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The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six-episode radio series, it has since spanned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three which aired from 2004 to 2007, and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the United States. The first television series is set in a zoo operated by Bob Fossil, the second in a flat and the third in a secondhand shop in Dalston called Nabootique.

Various members of The Mighty Boosh have appeared in a number of different comedy series including Nathan Barley, Snuff Box and Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy, and regular Boosh collaborators included Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry. The troupe is named after a childhood hairstyle of co-star Michael Fielding.

History
Fielding first met Barratt after seeing him perform his solo stand-up routine at the Hellfire Comedy Club in the Wycombe Swan Theatre, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The pair soon found that they shared comic interests, formed a double act, and "decided to be the new Goodies". After their first performance together at a bar, De Hems, in London in April 1998, Barratt and Fielding developed their zookeeper characters – Howard Moon and Vince Noir, respectively – in a series of sketches for Paramount Comedy’s Unnatural Acts. Here they also met American Rich Fulcher, who became Bob Fossil. Fielding's friend Dave Brown and Fielding's brother Michael also became regular collaborators. Richard Ayoade was another original cast member, playing adventurer Dixon Bainbridge, but Matt Berry replaced him in the first television series, since Ayoade was under contract with Channel 4. Ayoade returned in the second and third series as a belligerent shaman named Saboo. Noel Fielding and Michael Fielding have each separately stated that the name "Mighty Boosh" was originally a phrase used by a friend of Michael's to describe the hair that Michael had as a child.

The Boosh produced 3 stage shows – The Mighty Boosh (1998), Arctic Boosh (1999) and Autoboosh (2000) – all of which were taken to the Edinburgh Fringe. With the success of Autoboosh, a radio series was commissioned by the BBC. Produced by Danny Wallace, The Boosh was first broadcast in 2001 on BBC London Live, later transferring to BBC Radio 4, from which the team were given a half-hour television pilot of the same name.

The first 8-part series, directed by Paul King, was then commissioned for BBC Three and broadcast in 2004, with a second of 6 episodes the next year. The second series moved away from the zoo setting to show Howard, Vince, Naboo the shaman and Bollo the talking ape living in a flat in Dalston. In 2006, the Boosh returned to theatre with The Mighty Boosh Live, which featured a new story entitled "The Ruby of Kukundu".

After two years away from television, the Boosh returned in November 2007. Set in Naboo's second-hand shop below the flat, the third series drew approximately 1 million viewers with its first episode, and in light of its success, BBC Three broadcast an entire night of The Mighty Boosh on 22 March 2008, which included a new documentary and 6 of Barratt and Fielding's favourite episodes from all 3 series. J. G. Quintel has said that The Mighty Boosh was a large influence on his animated series Regular Show.

In June 2013, it was confirmed that The Mighty Boosh would reunite for a US festival called Festival Supreme in October 2013.

On 1 January 2020, Fielding posted an image of himself and Barratt on Instagram with the caption, "There really wasn't enough Boosh this decade ! let's try and rectify that in the next one ;) x".

Main cast

 * Julian Barratt as Howard Moon
 * Noel Fielding as Vince Noir
 * Michael Fielding as Naboo
 * Dave Brown as Bollo
 * Rich Fulcher as Bob Fossil

The cast members also play smaller roles throughout the series, the roles listed above are their most frequently appearing characters. For a full list of characters, see the List of The Mighty Boosh characters.

The Mighty Boosh (1998)
The Boosh, then consisting of only Barratt and Fielding, conceived The Mighty Boosh whilst working on Stewart Lee's Edinburgh Festival show King Dong vs. Moby Dick in which they played a giant penis and a whale respectively.

In 1998, they took The Mighty Boosh to the Edinburgh Festival, recruiting fellow comedian Rich Fulcher, whom the pair had met while working on Unnatural Acts. The show won the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. During their residency at North London's Hen and Chickens Theatre the following year, they built up a cult following, introducing new characters whilst developing old ones.

Arctic Boosh (1999)
In 1999, the Boosh returned to the Edinburgh Festival with a new show, Arctic Boosh, with Dave Brown acting as choreographer and photographer, as well as playing a variety of characters. Arctic Boosh sold out every night and was nominated for the Perrier Award. The show was directed by Stewart Lee.

Autoboosh (2000)
In 2000, the Boosh premiered their third stage show, Autoboosh, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, adding Fielding's younger brother Michael to the cast. Autoboosh won the festival's Barry Award.

The Mighty Boosh Live (2006)
The Boosh returned to the stage in 2006, touring the UK for the first time. Though drawing heavily from their earlier material, the main story combined these elements into a new narrative. A recording of this show at the Brixton Academy was later released on DVD, before being broadcast on BBC Three on Boxing Day, 2007.

The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour (2008/09)
The Boosh toured the UK and Ireland for a second time from September 2008 to February 2009. The show featured characters from all three series as well as the Boosh Band.

They made appearances throughout the UK after their live shows, at after-parties held in different places in each city. The events were called "Outrage", after the catchphrase by Tony Harrison.

The Boosh (2001)
From the success of Autoboosh, the BBC commissioned a six-part radio series for the Boosh. In October 2001 The Boosh radio series, produced by Danny Wallace, was broadcast on BBC London Live, then BBC Radio 4, and later on BBC 7. The show focuses on the adventures of a pair of zookeepers at "Bob Fossil's Funworld": socially awkward, jazz enthusiast Howard TJ Moon, and ultra-vain, fashion-obsessed Vince Noir. This also included voices from Lee Mack, playing such characters as the Plumber or the Gardener.

Further appearances
The Mighty Boosh returned to radio on 22 October 2004, in a one-off comedy special for The Breezeblock, a show on BBC Radio 1. Instead of the plot driven nature of their own series, this show featured improvised conversational comedy with Barratt, Fielding and Fulcher, combined with the show's usual mix of electronic music.

On 15 November 2007, as part of the publicity for the premier of their third series the same day, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding returned to Radio 1, this time on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge.

On 9 April 2019, it was announced that The Mighty Boosh will be the UK ambassadors for the Record Store Day at 13 April 2019, a show on BBC Radio 1.

The Mighty Boosh (2004–07)

In May 2004, after the success of a Boosh pilot, Steve Coogan's company, Baby Cow Productions, produced the first television series of The Mighty Boosh for BBC Three, before it moved to BBC Two in November that same year. Though each episode invariably starts and ends in Dixon Bainbridge's dilapidated zoo, the "Zooniverse", the characters of Vince and Howard often depart for other locations, such as the Arctic tundra and limbo.

A second series, shown in July 2005, saw Howard and Vince sharing Naboo's flat in Dalston with previously minor characters Naboo and his familiar, Bollo, a gorilla living at the "Zooniverse". This series had an even looser setting as the four characters leave the confines of the flat in every episode, travelling in their van to a variety of surrealistic environments, including Naboo's home planet "Xooberon".

Series three started in November 2007, still set in Dalston, but this time the foursome are selling 'Bits & Bobs' in their shop, the Nabootique. Their adventures and outings in this series focused more on the involvement of new characters (e.g. Sammy the Crab, or Lester Corncrake etc.) rather than just the two of them.

Although BBC America originally aired only series 1 in the U.S (all episodes in their entirety), The Mighty Boosh began airing in North America on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block (with up to 6 minutes cut from each episode), starting 29 March 2009 with the third series. In February 2016 series 1 of The Mighty Boosh was made available to watch via the online service BBC iPlayer for six weeks; this included every episode minus the final episode of the first series 'Hitcher'.

The Mighty Boosh Night
On 22 March 2008, BBC Three broadcast a whole night of The Mighty Boosh from 9:05 pm, starting with a new documentary titled The Mighty Boosh: A Journey Through Time and Space, documenting the history of the Boosh from their first amateur performances to their then-upcoming 2008 tour. This was followed by six of Barratt and Fielding's favourite episodes from the three series: "Party", "The Power of the Crimp", "The Nightmare of Milky Joe", "The Priest and the Beast", "The Legend of Old Gregg", and "Tundra". The pair also appeared in live links throughout the night, in a similar style to the openings of Series 1 episodes. On 23 December 2008, BBC3 held a Merry Booshmas Party featuring the entire series 3 as well as a broadcast of The Mighty Boosh Live.

Film
On 8 February 2012, whilst sledging, Noel Fielding said that he and Barratt had discussed plans to make a Mighty Boosh film. On New Year's Eve in 2019, Noel Fielding posted that there needs to be more Boosh in the following decade on his Instagram account.

