Spider-Plant Man Starring Rowan Atkinson – Comedy Sketch for Comic Relief

It was a long time coming, but the Comic Relief people have finally released Spider-Plant Man on their YouTube channel.  It was originally created for Red Nose Day (when people buy a red nose to wear to support charity) in the UK (back in 2006 so makes this sketch – astonishingly – 20 years old already).  It quickly picked up something of a cult following as it very accurately takes the rise out of superhero films in general.  Starring Atkinson as Peter Piper, this origin story shows our unlikely hero visiting Very Safe Labs Incorporated and being bitten in a delicate place by a genetically engineered spider plant.

Cue a transformation that pleases the reporter no end, especially when an opportunity (very quickly) arises for him to save his school sweetheart, Jane-Mary, who is being mugged very slowly by a masked assailant.  Of course, no sooner is she out of peril than she is in peril again, thanks to a rather bedraggled Batman.  Atkinson was not the only British comedian to lend his talents to this sketch for Comic Relief.  You can see Rachel Stevens, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Mackenzie Crook, Jim Broadbent and Atkinson’s Blackadder chum Tony Robinson in the sketch too.  I am not too sure who wrote it but if I had to guess I would say it had Simon Pegg's paw prints all over it! It still stands up very well, despite being 20 years old, and is probably one of the best Comic Relief sketches ever made.  Watch it below.