The Mighty Boosh - Seasons 1-3

The Mighty Boosh is not just a TV show. It's a comedy act, a radio show, and even a live tour. But I'm talking about the TV show. The Boosh has been a staple of wacky British comedy for a few years, and they recently aired the series on Adult Swim. They actually started with the third season, which is a bit odd, and then followed with the first two in order. They change the setting up with each new run, but the core is the same. It's a show about two unlikely friends, an off-putting jazz fanatic named Howard and a preening fashion freak named Vince. They try to make it as a successful musical act while they accidentally stumble into fantastical adventures and meet crazy characters.

The show is really interesting structurally because most episodes have the scope of plot of a fantasy or action movie yet they're crammed into the half hour time frame of a typical comedy. There's lots of musical interludes (including the duo's own unique style called crimping) and bizarre villains or mentors, often played by the main characters in heavy costume. The two main characters are a lot of fun. Howard starts the series quite cocky and sure of himself for no good reason, and by the end of the third season some of that confidence is still there but you can see how a lot of it has been beaten out of him due to his misfortune over time. Vince is a lot of fun, always outdoing Howard in everything but still sticking around like a good friend. There's also several entertaining guest actors recognizable from other British comedies like Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. The first season features the protagonists as zookeepers, the second has them camping and staying at an apartment with their friends Naboo (played by Vince's real life brother) and Bollo the gorilla, and in the third they're working in Naboo's shop. The fifth regular actor's most frequent character is their supervisor at the zoo, but he usually shows up in every episode as some other weird dude. A fourth season is possible next year or further in the future, and I enjoyed Howard and Vince's escapades enough to keep watching if it happens.