Cat-ch this and laugh out loud

There are those who demand some sort of intellectual response from their television watching: to be challenged with thought, for instance, or presented with a complex, vexed emotional issue to contemplate.

That is mostly a mistake.

As in most other aspects of life, it is wiser to aspire to a more achievable goal, for instance, to watch a show where cats do funny things.

There is no better place to start than TV2 for one of the best shows this month, Cats Make you Laugh out Loud.

The show that replays internet cat videos, which were brilliant in the first place, and even better put together in a show, airs on Friday, June 26, at 7.30pm.

This is inspired television.

''Did you know each month there are 30 million searches for cats on the internet?'' the narrator asks.

Apparently, the average cat can jump five times its own height, and seven times its own length.

There is hilarious footage of cats falling off things.

That is quickly backed up by footage of a kitten that sits on a walking turtle, (or perhaps tortoise), and a cat attacking an alligator, (or perhaps a crocodile - I don't know the difference).

We see a kitten taking on a rottweiler, a cat that attacks a horse, and a cat in a shark suit riding a robot vacuum cleaner, a clip that has been viewed more than 10 million times.

We see cats taking a bath, cats taking a shower under a tap, and cats that swim in the sea.

The great thing is, no matter how much of a towering intellect you think you are, pictures of cats doing silly things makes you laugh - out loud.

Highly, highly recommended.

Meanwhile, Sky's Neon internet streaming service is offering David Mitchell and Robert Webb's 2013 three-part comedy-drama series Ambassadors.

Drama-comedy might be a better description, as the show definitely leans on the side of drama, with just the occasional humorous bit.

Ambassadors follows the lives of the employees of the British embassy in the fictional Central Asian nation of Tazbekistan.

Mitchell is Keith Davis, the British ambassador, while Webb is Neil Tilly, deputy head of mission.

The pair try to nail a helicopter contract for their government, while trying to keep a British activist in the country's jail safe from a death sentence.

It is unusual watching Mitchell and Webb (best known for sketch comedy series That Mitchell and Webb Look and Peep Show, both very funny) taking on more acting and less humour, but the result is worth a look.

- Charles Loughrey