Festival
On 5 July 2008, the Boosh held their own festival in the Hop Farm in Kent. It featured musical acts, Robots in Disguise, The Charlatans, The Kills, Gary Numan, and The Mighty Boosh Band, as well as comedy acts Frankie Boyle and Ross Noble.

Audio CDs
According to an official MySpace page for PieFace Records (the fictitious music label mentioned throughout the series), Barratt and Fielding are to release an album of music from the show, "along with extras, versions, remixes and rare unreleased stuff all to be released later in the year on their own label—this one". In interviews since, The Mighty Boosh have confirmed they will be releasing an album of their music. On 21 October 2013 episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Fielding stated that the Boosh have recorded an album, but don't know when it will be released.

DVDs
Previously most of the DVDs were only released in Region 2 but as a result of a growing fan base in the U.S., the BBC rereleased in Region 1, Series 1–3 individually on 21 July 2009, and a Special Edition Series 1–3 Boxset on 13 October 2009.

Australian releases

 * Series One – 11 April 2007
 * Series Two – 12 April 2007
 * Series Three – 6 August 2008
 * Live – 3 December 2008
 * Special Edition – 6 August 2009
 * Future Sailors Tour – 10 November 2009
 * Series One: Episodes 1–3 (Comedy Bites) – 4 March 2010

Books
On 18 September 2008, Canongate Books published The Mighty Book of Boosh, designed and compiled by Dave Brown and written by Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown, Richard Ayoade and Michael Fielding. The book includes original stories, crimps, concept art, behind-the-scenes photography, comics, and various other things, featuring old and new Mighty Boosh characters. On 1 October 2009, a paperback version was released under the name The Pocket Book of Boosh.

Awards
Particularly popular among followers of the indie and electro music genres catered to by NME magazine, The Mighty Boosh has been recipient of the Shockwaves NME Awards Best TV Show for three consecutive years, even though there were no new episodes broadcast for the latter two of the three years.

title: The Mighty Boosh


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Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale

The ginkgo-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens) is a poorly known species of whale even for a beaked whale, and was named for the unusual shape of its dual teeth. It is a fairly typical-looking species, but is notable for the males not having any scarring.

Description
Ginkgo-toothed beaked whales are more robust than most mesoplodonts, but otherwise look fairly typical. Halfway through the jaw, there is a sharp curve up where the ginkgo leaf-shaped tooth is.

Unlike other species such as Blainville's beaked whale and Andrews' beaked whale, the teeth do not arch over the rostrum. The beak itself is of a moderate length.

The coloration is overall dark gray on males with light patches on the front half of the beak and around the head, and small white spots on the bottom of the tail, but the location may be variable. Females are a lighter gray and have countershading.

Both sexes reach 4.9 m in length. They are around 2.4 m long when born.

Population and distribution
This beaked whale has had fewer than 20 strandings off the coasts of Japan, Taiwan, California, the Galapagos Islands, New South Wales, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and the Strait of Malacca. Its range is essentially tropical and temperate waters in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. There are currently no population estimates.

A potential sighting occurred in the South China Sea in May 2019, although it was possible the sighted whales were Deraniyagala's beaked whales. In February 2021, a pod of three whales was sighted at the Parengarenga Canyons, off North Cape (Otou), New Zealand.

Behavior
Unlike all other known members of Ziphiidae, there is no evidence that the males engage in combat, although this may be due to a limited sample size. The species probably feeds primarily on squid. No other information is known.

Conservation
The only observations of this species while alive have come from hunters off the coasts of Japan and Taiwan, who occasionally take an individual. They are also affected by drift gillnets. One individual, identified from a DNA sample, was known to have interacted with a pelagic longline fishery in the central and western Pacific Ocean. The ginkgo-toothed beaked whale is covered by the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MOU).

Specimens

 * MNZ MM002618/1, collected Pakawau, Golden Bay, New Zealand, 2004.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale


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Gray's beaked whale

Gray's beaked whale (Mesoplodon grayi), sometimes known as Haast's beaked whale, the scamperdown whale, or the southern beaked whale, is one of the better-known members of the genus Mesoplodon. This species is fairly gregarious and strands relatively frequently for a beaked whale. In the Māori language, this species is called hakurā or iheihe.

Taxonomy
The species was first described in 1876 by Julius von Haast, director of the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand. He named it after the British taxonomist John Edward Gray, a zoologist at the British Museum. His description was based on three skulls he had received in May 1875 from a Louis Walter Hood Esq. (1837 – 11 February 1912, generally known as Walter) the storekeeper at Waitangi, Chatham Island, who had retrieved them from three specimens that were part of a group of 28 individuals that had stranded on Waitangi Beach in the summer of 1874–75.

Description
Gray's beaked whale is a fairly slender member of the genus. The melon on the whale bulges towards the blowhole and slopes down towards the beak. The beak itself is very long and pointed for a beaked whale, and has a relatively straight mouth line. In both sexes, 17–22 small teeth per row located towards the back of the mouth have been reported, but not confirmed. In males, two small, triangular teeth are present halfway down the mouth. The overall coloration is dark on top and light below, and both sexes have a white beak. Females are lighter on top and have additional white markings near the genitals. Adult males often carry linear scars that probably result from fighting, and both males and females may display circular scars from cookiecutter shark bites. M. grayi are 5.5 to 6.0 m long and weigh around 1100 kg. They are believed to be around 2.4 m long when born.

Behavior
Gray's beaked whale is very gregarious. It has a tendency to strand in large groups, once involving 28 individuals. Other strandings involved five to eight animals. The upper teeth may be used in holding prey, but why only this species has them is not clear.

Gray's beaked whale is said to be the most common species of whale to beach in New Zealand. Two whales that stranded themselves on Opape Beach in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, in December 2010, were initially thought to be Gray's beaked whales, but later found to be the very rare spade-toothed whale.

Population and distribution
This species typically lives in the Southern Hemisphere between 30 and 45°, and is typically observed at depths of 2000 m. Many strandings have occurred off New Zealand, but others have happened off Australia, South Africa, South America, and the Falkland Islands. This species has been sighted in groups off the coast of Madagascar and in the Antarctic area. Oddly, one specimen stranded off the Netherlands, in a different hemisphere and several thousand miles away from all other strandings. No population estimates exist, but they are believed to be rather common.

Conservation
These whales have not been hunted deliberately and they have not been entangled in fishing gear. Gray's beaked whale is included in the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Conservation of the Manatee and Small Cetaceans of Western Africa and Macaronesia (Western African Aquatic Mammals MoU) and the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MoU)

Specimens

 * MNZ MM002134 Gray's Beaked Whale Mesoplodon grayi, collected Black Reef, Cape Kidnappers, Hawke Bay, New Zealand, 18 March 1993.

title: Gray's beaked whale


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Hector's beaked whale

Hector's beaked whale (Mesoplodon hectori), is a small mesoplodont living in the Southern Hemisphere. This whale is named after Sir James Hector, a founder of the colonial museum in Wellington, New Zealand. The species has rarely been seen in the wild.

Some data supposedly referring to this species, especially juveniles and males, turned out to be based on the misidentified specimens of Perrin's beaked whale - especially since the adult male of Hector's beaked whale was only more recently described.

Taxonomy
The English taxonomist John Edward Gray first named the species Berardius hectori in 1871, based on a specimen (a 2.82 m male) collected in Titahi Bay, New Zealand in January, 1866. The following year, 1872, English anatomist William Henry Flower placed it in the genus Mesoplodon, while in 1873, Scottish scientist James Hector assigned the same specimen to the species M. knoxi. The species remained in the genus Mesoplodon until 1962, when Charles McCann, a vertebrate zoologist at the Dominion Museum in Wellington, argued that the species only represented a juvenile of Berardius arnuxi. Beaked whale specialist Joseph Curtis Moore (1968) and J. G. B. Ross (1970) contested this designation, arguing that M. hectori was a valid species. Adult male specimens from the 1970s and 1980s confirmed the species' specific status.

