Geoff Tipps

Geoff Tipps is a character in the BBC Sitcom The League of Gentlemen, in which he appears as one of the many assemble of characters. He works for a plastics company but aspires to be a stand up comedian, although fails at telling a joke. He is disliked due to his bad temper and threats towards those close to him and many outbursts. He appears as one of the three main protagonists in the 2005 film adaptation The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, where he is treated as a more bumbling individual than the bad tempered character appearing in the TV Show, and acts more heroic in his quest to save Royston Vasey.

He is portrayed by Reece Shearsmith, who is one of the four guys to make up the group "The League of Gentlemen" and portrays various characters along with Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton.

The League of Gentlemen (1999 to 2002 TV Series)
Geoff is a businessman who works for a plastics company along with his best friends Mike and Brian, the former whom has been his friend since childhood. He has a rather frosty relationship due to his violence outbursts and bad temper, and resents the fact Brian ended up marrying his ex-wife Katie. Geoff also tries to impress them along with others with jokes, however fails miserably. In the first episode he forces Brian to tell a joke about the "Mau Mau", but reacts violently when Brian fails to remember the details and threatens to murder Mike by shooting him in the head. However in the end it turned out that Mike had already heard the joke before, and things resumed normally after that.

Mid-way through the first series Mike was due to marry a woman named Cheryl, who Geoff seemed to have a dislike towards although wanted to be Mike's best man. Mike allowed Geoff to be his best man, although during the reception Geoff went off on a rant and tried to act superior by saying he "won the mums" as his mother outlived Mike's.

At the end of series 1, Geoff pulls a prank on his friends at a surprise birthday for him by pretending to commit suicide with his gun. This leaves them devastated, but Geoff reveals he is alive, causing them to storm off in anger, much to his confusion.

The second series follows Geoff, Mike and Brian going on a trip to a conference, but end up being abandoned in the middle of nowhere by transsexual cab driver Barbara Dixon as Geoff insults her numerous times. They end up stranded in the woods and during the night Geoff attacks Mike in the dark thinking he is someone else following and trying to harm them. Believing he has killed Mike, Geoff tries to bury him in the woods only to find he is still alive. The three of them make it to the conference late, although Geoff shows more concerned at whether or not they missed having the cakes.

Geoff is the focus of the third episode of series 3 "Turn Again Geoff Tipps", in which he loses his job at the plastics company and travels to London to see a friend and pursue his dream of becoming a stand up comedian. But this fails when he struggles to make a group of people laugh at a stand up gig at a bar and ends up insulting them and going off on a temper. Geoff is given a job by his friend to deliver a car for the man's wife, but this turns out to contain a bomb and she is killed. Geoff becomes the suspect and an e-fit is put around matching his description. Geoff flees back to Royston Vasey having been offered his old job back by Mike following Brian's disappearance. This cultimates in him having to swerve his van to avoid killing Pauline Campbell-Jones and crashes into a wall, where his face is badly mutilated. When he is taken away in an ambulance, he is relieved to hear that his appearance will change, thus avoiding him being found.

In the final scene of series 3, Geoff is shown to be in hospital with a bandaged face and telling jokes to the patients, staff and friends, causing them to finally laugh, much to his pleasure.