Sorry for being a bit slack on the blogging front this week, but on Wednesday my life changed dramatically. I had a free moment and sat down to see if this BBC thing called iPlayer*, which allows one to watch missed programmes online, was any good. Three hours later I emerged out of a square-eyed fug, having sat through two episodes of The Last Enemy, Bruce Forsyth on Jonathan Ross and the first episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look.

Of course, if you've got Sky+ etc you'll already know what I'm talking about, but in recent years I've gone from being an early adopter, grabbing a newfangled gizmo as soon as it hit the shops, to being a very late adopter, resisting the urge until the very last minute because of the rapid turnover of technology. Usually by the time you've unwrapped the latest battery-powered widget these days an ad will have appeared announcing the launch of the new, improved mark 2 model.

So, how does this impact on comedy? Well, for starters it means I can go out to gigs without worrying about missing out (my wheezy VHS gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago, prompting this life-altering change) on a new show. After I've written this, for instance, I can catch up on last night's second edition of Mitchell & Webb (though word has it I didn't miss much and even if I'd been in I'd have watched Ashes To Ashes, which I'll also be catching up on today). It also means that I won't miss vital episodes in a series when the Beeb decides on some ridiculous scheduling, ie last week's Freezing, which went out on three consecutive nights. Some of us have a life you know.

I'll miss not watching programmes at the same time as everybody else, but as I work from home a lot of the time I haven't experienced a watercooler moment – gathering by the toilets or tea machine to gossip about last night's telly – for about seven years. But then does anyone else have them? While telly is still at the centre of our lives, and comedy often at the centre of telly, I'm not sure if watercooler moments still exist anyway. The last thing I can remember talking about in The Office was, erm, The Office.

Actually I thought that Wednesday night documentary about the oldest stuntman in the world was wonderfully bizarre, but I watched it on Thursday afternoon, so even if I had an office job I'd have missed out on any chat. Can anyone else help me. Have I missed any real watercooler moments recently?

*C4 has had its own version for a while, 4OD, which offers all sorts of comedy goodies, including an impressive archive including Father Ted. In fact Ted actor Dermot Morgan died ten years ago this week so maybe you could watch it as a tribute. Unfortunately I can't – I have an Apple Mac and 4OD only works on PCs. Pull your finger out C4 techies. Maybe get someone from The IT Crowd to sort it out.

Hold the front page, comedy is clearly no longer the new rock and roll. There were a lot of things wrong with Wednesday night's Brit Awards, but the thing that bothered me was the sheer absence of comedy. OK, camp comic du jour Alan Carr had his moments, but Vic Reeves – one of my all-time favourites – was definitely having an off-night. Personally I don't think he was drunk, whatever foulmouthed Asda shopper Sharon Osbourne screamed. That would be an easy explanation for his bad gig. It wasn't just the music that was lame on Wednesday, the comedy was pretty limp too.

Some people have suggested that Reeves' hesitant appearance was his Ricky-Gervais-At-The-Princess-Di-Concert moment and I can see their point. It has been suggested that Reeves took ages to deliver his lines because of a faulty autocue, but a match-fit comedian should always be able to fill in in the event of the unexpected glitch. Instead his distinctly unfunny northern club compere routine took me right back to seeing Reeves in the late eighties doing shambolic solo shows in South London before he hooked up with Bob Mortimer and went stellar.

Flying solo seems to be Vic's problem at the moment. When he works with Bob, as on their recent Radio 2 series, he is still as stupidly, daftly funny as ever, but as a solo act outside his own Reeves-created, Reeves-controlled mad universe he has difficulties. This is why appearing as a guest on panel shows is not the best showcase for his deranged talents. Vic has recently been taken on by a hotshot manager, so we can expect him to have a high profile again in the near future. But if he was a schoolboy his report card for Wednesday night would read "could - and must - do better".

