The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy written by and starringcomedians Julian Barratt andNoel Fielding. It developed from stage shows to radio shows to a TV show. It focuses mainly on surrealism, fashion and complete and utter fantasy in ways that make it into a completely unique show. Fielding and Barratt's influences include Mr Benn, Monty Python and even Frank Zappa, (an avante guarde musician who released over 60 albums!!!) The show is based around 6 reoccurring characters in Vince Noir, Howard Moon, Bob Fossil, Naboo and Bollo.
The main structure of The Mighty Boosh is that Howard and Vince find some reason to go on some form of adventure, get in trouble and need Naboo to help them out. On these adventures they meet charcters that are used mostly in just one show such as Old Gregg and The Crack Fox.
The show is postmodern in many many ways; it is completely based around fashion and the celebrity culture. Vince and Howard are always trying to find some way of becoming famous, be it through being a photographer, a singer or a poet. Vince's whole character is very much postmodern, even in the clothes he wears.
If you use one of Strinati's features of a postmodern text, confusions over time and space, (which is even a line in the theme tune) this proves it to be a postmodern text because Noel and Julian play exaggerated versions of themselves, perhaps alter egos, similar to Ricky Gervais in Extras. The two comedians actually say this on one of the DVD's extras. This is heightened even more in series 3, episode 3, The Power Of The Crimp, when two people steal Vince and Howard's image. The copiers call themselves Lance Dior and Harrold Boom. This means that there are two people copying two people who are playing exaggerated versions of themselves. There are also many times in the text that create confusion over time and space such as using the Euro even though the show is set in England. Another example is when Gary Numan plays himself in a cameo role but is a different version of himself who lives in a wardrobe in the third series in the shop Vince and Howard work in. Simon Farnaby also plays and actor in the first series called Simon McFarnaby.
The show is based completely on popular culture, however there are times that high art is used and regenerated as pop culture. An example of this is in series 3 when Howard becomes a classical Shakespearian actor but is used in an advert where he plays Sammy The Crab (an actual character in the show, postmodern!) Howard is very much a character based around high art and Vince around pop culture. As the show goes on, the distinction between the two cultures is unravelled.
During the first series there are many times where Vince or Howard directly address the audience in reference to the show. This is self reflexivity. Only in the first series, the two introduce the show and discuss things that will happen in the show. At other times, the two will comment or pull a facial expression to the audience, this is postmodernism similar to in Twenty Four Hour Party People, Nigel Winterbottom 2004.
An emphasis of style over substance, (one of Strinati's features) is that the show is created in a studio. The sets are fake and very much so. There is one point in the first series where they were filming and a piece of the set (a tree) actually fell over when Bryan Ferry (played by Julian, this was not actually Bryan Ferry, it was a jungle man with face paints who drives a motorbike in the jungle, postmodern!!) touches the tree which was not meant to happen but was used for comedic effect.
It uses another of Strinati's features, the breakdown in distinctions between culture and society, when Vince mentions shopping in Camden town and when he makes a device in the third series to track down celebrities. He makes €3000 in one evening because everyone wants to know where these celebrities are, the reflects todays culture.
Music videos are very much a postmodern form of text. To add to the postmodernism this show already has, Barratt and Fielding even include them at points in the show. As Vince changes to a different subcultural group each episode be it mod, goth, electro pop or even a George Clinton style Funk lover, the writers manage to create a small song performed by the characters in a style of music video. The characters act as performers to the audience and many conventions of music videos are used.
No comments:
Post a Comment