The question
Which trait in yourself do you like least?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
British comedy writer, author, youtuber, comedian and former physician
Self-destruction.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 June 2023 source ↗
Intermittent laziness.
My health anxiety. I am a bit of a hypochondriac. I hate that about myself and I’ve worked extensively in therapy on changing it.
I’m judgmental.
I love to break rules.
I could have done without being sexually assaulted, or having an eating disorder, or pushing myself to breaking point, but every chapter of my life brought me here.
A comedy gig at an army barracks for thousands of angry, horny squaddies just back from six months in the desert. I was on straight after the stripper.
People who barge into a lift instead of standing aside for anyone exiting should be dipped in kerosene and fired into the sun.
When my cold toes drain the heat from his warm ones, but he doesn’t mind at all and is happy for our tarsal temperatures to meet in the middle.
In the one photo I’ve seen where my smile looks convincing – I’m four years old, so I’m guessing then. But I just won a Bafta and that felt amazing, too. So, roughly every 40 years.
A reviewer once called me “artistically bankrupt”, and it doesn’t feel like reviews can get much worse than that.
Danielle Steel, Jack Whitehall, Kathy Lette, Jane Asher, Rose Tremain, Zadie Smith
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