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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Mighty Boosh

18:51 / 21.05.04

So, the new comedy from Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt started on BBC3. Did anyone see it?
They showed two episodes and I gotta say, I laughed. I thought it might just have been surreal-for-surreal's-sake but it was really funny. (The first episdoe was, anyway...)

The jokes sounded mostly like they were written by the one with the mad hair who I've seen doing stand up on Paramount and is fucking hilarious and as such, the words sounded a bit funny coming out of the other guy's mouth.

From the BBC3 site:
The hugely talented Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding bring a classic double act bang up to date. Playing zookeepers Howard Moon and Vince Noir, they battle with authority figures, Zoo-Niverse owner Dixon Bainbridge (Matt Berry) and his Manager Bob Fossil (Rich Fulcher). Frequently coming to their aid with his mystical powers is zoo kiosk worker and local shaman, Naboo (Michael Fielding).

A shaman working in a kiosk. A gorilla posing as Caeser for a portrait. Mad hats. Great stuff.

Best bit was the start of the first episode with the two of them talking in front of a red curtain discussing their combat moves.

"That was the "Vibrating Palm". Doesn't feel ike much now but two hours from now, you'll go into a shop, you'll buy a hat, it won't suit you. Chhchhcikah!"

Linky Boosh

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:59 / 22.05.04

Oh! I used to listen to this on the radio and rather liked it - esp. when Bob Fossil went Fossiliser on the sacrifcial cult...

Shame I don't have digital TV, now that I think about it. There's a thread here about radio shows moving to TV...

Whisky Priestess

09:15 / 22.05.04

I saw their Arctic Boosh live show about three years ago and laughed myself sick. They really are great. In terms of who is who, I think Julian is the tall one and Noel is the one with the "beautiful hair of a Sixties girl".

Boosh!

22:56 / 24.05.04

I watched it. Pleasingly silly, letting the gags do the walking, with a charming air of amateurism, as one might find at a local hairdressers. I admire anything that has a didgeridoo-fuelled tribal hallucination eluding to a ********'s ********s.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:48 / 24.05.04

Like Haus, I too used to love this on the radio. But don't have digital TV (as far as I know... the other problem is I don't actually watch TV, so I don't know what channels my house receives...) so don't know how well it translates... I'm guessing probably pretty fucking well.

Hmm... radio/TV crossovers- Hitchhiker's Guide (hit), League of Gentlemen (hit), Dead Ringers (miss)... yeah, there probably COULD be a thread in that. (And I'm still miffed by this forum being called "Film, TV and Theatre" when any fule kno that BBC Radio 4 is the pinnacle of human broadcasting achievement.)

09:55 / 25.05.04

Watched the first two episodes again. The first was great, the second less so. Actually, the second wasn't very good at all. Except for Noel-as-cobra scene. Didn't like the "Thriller" bit.

God, that first espisode is funny...

V: Well where is she then?
N: Maybe she's trapped in a cabinet...
V: She's not trapped in a cabinet.
N: She could be. People get trapped in cabinets all the time. Haven't you ever seen that show?

(sings)
Trapped in cabinets
Trapped in cabinets
Can he get out?
Will he get out?
'course he will!
Trapped in cabinets
Trapped in cabinets...

V: No, she's over there...

21:01 / 25.05.04

More Booshy fun tonight. Very funny.
Ape of Death, Weird fabric guy in Mirror World (with mirror balls), Vince's hair...

Did anyone press the red button? You got fun Hedgehog facts!

12:59 / 26.05.04

The mighty Nabuu is very funny

12:11 / 02.06.04

I saw the repeated one yesterday. It made me laugh, even though it had a kind of amateur, student rag week kind of feel to it. I loved the Ape of Death and his song, the fact that the fox was scottish, and the dressing up as a monkey schtick. All good, and I will look out for further epsiodes now

Goodness Gracious Meme

16:20 / 04.06.04

Waaaaah. Want Boosh on Terrestrial, I saw Arctic Boosh as well and remember it being hysterically funny.

11:36 / 14.06.04

Hrm. It's all gone a bit wrong, hasn't it?

The first episode was hysterically funny and I've watched it about three times now. Great stuff.

Subsequent episodes have been disappointing. All the good jokes get stuffed in at the start, then when the story kicks off, there ain't much left.

This week's "Jungle Boosh" wasn't very good. The "King of the Mods" was a fun bit, but I'm tired of the obligatory dance-number at the end of every episode.

And why weren't the Mod Wovles funnier?

Highlight of this episode:

Vince: So what're you going to do now that the Zoo's being sold? Being a shaman's a very specialised job.

Naboo: I'm thinking of turing into a mighty hawk.

Vince: A what?

Naboo (whispers): A mighty hawk.

Vince: Right. Yeah. Nice one.

Naboo: Or get a job in Dixons. I haven't decided yet...

16:21 / 09.07.04

Annnnd it's funny again! More ups and downs that an Up and Down Thing in a lift, this show.

How can you not love the vile horror of The Hitcher, the green-skinned cockney man-witch? "You love it, you slaaag!"

The wonderful saga of Vince, Brian Ferry and The Monkey King...

I wish they'd bring someone on board to help with the writing and keep it more consistent. I'm all for creative control but someone with a bit more experience in writing for TV would be a big help.

12:38 / 19.07.04

Just watched this while channel flicking. It was the "Jungle Boosh' episode. Bloody hilarious, and if this was a down episode, then the quality ones must be top knotch stuff.

