Very few comedy shows hooked me as hard as The Mighty Boosh did when I first watched it—it was unlike anything I had ever seen before, a show with a mastery of quirky, fast-paced dialogue and utterly ridiculous stories, coupled with catchy original music. It was among a wave of cult-forming British comedies that all debuted in the mid-two-thousands—Peep Show, The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, just to name a few—but what made it stand out was also probably what made me love it: the cartoonish world it presented, with outlandish fantasy plots and characters. As we are told in the theme song, we are being taken on a journey through time and space, and almost every one of its twenty episodes features one of its central cast (Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, and Rich Fulcher) playing an over-the-top costumed character, which was more often than not some kind of goofy monster—sometimes, the show almost feels like a art school comedy take on Doctor Who.
No episode demonstrates The Mighty Boosh‘s capacity for monster-based merriment better than what may be its most well-known one, series 2’s “The Legend of Old Gregg.” For whatever reason, this one blew up, and managed to even reach outside the regular BBC Three audience—I distinctly remember seeing clips from it passed around by people who never mentioned watching the show before. Although it isn’t my favourite episode of the series, it does have a lot of the elements that made it so unique, including another amazing song and a memorable performance from Noel Fielding as the titular character.
The setting of the show technically changes from season to season (which may or may not reflect its declining budget), but the core remains the same: Fielding plays Vince Noir and Barratt plays Howard Moon, two odd couple friends/roommates/bandmates whose ambitions often take them to strange places. Vince is heavily glam-inspired and wears flamboyant costumes (and is sometimes mistaken for a woman), while Howard is a self-serious wannabe jazz musician; the laws of comedy dictates that while the carefree Vince makes it through most episodes unscathed, Howard is consistently belittled and tormented by the the world around him, as is the case in this episode. “The Legend of Old Gregg” opens with Vince and Howard returning to the flat owned by their shaman friend Naboo (played by Fielding’s brother Mike) and his gorilla familiar Bollo (played by Dave Brown, who also plays a lot of non-speaking costumed parts including, in this episode, some naan bread) after a performance that didn’t go well. In order to escape the angry crowd throwing bricks through their windows, Vince and Howard decide to go spend some time among the ornery fishermen of Black Lake, who at first don’t take kindly to Vince’s love of flirtinis. An impromptu fishing trip ends with Vince leaving early with a large haul and Howard left alone on their boat, where he inadvertently catches the legendary fish-man Old Gregg (played by Fielding), who wears a suit and a tutu and loves drinking Baileys. Gregg takes Howard to his cave lair, where the clearly lonely and socially awkward monster-man desperately attempts to convince Howard to be his friend/lover. Meanwhile, Vince calls Naboo and Bollo to stage a rescue in the submarine they keep in their attic.
What’s always struck me about this episode in particular is that, removing all the adult references to girly drinks and “a club where people wee on each other” (and also subtly stupid-funny jokes like “Well, I just dangled my rod over the side…”), this is straight-up a Saturday morning cartoon plot—in fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen “sea monster falls in love with main character” played out multiple times. It’s exactly the kind of silly storylines that The Mighty Boosh liked to adapt to its particular brand of comedy—I mean, there are other episodes where Vince and Howard look for the fountain of youth, are stranded on a desert island, and have to deal with “evil” doppelgangers, so the show really come off as a live action cartoon more often than not. But it’s not being played as a direct parody, either—it’s just using those usually childish concepts as a starting point.
As is the case for many episodes, the centrepiece of the episode is whatever new character Fielding or Barratt is playing (Fulcher is in the episode as well, playing a fisherman who loves decorating things with shells, including his wife)—and Gregg is up there with recurring antagonist The ‘itcher and the octopus shaman Tony Harrison as one of Fieldings memorably crazy creations. Visually, he’s an amusing mishmash of elements—green facepaint, drawn-on moustache, seaweed hair, silvery jacket and tie (covered in fishing lures) contrasted with the bright pink tutu, and his one human hand and one Creature From The Black Lagoon hand—that fully demonstrates how well this show works with a small budget, conjuring an almost DIY home art project quality that fits the intentional unreality of its world (the art direction on the show is always good, and you can understand why series director Paul King has gone on to make serious bank directing Paddington Bear movies.) Fielding has played many many over-the-top characters in the series, but always finds a particular set of mannerisms to set them apart—Gregg has his unique way of speaking, his obsessive repetition of his favourite topics, including Baileys (and how creamy it is), making watercolours, and also repeatedly stating his own name, as well as his desperation for romantic companionship. While Gregg is a monster (and can be scary, in a humorous way), he’s also a fairly sad individual who is enthusiastic but socially inept, and Howard is alternating between terrified and irritated through most of their interactions.
There are other aspects of Gregg as well—while his manner of dress and attraction to Howard suggest a bit of gender nonconformity, a far more explicit recurring joke involves his “mangina” (which he refers to as his “downstairs mix-up”), which emits a paralyzing beam of light. These kind of references to hermaphroditic/intersex traits and gender confusion were a semi-common basis for jokes at the point this aired (and because British comedy teams were usually all men and had a tradition of cross-dressing, that added another layer), probably because at the time it was just considered to be “weird”, and it’s the kind of thing that probably wouldn’t be done nowadays, at least not in the flippant manner it is here. Considering how many episodes revolve around Barratt or Fielding being accosted by violently amorous characters (usually played by the other actor, or Rich Fulcher), which often contain sadistic overtones (Gregg just dropping “I want to hurt you” into conversations), I was worried that these jokes would come off as lame gay panic stuff now—thankfully, at least in this case (and aside from the mangina jokes, of which there are only a few anyway), it doesn’t, as Barratt mostly underplays his reactions to Old Gregg’s come-ons.
This episode also has a fairly memorable plot point concerning the history of pop music, another recurring element in this show (for example, we learned in an earlier episode that Vince was raised in the jungle by Bryan Ferry, and the Who’s Roger Daltrey and Frank Zappa’s daughter Diva also make guest appearances in other episodes.) This is initially set up with Vince complaining to Howard that he is “too white” and moves rigidly “like a breadstick”—later, in a bid to convince Howard to marry him, Gregg offers the use of “The Funk”, a “funky ball of tits from outer space” whose black lactation helped Bootsy Collins and the other members of Parliament to become the funkiest band in existence (as told to us via one the show’s recurring animated interludes.) When Howard is rescued by Vince, he takes the Funk (which, in live action, is incredibly disturbing-looking) with him, leading to them playing a Parliament-inspired number at the fishermen’s tavern. Before all of that, we also get a disco-inspired song, “Love Games”, a highlight in a series with a ton of great music, and an example of how well they expertly integrated many genres and styles into the show itself.
Revisiting this episode, I am reminded of many of the things that got me into The Mighty Boosh in the first place: the use of music (which goes beyond just including references of the P-Funk mythology, although those are certainly appreciated), the show’s unique command of language to create this amazingly rapid-fire patter as well as hilariously dumb jokes (“you cityfolk, you come down here your balls all shiny…”), its great visuals (even the low-budget CGI still blends in well), and, of course, its cavalcade of comedy creatures. How many comedies, let alone live action ones, do monster-of-the-week stories? The whole idea sounds ludicrous, but the talent involved here still makes it work, creating a universe that still has great appeal.
REVIEW ALL MONSTERS 