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Hell Below Zero – One-off strip depicting a man on a zero-hours contract called in by his boss first thing in the morning and made to wait around all day while only being paid for 37 minutes of work. This same concept was used as an episode of 'We...' and a separate although related strip, 'My Workfare Lady' (which see). Boswell Boyce - He Throws His Voice - An incompetent ventriloquist who repeatedly tries and fails to become famous. Frugal Sharkey - a miser who goes to extreme lengths to cut costs. His name and appearance are based on the singer Feargal Sharkey.

With characters such as the feminist Millie Tant and the hopelessly new age Modern Parents, the Telegraph argues Viz is in its element lampooning Britain under New Labour.

NEW ISSUE OUT 03/12/2023

That includes many of the pale, and some now defunct, imitators such as Smut, Zit, Poot and Ziggy, which jumped on the Viz bandwagon during its golden days. Norbert Colon – an old miser. In one strip, Colon shared top billing with hopeless ventriloquist Boswell Boyce ("he throws his voice") and wound up in a lunatic asylum; in another strip he went on a blind date only to find the dating agency had fixed him up with his own mother ("Oh turds! It's that tightwad son of mine!"), a dead ringer for Norbert only wearing a (clearly labelled) NHS wig. One strip featured a parody of A Christmas Carol involving his ancestor Ebenezer Colon, who is exactly like him; suggesting Norbert's miserly ways are hereditary. The Adventures of Jeremy Clarkson, the Petrolhead Motormouth – One-off strip featuring former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson talking extensively about cars to an uninterested Big Issue salesman.

Billy No-Mates – a miserable, asocial teenage boy who spends most of his time alone in his dark room playing video games. If anyone disturbs him he becomes extremely irritated. He also has an obsession with masturbating, collecting large numbers of pornographic magazines and calling sex hotlines. Just Williams – a parody of the Just William stories by Richmal Crompton, with Archbishop Rowan Williams in the place of Crompton's boy-hero. Williams steals buns from the kitchen and allows his pet mice to escape during a General Synod meeting, whilst maintaining a William-esque self-justificatory monologue.

Pop Shot – Real name: Gerald. A man who is almost always naked, although not showing anything - he always 'fig-leaf's' himself - sporting a stereotypical 1970s pornstar moustache, afro and chest hair, who always finds himself accidentally slipping into the language of a porn film while performing everyday activities, much to the annoyance of his wife. The strip always ends with his wife spontaneously having sex with a complete stranger, with Gerald left out of the proceedings. Another, Ut, was edited by Mr Sutherland between 1991 and 1993 when it regularly shifted up to 30,000 copies. Mr Sutherland admits it wasn't a patch on the real thing. Mr Logic is probably the nicest recurring character in the whole strip, but he nevertheless gets beaten up frequently due to the way he talks. Bicycle Bellend – a man on a bicycle berating drivers for "showing him disrespect" even though he is actually the dangerous road user (often not looking and causing accidents, and at one point he rides the wrong way up a one-way street), getting his comeuppance when he tells off a burly driver who subsequently beats him up.

Robin Hood and Richard Littlejohn – Richard Littlejohn joins Robin Hood on a mission to rescue Maid Marion, while complaining about the gay agenda plotting to take over Sherwood Forest. Raffles – in which the central is a 19th-century nobleman given to 'immense erudition and wanton violence'. Raffles inhabits the formal world of the Victorian/ Edwardian gentleman, but behaves as a 21st-century hooligan, though he always maintains his elegant style. The comic strip parodies British yob culture, placing Raffles in anachronistic modern situations which he usually employs extreme violence to resolve. Raffles is always accompanied by his loyal friend Bunny (Lord Bunniford) and has other acquaintances such as ' Dave, 6th Earl of Bermondsey' (a notorious section of South East London) and Clarence, 3rd Earl of Burberry (a reference to Burberry, stereotypically the fashion brand of choice for Britain's ' chavs').Raffles' character is a parody of E. W. Hornung's Raffles the Thief. The Raffles strip is noted for its substitution of formal language in common slang phrases. Raffles found himself in many situations featuring famous characters and events from the 19th century and early 20th century.

Boyz R Uz - A stereotypical boy band who are constantly being ripped off by their handler. They do not sing or dance - only mime. Vern and Ernie go to stay at a hotel after slopping out and denounces a fellow guest as a nonce etc. He then goes stir crazy and launches a rooftop protest, sitting on the roof of the hotel and demanding better conditions. The final prison stereotype shows Vern sodomizing Ernie in the shower claiming that "he hadn't see a woman for a long time". The Lager Lads – somewhat like the Real Ale Twats, these are a group of clean-cut, upstanding beer aficionados who like lager more than anything. Inevitably, barmen tell them to "piss off" or urinate in their beer. The Lads never seem to notice there's anything wrong with their drinks after this happens, both highlighting the weak flavour of lager compared to other beer and showing the Lads up to be idiots. The strips were inspired by a series of advertisements for McEwan's lager, in which - Chris Donald noted - a group of smiling, happy young men drink copious amounts of lager but never "got pissed or glassed anybody". Roswell Stiles and his Intriguing X-Files – a one-off strip centred on a character named Roswell who wears glasses and carries a cabinet of " X-Files" and attempts to search for phenomena such as falling fish, spontaneous human combustion, crop circles, UFOs, big cats etc. but has no success; such as mistaking a kitten standing next to a Bonsai tree for an alien big cat winding up in the seals' enclosure at the zoo and many others. When he attempts to fake a UFO sighting by throwing an old car wheel trim into the air, it smashes another man's green house, who shoves the filing cabinet up Roswell's bottom. Bill WeetaBixby - a one-off parody of The Incredible Hulk about Bill Bixby who turns into a violent piece of Weetabix when he' is confronted by muggers, only for them to promptly step on him.

Champion the Wonder Arse – Young Chip McCain had befriended a magnificent wild hairy arse named Champion, which roamed the plains around the little town of Windy Creek in Arizona. Major Misunderstanding usually mistakes innocent occurrences for yet more moral degradation of modern society, which he then witheringly bemoans. One day, he finds several passers by attending a fallen memorial statue of a soldier. While one might expect the Major to denounce public drunkenness, he gruffly tells them to "leave the lad alone," and defends the right of war veterans to have a wee dram in aid to the trauma of battle.International Plywood Are Go - a parody of Thunderbirds where the Tracy family step in to help a construction company that doesn't have enough plywood to finish a housing project. The Intern - A strip telling the story of Tom Golightly, who dreams of being an advertising executive and in 1981 manages to get himself a one-year unpaid internship. The internship ends up lasting decades, as Tom waits to get a paid position at his firm even as he is constantly passed over for jobs (despite making the company a fortune with successful advertising campaigns, with his bosses taking all the credit) due to nepotism. Finally in March 2020 Tom's patience pays off and he is finally given a paid job at the firm, albeit as a mere teaboy. Unfortunately on the day Tom is due to begin his actual employment with the company at which he has worked at unpaid for almost 40 years (which is also his 61st birthday) he is told he is being furloughed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the firm folding a couple of months later. Restless Spirit - A strip about a ghost who tries to get some sleep, but various noises keep waking him up. Celebrated for 20 years in student unions and playgrounds across the country, adult comic with attitude Viz is to be the subject of an exhibition at a London gallery.