Comic Relief

Comic Relief is a charity organisation which was founded in the United Kingdom in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis in response to famine in Ethiopia. It now raises money for Africa and for disadvantaged people in the UK. It was launched live on Noel Edmonds's Late, Late Breakfast Show on BBC1, on Christmas Day 1985 from a refugee camp in Sudan. The idea for Comic Relief came from the innovative philanthropist Jane Tewson, then head of a British NGO, Charity Projects. Initially funds were raised from live events, the most notable being a comedy revue at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London which was subsequently broadcast on television on 25 April, 1986.

One of the fundamental principles behind working at Comic Relief is the 'Golden Pound Principle' where every single donated pound is spent on charitable projects. All operating costs, such as staff salaries, fair-trade chocolate and cheese sandwiches, are covered by corporate sponsors or interest which is earned while money raised is waiting to be spent (granted) to charitable projects.

Red Nose Day

Red Nose Day is the main way in which Comic Relief raises money. It is held in the spring every other year and is often treated as a semi-holiday, with, for example, schools having non-uniform days. The day culminates in a live television event on BBC1 starting in the evening and going through into the early hours of the morning, but other money-raising events take place.

As the name suggests, the day involves the wearing of plastic red noses, which are available, in exchange for a donation, from many shops. There are also larger noses designed to be attached to the fronts of cars or even buildings. The design of the nose has been changed each year, beginning with a fairly plain one, which later grew arms and legs, turned into a tomato and even changed colour. See the table below.

The first "Red Nose Day" was on 5 February, 1988, and raised £15 million. The TV show was hosted by Lenny Henry, Griff Rhys Jones and Jonathan Ross. More than £300 million has so far been distributed to projects by Comic Relief.

On television

The television programming begins in the afternoon, with children's BBC having various related reports, money-raising events and a celebrity gungeing. This is all in-between the regular programmes, but after the six o'clock news, the normal schedule is suspended in favour of a live show, with each hour overseen by a different celebrity team. These celebrities do the work for free, as do the crew, with studio space and production facilities donated by the BBC.

Regular themes throughout the shows include parodies of recent popular shows, films and events and specially-filmed versions of comedy shows. Smith & Jones and a parody sketch starring Rowan Atkinson are both regularly featured – the first being The Cavalier Years.22 (1988).

1999 event

A parody of the Doctor Who series, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, starring Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor, was featured during the show.

2001 event

In 2001 the total raised on Red Nose Day was £61,000,140. As well as donations on the night of the TV show money is raised from countrywide sponsored events and from merchandising, particularly of the red noses themselves. In 2001 5.8 million red noses were sold, approximately one each for 10% of the UK population.

Jack Dee won Celebrity Big Brother. This is the only day on record nobody committed suicide in the UK between 1993 and 2002, according to the BBC

2003 event

The 2003 "Red Nose Day" was held on March 14, 2003. The fund raising activities included Lenny Henry providing the voice of the speaking clock between March 10 and March 23 with the cost of the call going to Comic Relief. On the night of the live show itself, £35m was raised, an on-the-night record. A total of £61,477,539 was raised that year, setting a new record.

Jack Dee stood outside at the top of a pole for the duration of the show, parodying the acts of David Blaine. Celebrity Driving School lead up to the event, with the test results announced during the telethon.

2005 event

The 2005 Red Nose Day was held on March 11 and was hosted by a collection of television stars:

The 2005 event was also noteworthy for supporting the Make Poverty History campaign - many of the videos recorded for the MPH campaign (including videos by Bono and Nelson Mandela) were shown throughout the evening. Over £63m was raised as of November 2005.

Shows included

As usual a variety of specially-filmed versions of television shows were made. Popular BBC talent show Fame Academy was attended by celebrities singing cover versions of songs. Viewers voted for their favourite, with the proceeds going to the cause and the celebrity. Other shows included:

Spider-plant Man, a parody of Spider-Man starring Rowan Atkinson, was also featured.

Donation progress

Times approximate and amounts rounded to the nearest million where not stated exactly:

7:30pm - £2 million
8:30pm - £7 million
9:30pm - £18 million
10pm - £22 million
11:30pm - £30,503,394
12:45am - £35,325,862
02:00am - £37,809,564

Raised by March 2006: £65m

2007 event

The next Red Nose Day is scheduled to be held on 16 March 2007.

Types of nose and amounts raised by Comic Relief

Source notes. The 'amount raised' figures from 1988 to 1999 are taken from The description of noses was obtained from a history of the nose at [http://www.rednoseday.com/flash/nasalhistory.swf.

