists and academics. It's an easy and fascinating read. It can be read from cover to cover or dipped into but most importantly it will leave you desperate to hear or see everything and anything Morris ever recorded. Interesting, funny and vital for even the passing fan. Although I suspect in Morris's case passing fans don't exist.

As books about comedy go this one's pretty serious – but for comedy nerds it's ideal.Don't expect a biography of Chris Morris; it's all pretty academic. If you want to know about how his comedy actually works the analysis is brilliant, particularly the chapter on post-irony in Nathan Barley.

I thought I was smart and somewhat funny until I read this. Morris is on a different level - as is the author.