Molecular Taxonomy
With abundant and easily observable species, the use of synapomorphic characters to assign observed individuals to a particular species, is a reasonably effective approach to taxonomy, at least in its rudimentary phase. However, the translation of this approach to rare species with elusive life histories, such as the Hector's beaked whales, can be problematic for many reasons. Also, the usefulness of whole or partial "voucher" specimens in private collections to assign taxonomic difference based on morphology is equally susceptible to inaccuracy, and additionally can lead to unethical acquisition methods, such as illegal hunting of a rare species. Therefore, the accurate and ethical approach to the taxonomic study of rare and elusive species, such as are found within the mysterious, deep-diving family Ziphiidae, is a molecular phylogenetic taxonomic methodology. This method has yielded insightful discovery in recent studies of the family Ziphiidae. Between 1975 and 1997, five beaked whales were found stranded in Southern California; based on morphology, four were identified as members of M. Hectori and one was identified as a member of Ziphius cavirostris. This discovery was puzzling, because although the suspected range of Ziphius cavirostris was met by the stranding location, M. Hectori was thought to be restricted solely to the Southern Hemisphere. mtDNA sequencing of the sample species revealed that all five individuals could be genetically distinguished from all other members of Ziphiidae, including the two species they were previously identified as. They were subsequently classified as a new species, Perrin's beaked whale (M. Perrini). More recent phylogenetic analyses of nuclear actin sequences substantiated the validity of this classification, as a distinct 34 base-pair deletion was found in the allele, screened across all species, of the two M. perrini samples in particular.

Description
Reaching a maximum length around 4.2 m (1.9 m when born), and with an estimated weight around 1 tonne (1.032 tons), Hector's is one of the smallest of the beaked whales. It is known from only a few stranded animals and a single confirmed sighting of a juvenile off Western Australia. Hector's beaked whales are dark greyish-brown dorsally, paler ventrally. A single female specimen found in Argentina was light grey dorsally and white ventrally. An individual male described in the same study had several scars and teeth marks found diffuse on its back and flanks. Intra-specific male-to-male interactions are possibly the cause for such marks. Additionally, oval white scars on the ventral portion of this male specimen were likely caused from cookie-cutter sharks of the Isistius species. Another single adult male specimen had a white beak and white on the anterior portion of the head, with white, linear scars criss-crossing its body, while the juvenile seen off Western Australia had a mask covering its eyes and extending unto its melon and upper beak. The melon, which is not very prominent, slopes quite steeply to the short beak. The dorsal fin is triangular to slightly hooked, small, and rounded at the tip. The leading edge of the dorsal fin joins the body at a sharp angle.

Stomach
Like other members of the Mesoplodont genus, the stomach is divided into four chambers. The proximal main stomach, the distal main stomach, the connecting stomachs, and the pyloric stomach are the four chambers respectively. The first, second, and fourth chambers are pink in color and soft to touch. The third chamber is grey in color and hard externally. The first and third chamber have internal folds but the folds are longer and larger in the third chamber. The second chamber is smooth, with no folds. The first chamber connects to the esophagus and the fourth chamber connects to the small intestine. The orange gastric fluid found in the stomach has also been found in some areas of the intestines. The specimen's stomach from Argentina had many small crystalline lenses in the first and fourth stomachs. Although, other food remains were not present. The specimen's stomach also had dozens of nematodes in all the stomach chambers except the connecting chamber. Histo-pathological analysis showed that these nematodes were later found to be of the Anisakis species.

Dentition
Adult males have a pair of flattened, triangular teeth near the tip of the lower jaw. As with most other beaked whales, the teeth do not erupt in females.

In March 2016, the South Australian Museum conducted a necropsy on a beached female specimen of the species from Waitpinga beach, near Adelaide, South Australia. The specimen was found to have a pair of large fangs not seen among the species typical dentition, especially for females, who typically have none. The fangs are possibly vestigial, or atavisms of some other kind, though a definitive answer is difficult because of the dearth of knowledge about the species.

Distribution and ecology
Hector's beaked whale has a circumpolar distribution in cool temperate Southern Hemisphere waters between about 35 and 55°S. Most records are from New Zealand, but also reports from Falkland Sound, Falkland Islands, Lottering River, South Africa, Adventure Bay, Tasmania, and Tierra del Fuego, in southern South America have been made. Supposed Northeast Pacific records in the older literature actually refer to Perrin's beaked whale.

Sightings are rare due to their deep-ocean distribution, elusive behaviour and possible low numbers. Nothing is known about the diet of this species, although it is assumed to feed on deepwater squid and fish. Because they lack functional teeth, they presumably capture most of their prey by suction.

Body scarring suggests there may be extensive fighting between males, which is common in beaked whales. Nothing is known about breeding in this species.

This species has never been hunted at all, and has not entangled itself in fishing gear. Most records of the whale have been stranded specimens on beaches, particularly in New Zealand.

Conservation
Hector's beaked whale is covered by the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MOU).

Specimens

 * 1) MNZ MM001834 - 16 July 1980; Kaikoura, New Zealand

title: Hector's beaked whale


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Strap-toothed whale

The strap-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon layardii), also known as Layard's beaked whale, is one of the largest members of the Mesoplodon genus, growing to 6.2 m in length and reaching up to 1300 kg. The common and scientific name was given in honor of Edgar Leopold Layard, the curator of the South African Museum, who prepared drawings of a skull and sent them to the British taxonomist John Edward Gray, who described the species in 1865.

Description
Adult strap-toothed beaked whales show a distinctive colouration that perhaps makes them one of the most readily distinguishable beaked whale species. Adults have a white beak, with a pale white 'cape' that extends to halfway between the dorsal fin and head. The dorsal fin is set far back down the body and is white-tipped. The flukes also have white tips. When observed closely, either at sea or when stranded, these whales show a pale neckband that separates the darker grey colouration found upon the head and melon from the rest of the body. While adult whales show striking colouration, juvenile animals are harder to distinguish from other beaked whale species, having a uniform grey colouration. Males can reach around 5.9 m, whereas females reach 6.2 m and likely weigh around 1000 - 1300 kg. Newborn calves may be up to 2.8 m in length.

Beaked whales show remarkable sexual dimorphism in that only the males retain functional teeth. Male strap-toothed beaked whales begin to develop a large flat tusk from each lower jaw as juveniles, growing at a 45° angle back towards the head and over the rostrum (beak). Reaching up to 34 cm in length, the teeth may overlap at the tips, restricting the gape size of the animal. Two stranded adult male strap-toothed beaked whales were recorded as only being able to open their mouths 3.2 cm and 4 cm wide, compared to females and juveniles that had a gape size of 6.5 cm. It is thought male beaked whales use their teeth to compete for mating access to females, as evidenced by scars and scratches on the bodies of males. However it is unlikely the whale uses the whole tusk for such aggressive interactions, instead, it is probable that only a small denticle found upon the upper surface of the tooth is utilised.

Geographical range/ distribution
Based on sporadic sightings and a number of stranded animals, it appears that the strap-toothed beaked whale ranges widely across the Southern Ocean, with a possible circumpolar distribution in sub-Antarctic and temperate waters. Records for the species have been made in Tierra del Fuego and Chubut in Argentina, the Falkland Islands, Western and Southern Australia and New Zealand.

The northernmost extent of the range is continually changing; strandings were noted at 31–32° south of the equator along Brazil's southern coast until an emaciated individual was found at 13° S on Maré Island off the north-east coast of Brazil in 2002. However, in 2011 an adult male strap-toothed beaked whale stranded alive in Myanmar at 16° north of the equator; more than 5000 km further north than the previously accepted range of the species. The whale died and a necropsy revealed that there was no prey within the stomach, but the overall body condition was good.

It is possible that this species migrates due to the seasonality of observed strandings.

Behaviour
Little is known about the behaviour of this species. Beaked whales are thought to travel in small groups, and observed group sizes for the strap-toothed beaked whale range from two to ten individuals. Social structure of mesoplodonts in general is largely understudied, due to the difficulty of observing individuals at sea. It is possible that group sizes and composition are controlled by the type of rostrum and teeth found amongst the various species. Larger and heavily armed species that can inflict wounds generally travel in groups where only one or two males are present, reducing the risk of aggressive interactions. Despite having large tusks, male strap-toothed beaked whales likely only use a small protruding denticle on each tooth in agonistic interactions. Subsequently, this species may travel in groups with multiple males as the risk of serious injury is lessened.

The species is reported to bask at the water's surface on calm days, but is noted to be difficult to approach in vessels. Strap-toothed beaked whales typically do not show their flukes upon diving. A number of observations suggest that diving is typified by a slow descent beneath the surface, with dive duration lasting between 10 and 15 minutes. The species can travel at speed, and may show 'porpoising' behaviour. The killer whale (Orcinus orca) is a documented predator of this species, and has been recorded chasing, attacking and killing a solitary adult strap-toothed whale approximately 50 km offshore of Bremer Bay in south-western Australia.

The main prey of the strap-tooth beaked whale is considered to be oceanic squid species. In an extensive dietary analysis of 14 stranded whales from New Zealand and South Africa, 94.8% of the stomach contents were composed of cephalopods, with evidence of some fish and crustaceans. A difference in the shape of consumed prey was noted between male and female whales, but it was determined that both sexes targeted squid of a similar size. While adult males have a restricted gape size due to the position of their overlapping tusks, it is possible that this allows them to create more suction when feeding, allowing them to forage effectively on the same prey as females and juveniles.

Population status
The size of the population is unknown, however it has been noted that the species is one of the more common beaked whale species found in the southern ocean.

Threats
Strap-toothed beaked whales have not been commercially hunted; however, they are at risk from entanglement and disturbance from anthropogenic noise. Intense noise, particularly that from sonar, has been shown to cause panic, rapid ascent and subsequent death due to decompression sickness in a number of beaked whale species.

As the species has a largely circumpolar distribution, it is likely to be at risk from the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists habitat alteration and habitat shift as possible threats related to climate change.

title: Strap-toothed whale


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True's beaked whale

True's beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) is a medium-sized whale in the genus Mesoplodon. It is native to the northern Atlantic Ocean. The common name is in reference to Frederick W. True, a curator at the United States National Museum (now the Smithsonian).

Taxonomy
The species was first described in 1913 by Frederick W. True from an adult female that had stranded on the outer bank of Bird Island Shoal, Beaufort Harbor, North Carolina, in July 1912.

Previously, this species was thought to have two separate populations representing potential subspecies; one in the North Atlantic, and another in the southern Indian Ocean. However, in 2021 the Indian Ocean population (which was found to have a significantly wider range throughout the Southern Hemisphere) was described as a distinct species: Ramari's beaked whale (M. eueu).

Physical description

This whale has a normal mesoplodont body, except that it is rotund in the middle and tapering towards the ends. The two distinctive teeth on the males are small and set on the very end of the beak (however additional teeth have been recorded ). The melon is rather bulbous, and leads into a short beak. There is a crease behind the blowhole, and a sharp dorsal ridge on the back near the dorsal fin. The coloration is gray to brownish gray on the back which is lighter below, and notably darker on the "lips", around the eye, and near the dorsal fin. There is sometimes a dark blaze between the head and dorsal fin as well. One female in the Southern Hemisphere was bluish black with a white area between the dorsal fin and tail as well as a light gray jaw and throat, as well as black speckling. One individual from the Canary Islands had an area of white from snout to blowhole. Scars from fighting and cookiecutter sharks are present on males. This species reaches around 5.3 m with the females weighing 1400 kg and the males weighing 1010 kg. They are around 2.2 m long when born.

Behavior
They have been seen in small groups, and are believed to be squid eaters. The most complete description of recorded live sightings and strandings, as well as the first underwater footage, was published in a 2017 article by Natacha Aguilar de Soto in the open access journal PeerJ.

Population and distribution
This species lives in the North Atlantic and has stranded from Nova Scotia in the western Atlantic to Ireland in the eastern Atlantic and as far south as Florida, the Bahamas, and Canary Islands. The species does not inhabit the Southern Atlantic and appears to avoid tropical waters.

Conservation
This species has not been hunted and has not been a victim of fishing nets. True's beaked whale is covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS) and the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS). The species is further included in the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Conservation of the Manatee and Small Cetaceans of Western Africa and Macaronesia (Western African Aquatic Mammals MoU) and the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MoU).

title: True's beaked whale


text:
Tropical bottlenose whale

The tropical bottlenose whale (Indopacetus pacificus), also known as the Indo-Pacific beaked whale or Longman's beaked whale, was considered to be the world's rarest cetacean until recently, but the spade-toothed whale now holds that position. As of 2010, the species is now known from nearly a dozen strandings and over 65 sightings. This is the only species in the genus Indopacetus.

History of discovery
The species has had a long history riddled with misidentifications, which are now mostly resolved. A skull and jaw found on a beach in Mackay, Queensland, in 1882, provided the basis for the initial description of this species by H. A. Longman in 1926. Other researchers were not convinced, and felt this specimen might instead represent a Pacific form of True's beaked whale or a female bottlenose whale. Almost 30 years after Longman's original publication, a second skull was discovered near Danane, Somalia (1955). This specimen likely stranded on the coast, but was subsequently processed into fertilizer. Only the skull survived. Biologist Joseph C. Moore used this skull, together with the original Mackay specimen, to effectively demonstrate that Longman's beaked whale was a unique species and elevated it to its own genus, Indopacetus.

Dalebout et al. (2003) used a combination of genetic and morphological analyses to identify four further specimens, including a complete adult female with a fetus found in the Maldives in January 2000. The other remains consisted of a skull from Kenya collected some time before 1968, and two juvenile males from South Africa from strandings in 1976 and 1992. Based on morphological analyses, Dalebout et al. concluded that the genus Indopacetus was a valid one. The external appearance and colour pattern of this species was also revealed, and a firm connection was established with the mysterious tropical bottlenose whales that had been sighted in the Indian and Pacific Oceans since the 1960s. While this paper was in press, a specimen that was first misidentified as a Baird's beaked whale washed up in Kagoshima, Japan, in July 2002.

Description
Longman's beaked whales look rather similar to both mesoplodont beaked whales and bottlenose whales, which led to a great deal of taxonomic confusion. The Maldives female had a robust body like the bottlenoses, although this may be a distortion, since the less-decomposed female specimen from Japan had a laterally compressed body typical of Mesoplodon. The juvenile specimens have a very short beak similar to a bottlenose whale, but the adult females seen so far have had rather long beaks sloping gently into a barely noticeable melon organ. Additionally, the dorsal fins of adult specimens seem unusually large and triangular for beaked whales, whereas in juveniles they are rather small and swept back.

An adult male specimen has yet to wash up, but sightings of the tropical bottlenose whale indicate they have a rather bulbous melon, two teeth located towards the front of the beak, and scars from fighting with the teeth. Scars from cookiecutter sharks are also rather common on the whale. The rather unusual coloration of the juveniles helped connect the Longman's to the tropical bottlenose whale; both have dark backs behind the blowholes, which quickly shade down to a light gray and then white. The blackness from the back extends down to the eye of the whale except for a light spot behind the eye, and then continues on in a line towards the flipper, which is also dark.

Dark markings are also present on the tip of the beak and rostrum. The females have a simpler coloration; the body is typically grayish except for a brown head. The coloration appears to be rather variable in this species. The female specimen from the Maldives was 6 m (20 ft) in length, with a 1 m (3 ft) fetus, and the Japanese female was 6.5 m (22 ft) in length. Reports of tropical beaked whales put them even longer, in the 7 to 9m (23 to 29.5 ft) range, which is larger than any mesoplodont and more typical of a bottlenose whale. No weight estimation or reproductive information is known.

Behavior
Tropical bottlenose whale observations indicate they travel in larger groups than any other local species of beaked whales. The size of the pods ranges from the tens up to 100, with 15 to 20 being typical, and the groups appear very cohesive.

Their pods are sometimes associated with other species, such as short-finned pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins, spinner dolphins, and humpback whales.

Tropical bottlenose whales have been known to breach the surface, and they normally have visible, but short, blows. Their dives last between 11 and 33 minutes, with one individual diving for least 45 minutes.

Population and distribution
Strandings and sightings indicate the species ranges across the Indian Ocean from southern and eastern Africa to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and east to Myanmar, with a Pacific range extending from Australia to Japan. However, if the sightings of tropical beaked whales are taken into account, the range of this whale is more extensive; they have been sighted from the Arabian Sea including the Gulf of Aden to Guadalupe Island and the Gulf of California (the sightings off Mexico (in 1992 and 1993) are probably extralimital, as they are associated with abnormally warm water during El Niño events). Sightings in the Gulf of Mexico are possible, which may indicate they are present in the tropical Atlantic Ocean, as well. The most frequent observations have occurred off the coasts of Hawaii. Although only a single specimen has washed up in Hawaii, they are apparently rather common; a 2002 survey estimated 766 animals. No other population estimates exist for other locales, although a single individual was apparently identified in the Comoro Islands in the summer of 2002–2003. One whale was observed from a whale-watching vessel off Choshi in December, 2015. Possible sightings were made off Tokara Islands and Bonin Islands, as well. They have also recorded off New Caledonia.

