Saturday, February 25, 2006

The Mighty Boosh: A Great British Comedy

I thought I'd cheer myself up so I went onto Amazon and bought series one and two of The Mighty Boosh, aka Howard Moon and Vince Noir. These beautifully imaginative comedies have me laughing aloud.

The hip Mighty Boosh universe is retro and futuristic, magical and streetwise, subtle and slapstick. It is the surreal comedy genius of Spike Milligan, Monty Python, The Goodies, The Young Ones, Hitchhiker's Guide, Red Dwarf. It is the flavour of now and it is as old as music hall and pantomime. I have been rolling around and guffawing watching them back to back, having bought myself an early birthday present.

Bizarre, twisted scripts with sublimely psychedelic storylines make this a hugely entertaining TV comedy, with a great double-act. Dour unsuccessful Julian Barratt (Howard) and charming optimistic Noel Fielding (Vince) play a huge array of costumed characters, enjoying all the adventures a BBC comedy budget can provide.

Like Morecombe and Wise and Laurel and Hardy before them, the two main protagonists enjoy a love-hate male relationship, and their intimate patter plays hilariously on human foibles: jealousy, petty vanity, selfishness, conceit, ambition, lust, pride, betrayal, immorality and bad fashion choices. Barratt and Fielding take a gentle, childlike delight in all they do, however daft, which makes them very watchable. And daft much of it is, but wonderfully funny moments of pathos and some strangely disturbing glimpses of darker dimensions kick this way out of the student-only stoned zone and into the great starry place where such timeless comedy goes on forever and the moon speaks to you covered in mashed potato.


Tight ensemble acting, vibrant design (based on Fielding's illustrations) and the best comedy songs I've heard in years make this unmissable. I really like them so much, I thought I'd immediately change my "no advertising on Blog of Funk" policy, so I did. Buy these DVDs and laugh your socks off.

Blog of Funk Rating: Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

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10 Comments:

At 3:00 AM, Blogger Johnny Jazz quoth...

Love the 'Boosh', very surreal, but at least its British, one of the few comedies apart from '2 pints' that's broadcasted on BBC3 and IS funny.

 
At 2:12 PM, Blogger Indigobusiness quoth...

I'm a little confused, who is covered in mashed potato?

 
At 8:19 PM, Blogger Laurie quoth...

I'm embarrassed to say I've never heard of it. I wonder if it plays on BBC America. I guess I'll just have to Amazon it myself.

 
At 2:16 AM, Blogger karma quoth...

sorry, never heard of this either!

 
At 3:41 PM, Blogger sunshinespiral quoth...

Oh what? Its a classic... or at least it will be. I havent seen anythign this funny since the league of gentlemen series 2...its well funny. Milky Joe and Old Gregg...I very nearly died laughing. (and its the moon covered in mashed potato -- but Id say it looks more like shaving foam) The scripts are hilarious -- so surreal -- so clever...I went out and bought the 2 series box set yesterday after watching the 2nd series repeated on tv over the last few weeks...its class!!

 
At 9:59 PM, Blogger Kirbie quoth...

The Mighty Boosh is awesome, the moon is the best!
Old Greg is good too though.

 
At 6:30 PM, Blogger Conrad Slater quoth...

You can clearly see the influence of Vic Reeves Big Night Out. It's a very good show but I think it'll become dated very quickly.

 
At 4:32 PM, Blogger Deek Deekster quoth...

I think you're wrong, Conrad. They aspire to greatness whereas Vic aspires to drunkeness.

 
At 9:29 AM, Blogger Bloggard quoth...

If you can get past the bad acting the plots are akin to watching an acid trip. Didn't find it funny. If you want contemporary British humour check out the Peep Show. Now that is funny.

 
At 9:56 AM, Blogger Deek Deekster quoth...

I don't think you can criticise them for bad acting - it's just the style you like or don't like. Peep Show is also good - much "straighter" though. Clearly Boosh is for fans of The Mind Warp.

 

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