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Music

Paul Chuckle is the Lord of Bank Holiday Weekend Big Ones

While you were pretending to have a nice time at an exhibition, he was taking selfies with Craig David, hanging out with Public Enemy, rocking Stussy t-shirts, and "killing it" on stage.
Emma Garland
London, GB

A typical British bank holiday usually involves one of three activities: going to work as usual because you have a minimum wage job in service or retail, staying home and gleefully masturbating with all the doors open because all your housemates work in service or retail, or ignoring the fact that it’s 14 degrees and teetering on the precipice of a downpour to sit in the nearest park and Snapchat videos of some geese. Thing is though, while you were doing that, Paul Chuckle of The Chuckle Brothers fame – yes, those Chuckle Brothers, who have endured in our cultural consciousness since 1985 thanks to a gag about passing things back and forth and somehow messing it up and then saying “oh dear” a lot – had an absolutely peak weekend.

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The brothers Paul and Barry hit up Oxford's Common People festival, which had one of the weirdest and most fire line-ups of the year, with Primal Scream billed alongside Chas n' Dave, Public Enemy alongside Mr Motivator, and The Chuckle Brothers immediately followed (on the same stage) by Lady Leshurr, The Sugarhill Gang, and Public Enemy. It was like every Glastonbury reality – the iconic artists you inevitably end up missing to go to an Dermot O'Leary DJ set – condensed into one field and two days.

It started innocently enough. A bit like the sort of live updates your dad would text you from his weekend at Brecon Jazz Festival.

Early in the day but a great crowd again @CommonPeopleOX pic.twitter.com/jsIrJ3n5BY

— Paul Chuckle (@PaulChuckle2) May 29, 2016

Then came a string of selfies so strong they could choke out The Rock in three seconds. Here he is with renaissance UK garage celebrity du jour, "the fabulous” Craig David (which is how he is to be formally addressed from now on).

The fabulous Craig David @CommonPeopleOX pic.twitter.com/PmesGAKwuh

— Paul Chuckle (@PaulChuckle2) May 29, 2016

And again, with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Davy D, breaking my heart into a thousand pieces by signing off the caption with “smiling face with smiling eyes” emoji. There is something unerringly post-internet about seeing a legendary political rapper responsible for countless records and a book titled Fight The Power: Rap, Race and Reality posing with Paul 'The Chuckle Brothers' Chuckle like they just touched down in Lisbon for an lads weekend.

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@PublicEnemyFTP @CommonPeopleOX Chuck D and me pic.twitter.com/aTDCHqETO3

— Paul Chuckle (@PaulChuckle2) May 29, 2016

It's worth noting that all of this was mentioned ahead of the fact that Paul Chuckle now literally rocks a Stussy tee, as if he's been searching out garms via the Hypebeast Instagram, and seems constantly flocked with admirers like Salvador Dali wandering the streets of 60s Paris.

A photo posted by shybairnsgetnowtlike (@shybairnsgetnowtlike) on May 29, 2016 at 2:34am PDT

So, the year is 2016, and people declaring "The Chuckle Brothers just killed it" on Twitter is a thing. Sure. Why not. It's probably a matter of time before Paul Chuckle gets himself a grime feature and a Supreme sponsor. Of all the potential celebrity renaissances, this is arguably the most unlikely, and therefore perhaps the most natural, powerful, and unstoppable. To me, to you, dear reader. To me, to you.

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