The Britcompilation: Day 26- The Mighty Boosh

Surrealism isn't rare in British comedy. In fact, it's one of it's hallmarks. Weird shit is fairly commonplace, and the Britcom is no exception. I've talked about shows that do this well before, but The Mighty Boosh takes the cake. This show, man. It's awesome. It's weird. It makes no sense. I love it. Essentially, it's about a zoo/flat/second hand shop. Except it isn't. It's about whatever the hell it wants to be about. Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett play zookeepers/flatmates/second hand shopkeepers who keep finding themselves in crazy, nonsensical situations. It's hard to talk about why it works, because it taps into this beautiful, odd and even sometimes disturbing surrealism that's fairly hard to describe. When you're watching this show, you're essentially taking a voyage into the bizarre, where the humour comes from how strange everything is. It's not the only sitcom to do weird comedy, but I don't think any series does it this well.

This is a show that begins with a fight between a man and and a monster kangaroo (sorry, Killeroo) and ends with the exploits of an alcoholic crab. Yep. Throw in some musical numbers and you've got.... something. The beauty of The Mighty Boosh is that it isn't necessarily supposed to be understood. It gets how to do surrealism without feeling overly random or in your face about anything. It always feels like part of the show, and it never feels like they're trying too hard to be weird. The weirdness is organic. It's insane, but in its own way, it makes sense. There's a gorilla, because of course there is. Same goes for Naboo the shaman. These are characters that don't need context, because it just makes sense that they're there. Once the show establishes that the rules are that there aren't any rules, everything starts to work. Everything is in the context of surrealism. Everything makes sense because it actually doesn't make sense. That may sound like an oxymoron, but the show never sets parameters for what might happen, so you come to expect anything to happen, however nonsensical. It's not mindless weirdness either. The show is good at knowing what lengths it can take a particular joke or story beat, and it never feels gratuitous or stupid. This show is fantastic, because it's the epitome of surreal comedy. It just wants to show you shit you wouldn't find anywhere else, and for that reason, it's awesome. It may not be for everyone, but it is a definite favourite of mine.