Pavilion theatre, Glasgow
The surrealist standup’s two hours of fantastic off-the-cuff material covers topics as divergent as dugongs, Gregg Wallace and hypothetical horror musicals

Should we be more amazed that, three decades in, Ross Noble ’s comedy still changes every night – or that it never really changes at all? Both are true: no two gigs by this fantastic off-the-cuff comic are ever the same, and yet all of them cleave tightly to the same free-associating formula. Tonight’s show, part of his Cranium of Curiosities UK tour, is no different. I suspect these two hours of wildly divergent nonsense hit a fair few pre-scripted marks, but if they do, it’s deftly concealed among the expertly extemporised riffs – dreamed up, developed and kept going in constant dialogue with his audience – on Gregg Wallace, fairy figurines and dugongs .

It is, and always has been , quite the feat, of which Noble, now 49, is the effortless master. If I were feeling churlish (or when I’ve watched his work too frequently), I might feel fatigued at the attritional meaninglessness of his shows, which stubbornly refuse to coalesce into anything resembling a theme, point or argument. Sometimes, too, Noble’s meta-commentary on his own wackiness, and how mindblown we supposedly are by it, gets a bit much.

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As we celebrate our first anniversary, we reflect on the stories that connect us across the diaspora

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The Long Wave is one! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year. It genuinely feels as if we are just getting started. When we launched the newsletter , I wrote about how it was born first and foremost out of curiosity, of interest in how we passed our food, culture and habits down and across the world, how we mixed recipes, languages, shared music. Our instinct was that there is a sprawling global family, rich in untold stories. That instinct has been validated and surpassed. What follows is only a small sample of what we have covered over the past year.

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Lots include artworks by Matisse, Rodin, Kandinsky and the late actor’s own paintings – as well as his watch, dartboard and Golden Globes

Busts by Rodin and works by Kandinksy and Matisse are among some 400 items belonging to the late actor going up for auction next month.

Three Golden Globe statues, a variety of film memorabilia and annotated scripts, posters and an easel are also up for sale in the three-stage auction run by Bonhams.

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After seven riotous seasons packed with stellar cameos and exilherating farce, Joseph Gilgun’s chaotic comedy goes out on a high. It will be sorely missed

Blame Brassic on Dominic West. While filming Pride , the rousing 2014 film about gay Londoners finding solidarity with a hardscrabble Welsh community during the miners’ strike, West was acting alongside lanky live wire Joseph Gilgun, who would regale him with wild tales of growing up in Chorley in Lancashire. Tickled by anecdotes like the theft of a shetland pony, West encouraged Gilgun to mine his formative years for material that could become a TV show.

Gilgun teamed up with screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst, no stranger to authentic northern humour after working on Channel 4’s Shameless . The result was Brassic , a headlong comedy about a rowdy gang of scallywags, chancers and wheeler-dealers trying to stay one step ahead of the law and local heavies in the fictional northern town of Hawley. As well as repurposing the ducking and diving of his youth, the autobiographical elements extended to Gilgun’s likable ringleader Vinnie O’Neill coping with being bipolar. That key character detail also meant a recurring role for the plummy West as Vinnie’s relentlessly inappropriate GP Dr Chris .

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A recent spate of posts has garnered attention, but Trump and his allies have long been using gaming imagery to mobilise a toxic subculture of ‘rootless white males’

Just days after Microsoft announced Halo: Campaign Evolved, the next game in its famous science-fiction series, the White House shared an interesting picture on X . The image, which appears to be AI-generated, shows President Donald Trump wearing the armour of Halo’s iconic protagonist, Master Chief, standing in salute in front of an American flag that’s missing several stars. In his left hand is an energy sword, a weapon used by the alien enemies in the Halo games. Posted in response to a tweet from US game retailer GameStop, the text accompanying the image reads “Power to the Players” in reference to the store’s slogan.

GameStop and the White House exchanged another Halo meme or two, and then, on 27 October, the official Department of Homeland Security X account joined in – using Halo imagery of a futuristic soldier in an alien world to encourage people to join its increasingly militaristic Immigration Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Stop the Flood, this one reads, equating the US’s immigrant population with the parasitic aliens that Master Chief eliminates.

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She was one of her country’s most famous comedians. After throwing it in to pursue her musical dream, she minted a spooky, singular sound that made fans of David Byrne and Feist. At 64, her irreverence remains intact

Juana Molina answers our video call from a hospital bed, reclining in a green T-shirt with two cannulas in her hand. She has done her back in while also playing Whack-a-Mole with hernias, two last year, and two new ones now. “Do you know those toys, made of little pieces of wood, and you press the bottom and it goes” – she makes herself floppy, mimicking a push puppet – “that’s exactly how I was yesterday.” But now, says the 64-year-old Argentinian musician, “I have so many painkillers, that I …” She wobbles her eyelids, gurns and gives me two thumbs up.

For the avoidance of doubt, Molina seems entirely with it, and insists we continue when I offer to reschedule. She is ultra precise on the technical odyssey she undertook to make her new record, and also extremely funny company, cheeky and withering about anyone who’s too serious – or worse, boring .

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The actor and screenwriter told late night talkshow host Stephen Colbert that she took issue with Microsoft’s Copilot offering to rewrite her scripts for her

Emma Thompson has spoken of her frustration over the increasing proliferation of AI prompts when writing.

Speaking to Stephen Colbert on his late night talkshow, Thompson, who won an Oscar for her 1996 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, spoke of her “intense irritation” with AI.

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Director of Netflix hit said US government claims that the nuclear strike drama is inaccurate did not reflect the world’s ‘really combustible environment’

Warning: contains a spoiler for the plot of House of Dynamite

Kathryn Bigelow, the director of Netflix thriller House of Dynamite, which depicts government officials responding to a nuclear strike on the US, has responded to criticism by the Pentagon over the accuracy of its defence systems.

Speaking alongside writer Noah Oppenheim to the Hollywood Reporter , the Oscar-winning film-maker defended the film, saying: “I just state the truth. In this piece, it’s all about realism and authenticity.”

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Season two of the Adam Brody and Kristen Bell-starring show feels like a long infomercial thanks to endless product placement

After a long day, it’s nice to put on some sweats, pour yourself a glass of wine, turn on the TV and cozy up to an advertisement for Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex.

Or at least that’s what I found myself doing on Sunday night, when I returned for season two of Netflix’s Nobody Wants This . In the series, Adam Brody plays the so-called “hot rabbi” and love interest of Kristen Bell’s character, an atheist podcaster considering conversion. Together, the pair navigate cultural differences and disapproving family members. Or at least I assume that’s what happened – I was too distracted by all the product placement to focus on the plot.

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