The range of Longman's beaked whales was once considered to be restricted to warmer waters of Pacific, but stranding records in recent years revealed they may migrate further north to sub-Arctic regions such as off Hokkaido. No occurrence has been confirmed in the Sea of Japan, but a possible Longman's beaked whale stranded on a beach near Vladivostok in 2011.

In 2009, the first confirmed sighting was made of tropical bottlenose whales in the southern Bay of Bengal. In the summer and fall of 2010, researchers aboard the NOAA ship McArthur II made two sightings of groups of tropical bottlenose whales off Hawaii. The first sighting consisted of a "large, active group" of over 70 individuals surfacing rapidly and breaching on occasion; the second sighting, late in October, did not last as long, as the group "ran away". Increasingly more sightings and strandings have been recorded in Taiwan and surrounding small islands such as at Yilan the Green Island, and Orchid Island. An entangled individual was saved by local fishermen off Pakistan in 2015.

Since Dalebout et al. (2003), additional strandings have been reported in the Philippines (2004), Taiwan and Myanmar (2005), the Andaman Islands (2009), and Maui (2010).

Conservation
No records report the whale being hunted, although individuals have been trapped in fishing nets off Sri Lanka and a stranding in Taiwan in 2005 involving a cow-calf pair may have been due to nearby naval exercises. The tropical bottlenose whale is covered by the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MOU).

title: Tropical bottlenose whale


text:
Pygmy beaked whale

The pygmy beaked whale (Mesoplodon peruvianus), also known as the bandolero beaked whale, Peruvian beaked whale and lesser beaked whale, is the smallest of the mesoplodonts and one of the newest discoveries. There were at least two dozen sightings of an unknown beaked whale named ''Mesoplodon sp. A'' before the initial classification, and those are now believed to be synonymous with the species. The species was formally described in 1991, based on ten specimens obtained from Peru between 1976 and 1989, including a 3.72 m adult male as the type specimen. A specimen that stranded at Paracas, Peru in 1955 (first tentatively identified as Andrews' beaked whale) has since been identified as a pygmy beaked whale. Since 1987, there have been an additional 40 sightings of the species, for a total of 65 (as of 2001).

Description
The body of the pygmy beaked whale is the rather typical spindle shape of the genus, although the tail is unusually thick. The melon is somewhat bulbous and slopes down into a rather short beak. The mouthline in males has a very distinct arch with two teeth protruding slightly from the gum line before the apex. The coloration is typically dark gray on the top and lighter below, especially on the lower jaw, throat, and behind the umbilicus. Males may have distinct pale "chevron" patterns on their backs. This species' size is around 4 meters (13 feet) long in mature animals, and around 1.6 meters (5.2 ft) when born.

This beaked whale has been recorded in the eastern tropical Pacific between Baja California and Peru through sightings and strandings. Further strandings have been recorded in Chile (-29.25°N, -71.43333°W) and Monterey Bay (a 3.6 m (11.8 ft) female found at Salinas State Beach), and a fresh specimen in Humboldt County, CA in 1995, 2001, and 2012, respectively, extending the species' range far to the north and south. Another specimen washed up in New Zealand, although this stranding is considered extralimital.

Little is known about the group behaviors of this whale, and small groups have been seen. Stomach contents reveal at least one specimen is a fish eater, as opposed to the squid normally eaten by the genus. This species may be quite vulnerable to gillnets in Peru, since scientists found six dead adults in a very small sample.

Specimens

 * MNZ MM002142, collected from Oaro overbridge, south of Kaikōura, New Zealand, 19 October 1993.

title: Pygmy beaked whale


text:
Stejneger's beaked whale

Stejneger's beaked whale (Mesoplodon stejnegeri), also known as the Bering Sea beaked whale or the saber-toothed whale, is a relatively unknown member of the genus Mesoplodon inhabiting the North Pacific Ocean. Leonhard Hess Stejneger collected the type specimen (a beach-worn skull) on Bering Island in 1883, from which Frederick W. True provided the species' description in 1885. In 1904, the first complete skull (from an adult male that had stranded near Newport, Oregon) was collected, which confirmed the species' validity. The most noteworthy characteristic of the males is the very large, saber-like teeth, hence the name.

Description
The body for this species is typical for a mesoplodont, long and tapering at both ends. The beak is of medium length, and the mouthline forms an arch, though much smoother than other species. The teeth of the males are much larger than those of most other mesoplodonts and point forwards and inwards right in front of the apex. Only strap-toothed whales and spade-toothed whales have longer teeth. The coloration is overall dark gray to black on the body with light coloration below, and around the head giving it a "helmeted" appearance. The coloration darkens with age, but females have a light pattern on the bottom of the flukes that becomes more apparent with age. Like most species, scars occur on the males (from other males) and cookiecutter shark bites are present on both sexes. The length is at least 5.25 m for males and 5.5 m for females. They are likely around 2.1 to 2.3 m in length when born.

Population and distribution
This is the northernmost species of beaked whale in the Pacific Ocean, ranging up into the Bering Sea. They are distributed along both sides of the Pacific to Miyagi Prefecture, Japan and southern California. They may migrate south in winter.

Behavior
The whales are typically found in groups of three to four and sometimes up to 15 animals in a very close group. The groups may have age and sex segregation. Adult males fight each other extensively, and some specimens have been found with healed jaw fractures.

Conservation
This species has been occasionally hunted in Japan in the past, and occasionally been caught in drift nets. It is uncertain how much this affects the population.

title: Stejneger's beaked whale


text:
Talk:Aircraft carrier

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 4 October 2021 and 9 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cloi929.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 13:41, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Japan, carriers, and F-35s
There is a problem with how to present the Japanese MSDF 'escort ships' which are currently getting their ski jump+ mods and 99% USMC Lightnings, It appears that Japan is doing a diplomatic dance around their post war constitution and foreign relations, a dance which IMO must be presented by official quotes and leave the conclusions and OR to readers. There is the reality that Japan is financing and developing a screwdriver-away minimal carrier training force without ever committing to this apparent reality in official statements. The RT cite contains a useful quote, "We are not creating carrier air wings or carrier air squadrons" is then unclearly and imprecisely qualified by the Russia Today article's editor by ending the sentence with their own "similar to the U.S Navy." statement; unclear as the USN is the absolute extreme in historical naval air power and this short qualifier statement could be true even of a hypothetical navy with five CATOBAR Nimitz/Ford size CVNs and a few secondary STOVL carrier LHA/LHDs. I propose we use this RT quote of an unnamed Japanese MOD official without the editorial qualifier from RT as it encompasses, and it's reasonable authenticy is supported by, the meaning and apparent intent of the many longer form official and expert sources and quotes into an easy to understand single quote of denial for a short informational stub on the intentionally obfuscated Japanese position and situation for the Aircraft Carrier article. Wikipedia consensus officially doesn't trust RT because trusted sources disqualify them due to a history of editorialization and propaganda, so much so that others have now removed the cite entirely from the carrier article, non-preferred sources can be used especially for for quotes as long as they have consensus. So we have some facts supported by cited expert analysis, recorded orders and purchases, and official statements: 1- There is no cited official quote so far to support a hypothetical JMSDF or forthcoming JASDF STOVL force ever planning to operate from the Izumo class 'escort ships'(officially not aircraft carriers) only the USMC so far 2- Japan has purchased carrier capable aircraft but only officially buying these(per 2020 def white paper) for Air Self Defense Force to operate from short fields, expert analysis in cites that it is for STOL southern island defense 3- The JASDF will be operating these aircraft and until now I have found no official quotes Japanese nor American that the JASDF pilots will be receiving at-sea ops training, only hype and clickbait forecasting 4- The Izumo class is being modified for the F-35B(same as ordered by JASDF) at great expense but all quotes I can find out of official Japan speak when specific about American aircraft ops and building a domestic Japanese capability to support USMC or unspecified generic F-35B air. There is much excitement and hype but if we can keep it encyclopedic and within the rules then the only way this can be presented is to show the facts and official reasons and let the readers understand the clear capability by presenting a coincident JASDF with carrier capable aircraft but no official naval cross mission and a JMSDF with a few STOVL carriers but officially no mission to ever support JASDF aircraft, only USMC as far as reliable cites I can find.

