Twelfth Man on swearing, sport

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NO JOKE: Aussie Billy Birmingham Birmingham has zeroed in mercilessly on the idiosyncrasies and character traits of Australia's Channel Nine commentary team - Richie Benaud, Tony Greig, In Chappell and Bill Lawry in particular.

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As many of those who have never grown up will attest, profanity is funny and sport is taken far too seriously - and Australian satirist Billy Birmingham, aka the Twelfth Man, has forged the two into a winning combination.

The iconic comedian has made a career out of lampooning Australia's crack cricket commentary team, led by the doyen of cricket, Richie Benaud, garnering huge success in Australia and New Zealand.

He says his popularity is down to the fact that Australians and Kiwis have two favourite past times - sport and "taking the piss".

"And I just stumbled across the idea of putting them together in this recorded form," he told Stuff.co.nz.

"There's lots of people [in Australia and New Zealand] who love sport, they love watching sport and they love taking the piss out of each other."

Birmingham has taken his spot-on mimicry and "glorious sense of the absurd" and zeroed in mercilessly on the idiosyncrasies and character traits of  Australia's Channel Nine commentary team - Richie Benaud, Tony Greig, Ian Chappell and Bill Lawry in particular.

Benaud, the Australian cricketing great and one of the most respected voices in cricket, bears the brunt of many of the jokes.

As he switches between his own voice and those of his characters and frequently breaks into laughter, Birmingham explains that Benaud was just too hard to resist, with his strange voice immediately apparent when he began his commentary career in the 70s.

"He really does sound odd doesn't he? And look at his bottom lip - it's got a mind of its own and he's got a permanent sun tan and I figured that's because he hasn't seen the winter in 58 years."

Birmingham points to Benaud's immaculately groomed hair and his penchant for "cream, white, off white beige, bone, white and off-white jackets" and his urbane and refined demeanor, as magnets for his vocal caricatures.

Earlier in his career, Benaud wrote to Birmingham congratulating him on his success, but pointed out that the gratuitous use of profanity was unnecessary.

But: "You don't hang around cricket circles if you're embarrassed by four letter words," says Birmingham.

"When you've seen anyone from bloody Merv Hughes to Chris Cairns or somebody who has fired a ball down and it's just missed the outside edge and the camera's on him, well, Stevie Wonder can tell what he's saying."

Having the commentary team "dropping the F bomb" as they give their pitch reports has been much of the secret to his success he said.

"A lot of people really liked that aspect of it and I certainly did, because basically I love schoolboy humour - I've never grown up."

Reports suggest the skits are popular with most members of the commentary team and Birmingham believes they understand his parodies have enhanced their own appeal.

Birmingham says the greatest sign of his success has been people rolling down their windows at traffic lights or approaching him in pubs and letting rip with stock quotes.

Age grade cricket coaches will also attest to the impact the Twelfth Man has had on their lives.

They might love him, but he's made training sessions hell.

"Some poor bugger who has got to go in there and try and get the under 16s to learn how to play the game and it's just impossible," Birmingham says of the coaches.

"They're just doing Twelfth Man commentary - he says "I can't control them, I'm trying to tell a guy how to change his bowling action and the whole practice session is full of "Got 'em", "Yes!, Piss off you're out!"".

With Benaud having announced he will hang up his microphone at the end of they year - Birmingham thinks it's time for him to give it away too.

On reflection, with 25 years of parody ringing in our ears and a box set of his work now for sale, Birmingham says he takes pride in his work and despite his sometimes merciless satire, says there's nothing he wishes he could take back.

"I think that comedy and sport are the great levelers, they're the things that bring people of all socio-economic groups and all age groups together and the Twelfth Man stuff seems to have really hit the mark for many people on many levels and it gives me a sense of great pride to have delivered that sort of enjoyment to so many people over the 25 years."

"It's been an absolute pleasure to have made people laugh as much as I have."

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