Writers: Julian Barratt & Noel Fielding
Director: Paul King
Cast: Julian Barratt (Howard Moon), Noel Fielding (Vince Noir/The Moon/Howlin' Jimmy Jefferson/The Brain Cell), Michael Fielding (Naboo), Dave Brown (Bollo) & Rich Fulcher (Lester Corncrake)
Director: Paul King
Cast: Julian Barratt (Howard Moon), Noel Fielding (Vince Noir/The Moon/Howlin' Jimmy Jefferson/The Brain Cell), Michael Fielding (Naboo), Dave Brown (Bollo) & Rich Fulcher (Lester Corncrake)
Vince rebelliously bites a rare jazz record owned by Howard, to impress his new punk mates, therefore allowing a "Jazz Beast" to take over his body…The main thing I love about The Mighty Boosh is their unfettered imagination, which means every episode has the potential to transport you to anywhere and anywhen you can envisage. It doesn't even matter about budget constraints, because any sub-par effects only add to the show's quirky charm.
Journey To The Centre Of The Punk basically recycles the classic Fantastic Voyage premise about injecting microscopic people into a sick person's body to cure them from within...
After Vince (Noel Fielding) eats a chunk of a rare jazz record, owned by Howard (Julian Barratt), in a bid to impress his new punk mates, little does he know that the vinyl was impregnated with the blood of legendary jazz musician Howlin' Jimmy Jefferson (Fielding again). It's not long before Vince is singing scat-style during a punk gig at "The Velvet Onion" club, his body being controlled by the "Jazz Beast" inside his bloodstream.
Fortunately, Naboo has a plan to shrink Howard and his blind jazz companion Lester Corncrake (Rich Fulcher) into a tiny submarine, then inject them into Vince's body so they can kill the Jazz Beast with some Anti-Jazz solution...
There follows a fun microscopic adventure inside Vince's body -- nicely realized on a TV budget; red blood cells with the face of Noel Fielding, and an ink-blot style Jazz Beast floating around, assimilating cells and attacking Howard's sub...
While the premise has been a staple of science fiction and parody for decades (Futurama did it a few years back, too), Journey To The Centre Of The Punk is an enjoyable mix of broad humour (throwing spanners into the face of a blind man), silliness ("scat" language), and a Charlie Kaufman-style meta-world (male/female Vince clones populate his body's cells and "Brain Room").
After a confident build-up to the biological mission (introducing us to neat-freak Howard's "Stationery Village") – and the fun trip around Vince's body that mixes Innerspace with The Life Aquatic -- the episode slightly runs out of steam in the last 5 minutes.
The Jazz Beast's Star Wars-inspired revelation to Howard was cute for its protracted silliness, but it's too old-hat to be funny over 20 years later. The mad scramble for resolution was also a bit unfortunate after a leisurely-paced first-half, although the Jazz Beast's slaying of the punks with his dreadlocks, and his comeuppance via a dirty safety pink was neat.
As with most of The Mighty Boosh's output -- it's imaginative, good, clean, zany fun, performed by likable actors and provides a welcome diversion of madness. Nobody else is doing psychedelic oddball comedy, and they've carved out a niche in the market.
I tend to prefer Boosh storylines with more originality (not simple parody), but to see a live-action Fantastic Voyage parody is undeniably entertaining whoever is doing it.
22 November 2007
BBC Three, 10.30 pm
