[louthy]

Blue Jam is amazing, but it was the TV version of it: Jam, that really blew me away. Dark as anything, surreal, challenging, spectacular use of language, amazing use of music, and video editing techniques … incredible.

I remember when it was originally aired, it would be on around 10pm. Then repeated around 4am, but with the visuals just bouncing around inside a small square (like a ‘Pong’ ball). Each episode they would mess with the visuals in a different way. Definitely will never see anything like that on Tv again.

Probably my favourite sketch (which is also on Blue Jam) [1], but there are so many [2][3][4][5]. Even the intros [6] were disturbing, and set you up for what was coming in the next 30 minutes.

[1] https://youtu.be/5SqHtWudI24 - 'