Slight exaggeration, that title, what with me only noticing one other, but still.

Read this. You can see it coming a mile off, just from the way it was written. A spat erupts as Dawkins [pours] scorn on Peter Kay, best known for a gentle joke about garlic bread (and seriously, what the fuck is the point of that “gentle”, except to boost the implied viciousness of Dawkins’ attack?) Dawkins is an atheist militant who responds with contempt to this unlikely opponent, who’s not an obvious person to be at the centre of this sort of controversy, causing consternation in the comedy world. The general gist is “Dawkins, the bastard, has launched an unprovoked attack on much-loved jokesmith and all round good egg Peter Kay, just for making an unexceptional comment about god”. They’re up against each other Galaxy British Book Awards, which is presumably why there’s this desperate attempt to generate a story around it. There’s a lot of flouncing about it over on the Arts blog, too.

Well, wouldn’t you know it?

“I am one of those whom reporters regularly telephone for a soundbite. Last week, I was fed a quotation from somebody, previously unknown to me, who said he believed in God because he found it comforting. Assuming I was one of a panel of usual suspects being asked to comment on this rather common sentiment, I gave my usual response. Now it seems that I was being set up by a hired publicity machine, so that I would appear to be mounting a personal attack upon a particular individual who is my rival for a literary prize. And I also learn that the quotation they selected is an unrepresentative one from a book I haven’t read (I look forward to doing so), which is competing with my own for the same prize. I hope you will allow me publicly to apologise to Peter Kay and wish him well in the competition.“

Muppets. Phoenix Nights is fucking brilliant, mind you.