Comic Relief is a British charity organization that was founded in 1985 in response to famine in Ethiopia. It raises money for countries in Africa and for disadvantaged people of the UK.
Every two years, the organization holds "Red Nose Day," a star-studded telethon on BBC 1. The event is held in March with the television event starting in the evening and lasting into the early hours of the morning.
In 1986, an American version was launched in the form of annual HBO specials, including a tenth anniversary edition called Comic Relief's American Comedy Festival.
A Night of Comic Relief 2[]
The second Comic Relief telethon, titled A Night of Comic Relief 2, aired on March 10, 1989.
Dog (played by Brian Henson) from Jim Henson's The StoryTeller appeared in a live comedy bit during the telethon. The telethon concluded with Lenny Henry, Griff Rhys Jones, Jonathan Ross, and the dog tucking themselves into a giant bed to watch an hour's worth of The Young Ones and Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Other celebrities involved in A Night of Comic Relief 2 included Clive Anderson, Rowan Atkinson, Phil Collins, Robbie Coltrane, Billy Connolly, Ken Dodd, Dawn French, Matt Frewer, Stephen Fry, John Gordon Sinclair, Robert Hardy, Max Headroom, Hugh Laurie, Linda McCartney, Kylie Minogue, Michael Palin, Geoffrey Palmer, Jonathan Pryce, Jennifer Saunders, John Sessions, John Wells, and others.
Red Nose Day 1991[]
Two wolves (performed by David Barclay and Mike Quinn) appeared in a piece alongside Bob Hoskins wherein the wolves inform Hoskins that they ate the rabbit from his film.[1]
Helping Hand[]
Each year, a single is released featuring celebrities to help raise money for Comic Relief.
In 1991, the single "Helping Hand" debuted. In the music video, many of England's famous puppet characters, including Spitting Image and Gophers!, appear together singing. Uncle Traveling Matt, Red Fraggle, and Sprocket appear representing Fraggle Rock, and Bean Bunny and another rabbit appear from The Tale of the Bunny Picnic. The music video aired during the 1991 telethon and later re-aired during the 1995 telethon.
Red Nose Day 2013[]
The 2013 event took place on Friday, March 15, 2013. Miss Piggy, Ricky Gervais and Pepe the King Prawn were involved.
Red Nose Day 2015 (USA)[]
On May 21, 2015, NBC aired a live telecast of the inaugural "Red Nose Day" event in the United States. Kermit the Frog and Ed Sheeran were featured performing an acoustic duet of "Rainbow Connection."
The event was hosted by Seth Meyers, David Duchovny, and Jane Krakowski. Other celebrities included Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zac Efron, Jimmy Fallon, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Garner, Neil Patrick Harris, Anna Kendrick, John Krasinski, John Mellencamp, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Nick Offerman, One Direction, Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd, Keith Urban, and Reese Witherspoon
Red Nose Day 2017[]
In a video for Red Nose Day 2017, Stephen Hawking auditions celebrities to contribute a new voice for his voice synthesizer; among the hopefuls is Miss Piggy, who asks, "Can science be... SEXY?"