There are comedians, and then there is Billy Connolly. The Big Yin has spent more than five decades making audiences laugh until they can’t breathe – and the secret to his genius is simple: he says the things everyone is thinking but nobody else has the nerve to say out loud. Whether he’s skewering everyday sayings that make no sense, poking fun at his own health battles or making a very questionable observation about ears, Connolly has always been completely, magnificently himself. Here are five of his best.

“Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? He’s a mile away and you’ve got his shoes!”

“One sex therapist claims that the most effective way to arouse your man is to spend 10 minutes licking his ears. Personally, I think it’s bollocks.”

“I’ve got Parkinson’s Disease. I wish he’d kept it.”

“Why do people say ‘Oh you want to have your cake and eat it too?’ Dead right! What good is a cake if you can’t eat it?”

“When people say ‘it’s always the last place you look’. Of course it is. Why would you keep looking after you’ve found it?”