We sit in the reception of Chrysalis Television glancing nervously at the walls. Noble and Silver had just phoned down to the receptionist, asking us to bring them what sounded suspiciously like "a Hawaiian and fifteen Pepperonis". Right now, we are wondering what the hell we have let ourselves in for. Two minutes later, they bound down the stairs, bags in hand, lunge either side of us and, grinning wildly, pose for a photo from a disposable camera held at arm's length by Kim. They introduce themselves as Sharon and Susan, and almost immediately begin the double-handed monologue of continuous nonsense that is to last for the duration of our meeting. Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you - Noble and Silver.

Already over-hyped to the point of tedium, Noble and Silver are the latest arrivals on the comedy scene to be hailed as the saviours of British comedy. Lazy journalistic comparisons range from Simon Munnery to Chris Morris, from Big Train to the inevitable Boosh (who are compared and contrasted to every form of comedy in the known universe). Reviewers attempting to capture the essence of their performance have had to resort to vapid descriptions, calling them "the Vindaloo curry of comedy". The clearest summation of their brand of humour comes from Sam Taylor who, during last year's Fringe Festival said "you'll either love it or really, really hate it".

Walking around the offices of Chrysalis, where Noble and Silver are working on their E4 television show, it is clear that, at least there, everyone adores them. People grin from ear to ear trying to direct them to an empty room in which to carry out our interview. Finally arriving at a suitable location - having given us a guided tour of the lift system in the building - Noble and Silver walk in ahead, asking if it's okay that we use the room for an hour and apologising profusely for the disturbance. We stick our heads around the door. It turns out they are addressing the sofa.

Kim Noble (26) and Stuart Silver (25) met while both were doing fine arts degrees at Sheffield Hallam. This broad course, covering video, painting, sculpture and performance, led to the beginning of a beautiful friendship, and the pair began performing in The Hen and Chickens theatre in Islington in December 1999. A remarkably short time later, they took a show up to the Edinburgh Festival, and subsequently won the Perrier Best Newcomer award.

"Yeah, we were very surprised," says Kim genuinely, "... because we thought we'd get the big boy!" The announcement did seem to take them by surprise on the night, although typically they down played the whole occasion, leaving the stage without a word, and talking the usual gibberish to the waiting press outside. The decision on the night took many in the celebrity audience by surprise, with most people banking on a win for Dan Antapolski. The reviews for their show in the weeks leading up to the win weren't particularly good, and although word of mouth around the Fringe had marked out the show as one to definitely see, at the time the Perrier judges seemed to be on their own with this particular verdict.

Their style of comedy is very hard to pigeonhole, a fact that they delight in. "We don't just want to make people laugh" says Kim in a rare moment of clarity. "We wanted to do events that are going to change the world -" "No, no," Stuart interrupts, "scale it down." "Change. perceptions?" Kim amends. "Of people's understanding."

Ranging from the absurd - Stuart slowly pulls Kim across the stage on a plank of wood - to the strangely beautiful - Stuart's scene with the rabbit puppet instantly springs to mind - their performance is always incredibly and meticulously planned, and executed with a perfection that is at once breathtaking and surprising. The mere technical complications that must ensue from the interaction between pre-recorded films and live performance must be a nightmare to achieve. During the show, banks of television screens and video projections, all featuring films of Stuart and Kim, bicker with the 'live' duo, as well as each other, on stage. Timing is everything and nothing can possibly be left to chance.

Which is why today, almost six months since the event, the memory of the So You Think You're Funny quarterfinals still hurts. "So You Think The Volume Is Really Low," Stuart explodes. "And Therefore You Will Be Humiliated In Front Of A Large Group Of People When You Try And Do something a bit different which you think might be a bit clever and take a whole afternoon and a few days before that filming but ultimately it looks really shit, no one can hear it and you feel embarrassed and start crying." And relax. Following this outburst, the rumours that abounded around Edinburgh at the time - that Noble and Silver deliberately threw the competitions as some kind of protest against being entered - seem to be less than true. They are actually initially taken aback by the suggestion. "Who said that?! No, not at all. We didn't really want to do just a five minute comedy set, so that's why we were really keen to do unusual stuff, and also the thing we did didn't work out...."

But this hasn't held them back. Six months down the line they are working on a new six part series for Channel 4's digital spin-off E4. Rather than going down the sketch programme or sit com route, they have decided instead to write six completely different unrelated programmes, in six different genres. If they can think of them. " A sitcom we're going to do." Stuart tells us, "and we're doing a documentary and." "And any more ideas we can come up with in the next couple of weeks." They held castings in early January, but they are keeping mum about who will be appearing in the shows, although they did let us in to one secret. "Vanessa Feltz is in it. That's actually confirmed that she's going to be in it. Maybe Anne Diamond. But Vanessa Feltz really is a definite." Kim nods serious. "That's the truth. It's the only bit of sense we've spoken today." But, of course, it's difficult to know if they're actually telling the truth. Particularly considering the fact that they're both standing on the table as they tell us.

For every minute of genuine conversation, there comes five minute's worth of play acting and talking nonsense. Tellingly some of the conversation has been previously printed (almost word for word) in other interviews with them, so even as they are bouncing off each other's ideas, you are still not sure how much of it is improvised nonsense, and how much come from rehearsed games. One trick in particular - beginning by talking over each other and trying to pre-empt the next word the other is about to say - always ends with the pair stopping simultaneously, glaring at us, and barking "Next question". Its almost as if they are listening to the same voices inside their heads. Their banter is strikingly reminiscent of Stuart and Guy Crump, the Steve Coogan characters that appeared in the 'Natural Born Quizzers' episode of Coogan's Run, where two half brothers talk in riddles and codes that are almost impenetrable to an outsider. And similarly to the Crumps, one is powerless to escape the game when the other is determined to carry on. [For example, while Stuart is trying to sensibly answer a question about their Festival experiences, Kim is playing with a pair of invisible dice, and muttering to himself. "It's lady luck tonight. Roll the dice. Oh good, it's two fives! Double do's! We win again!"]

However, all that said, it is never clear if they are being deliberately difficult or merely caught up in the task of amusing each other. "Oh, this is fun, isn't it?!" Stuart grins at us at one point. "We're having a good time, aren't we?!" pleads Kim at the same time. "C'mon!" It is incredibly irritating. It is extremely annoying. And yet, even though you don't want to, you find yourself irresistibly drawn in to their games, powerless to stop the constant barrage of enchanting nonsense.

In the space of an hour, they have played with everything in the room - the cups on the table, the table itself, chairs, bags, dictaphone, pictures, doors, lights. They even used each other as props. They reacted to everything that happened inside and outside of the room - the sounds of phones ringing, distant conversations, radios being switched on and off. They snatch up the tape recorder every time someone walks into the room and begin to interview them instead. They are both incredibly easily distracted, and tend not to answer any questions directly, even when repeatedly pushed to do so. It's every interviewers nightmare. And yet, it is one of the most enjoyable hours we have ever spent.

"Have we not answered any of those others?" asks Stuart. "Would you like us to be clearer?"

Perish the thought.

Noble and Silver on E4.