Year	Amount raised : on the night (£m)	Amount raised : total (£m)	Type of red nose
1988	Unknown	15.8	Plain plastic red nose.
1989	Unknown	26.9	Plain red nose with 'MY NOSE' on the front. The nose also contained a mild scent.
1991	Unknown	20.3	Also known as "The Stonker" (Named after that year's Comic Relief single), the nose had arms and a face.
1993	Unknown	18.0	The nose became a tomato with a face. The larger noses for cars and buildings looked like tomatoes thrown against the wall and were called splats.
1995	Unknown	22.0+	The nose changed colour (from red to pinky-purple or yellow) when heated; holding in a closed hand was enough.
1997	Unknown	27.1+	The nose was furry.
1999	Unknown	35.0+	The nose made a squeaky noise when squeezed and also glittered.
2001	22.0+	55.0+	The nose had a tongue, a small rolled-up tube of latex that would unfurl and make a raspy noise when the nose was squeezed.
2003	35.0+	59.0+	The nose had red stylable hair.
2005	37.0+	65.0+	The nose had multi-coloured hair made from rubber strands, a funny face and came with stickers to add additional facial features. It was packaged with red hair gel and red/yellow face paints.

Comic Relief charity singles

In April 1986 the first Comic Relief charity single was released. It featured Cliff Richard and the cast of The Young Ones in a rendition of "Living Doll".

Some of the money raised from the sale of each single is donated to Comic Relief. Normally a song is released just before the official Red Nose Day. There have been exceptions, such as "(I want to be) Elected" which was released to coincide with the 1992 UK general election. Before 1995's song, they were all more-or-less comedy records, mostly involving an actual band or singer and a comedy group. From 1995 on they have been generally more serious, although the videos still feature comical moments.

Release Date	Title	Artists	Highest chart position reached
April 1986	"Living Doll"	Cliff Richard and the cast of The Young Ones	No. 1
December 1987	"Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree"	Mel & Kim (Mel Smith and Kim Wilde)	No. 4
February 1989	"Help!"	Bananarama & La Na Nee Nee Noo Noo (French and Saunders with Kathy Burke)	No. 4
March 1991	"The Stonk"	Hale and Pace (backing band includes David Gilmour)	No. 1
April 1992	"(I want to be) Elected"	Smear Campaign (Bruce Dickinson, Rowan Atkinson, Angus Deayton)	No. 9
February 1993	"Stick It Out"	Right Said Fred and friends	No. 4
May 1994	"Absolutely Fabulous"	Pet Shop Boys, Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley	No. 6
March 1995	"Love Can Build A Bridge"	Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and Eric Clapton	No. 1
March 1997	"Who Do You Think You Are"/"Mama"	The Spice Girls	No. 1
March 1999	"When The Going Gets Tough"	Boyzone	No. 1
March 2001	"Uptown Girl"	Westlife	No. 1
March 2003	"Spirit in the Sky"	Gareth Gates and the Kumars	No. 1
7 March 2005	"All About You/You've Got a Friend"	McFly	No. 1
14 March 2005	"Is This the Way to Amarillo" †	Tony Christie & Peter Kay	No. 1

† - "Is This the Way to Amarillo", though released expressedly with the intent of proceeds going to Comic Relief, was not an official Comic Relief single. The song was originally performed by Peter Kay (lipsynching to Tony Christie's voice) during the evening, and was later released as a single. It was the number one single for seven weeks, and in its first week it outsold the rest of the top 20 combined.

Criticism

On October 5, 2004, the Burma Campaign UK criticised Comic Relief for its association with the multinational DHL, a partner of Myanmar Post and Telecom. John Jackson, head of Burma Campaign UK, noted that they were aiding war victims in Rwanda while funding the military regime in Myanmar.

In March, 2005, several Catholic schools in South Wales were banned from supporting Red Nose Day by church leaders because of claims that money raised would fund abortions in Africa. Reports of this were denied by other church leaders.

Similar events outside the United Kingdom

In the United States

Inspired by the British charity, a United States Comic Relief charity was founded in 1986 by Bob Zmuda.

Comic Relief is an irregularly held event, televised on HBO, that has raised and distributed nearly $50 million toward providing health care services to homeless men, women, and children throughout the United States. Comedians Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg are hosts of the event.

In Australia

In 1988, the Red Nose Day concept was adopted by the SIDS and Kids organisation to help raise funds for research into sudden infant death syndrome. Since then, Red Nose Day in Australia is held annually on the last Friday of June ^*.

An Australian version of Comic Relief, Comic Relief Australia, has also been set up. (It plans to divide the money raised between Australian causes (at least 40%) and overseas charities largely in Asia Pacific (at least 40%) ([http://entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,17114431-10229,00.html).

Following a campaign encouraging people to buy articles such as red wristbands, the first telethon-style event was held on November 6 2005 on the Seven Network. It followed the established format, with comedy interspersed with examples of the sorts of charities to benefit. According to its website, this raised over AUS $800,000.

In Germany

The German TV station Pro 7 initiated a similar event in 2003. By selling red noses money is collected for the charity foundations PowerChild, Deutsche Kinder- und Jugendstiftung (lit., German Child and Youth Foundation), and Comic Relief. The event is called 'Red Nose Day' and now takes place annually.

External links

Charities based in the United States | Charities based in the United Kingdom | Seven Network shows | Comedy projects with a serious purpose

Red Nose Day | Red Nose Day

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