Another Winner

Show: Snuff Box

My Rating: 5 stars

I’ve been watching a lot of comedy shows lately.  And, this is one of the best I’ve come across in a really long time.  I really love Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher’s work from other shows—The IT Crowd, The Might Boosh—they’re all really good.  Hey, my favorite, Richard Ayoade even makes a couple of brief cameos!  You can’t beat credentials like that.  But, this show is a lot darker the others.  It’s packed to the gills with the blackest gallows humor and raunchiest sex jokes you’ll ever see on TV.  It’s no wonder this is a British production, even though it is a joint, British/American effort.  We just can’t get away with that sort of thing here in the United States with how sensitive everyone seems to be these days.

This show really explores the dark, absurd corners of human existence.  Berry and Fulcher fully embrace all kinds of questionable roles, like super-casual executioners, racist, womanizing, British aristocrats, small animal killers—and they get into all kinds of disfiguring accidents.  The filth doesn’t let up.  And, it’s great!  The funniest part is that these two comedians play all the raunchy material so casually that you almost don’t even notice.  I think everybody needs some time to wallow in the morbid, absurd side of life once in a while.  Humor doesn’t have to be all buttercups and strawberry pop-tarts all the time.  People are kinda jerks sometimes.  And remarkably, the worst offenders are always the first to claim that they’re good people.  The fact that most people don’t see the irony in that is super funny.  Berry and Fulcher’s comedy isn’t just about simple body-humor or lowest-common-denominator fare.  You actually have to be a thinking person to really get this sort of twisted material.  And, I love that it’s not accessible to everyone.  I’m surprised that anyone ever enjoys the bland stuff that’s designed not to offend the general public’s sensibilities.  When a comedian stops trying to make everyone like him, that’s when he can really just run with the most awesome, obscure ideas.

Needless to say, this show isn’t for everyone. I’d say that if you enjoyed Matt Berry’s particular performance in The IT Crowd, this show may be up your alley.  He really captured the spirit of the unrepentant, frivolous pervert with that role.  And, that’s pretty much what you’ll get with this series.  I highly recommend it if you think you have a sense of humor that is similar to mine—you know, deadpan and a little twisted.  If not, stick with something a little tamer.