There is a Stewart Lee interview on Mustard Web that apparently spans chats from 2010 and 2015. The relevant section to this post is:

PART VIII: BEN ELTON, JIMMY CARR AND THE HELL OF 8 OUT OF 10 CATS

He describes Jimmy as someone “who I like as a person” but brings up him and John Bishop as being examples of “people who work like they think it will all end tomorrow”. Having admitted earlier in the interview that he’s a “plodder” he seems to be baffled by comedians loving their job and wanting to work a lot.

I mentioned that just for context because, as a part of Stewart’s stage persona, he frequently targets Jimmy (and Ricky Gervais) as performers of comedy that he doesn’t approve of.

But the main thrust of this section of the lengthy interview is his appearance on 8oo10c.

8 Out of 10 Cats, 2007

S5 Ep5 (details here) was Stewart’s one and only appearance on 8oo10c. Broadcast on July 13^th 2007:

• Sean Lock – Captain
• Liza Tarbuck
• Stewart Lee
• Jason Manford – Captain
• Alun Cumming
• Susie Essmane

Stewart has described the show as the “worst professional appearance of his life” and admits he hadn’t watched the show properly beforehand, hadn’t thought about it enough and knew, within 30 seconds, that he was incapable of contributing. He said:

Sean Lock and Jimmy Carr tried to help me, feeding me things, but I just couldn’t do it.

He describes how, during a round about the show Big Brother, that he thought it absurd that the BB production company (Endemol) also made 8oo10c (that were laughing at the show) – and talked about a “global corporation that not only makes the product, but also makes the product that criticises the product” …and was greeted with silence. Jimmy apparently then got a laugh when he said:

In five years of doing this programme I’ve never heard a comment less likely to be included in the final edit.

That BB round is the first in the video below but Jimmy’s prediction was correct – that part was cut out.

Stewart goes on to say that his point about Earth Day “went against the consensus” as everyone else was taking the p***. Having just rewatched the episode…it fell flat because he was trying to make a political point (again). It’s a comedy show. Doesn’t matter what the panellists think about anything – it just needs to be a gag.

It wouldn’t matter whether anyone else agrees or not – it just needs to be playful. As demonstrated by Jason’s faux rant at Susie for criticising the Queen – telling her (I’ll paraphrase) she’s OUR Queen and that his brother’s a nob but Susie is not allowed to say that.

Stewart ends that section of the interview by commenting:

That said, I have tremendous admiration for the gag writers – Gary Delaney, Tim Vine. Jimmy Carr is able to get whole concepts down to three or four words.

The full 8oo10c S5 compilation is here and Ep5 is below.