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Luckily, there are the good few who seem to
survive the onslaught. The
Office overcame "The Difficult Second Album" syndrome, as
did Faulty Towers.
But how did UK comedians Julian Barrett and Noel Fielding (better known
as The Mighty Boosh) fare on their second outing?
While
relative unknowns in Australia (except to those cult comedy fans
willing to stay up to all hours just to see the show on SBS), The Boosh
has
become big business in the UK. I must admit, I've been waiting years
for
an Aussie distributor to pick up the rights to this hilarious, yet odd,
alternative comedy series.
The second series of Boosh ditches the
Zoo surroundings of the first, with hapless adventurers Howard Moon and
Vince Noir now firmly entrenched within their rather lush
looking flat in Dalston. Immediately Boosh: Series 2 has
much more of a Young
Ones
feel to it than the original, where the adventures begin almost
immediately, and the stories take on much more extreme and bizarre
tangents (there is an entire episode devoted to two Mexican guitar
players who have tiny doors built within their afros, one of which has
eight penis').
While the first series was arguably more
linear
and mainstream in it's humour, this second series takes "Alternative
Comedy" to it's extreme. With it's unique (almost cartoonish) visual
style, characters such as Old Gregg (a half man, half fish who likes to
drink Bailey's from a shoe), The Hitcher (a green skinned cockney who
is famous for "Cock-Punchin") and Milky Joe (a coconut who Howard
befriends whilst the pair are trapped on a desert island) makes Series
2 a difficult dish to digest upon first viewing.
For mine, the
first two episodes of Series 2 take a few viewings to really enjoy -
but once you become accustomed to the positively strange style of the
show (and it's numerous musical interludes) you'll soon agree that The
Mighty Boosh is easily one of the most best comedies currently on the
box.
While this style of humour won't appeal to
everyone (there
is a certain British-ness to it that many may not find all that
appealing), you would be hard pressed not to be in hysterics at the
numerous quick witted lines, my personal favourite being:
Howard: You
should fear the occult...
Vince: Why? I heard it's good for the
digestive system
Howard:
That's Yakult
you idiot
There's
also the numerous references to Howard being a "Jazz Maverick", a
talking moon, the punching of elderly ladies, a talking gorilla,
Man-ginas and a finale which involves Coconut Homicide.
This is
cult comedy at it's best, and once you've been sucked into this bizarre
world, there is no hope of returning to the real world without
including the phrase "Slap you out like a Mother Bitch" into your
everyday vocabulary.
DVD EXTRAS
Easily one of the
best DVD Extras I've ever encountered - which is usually the case with
these sorts of cult UK series (case in point: Garth Marenghi's Darkplace,
a show which has several ties to the Boosh). Along with hilarious
deleted scenes (normally, Deleted Scenes are not worth the time or
effort, but here it's a series of classic lines which were irrelevant
to the scene), out-takes and a fantastic documentary following Julian
and Noel on their publicity tour (they are the Rock Stars of the comedy
world).
However, one of the coolest inclusions is
the pilot episode of The
Mighty Boosh
which is completely different to what the show has evolved into.
Firstly, there is a live studio audience (which simply doesn't work for
this style of comedy) and interestingly - the part of Dixon Bainbridge
is played by Richard Ayoade (who appears in the hilarious Darkplace).
A fantastic package which will satisfy even
the most rabid of fans.
Conclusion:
Movie 95% Extras: 95%
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