Comedy put-downs

The 'Radio Times' magazine has just unveiled the best comedy put-downs of all time.

The list is a mixture of snappy one-liners from British and American sitcoms over the last 40 years. Is your favourite here?

1) Basil Fawlty - Fawlty Towers. To Sybil: "Oh dear, what happened? Did you get entangled in the eiderdown again? Not enough cream in your eclair? Hmm? Or did you have to talk to your friends for so long that you didn't have time to perm your ears?"

2) Mrs Merton - The Mrs Merton Show. To Debbie McGee: "So what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"

3) Edmund Blackadder - Blackadder II. To Lord Percy: "The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr Brain has long since departed, hasn't he, Percy?"

4) Roseanne Conner - Roseanne. To husband Dan: "Your idea of romance is popping the can away from my face."

5) Father Jack Hackett - Father Ted. "Drink! Feck! Arse! Girls!"

6) Carla - Cheers. Cliff: "I'm ashamed God made me a man." Carla: "I don't think God's doing a lot of bragging about it either."

7) Patsy Stone - Absolutely Fabulous. "One more facelift on this one and she'll have a beard."

8) Jim Royale - The Royale Family. Nana: "Is this hat too far forward?" Jim: "No. We can still see your face."

9) Statler and Waldorf - The Muppet Show. Statler: "Wake up, you old fool, you slept through the show." Waldorf: "Who's a fool? You watched it."

10) Inspector Monkfish - The Fast Show. To a bereaved woman: "I realise this must be a very difficult time for you, so put your knickers on and go and make me a cup of tea."

11) Rupert Rigsby - Rising Damp. To lodger Alan, who complains his room is too cold to study in: "The only thing you study is your navel. You even shave lying down."

12) Nan - The Catherine Tate Show. Describing an encounter with an overweight hospital volunteer: "She said to me last time, 'You look bored, Mrs Taylor. I've got three words for you: Barbara Taylor Bradford." So I said, 'Yeah? I've got three words for you too: calorie controlled diet."

13) Alexis Carrington - Dynasty. "I'm glad to see your father had your teeth fixed - if not your mouth."

14) JR Ewing - Dallas. "Ray never was comfortable eating with the family - we do use knives and forks."

15) Dr Gregory House - House. "You can think I'm wrong but that's no reason to stop thinking."

16) Gray Strang - Men Behaving Badly. "Let's face it, Tony, the only way you're gonna be in there is if you're both marooned on a desert island and she eats a poisonous berry or a nut which makes her temporarily deaf, dumb, stupid, forgetful and desperate for sex."

17) Arnold Rimmer - Red Dwarf. "Look, we all have something to bring to the discussion. But I think from now on the thing you should bring is silence."

18) Larry David - Curb Your Enthusiasm. "Switzerland is a place where they don't like to fight, so they get people to do their fighting for them while they ski and eat chocolate."

19) Sam Tyler - Life on Mars. To Gene Hunt: "I think you've forgotten who you're talking to." Sam: "An overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhhealthy obsession with male bonding?"

20) Captain Mainwaring - Dad's Army. "You stupid boy!"