Is Stephen Fry very popular with British people? He has 1,690,965 followers on Twitter.
He certainly is, and not just with the British. This is one of my favourite speeches by him: http://bit.ly/1d6OC
@Chris
Thank you for your reply. I have watched the video you suggested. I found that he believes in humanism. I felt some similarities between George Orwell and Mr.Fry in that respect.
He is practically a national treasure. He is known for being:
very clever
very well educated
a former jailbird (fraud)
honest about his bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder
very funny
homosexual
quite rude/
I recommend his blog, podcasts and Tweets but would point out that he swears a lot.
He and Hugh Laurie used to work together a lot and are still very close friends. Laurie has turned to straight acting (House) but I think Fry has trouble with his bipolar disorder and finds it hard to commit to much acting. He writes a lot.
@skyblueteapot
I suppose you have a lot of living national treasures. Thank you for your reply.
I know about Fry a little. But I like Hugh Laurie. Stephen Fry was his colleague in university amateur theater «Footlights Dramatic Club».
I did not know his name, but I found that Hugh Laurie played the role of an “unconventional medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton‑Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey.” ( http://bit.ly/ao9KIo ) I have known his face.
I very like this TV series (House MD). Hugh Laurie plays not a comedy role in this series and it is interesting for me.
“House” is loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. By the way, the BBC is showing a modern version of Sherlock Holmes, called Sherlock. I enjoyed the first episode and can recommend it. BBC One - Sherlock, Series 1
Not available in my area. Brilliant, Holmes!
Same for me. Thank you BBC. Always the same 
As others have said, he is indeed very popular in Britain, but I think he is also very well known in English-speaking North America. I would think most people here in Canada would know him. He is also well known for his addictive use of Twitter, as the number of followers he has would attest 
@alexandrec
“He is also well known for his addictive use of Twitter . . . .”
I agree. I am one of those people who follow him.
A couple of months ago,astamoore introduced “A Bit of Fry & Laurie” as an interesting TV programme on the forum. This is how I knew the name of Stephen Fry.
By the way I have been wondering why so many British comedians are well educated and come from quite rich families( is this just my guess? sorry if I am wrong).
Quite a few are very well educated and do come from middle class backgrounds, but there are others. In any case, you do have to have your wits about you if you want to be a successful comedian (or comic as some now tend to call themselves). You need to have a good knowledge of what is going on socially and politically; a knowledge of literature and history helps, too, as does a talent for acting. In addition, you need to be able to cope with rejection (from agents, critics, tv stations, audiences and individual hecklers), long nights and lots of rewrites. On the plus side: you get to have a really interesting circle of friends!
On a related note, I liked your other avatar better, Sanne. (The one you used for your test account here.)
@SanneT
Thank you for your quick reply as usual. Certainly many comedians in Britain seem to be very smart as well as witty. I think audiences also need some knowledge to appreciate truly talented people.
@astamoore
I agree. SanneT is very lovely in other picture, too.
@SanneT: Furthermore, the Cambridge Footlights is a very useful launching pad for a comedy career. In order to become a member of the Footlights you have to be studying at Cambridge University, which is extremely prestigious and difficult to get into (but going to a private, fee-paying school can improve your chances).
You are so right. Oxford isn’t too bad as a launchpad into comedy, either, come to think of it.
Budding comedians: make sure your parents send you to one of the better public schools to launch you onto the right path to Oxbridge/comedy success! (Note for non-Brits: public = private, fee-paying school in this context.) If you are lucky you will be discovered before you get to the end of your second year and then you won’t have to bother with exams etc. It has happened (not in my family)!