Obama’s Elf has only seven teeth
Posted on 21st February 2026
For many people, not least Ben Langley himself judging by his website, he’s best known for his misheard lyrics routine on Britain’s Got Talent. For me, his TV career highlight was appearing in an entirely different program, the magnificent Detectorists. However, neither best represent the length and breadth of his comedy talents, which include knife juggling, apple eating, glove inflation, glass swirling, guitar playing and magic trickery.
Langley is a man born to entertain on the Music Hall stage or at the end of the pier, and he’s not about to let the absence of Music Halls or piers stop him. A true family entertainer, his audience – who clearly featured more than a handful of diehard fans – ranged from the archetypical eight to eighty. A cleverly packaged series of self-deprecating routines served the wide demographic of the Corn Hall crowd with a combination of the very silly, the knowingly cheeky and the genuinely skilful. For every groan-worthy gag there was an adept skittle juggle. One moment he’s inserted himself into a giant balloon, the next he’s slipping in a sly joke at the expense of Mountbatten-Windsor. To my mind, his demonstration of the four-chord progression was most notable for demonstrating what a decent musician he is. Reminiscent of John Otway on a quiet day, I’d have liked to have seen and heard more of his straightforward skill with the cheat stick. But then, perhaps it’s versatility that is his Achilles’ heel – as if he doesn’t know what to hurl at you next.
I’d be fibbing if I suggested every joke landed – “Have you been an audience before”, he asked, after a quip fell flat – but Langley delivers them so thick and fast that if something is not to your liking then, worry not, another bit of harmless nonsense will be along soon enough. And whatever you might have thought about that notorious BGT appearance, the show really wouldn’t have felt complete had he not closed on Chaka Khan, Duffy and Céline Dion celebrating, through song, the likes of Terry Wogan, Bird Seed and Obama’s Elf.