Chris Morris is considered to be one of the greatest satirists ever and has been responsible for some of the most controversial, and let’s face it funny, programmes on television. In the UK, comedy writers and performers ranked him number 11 out of the 50 greatest comedy acts ever, above people including Bill Hicks, Peter Sellars and Eddie Izzard.
Apart from being a comedy great, he’s an incredibly interesting guy. He’s performed with Peter Cook, Stereolab used his sketches as lyrics on one of their albums, he won a BAFTA for his first short film and, for ‘Brass Eye’, he tricked a British politician into asking questions in Parliament about a made-up drug called ‘cake’ (which still remains in the public record).
Oh, and he’s also really into science.
Brian and Chris have been friends for several years now. When they get together, conversation tends to start on politics (Brian’s favoured topic of conversation) and move swiftly onto what’s being done at CERN (Chris’s favoured topic of conversation). Brian decided to invite Chris out to Geneva in order to see it all for himself.
Along with Brian, Chris also spoke to other CERN physicists Thorsten Wengler and Albert De Roeck. This podcast takes us to both ATLAS and CMS. We normally go to ATLAS, this is the first time CERN Podcast has recorded at CMS. If you’ve never seen CMS before, make sure you have a look.
Then listen:
[audio:http://www.yada-yada.co.uk/podcasts/LHC/audio/ChrisMorris.mp3%5D
(direct link here)
Subscribe to CERN Podcast on iTunes or RSS.
More images of Chris at CERN available at our Flickr account (opens in new window).
You may also be interested in our podcasts with Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery.
cernpodcast 
I cannot believe Chris is at CERN. The man who won’t break cover for anyone randomly turns up in Switzerland at a laboratory. What a dude.
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[…] May 6, 2008 Chris Morris breaks cover…at CERN, Switzerland Posted by hypernation under Culture, Humour, Technology | Tags: armando munnery, CERN, chris morris, kevin eldon, On the Hour, particle physics, podcast, satirist, simon munnery, Television, UK | Chris Morris, satirist, genius behind Brass Eye and The Day Today, as well as the darkly awesome Blue Jam radio show, broke cover recently, in the most unlikely place. Cern Labs. […]
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I don’t know what I’m more jealous of; getting to play with the stuff at CERN or getting to hang out with Morris, Munnary and The Actor Kevin Eldon.
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legend
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nice
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[…] like myself can sit there and talk about the Higgs-Bosun with an air of knowledge. Here’s a brilliant example of the brilliant Chris Morris being shown around the brilliant Large Hadron Collider. In an manner […]
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I’m really jealous too. Chris Morris is a major hero of mine. I managed to speak to him once when I served him a drink at fair in Kew last year. I was too star struck to say more than “Here’s your change”.
BTW I just have a very unscientific brain & I have absolutely no idea what the two of you are talking about. The nearest I got to finding science interesting was on a sociology course at college about how scientists actually “construct” particles and stuff and that they only exist because we put our faith in what you guys say. But that’s by the by.
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I think sociologists only exist because rather stupidly we have put faith in what they say might actually have a role in Universities.
It might be fun though to accelerate them at near light speed around giant tunnels and smash them into each other and see if anything ineteresting appears.
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[…] Listen him here. […]
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Annie; “about how scientists actually “construct” particles and stuff and that they only exist because we put our faith in what you guys say”. Yup, that sounds like someone with an unscientific brain. In most cases of “particles” their existence and attributes can be demonstrated with multiple lines of evidence. It would be no more absurd to say that Africa only exists because we in the West have faith in it.
Anyway, Chris Morris and leading-edge physics are two of my favourite things in the world. I never would have thought they would cross paths like this. Bravo CERN!
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[…] (of The Day Today, Blue Jam and Brass Eye fame) a tour of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and interviewing him for the CERN podcast. Familiar faces from the world of comedy and popular science (including Simon Munnery AKA the […]
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amazing! he manages to be surreal even when he is not being flippant.
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[…] Morris of all people, talking about particle physics at CERN. See, I knew physics was […]
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Only Chris could get a mention of Madonna into an article about CERN – as per his article in the Guardian special CERN supplement.
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[…] He is also a science junkie, and while we were all at the Large Hadron Collider he chatted with Brian Cox about what the LHC will do. The CERN podcast of the interview is now online. […]
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[…] Also, listen to a CERN podcast about his visit: http://www.cernpodcast.com/?p=43 […]
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[…] On the Hour Sorry to bump this thread again, but did anyone seen this? CERN Podcast | Chris Morris __________________ ” Did you say Ben Laden? He sounds like a shirt designer in Manhattan […]
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This is hilarious! Whenever Chris asks a physics question, I can’t help but feel it’s all a big pisstake…
Just hearing him saying the word “quark” makes me think of “cake”.
The LHC isn’t a big brass-eye joke, is it?!
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I taught Chris Morris everything he knows. All of his gags he stole from me. Why is he famous and I am teaching English to kindergarten in Hong Kong? The world is so unfair!
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Utterly brilliant. It’s great for good science to get in the news, even if there are enough Luddites predicting the end of the world.
I am wondering though about the potential for using the LHC to accelerate children to close to the speed of light and fire them at paedophiles to see what particles are produced
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I met Chris at Bournemouth university in 2007. He is absolutely lovely and dresses like a hippy. He nearly missed his train because he was signing stuff for the students.
You can hear the mp3 of the interview/lecture he gave at cookdandbombd (dot) co (dot) uk
He wrote a cryptic message on my Brasseye DVD, I’ll be buried with it.
😀
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[…] CERN Podcast | Chris Morris It’s actually amazing. […]
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It gives it self mass’..
with the hicks booze on..
but if you have mass you can stop..
lololololol..Fantastic’..my heads spinning..Love this,
Real Space Jam..was on telly,
Peace*
Lee,
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[…] with stand-up, writer and Carl Sagan enthusiast Robin Ince. A quick delve into the archives reveals this podcast, where he guided satirist and comedy giant Chris Morris around […]
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