Cunk on Earth
This show was really difficult to watch. First of all, it's only available in the United States on Netflix streaming, which I do have though I would rather still have dvds. *mutter* There are five half hour episodes and I watched all of them the same evening, which gave me an intense headache because I laughed – out loud for real – many times during each episode. The physicality required to watch this show is something I wanted to warn people about right up front, just as the song Pump Up the Jam is up front about its format of early hip hop and house music.
The show is simple in its concept and not original in format. A narrator, Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan), roams the world talking about, the world, with occasional sit down discussions with various experts on subjects like history and philosophy. They are real experts, actually answering the questions posed to them, no matter how ridiculous. Cunk wants answers, though she sometimes disagrees with them, much like Pump Up the Jam wants to entertain, though it sometimes doesn't agree with every taste.
Cunk, which is a word derived from two British profanities and basically means silly and unintelligent, delivers a relentless series of deadpan narratives full of outright jokes, sly plays on words, history, politics, celebrity, and pseudo-science. Never breaking character she takes the viewer on a whirlwind tour of the history of the world beginning well before humans began to rule until modern times and a hint of what might be coming. It's as thorough and relentless as the danceability of Pump Up the Jam.
It's hilarious to watch the experts struggle to explain or correct Cunk's wild questions about subjects like Madame Curry, the statue David's lack of an anus, or boring neolithic cave art. Like Cunk, they never break character, but it's obvious when they are shocked, sometimes into a stunned look before they try to maintain a professional demeanor. Our favorite brief bit was her depiction of the Titan 1C*, an early luxury single use submersible from just before the first world war. The viewer is left trying to keep up with the rapid fire and sometimes subtle humor, though most of it is very in your face, much like a listener is tested by the relentless beat of Pump Up the Jam.
This show is hilarious, and even funnier if you are at all familiar with the subjects she covers, which anyone with at least a grade school education should. The actress is perfect, and I highly recommend this comical and entertaining mockumentary, much as I recommend downloading Pump Up the Jam** so that you can dance, dance, dance.
LINKS:
*Titanic. Get it?
** The first minute of the Pump Up the Jam is featured in every episode. Don't even ask me why, but it does get progressively funnier somehow.
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