Request for discuss->consensus on how to briefly present a country that officially presents a near future 2 STOVL carrier maritime defense force training to support STOVL ops but only with foreign(USMC) planes and an air force with future delivery of (same)carrier capable aircraft but no official public plans for shipboard ops or training. Solomon(for now) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.179.42.138 (talk) 09:21, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Carrier "vulnerabilities"
Significant change was made with this edit, which to me is problematic. It's seems too definitive, based on a single encounter in an joint exercise 20 years ago. (This edit is copied from an edit made to USS Enterprise (CVN-65).) I made minor changes to that one, and though the edit to this page has also since had some changes made to it, perhaps more is needed? Note; same user has also added this edit to Carrier battle group and U.S. Carrier Group tactics. Would like some more editors to take a look and discuss. Thanks - wolf  17:14, 18 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Tagged - wolf  00:03, 26 January 2021 (UTC)
 * It's pointless "vulnerability". Carriers aren't especially susceptible to a diesel electric submarine, any more than they're vulnerable to nuclear attack submarines, maritime strike aircraft, surface action groups etc. etc. I suggest just removal, or a catch all not that Carrier vulnerability increases when operating in a littoral confined area. 2A00:23C7:8A90:BA01:45AA:E99:93BB:F17C (talk) 10:53, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

Turkey
- I may be erring on the side of caution, but I don't believe you can use images as refs. Additionally, you're linking directly to an image on an outside website, which may be a copyvio and/or image use violation. - wolf  23:46, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 12:24, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
 * ENS Gamal Abdel Nasser LHD.jpg

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:07, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Tcganadolu.jpg

Aircraft carrier
How made by aircraft 2409:4042:2D07:415A:0:0:30C9:B608 (talk) 10:44, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

 * It is not made by aircraft. The lead says it is a "warship that serves as a seagoing airbase ... for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft." -Fnlayson (talk) 16:15, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 20:37, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
 * TCG Anadolu sea trials 7 March 2022.jpg

Aircraft Carrier Schematics
I'm thinking that someone should put in aircraft carrier schematics. In case they're not familiar with their general layout. I can't do it. I don't have access to WikiCommons and such, and have limited site access. So can someone please put in the basic schematics? Faith15 16:10, 7 February 2023 (UTC)

Drone carrier
In the last 2 years, the concept of drone carrier has become more popular among the navies. The latest example is the Chinese effort to develop a drone carrier. This concept is more and more significant day by day and we can create article or section about drone carriers, like the Persian and German articles. -- Iri1388 (talk) 19:46, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

 * ✅ Drone carrier Iri1388 (talk) 20:15, 26 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Aircraft carrier


text:
X Factor (disambiguation)

The X Factor is a television music competition franchise of British origin and may also refer to the following national versions/variants:

 * The X Factor (British TV series)
 * The X Factor (American TV series)
 * The X Factor (Australian TV series)
 * The X Factor (Greek TV series)
 * The X Factor (New Zealand TV series)
 * The X Factor Philippines
 * The X Factor (Arabic TV series)
 * Factor X (Chilean TV series)
 * The X Factor: Ji Qing Chang Xiang, Chinese version
 * The X Factor: Zhongguo Zui Qiang Yin, Chinese version
 * Faktor A, Russian version
 * El Factor X, Colombian version
 * Factor X (Spanish TV series)
 * Factor X (Portuguese TV series)
 * X Factor (Armenian TV series)
 * X Factor (Belgian TV series)
 * X Factor (Brazilian TV series)
 * X Factor (Bulgarian TV series)
 * X Factor (Czech TV series)
 * X Factor (Danish TV series)
 * X Factor (Finnish TV series)
 * X Factor (French TV series)
 * X Factor (German TV series)
 * X Factor (Icelandic TV series)
 * X Factor India
 * X Faktor (Hungarian TV series)
 * X Factor Indonesia
 * The X Factor Israel
 * X Factor (Italian TV series)
 * X Factor (Kazakhstani TV series)
 * X Faktorius
 * X Factor (Dutch TV series)
 * X Factor (Norwegian TV series)
 * X Factor (Polish TV series)
 * X Factor (Romanian TV series)
 * X Factor (Slovenian TV series)
 * X Factor Česko a Slovensko
 * X Factor (Swedish TV series)
 * X-Factor (Ukrainian TV series)

Aside the television singing franchise and its national variants/versions, X Factor or The X Factor may also refer to:

Sports

 * Dante Hall (born 1978) (nicknamed "The X-factor"), American football player
 * X-Factor (professional wrestling), a wrestling stable in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)
 * The X-Factor, or Sitout facebuster, a professional wrestling move

Music

 * The X Factor (album), by Iron Maiden

Games and comics

 * The X Factor, a 2010 video game published by Deep Silver
 * X-Factor (comics), an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics

Other uses

 * The X Factor, a science fiction book by Andre Norton
 * X-factor (astrophysics), the proportionality constant which converts CO emission line brightness to molecular hydrogen mass
 * X-factor, an abnormally large heart seen in some Thoroughbred horses
 * "Ex-Factor", a 1998 song by Lauryn Hill
 * The common use of the letter x as a variable (mathematics)

title: X Factor (disambiguation)


text:
Ross Noble

Ross Markham Noble (born 6 June 1976) is an English stand-up comedian and actor. Noble rose to mainstream popularity through making appearances on British television, particularly interviews and on panel shows such as Have I Got News for You. He has also released DVDs of several of his tours.

In 2007 he was voted the 10th-greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 11th-greatest stand-up comic.

In 2012, Noble made his film debut in the fantasy comedy horror movie Stitches. In 2015 he made his musical theatre debut in The Producers and in 2018 was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in Young Frankenstein in the West End.

Early life
Noble was born in 1976 in Newcastle upon Tyne and brought up in Cramlington, Northumberland. Both of his parents were teachers.

He was taught at Cramlington Learning Village between 1987 and 1991.

Stand-up performance
Noble's stand-up routine is a largely improvised and surreal performance with a stream of consciousness delivery. He is often referred to as a randomist. Often, a large percentage of his set becomes based around heckles and conversations with members of the audience. Although he does often have a few set topics which he performs throughout a tour, he describes the planning for the entire show as "about four words on a piece of scrap paper".

Noble often mimes actions on-stage to help the audience visualise his surreal ideas, for example, telling the audience to never put a blanket over an owl, and exactly what an owl neck detection device is ("just a stick with a pointy bit on it") or showing the audience how to serve double header ice creams properly after considering his own made-up plot of 24 in which Jack Bauer escapes a cell using a greasy goose.

Noble's style is recognised as spontaneous, due to his unpredictable performance style, interruptions from hecklers or because he has drifted off into another surreal tangent. During his shows he is known to dabble onto one topic, ask a member of the audience something about him or herself and use that as material, and carry on with that, and later on seems to forget about the routine, digressing into another topic. Thus the audience pesters Noble to tell the ending of his unfinished stories, which are usually eventually concluded at the end of his shows. His most famous example is in his Randomist tour, where he started to tell a story about him being interviewed after Live 8 near the beginning of a show in Newcastle, which he did not finish until the end of the performance, around two hours later. This relates to an earlier comment he made in his Regent's Park show, saying that his mind "Tends to wander off [the point] slightly", and later added that "[he] can open up too many tangents at once... it's a never-ending expanding spiral of possibilities."

Early years
Noble is originally from Cramlington, Northumberland, England. "The ultimate place to live" helped him with his career—he found little to do in his hometown so he became particularly imaginative. At the age of 11, it was discovered that he was dyslexic. Because of this, Noble decided to work within a career which did not rely on academic skills. He had a brief stint as a street juggler with a friend, and aspired to join a circus. He joined a clown troupe and sold balloons as a stilt-walker, before deciding to become a comedian after winning tickets to a comedy show. As a teenager, Ross was a member of the youth theatre at the People's Theatre in Heaton, Newcastle. In 1997, he was doing warm-ups at the BBC for Friday Night Armistice. One of his earliest on-screen appearances was on Richard Whiteley's regional chatshow for Yorkshire Television in 1996.