The locksmith summoned by the pipe was funny shit. "Now I gotta walk home, do I?"

10:23 / 27.07.05

The Boosh is back!

New series started. Tuesdays, 11pm, BBC Three.

Howard, Vince and Naboo have left the Zooniverse and share a flat. Bollo is back!

First episode was alright. Best bit was the magazine, "Cheekbone" - so cutting edge it's not available in the shops, comes out every three hours and is delivered by ninjas.

UK people can watch the next episode on line : BBC Three

(Looks like Rudi, the Bringer of Corn is back...)

12:47 / 28.07.05

I think my main problem with the Mighty Boosh is that all the jokes are independently funny when you just hear them spelled out (like above - delivered everything three hours by ninjas), but actually in the show they all tend to land fairly flatly on the screen. They're kind of thrown away. This is not high impact comedy. I can't quite figure out what I think of it. It's a bit beard-stroking, to be honest.

16:40 / 28.07.05

Aye, I know what you mean. They don't go for punchline-stlye traditional sit-com jokes but I think that's why I like it. It's still got the same problems as the first series but the throw-away lines are enough to keep me watching.

18:38 / 28.07.05

I started watching the new pilot, but, and sorry to get techi about it, I couldn't stand the bad sound. The actors just kept going off mic, which really annoyed me - the boom operator must have been absolutly shit, and I just couldn't relax into it thanks to that.

23:09 / 10.08.05

I've only seen the second series - I thought the second episode was great... I love how they make fun of the mystic subculture; it needs doing, both for validating it (if somethings established enough to be made fun of in a TV comedy then it's established!) and just because there's a huge untapped potential of stereotypes there.

'put away those fiery biscuits!'

Mysterious Transfer Student

09:00 / 11.08.05

As a huge Boosh fan, I had better restrain myself from talking about how great they are for fear of falling victim to 'overenthusiastic newby' disorder. Just one or two things:

Love the fact that the 'sexy Goth girls' are the exact same two as the Electro Girls from series one (Dee 'Plume' Gaitskell and Sue Denim, aka techno-punka types Robots In Disguise). Helps maintain the faintly disturbing impression that women don't really figure in Howard and Vince's self-contained world.

The council of shamans, apparently chaired by Brian Eno in full Roxy-era ostrich feather clobber.

09:43 / 11.08.05

Yeah, the second episode was much funnier. Tony's "This is an outrage!" was great. Loads of great lines. Definitely worth watching again.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

09:57 / 11.08.05

First 4 episodes of series two are available to watch at the BBC THREE website.

It's a lot of fun, but I also get the feeling that some of the lines - while funny - fall a bit flat. I feel as if they could do with better natural comic actors, as in Spaced (the main pair are fine, mind). But still, there's plenty of quote worthy moments...

"You know nothing of the crunch! Here's your first slice of crunch!"

"Went to a graveyard. Got naked... shat on a tombstone."

Mysterious Transfer Student

11:22 / 24.08.05

Are we still watching this?

The last two episodes have been fun, but not quite up to the usual standard somehow - the return of the Hitcher should have been more climactic and confrontational perhaps.

Did like the return of animated sequences in last night's episode, and the fact that it was Howard, and not Vince as usual, who was the victim of unpleasant sexual/Bluebeard-esque overtures from the monster-of-the-week.

This recycled gag made me laugh again:
"Not you, naan bread!"

16:57 / 24.08.05

Missed the last one...

- the return of the Hitcher should have been more climactic and confrontational perhaps.

Yeah, I thought they were going to do something more with him- thought he was great the first time he showed up. Not a great episode overall. So far the Nanatoo episode has been the best.

16:29 / 19.04.06

*Bump*

Horribly studenty though it may be, I adore this show. Any of you horrible lot seen the stage show? It's ace- basically a rehash of two series worth of jokes alongside a whole bunch of new ones (the rape rabbit, anyone?).

The appeal of the show, I think, is that it's very Goodies-ish. A joke or two about fox bumming aside, it's quite innocently silly. It's alos wonderfully cheap, making a joke out of the sort of sets and costumes upon which Blake's 7 would rely for credibility..love it..

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:50 / 19.04.06

And by the same token, the stage show is very theatrical - much more than I expected. In the sense that it has multiple sets and similar, but also in the way it played with the space and conventions of the theatre. It is, barring some scabrous obscenity, indeed quite sweet-natured, and they're remarkably funny, especially given that much of their material sort of isn't - their delivery is excellent and they're so damn _lovable_.

Question: Does it go in Vince's mouth every night, or was that a proper cock-up?

Mysterious Transfer Student

05:07 / 20.04.06

Haus: If by "it" you mean Rich Fulcher's spittle, then I can report that on at least one previous occasion on this tour, it has landed not in the mouth, but on the hair - a far more serious occurrence.

All Acting Regiment

09:52 / 20.04.06

Yeah, I saw it go in his mouth. Nasty, really. The stage show is great though. It's classic odd couple comedy but with loads of new stuff.

15:47 / 20.04.06

I caught a few re-run episodes by accident last fall. By the time I figured out what it was and when it was, it was over. I'll have to get the DVDs because I love the sheer '70s-prog-rockishness of it all.

I really wanted more to happen with Noel's goth character in The IT Crowd beyond a bunch of obvious jokes involving Cradle of Filth.