The Mighty Boosh: TV Series (2004-07)
Three Series | 20 episodes, approx 28 minutes each.
The show revolves primarily around two main characters, namely Howard Moon (Julian Barratt) and Vince Noir (Noel Fielding), both of whom in Series One are zookeepers at England's shittiest Zoo, The Zooniverse, a dilapidated and mostly empty crappy little hovel with bored animals.
Howard resembles the guy from your local supermarket who hovers in the bread aisle. He agonises over every decision, loves jazz funk and wants desperately to sleep with Mrs Gideon (Victoria Wicks), the Reptile House lady.
Vince resembles a Dr Doolittle and Rod Stewart love child. He has perfect hair, a love of electro-pop and a laid back attitude to life. The less he tries the more he succeeds. Mrs Gideon, the Reptile House lady, wants to sleep with him.
- Howard Moon and Vince Noir - Fashion Opposites -
When not feeding animals or chilling in their homely hut the pair stumble into ridiculous adventures that rarely make any rational sense. There are recurring characters who help fuel the madness: the aforementioned Mrs Gideon; the resident shaman Naboo the Enigma (Michael Fielding), who likes his hookah; the zoo manager Bob Fossil (Rich Fulcher), who's 51 cards short of a full deck; and zoo owner Dixon Bainbridge (Richard Ayoade), with his upstaging moustache. Most of them play some part in the drama, even if it's just to take a comedy kick in the balls.
I can think of no single definable element that makes TMB entertaining. The collective of well-crafted characters, clever insults, off-the-wall events, ridiculous conceits, and dancing animals separate it from the crowd. But all of that means it's very much a love it or hate it thing.
The show changed location for Series Two (2005) but remained just as weird and unique as before. Vince and Howard no longer work at the Zoo. Instead, they're shacked up in a North East London flat, which they share with the shaman Naboo the Enigma and his familiar, Bollo the talking Ape, a zoo animal from Series One. Despite their musical differences Howard and Vince form a band and somehow make their shared quest for recognition and stardom the catalyst for bizarre storylines involving singing, dancing, and even some failed romancing.
The budget appears to have had a cash injection, enabling the guys to build more elaborate sets that facilitate ever more elaborate scripts. By the final episode all the stops are out and they're deep in the Boosh. Both Noel and Julian play multiple parts throughout, as do Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil in Series One); they're so damn good at it that at times I wasn't sure if it was or wasn't them beneath the make-up. My personal favourite is Noel's moronic Melliès-esque Moon.
In Series Three (2007) the duo work at a kind of curiosity shop named the Nabootique. Vince's overwhelming charm makes him a great salesman, he can sell stuff without even trying, whereas elbow-patch Howard struggles to make even a single sale, unable to compete with Vince.
A lot of new characters get introduced, some that work well and some that don't, but it remains unequivocally Boosh in nature. The third outing was the final TV serial. The duo quit the format while they were ahead, which was a wise move.
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