Noble has been performing stand-up since the dyslexia diagnosis, and appeared in his local comedy club at the age of 15, despite licensing laws that prohibited him working there and forced him to leave through the kitchen. Noble studied performing arts at Newcastle College, after he told his careers adviser at school he wanted to be a comedian. He later stated that this had no effect on his stand-up ability, as he believes that the information taught is not important in being a good performer.

Stand-up career
Since starting as a stand-up comedian, Noble has won many awards, including a Time Out award winner in 2000 for his Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Chickenmaster, and a Perrier Award nomination in 1999 for another Edinburgh show Laser Boy. He has since achieved great popularity in both the UK and Australia, where he has toured extensively every year since 2001. Noble's 2003 show Unrealtime was the best-selling show at the Edinburgh Fringe, before transferring to London's West End for a monthlong season at the Garrick Theatre where it played to packed houses. A recording of this tour was shown on BBC Two in 2004, and a double-DVD set was released later that year.

During 2004, Noble performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and other venues with his show Noodlemeister. His 2005 UK tour, Randomist, ran from September to December, of which he continued in Australia during 2006. In April 2006, Noble was involved in a motorbike accident, and both fractured and dislocated his collarbone. Conveniently, he crashed right outside a hospital. Noble performed his shows over the following weeks with his arm in a sling. During his 'Things' tour, in Bristol on 1 March 2009, he claimed that before the ambulance officers would help him, he was forced to do his Stephen Hawking impression.

While performing in Edinburgh in September 2006 for his Fizzy Logic tour, a fight broke out during the gig, caused by a drunken member of the audience arguing with another. Also, in his Edinburgh gig, some one gave him a basket of mini-muffins with faces printed on them; this is related to a sketch from Noble's DVD Sonic Waffle, in which he mentions his hobby of finding faces in muffins. At another gig, he found someone filming the show on their mobile phone and confiscated the phone. He then recorded a video on it himself. After finding that several people recorded his finale skit, "The falling owl stunt", Noble encouraged the entire audience to record the stunt simultaneously and post them on YouTube, in an attempt to achieve, "The largest number of videos showing exactly the same thing." He then took his tour to Australia in February 2007, during which he filmed a documentary about his travels around the country.

In 2007 Noble finished his Nobleism tour in the UK with a show in Liverpool on 21 October 2007 which was screened live to 43 Vue cinemas. If the event had sold out, he would have played to over 10,000 people. Upon walking offstage, Noble enquired if the broadcast had succeeded and was informed by a technician that "it worked perfectly... but we lost Aberdeen". To this day, Noble maintains that this is the "coolest thing anyone has ever said" to him.

Noble likes to have spontaneous material related to each specific show, and therefore encourages heckling and has increasingly indulged in the audience giving him gifts during shows. At a gig at the Edinburgh Playhouse during Noble's 2005 Randomist tour, a member of the audience put his feet up on the stage, and later removed his shoes and put them on the stage instead. It is now traditional for the entire front row of an Edinburgh audience to place their shoes upon the stage during the interval, which causes Noble much amusement when he returns.

Noble performed at the 2008 Latitude Festival and rounded off his set by leading everyone in the tent in a huge conga line (which quickly turned into a stampede) to a vegan food stand so they could all ask for pies and sausage rolls.

The DVD of his show Nobleism was released in November 2009.

TV and radio
In 2012, Noble made his film debut in the fantasy comedy horror movie Stitches playing the titular character, an undead birthday clown out for revenge.

Guest appearances
Noble had not done any acting work on TV until the summer of 2013 when he appeared opposite Ian Smith as a gay lover in the Australian TV series "It's a date", or radio, as he prefers stand-up for giving him the freedom to say what he wants without being influenced by a script or crew. Nevertheless, he has made many TV appearances, which mainly take the form of interviews and panel game participation. In the UK, he has appeared on BBC's Johnny Vaughan Tonight and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Noble has also made 16 appearances, the highest number of appearances of any guest, on BBC One's Have I Got News for You including the first show guest presented by Paul Merton. His most memorable appearance on the show saw him and Paul Merton answer all their questions wrong, and getting no points in the entire show. He was Paul Merton's guest on Room 101, where he wanted to consign to history the likes of Craig David, cartoon animals who wear clothes, people who look like cats, clipboards and Christian rock music. He makes regular contributions to BBC Radio 4's Just a Minute and has also appeared on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and presented 4 At The Store. In July 2007, Ross featured, as part of his "In The Company Of...", on the Colin Murray show on BBC Radio 1, and in August 2007 Noble appeared on Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2.

In Australia, he has guested on such TV and radio shows as Network 10's Rove (Live), The Panel, Good News Week, Thank God You're Here, Studio 10, The Project, Would I Lie to You? Australia and Hughesy, We Have a Problem, the ABC's The Glasshouse, Spicks and Specks, and A Quiet Word With ..., as well as Triple M radio show Get This, regular appearances on Triple J.

In Ireland, he appeared on the first series of Tubridy Tonight, where he went over to a prop bookcase to inspect if the books were real. Upon reading one book, he found a photo of Mike Yarwood on one page, which he cut out and wore as a mask for a portion of the interview.

Since 2010 he has made eighteen guest appearances on British comedy panel show QI.

In July 2011 Ross appeared in the second episode of the 17th series of Top Gear. On the show he revealed that he currently owns earth moving machines as well as an Abbott 433 self-propelled gun, which he calls his "Tank". He did a lap around the Top Gear track in 1.43.5, beating Tom Cruise and placing him in second place behind John Bishop.

In 2012 he was a regular panelist on That Sunday Night Show on ITV.

In April 2012 he featured on Triple J for a day where he co-hosted some shows, and played an imaginative game of Cluedo, where they found people from around Melbourne that matched the Cluedo characters names to come into the studio and play.

Appears briefly in TT3D: Closer to the Edge in conversation with Richard 'Milky' Quayle.

Hosted series
Besides making various guest appearances, Noble has been the host of an Australian radio show, and the subject of two BBC radio series. Noble's worldwide travels as a stand-up were the subject of his own BBC Radio 4 series Ross Noble Goes Global, produced by Danny Wallace. This series, recorded between April and May 2001, saw him recording his observations as he travelled around various countries. In January 2005, Noble joined Australian comedian Terri Psiakis in co-hosting Ross and Terri, the weekday lunch shift on national radio station Triple J. Following on from Ross Noble Goes Global, Radio 4 broadcast a new series called Ross Noble On... during January to February 2007. The 4-episode series followed his 2006 UK tour, featuring performances in Brighton, York, Manchester and Newcastle. All of the Radio 4 programmes have since been released as BBC audio CDs.

Noble once again teamed up with Terri Psiakis on Triple J for two weeks of Ross and Terri in January 2006. This second period on Triple J also saw Ross and Terri founding "Pants Across Australia", during which, 4 pairs of trousers were sent to the north, south, east and west extremities of Australia and then back to Melbourne. Ross and Terri did not return to this slot in 2007, however Terri Psiakis and Amy Blackmur (the pair's producer from their 2006 show) did present a limited run of shows during a similar time frame earlier in the year, under the working title "T 'n' A" ("Terri and Amy"). As well as this, Terri and Amy decided to continue in the evening slot of 6pm – 10pm.

In 2007, Stunt Baby Productions filmed a documentary about Ross Noble's 95-day Fizzy Logic tour of Australia. Ross Noble travels by motorbike when touring, which for this tour travelled on a BMW R1150GS Adventure (as mentioned during the encore of one of his Canberra gigs), covering a distance of approximately 26,000 km around Australia clockwise from Brisbane. The show was broadcast as "Ross Noble's Australian Trip" on UK TV channel 5 from Monday 28 September 2009 at 10pm for 6 weeks, repeating at the same time on Fiver on the following Thursdays. The show aired in Australia on Channel 10 on Mondays at 10:00 pm.

In 2013-15 Noble hosted his own show on Dave titled Freewheeling. Described as an anti-travelogue around Britain, in the show Noble took the freestyle philosophy he embraces in his live shows and utilised his trademark audience participation gimmick and transferred it to television as he rode around the UK on his motorbike taking live requests on Twitter instructing him on where he should go next, making the road trip entirely unpredictable.

Celebrity Contestant
In October 2020, Noble was announced as a competing celebrity contestant on the fifth season of The Celebrity Apprentice Australia in 2021. He finished as the runner-up of the series, raising over $100,000 for his charity, the Australian Red Cross - Disaster Response and Recovery Fund.