The Brits was really lacking in laughs. Last year Russell Brand presented, in the past Frank Skinner and Ben Elton have had a bash. The Osbournes were truly car crash telly and not in a good way. Normally the hottest comedians would have chipped in at some point, but where were Gervais, Little Britain, The Mighty Boosh or even the ever-ready-to-plug-their-new show Mitchell and Webb?* The latter's absence was a particular mystery. But then again, this was one of those nights when the people that stayed away showed exquisite taste.

*Apologies if some of these acts did actually appear at some point. The show was so painful I frequently had to leave the room.

Why is Dr Who obsessed with comedians? The latest news is that Steve Pemberton from the League of Gentlemen is going to appear in the next series. This should not come as a big surprise as his LoG chum Mark Gatiss has already appeared in the sci fi hit. And furthermore, when not denying rumours that the likes of Eddie Izzard are in the frame to play the Timelord himself, the show is constantly plundering the comedy world for characters. Jessica Stephenson (now Hynes) and Simon Pegg from Spaced have both had a turn in it and didn't Peter Kay play an intergalactic slug? Or was that Ricky Gervais's Andy Millman in the Extras Christmas Special? And, of course, there's Catherine Tate, who, not content with one star turn in the show, is about to return as the Doc's sidekick.

This celebrity stunt casting (see also Kylie Minogue) all adds to the fun of the show, but the makers have got to be very careful that it doesn't slip into the realms self-parody. I wondered a while back if the show was turning into a comedy and my fears may be coming true. At one point a few years ago David Walliams was rumoured to be writing a Dr Who episode, but thank goodness that never happened. What if a script from Little Britain and a script from Dr Who fused together like Jeff Goldblum and the fly in, erm, The Fly. Would Lou and Andy find themselves parking the wheelchair in the Tardis? Would Vicky Pollard nick the sonic screwdriver and break into the local branch of Lidl with it?

I'm not saying Dr Who should exclusively employ actors from the RSC who have never cracked a gag in their lives, but it has to be careful about diluting the brand. It is bad enough that David Tennant is developing a light-hearted sideline with cameos in comedy shows, but if many more clowns get involved in this still-scary TV classic how are we ever going to take it seriously again?

Good news and bad news for Mighty Boosh fans. The good news is that there are definite plans to make a full-length Boosh movie. The bad news is that there are definite plans to make a full-length Boosh movie.

We've been here before. Every time a comedy series is a hit there is talk of a film, but the critical successes can be counted on the fingers of a mitten. Ali G In Da House turned a satirical show into a crude extended sitcom, while The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse turned into three brilliant actors in search of a decent script. Everyone seems to want a slice of the comedy-movie pie these days. There is now, hot off the press, even talk of a film version of Russell Brand's best-seller, My Booky Wook, starring, naturally, Brand as himself and directed by award-winner Michael Winterbottom.

It feels as if it has always been the way. The Likely Lads, Steptoe & Son and Rising Damp were all turned into movies but somehow the formula that worked so well over thirty minutes was stretched to breaking point over ninety. Holiday On The Buses might have been the highest grossing Hammer movie of its era, topping even the Dracula hit, but the jokes were simply horrific.

Of course, these days there is DVD etc, and if a film fails to top the box office charts it has a great chance of making up for it in other ways. And that may be the best reason for making a Mighty Boosh movie. Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding's spaced-out adventures work best when small and intimate. The telly series is made for a proverbial pittance by Hollywood standards, but has some of the most wonderful low-budget special effects seen on telly since the golden age of Blake's Seven. Who needs to recreate the moon accurately when you can have Noel Fielding's face covered in shaving cream?

Also I don't know if I could handle Fielding's peculiarly angular face massively enlarged for the cinemas, although I know some women who could think of nothing more exciting. On the other hand though, Julian Barratt's eyes are so small we might finally get to see them if they make it to a screen in Leicester Square. Personally though, I like to see my sitcoms from the comfort of my sofa, not surrounded by massed popcorn-munchers. I'm a big fan, but if a Boosh movie ever does hit the big screen, my plan might be to wait for it to hit the small screen.

