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Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt
Come with us now on a journey through time and space...
The Mighty Boosh is a zany British comedy series about two friends, Howard Moon (Julian Barratt) and Vince Noir (Noel Fielding), who have bizarre adventures together. Most episodes involve Howard and Vince leaving the zoo (first series), their flat (second series), or their second-hand goods shop (third series), for a number of distant locations (including the Arctic tundra, Monkey Hell, and the planet Xooberon). Here they will eventually have to fight a Monster Of The Week while meeting a range of strange characters, many of whom are also played by Barratt and Fielding.
The humour of the show is based on a combination of non sequiturs, pop culture references, psychedelic visuals, and musical interludes, along with the clearly low budget — but nonetheless very creative — settings and costumes. The humor ranges from the silly to the surreal, and a good deal of its charm is due to the fact that there is not a trace of cynicism to any of it. Imagine a children's show for adults, and you're a third of the way there.
Also part of the show's appeal is the home-made feel it has. Fielding designs many of the visual elements (including the artwork featured in the animation) while Barratt composes all of the music (and plays a mean guitar), and many of the extras are Barratt's and Fielding's friends and family.
The Mighty Boosh was originally a stage act, and then a radio series, before it became a TV show. It then returned to the stage between series one and two, and another live tour took place between 2008 and 2009.
This show provides examples of:
- All Just A Dream, Or Was It? (The Nightmare of Milky Joe)
- Anime Anatomy (Naboo the Enigma has a crotch "as smooth as the bonnet of a Porsche")
- Aside Glance
- At Arms Length
- Attractive Bent Gender (Vince proudly claims this status)
- Bamboo Technology (literally, out of bamboo)
- Beware Of Hitchhiking Ghosts
- Big Lipped Alligator Moment (At least once an episode)
- Brainless Beauty (Vince, almost literally: he has one brain cell.)
- Brainwashed (Howard, Vince, Naboo and Bollo in "The Call of the Yeti")
- Bread Eggs Milk Squick (Bob Fossil's monologues)
- Breathless Non Sequitur (both verbal and visual)
- Card Carrying Villain The Hitcher
- The Crack Fox pretty much had no reason for wanting to become all-powerful.
- Catch Phrase
'Howard: "I can't die...I've got so much to give!"
Tony Harrison: "This is an outrage!"
Old Gregg: "I'm Old Gregg!" (granted, besides his official appearance in one episode, his other appearances have been in deleted scenes and the live show)
Bollo: "I got a bad feeling about this."
Naboo: "I'm going to have to turn my back on you."
Naboo: "I'm Naboo, that's who."
- Celibate Hero (Rudi in "The Priest and the Beast")
- Crosses The Line Twice Many instances, but the Hitcher is the number one offender.
- Crowd Song: Everybody join in! "Bouncy bouncy/Oh such a good time/Bouncy bouncy/Shoes all in a line..."
- Dead Person Conversation (Montgomery Flange in "The Chokes")
- Death Is Cheap: The episode Bollo is almost entirely based around the death of the titular gorilla. He becomes a major character in Series 2. Also, Saboo and (presumably) Tony Harrison die in Series 2 only to return in Series 3.
- Deranged Animation
- Doppelganger (Lance Dior and Harold Boon of "The Flighty Zeus")
- Double Entendre (e.g., Howard Moon: [colon] explorer)
- Dude Looks Like A Lady (Vince)
- Ear Worm ("Jean-Claude Jacquettie" and "Love Games" especially.)
- Everythings Better With Monkeys (Bollo)
- Everythings Cuter With Kittens (Naboo gives Howard a picture of kittens in a barrel to look at, as a form of Anger Management therapy.)
- Evil Laugh (live show)
- Fake Band (The Black Tunes, Kraftwork Orange, Orange Work-Kraft)
- Fartillery (The Crack Fox uses his bad diet against Vince to render him unconscious.)
- Fantastic Voyage ("Journey to the Center of the Punk")
- Fetish Fuel (mind control, Vince's jumpsuits...)
- Flashback
- Flashback Cut
- Form Fitting Wardrobe (Hello, mirrorball suit!)
- Fountain Of Youth
- Friend To All Living Things (Vince can communicate with animals)
- Gilligan Cut
- Ghost In The Machine ("Journey to the Center of the Punk")
- Groin Attack: How you gets to kill a 'roo.
- Grotesque Gallery ("Mutants")
- Heterosexual Life Partners (Howard and Vince)
- Although according to Vince's brain cell in "Journey to the Centre of the Punk" he is bi but doesn't feel it with Howard.
