Carlton is an android working for Alex and Lewis, two comedians from the twenty-second century who travel the outer vaudeville circuit of the solar system known ironically as the Road to Mars. Being a computer he can't understand irony, but is nevertheless attempting to write a thesis about comedy, its place in evolution, and whether it can ever be cured. He is studying the comedians of the late twentieth century (including obscure and esoteric comedy acts such as Monty Python's Flying Circus) in his search for the comedy gene.
Meanwhile, during an audition for a gig on the Princess Di (a solar cruise ship), his two employers inadvertently become involved in a terriorist plot against Mars, the planet of showbiz.
Can Carlton prevent Alex and Lewis from losing their gigs, overcome the love thing and finally understand the meaning of comedy in the universe?
From one of the original members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- ISBN10 075222414X
- ISBN13 9780752224145
- Publish Date 10 September 1999 (first published 1 August 1999)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 3 July 2001
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pan Macmillan
- Imprint Boxtree Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English