There has been a considerable kerfuffle over the announcement that the forthcoming C4 series New Heroes of Comedy is going to celebrate the work of Little Britain, Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais. Some have suggested that these performers aren't fit to shine the shoes of some of the names featured in the original Heroes of Comedy programmes, such as Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd and Peter Cook.

Personally I can't see the problem. One of the attractions of my job is the fact that we are clearly living through a golden age of comedy and these three subjects are all worthy choices. In fact, to declare an interest, I was invited to take part in the Little Britain documentary. Whether my witterings will make the final cut I don't know, but when the producers said there were two other portraits in the pipeline I immediately guessed that they were on Gervais and Baron Cohen – both have had huge success with iconic creations that are up there with Captain Mainwaring and Basil Fawlty. They are also both big in America – handy if the makers want to flog their shows Stateside. Besides, if the makers were just trying to be modern and fashionable the trilogy would have featured Russell Brand, The Mighty Boosh and Mitchell and Webb.

I find it annoying that critics tend to hark back to the greats such as Hancock and Benny Hill and refuse to acknowledge that there is greatness now. Does Matt Lucas have to drop dead before they make a documentary about him? OK, he might not have been working for as long as Ronnie Corbett – a previous subject who is very much alive and kicking – but he is hardly an overnight success flash-in-the-pan either.

If I do have an objection to the new series it is that in going for big names who are currently at their creative peak C4 has leapfrogged over a generation which has never been given the Heroes of Comedy treatment. If we are talking bodies of work, what about French and Saunders? Mayall and Edmondson? Harry Enfield? Lenny Henry? Reeves and Mortimer? Caroline Aherne? All too new when the original series was made, but presumably too old for this one. My objection is not that Little Britain, Baron Cohen and Gervais have been chosen, but that the series could have been much bigger than a three-parter if they'd removed the word "New" from the title. So who do you, dear reader, think is missing from the list?

As Vic Reeves used to say, "You wouldn't let it lie." Industry gossip suggests that there is talk of reviving the Carry On franchise, this time with Russell Brand in the lead in a film called Carry On To The Next Round. The plot involves an X Factor-type show in which the judges bicker and fight with each other and one falls for a contestant. Girl Aloud Sarah Harding has also been linked to this spurious project about which a) it sounds strangely similar to the forthcoming ITV series Rock Rivals b) the best thing about it is the reasonably clever title.

We've been here before of course. A few years back there was talk of making Carry On London, but that seemed to disappear down the development plughole. Whether there is anything concrete to this latest story is another matter. Gossip snippets can sometimes be PRs taking a flyer, planting space-fillers in the press to see if there is any interest in the project, much in the same way that 'government leaks' have been known to be planned to see how a policy will go down if it is officially announced. Then again, the whole thing could have been concocted on a quiet news day from the thinnest of offhand remarks as an excuse to run another picture of dishy Russell Brand. And regarding Brand, I can't bring myself to believe he would be up for this anyway because a) he has his sights set on Hollywood, not Cricklewood, b) surely he has learnt his lesson from his role in the recent laughable – and not in a good way – St Trinians revival.

Let's just hope this doesn't go any further. I'm sadly old enough to remember when the franchise was revived for Carry On Columbus in 1992. It seemed like a good idea at the time, as there was a whole new alternative comedy gang – Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Keith Allen etc – who could put their own spin on the classic formula and make their mark. The result, however, was a ridiculous rehash of rudeness with few emerging with any credit.

If you really want to enjoy a ridiculous Carry On romp there is no need to make a new one, the DVDs of the originals are out there and probably going cheap. Who could forget Carry On Camping, with Babs Windsor's bra popping off during morning exercises or Sid James playing a randy dolly bird chaser even though he was pushing sixty. They clearly don't make 'em like that any more. And let's just hope they don't try.