Just so grim how is crippling itself like this.

There are some very talented people on this list and some that are much less so. The sad thing is that Oxford and Cambridge have a disproportionate influence on British society and are used to form future elites, not just in comedy but elsewhere.

I've seen shows at the Edinburgh Fringe where such types think they are funny/talented by virtue of the university they went to. Footlights members may have produced Python and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", but it also gave us "Out of the Trees" (available on YouTube) and "Ayoade on Ayoade".