- Hermaphrodite: Old Gregg. He's got a manginaaaa!
- Hey Its That Guy: Todd Rivers/Julian Sanchez as Dixon Bainbridge, and Dean Lerner/Thornton Reed as Saboo. You have to be a BBC fan or an Adult Swim fan to notice and/or care.
- They're also Douglas Reynholm and Maurice Moss in IT Crowd, if that helps any.
- Ho Yay (between almost all of the characters at one point or another)
- I Have Many Names (Rudi van Di Sarzio: "I go by many names...")
- Improbable Hairstyle (well, Vince's hair is always improbable, but it's exceptionally so in "The Nightmare of Milky Joe")
- Lampshade Hanging ("Party," which has some fun with the age difference between Howard and Vince [and actors Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding])
- Le Film Artistique (''The Doctor and the Pencil''
in "The Chokes")
- Lemon Wacky Hello (Tommy Nookah and his "cheese dreams")
- Leitmotif (Naboo's theme)
- Memetic Mutation ("I'm Old Gregg!" "Who the f—— is John Simm?!?""I'm the spirit of jazz""OW!! Man, my hat's on fire!!")
- Metaphorgotten
- Miles Gloriosus ("Howard Moon: Man of Action...Don't kill me! I've got so much to give!")
- Mind Rape Again, the Hitcher, in "Eels"
- Monster Of The Week
- Nice Hat (Howlin' Jimmy Jefferson, a.k.a, the spirit of jazz, and no, the hat being on fire is not part of his look)
- "OW! Man, my hat's on fire! What's wrong with you, you blind?! Why didn't you tell me?!"
- Nightmare Fuel (The Hitcher, the Crack Fox, Old Gregg, take your pick!)
- Charlie, the Hubba-Bubba nightmare!
- The Moon, unholy emperor of Uncanny Valley. It... haunts my dreams.
- When...when you are the moon, you pretty much split people down the middle. Some go: awww, look at the moon up there with his creamy white face. He's all gentle. While others go: UGH! He's a vanilla rapist, get 'im away from my kids.
- No Fourth Wall
- Odd Couple (Howard and Vince, and Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, for that matter);
- Ominous Fog (heralds the appearance of Old Gregg)
- Ominous Latin Chanting
- Once An Episode (The Moon, the musical numbers... it's got a couple of Once An Episode bits.)
- Perky Goth (Vince, temporarily, in "Nanageddon")
Vince: You're going to have to get a bit dark, like me.
Howard: Like you? You're the least dark person I've ever met. You're like candy floss.
- Popular Is Dumb ("Prince of Camden" Vince is...not always the sharpest knife in the drawer)
- Rape As Comedy Too many times to mention. Oh, alright, just one: "Pelt The Rabbit in His Big White Face"
- Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic (averted through copious improvisation)
- Running Gag (Howard's tiny eyes, Vince being mistaken for a Howard's wife, etc.)
- Salt And Pepper (Aversion once with Rudi and Spider. Twice if you count Saboo and Tony Harrison, the latter being more fuschia than white.)
- Secret Test Of Character ("Jungle," the live show, etc.)
- Sound To Screen Adaptation
- Spirit Advisor (Montgomery Flange in "The Chokes")
- Talking Animal (Bollo, various bears, fish, the Crack Fox, etc.)
- Ted Baxter (Howard)
- The Cameo (Roger Daltrey, Gary Numan, the bands Razorlight and the Horrors)
- The Chew Toy (Howard)
- The Dumbledore (Naboo is an extremely long-suffering and cynical version)
- The Grim Reaper ("Bollo")
- The Man In The Moon
- The Minnesota Fats (Lance Dior and Harold Boon in "The Power of the Crimp")
- The Obi Wan (Tommy Nookah in "Jungle," Montgomery Flange in "The Chokes")
- The Philosopher (Rudi van Di Sarzio; subverted with Howard)
- The Power Of Rock (highlighted in "The Priest and the Beast")
- The Woobie (Howard; when he's not being a complete stuffed-shirt, he's usually a combination of this and The Chew Toy)
- Too Kinky To Torture (Bob Fossil)
- Unspoken Plan (subverted, in "The Fountain of Youth")
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist (both Howard and Vince — as endearing as they are, Howard's stuffiness and Vince's shallowness are significant.)
- Witch Doctor (Naboo again)
- And the Shaman's Council are made up entirely of "Super magic men"
- Yawn And Reach (between Howard and a coconut)
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