Theatre
Noble made his musical theatre debut as Franz Liebkind in the 2015 UK tour of Mel Brooks' The Producers from May to July 2015.

In September 2017 he played Igor in another Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End (following a tryout at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle) before leaving in February 2018 due to his Australian stand-up tour. Noble received a WhatsOnStage Award for his performance and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical. During his time in the show, he and co-star Hadley Fraser did a recording called "Poddin' On The Ritz" to discuss behind-the-scenes at the show and musical theatre.

Personal life
Noble has two daughters, with his Australian wife. He lived on a farm in St Andrews, a semi-rural town on the northern outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, until it was destroyed by 2009 Victorian bushfires along with all his material possessions. Noble and his family were not harmed in the fire. The family returned to the UK in 2010. In February 2017 Noble and his family moved back to Australia, purchasing a house in Mount Eliza, Victoria. In September 2019 they sold this property for $2.725 million AUD and moved to the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne.

A keen biker and off-road rider, Noble is also a fan of MotoGP, WSBK and The Isle of Man TT. He has created an off-road track in the paddock at his home and has a number of vehicles to use on it, including an FV433 Abbot SPG self-propelled gun. He has competed in many races—notably, The Romaniacs and the 24-hour Dusk to Dawn. He attended several track days in 2011, including Brands Hatch on the GP circuit as a guest of MSV aboard his Triumph Daytona 675R.

Charity work
Following the 2009 Victoria bushfires, Noble has used the event in his act and donates profits from the sale of the show's programme/poster (or "postergram" as it is called) to a charitable fund to help those similarly affected.

Noble supports British charity Riders for Health and donated money earned from limited edition signed posters together with bucket collections after each gig from his Nonsensory Overload tour to Riders for Health. This raised £42,000 for Riders. He has attended their fundraising event Day of Champions on a number of occasions, most recently at Silverstone in 2010. He also voiced the Riders for Health BBC Radio 4 appeal aired just before Christmas 2010.

In May 2011, to celebrate his 20th anniversary of stand-up, Noble teamed up with Triumph Motorcycles which were also celebrating a milestone, having just produced their 500,000th bike (since the company was relaunched 20 years earlier) and did the "Sit Down" tour. Using only Twitter as a guide, Noble travelled around the UK on the unique Triumph Speed Triple guided by his Twitter followers and accompanied by a film crew. The Triumph Speed Triple was auctioned by Bonhams at the Goodwood festival of speed on 1 July 2011, with all the proceeds (£8,000) going to Noble's charity of choice, Riders for Health.

In July 2011, Noble competed in the Red Bull Romaniacs, which is "one of the toughest extreme motorcycle events on the planet". as part of the Desert Rose Racing Team with fellow rider Clive "Zippy" Town (Dakar 2006) with both riders on 350 Exc-F KTMs.

Tours
These dates apply to Noble's tours.
 * Laser Boy (1999)
 * Chickenmaster (2000)
 * Slackers' Playtime (2001–2002)
 * Sonic Waffle (2002–2003)
 * Unrealtime (2003–2004)
 * Noodlemeister (2004–2005)
 * Randomist (2005–2006)
 * Fizzy Logic (2006–2007)
 * Nobleism (2007)
 * Headspace Cowboy (2008–2009) (Australian tour only)
 * Things (2009–2010)
 * Nonsensory Overload (2010–2012)
 * Mindblender (2012–2013)
 * Tangentleman (2014–2015)
 * Brain Dump (2016–2017)
 * El Hablador (2018)
 * Humournoid (2020-2021)
 * Jibber Jabber Jamboree (2023-2024)

DVD releases
Several recorded performances of Noble are available on DVD, notable for the large number of extras that appear on them. Noble's recorded shows are mostly dominated by Noble with just a few moments of audience participation. Throughout the rest of his tour Noble is more relaxed, with the audience joining in. However, the audience can sometimes dominate a show, as seen on the extra "Live in Birmingham" gig on the Randomist DVD. Although on the official website it states that all of Noble's DVDs are region-free, with the exception of Unrealtime, his latest two DVDs have only been released in Region 2 format so far.

Unrealtime

 * Released: 11 October 2004
 * A double-DVD set which includes a performance of Noble's Unrealtime show at the Garrick Theatre, as well as a performance at the 100 Club. Also Noble on tour backstage footage and a quiz to unlock extra footage. Also contains a 'trivia track' which contains spoof "facts" relating to the show's content.

Sonic Waffle

 * Released: 3 October 2005
 * The single DVD contains the uncut last night performance from London's Vaudeville Theatre, complete with commentary and "commentary on the commentary" audio tracks. It also includes his 'meat on the face' performance from the BBC television series Jack Dee Live at the Apollo, which has an audio commentary opinion where Noble is joined by a Cantonese interpreter. The DVD also offers the viewer to play a game of celebrity muffins.

Randomist

 * Released: 6 November 2006
 * A 4-disc set which contains unedited performances from the City Hall in Newcastle, the Victoria Hall in Stoke, the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham and the Town Hall in Melbourne, Australia. The extras include the documentaries Ross' Highland Fling and Ross' Australia Tour, and an interactive quiz. The fourth disc contains the Randomiser, and an hour's worth of randomised live performance clips from York, Manchester and Liverpool. Commentary is included for three of the shows, which was recorded consecutively and described by Noble as "four hours of me going slowly insane in a small box".

Fizzy Logic

 * Released: 12 November 2007
 * Fizzy Logic is Noble's fourth DVD set, consisting of two discs. The first contains a full performance recorded in Canberra during 2007, and a documentary charting his New Zealand circuit. The second contains six shows from his UK tour and special seventh from Southend, which is unlocked by being able to find out where the previous six shows were performed.

Nobleism

 * Released: 9 November 2009
 * Nobleism is Noble's fifth DVD set. It was released in the UK on 9 November and in Australia on 13 November 2009. It consists of two discs. Disc one features his live stand-up show from the Empire Theatre, Liverpool. Disc two has bonus show footage, a Ross Noble interview with Dr Oliver Double and episode one of Ross Noble's Australian Trip. At the same time of being filmed at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool the show was simultaneously broadcast, via satellite, to 45 Vue cinemas nationwide.

Things

 * Released: 29 November 2010
 * Ross Noble's new DVD set is a two-disc set. Disc one features the main live show from Manchester on his 'Things' tour. Disc two features highlights from a show performed in a large stadium in Brisbane, highlights from shows in Canberra and Melbourne, a full-length unedited version of his interview on Carpool and his appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross where he had a mock fight with host Jonathan Ross. A limited-edition set contained an additional third disc containing highlights from a recording in Aberdeen. The DVD is dedicated to Noble's father Malcolm, who died that year.

Headspace Cowboy

 * Released: 14 November 2011

Noble uploaded his weekly free clip, entitled "Toucan Bastards", to his official YouTube channel, at the end of which he announced his new DVD. Upon its release it was confirmed to be the never before seen 2008 tour. The DVD is slightly different from Ross's previous releases due to the fact that rather than one continuous main show it is split into six pieces spreading over two discs approximately 45 to 50 minutes each. The DVD also includes a third disc containing bonus material, including a commentary on only one of the six shows, unseen bits taken from the show and Ross's Sit Down Tour.

Nonsensory Overload

 * Released: 5 November 2012
 * Nonsensory Overload is Noble's 8th DVD release. A 3-disc set, the main live content runs for over five hours, making this the longest-running DVD Noble has released thus far. The first disc contains a two-and-a-half-hour show recorded in Canberra, Australia which also has optional commentary by Ross. The second contains a 50-minute show recorded live at Hay festival as well as a feature that includes all of Ross's favourite tour moments. The third and final disc contains a further show lasting two hours from the Nonsensory Overload tour as well as a bonus feature containing more live footage.

Mindblender

 * Released: 18 November 2013
 * Noble released a DVD of his Mindblender tour on 18 November 2013. This 2-disc set is Noble's 9th DVD release.

Brain Dump

 * Released: 31 August 2017
 * Noble announced via his Twitter account that he would no longer release DVDs of his recorded material, but, rather, release for on-demand service Vimeo. Brain Dump was the first such release.

Stand Up Series

 * Released: 2020
 * Eight Part Series airing on the Australian ABC featuring highlights from Noble's Tangentleman Tour

El Hablador

 * Released: 2021
 * Two Part Series Airing on the Australian ABC featuring highlights from Noble's El Hablador Tour

title: Ross Noble