#jinsy

#5: Snuff Box

 If you haven’t heard of this, don’t be surprised. To be quite honest, I only knew of it through my parents. To my knowledge, it was the result of a rejected first pitch (after which the writers just stopped caring so much), and aired only once late at night. Perhaps understandably so: the premise of the show is perhaps a little controversial. It follows the lives of two executioners, played by Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher, and the episodes are interspersed with various sketches. The humour is rarely obvious, and certainly not laugh-out-loud. Really, I would recommend coming to the show with an open mind (as with most of these shows, actually!), as it’s certainly not for everyone. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, and so it makes it onto the list!

 #4: Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace

 The premise of Darkplace is an interesting one. It is based around a fictional 70s hospital drama, with commentary from the “actors”, played by such comedy geniuses as Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry. What makes this show good though, in my eyes, is how bad it actually is. The show is made out to be some kind of legendary cult classic, when in fact there’s poor acting, shoddy sets and downright terrible directing. Once again, it’s not laugh-out-loud, but the solemn way in which they make a fool of themselves is what makes it so funny. If you enjoy mockumentary type shows, then I would definitely check this out.

 #3: The League of Gentlemen

 You may have already watched this show, or at least heard of it; it’s a bit less “cult” than some others on the list. My first experience with The League of Gentlemen was not exactly positive, due to my vivid recurring nightmares of Edward and Tubbs, the brother-sister/husband-wife duo. As I got older and actually watched the show, that nightmare then took the form of Herr Lipp, perhaps the creepiest character I’ve ever come across, along with a particularly unforgettable episode involving erotic asphyxiation. Creepy, unpleasant, downright disgusting. These all can be used to describe the show, so why would I be recommending it? Why, it’s all part of the charm of course! It’s funny, compelling, and entirely original. Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Mark Gatiss both wrote and starred in the show, and it’s just entirely insane. If you’re easily offended/disturbed/disgusted, I would give it a miss. But for everyone else, I recommend it highly.

 #2: The Mighty Boosh

 Now, the only reason this is not at the top of the list is that I believe the next show deserves way more recognition than it gets, and The Mighty Boosh is already fairly popular (but we’ll get onto that in a second). The Boosh is hands-down my favourite show ever, and really I cannot recommend it highly enough. Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, two of my favourite comedy actors, wrote and fronted the show as unlikely pair Howard Moon and Vince Noir, a depressed jazz enthusiast and a sparkly egotistical culmination of goth/punk/whatever respectively. The episodes are original and highly entertaining (a man-fish mutation with female parts and an obsession with Baileys is a personal favourite of mine), it has incredibly catchy music (its lack of release still being a sore point for yours truly), and it’s genuinely so funny. The humour is very surreal, but not overly so that it becomes more abstract than funny. It’s hugely enjoyable, and I cannot recommend it enough.

 #1: This Is Jinsy

 And so we come to my final choice for alternative comedies, the cult (should-be) classic This Is Jinsy, and boy is it a good one. Set on the fictional island of Jinsy, the show follows the lives of the head of the island Arbiter Maven and his assistant Sporall, as well as the quirky antics of the other islanders. If ever there was a show epitomising “quirky”, this would be it. Everything about it, from its yearly traditions to the ritual in which names are chosen is so utterly unique. And perhaps one of the most stand-out elements of the show, bearing in mind how little it is actually known, is how many famous people have guest starred, David Tennant, Derek Jacobi and Olivia Coleman being the first that spring to mind. Every episode has an acclaimed actor dressed in varying shade of beige being as eccentric as they possibly can be, and it’s truly wonderful. It makes me sad that very few people know about this show, as it genuinely is incredibly entertaining, from its hilariously stupid music (a parody of Bowie and Jagger’s ‘Dancing in the Street’ in which they sing about clothing made of fruit always springs to mind) to its incredible array of weird and wacky characters. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and would encourage everyone to seek it out (at the time of writing, the episodes are on Youtube).

Well that’s it for this post, if you liked it, disagreed with my top five or would like to suggest any others, please let me know, and look out for my next post coming soon!