black books

There’s a specific breed of British comedy that’s been around for a few years now that’s a far cry from the “old school”. Mostly, it can be recognised by the presence of any or all of the following people in the cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Mark Heap, Dylan Moran, Tamsin Greig, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry, Kevin Eldon, Stephen Merchant. Yes, I know there are others, but the above-mentioned each have a number of different shows to their name with a considerable amount of crossover. Also, they’re the only ones I can remember the names of without resorting to Googling.

Anyway. This specific breed of British comedy is quick-fire, clever and often quite surreal. As such, it doesn’t appeal to everyone. There are some items on this list that Americans in particular find very difficult to fathom. And indeed some Brits find it quite hard to fathom, too. But I can highly recommend at least giving all of them a shot if you’re not already familiar with them. And if you are already familiar with them, the UK-based people (and those who are clever at faking UK IP addresses) will probably be interested to know that all the Channel 4-based ones are available via YouTube.

So, onward then.

Spaced

It’d be remiss of me not to mention Spaced, probably the most accessible of all these shows, even though I’m pretty sure most people are very familiar with it by now. A tale of relatively normal people in circumstances that are frequently anything but normal, it’s a stylish show crammed full of smileworthy cultural references and some truly wonderful character work. It put Simon Pegg and Nick Frost firmly on most people’s radars, and is pretty much the reason Shaun of the Dead exists.

There are so many amazing scenes, but this has to be my favourite.

Black Books is some gloriously surreal character-driven comedy based largely around the wonderful chemistry between Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig. It’s a simple show with some completely off-the-wall humour that is a little too much for some people. But it managed to hold its own for three seasons, which is pretty good going for a low-budget Brit comedy, even if our seasons are considerably, considerably shorter than an American season.

Like Spaced, there are a ton of fantastic scenes to choose from, but it’s difficult to beat this one.

Big Train

Big Train is a sketch-based show on which Pegg, Heap and many others had one of their first “big breaks”. It almost defies description, such is the diversity of the sketches in which they engage. But it carries the cast’s trademark surrealist humour, allowing you to escape into a land of pure nonsense.

Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace

A great idea for a show, this. Darkplace is a fictional TV show presented with occasional talking-head segments from completely fictional writers and actors. The TV show itself is convincingly low-budget and awful—so much so that it’s intentionally unintentionally hilarious—and the whole thing is a fantastic parody of the terrible crap that we see on our TV at times.

The IT Crowd

Another piece of genius small-scale character-driven comedy, this one has successfully made the transition across the pond for many people. Featuring a cast who are perfect comic foils for one another, a setting which most people can relate to and a variety of mundane-yet-hilarious situations, this has to be one of my favourite shows.

Green Wing

I’ve only just discovered this as I’ll confess I didn’t quite “get it” when it was first shown on TV, though this was probably largely due to the fact I only ever caught little bits of it. It’s a heavily stylised show set in a hospital with very little discernible medical content, and one of the strangest casts of characters you’ll ever see. I am now addicted to it

There. Enjoy. Should keep you busy for a little while.

* Unless you’re American.**

** Maybe. Give them a chance at least.

Throughout most people’s lives, there are certain things that give them comfort. Certain things that they know they can always turn to. Certain things that are evergreen and never seem to lose their appeal, regardless of how long they’ve been in your life. It’s nice to have things like this, because it reminds you that however chaotic life in general might seem, there will always be a few constants out there that will keep you happy.

I have a few of these things. One of these, as you may have deduced by now, is Borderlands. One of last year’s sleeper hits, Borderlands was a winning combination of first-person shooter and Diablo-esque loot whoring action RPG. A whole bunch of people bought it on its release, which is good. But how many of those people 1) finished it and 2) are still playing it now?

I enjoy Borderlands because it’s entertainment you can “dip” into. It doesn’t have a particularly demanding story. Some might say the story is something of an afterthought. But that’s not important. In fact, that’s what makes it so “dip-friendly”, if that’s even a term. Because you never feel like you’ve lost the plot (literally) and there’s always something in the mission log to go and do, it can be months between play sessions and you can still have a good time with it regardless. I still haven’t finished the game with a single character, but I do enjoy going back to it time and time again, whether it’s solo, with a split-screen partner or with some companions on Xbox LIVE. In fact, I’ve played it far too little online, as it’s great fun in multiplayer. But for me at least, it’s evergreen entertainment. I can happily go back to it. If you still have a copy, hit me up. I have a level 31 Siren just waiting to show you a good time.

The same is true for Geometry Wars 2. Although the Squadron of Shame’s battle for high score supremacy is long over, with me claiming the top spot in everything except the Waves and Pacifism modes, it’s still a game I come back to time and time again, because it’s low-maintenance entertainment. And it has a kicking soundtrack. Bizarre even released an awesome megamix MP3 of it that you can pick up here.

Besides games, my other choices are TV shows, because they’re short enough to sit down and watch with dinner without feeling like you’re committing several hours of time to, and because they’re comfortably familiar. In particular, I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve watched Black Books and Spaced. Spaced in particular, for me, represents possibly the very best of British television. It’s clever, it’s funny, it’s well-written and above all, it’s evergreen. It’s still just as relevant today as it is now, though watching it as a slightly older person changes my perspective on it somewhat. Black Books, on the other hand, represents the other extreme of what British comedy does well – the bizarre and the uncanny. Black Books makes absolutely no sense and thus, going by past experience, it utterly confuses Americans. Admittedly I base this assumption on the fact that my brother found it really funny and my sister-in-law didn’t get it at all, so it may be a somewhat hasty conclusion. But if you want to switch your brain off and enjoy some purely comic situations, there’s few things that will beat it.

As you can probably imagine, in recent weeks I’ve been turning quite a lot to some of these pieces of evergreen entertainment to bring me some comfort. Of course, some of them have memories attached to them. But many of the memories attached to them are even older than those ones that are painful. They’ve been the constant presence in my life, and that brings me comfort.

What are some of your evergreens?

Tag: black books

#oneaday, Day 47: 6 Brit Comedies You Should Watch*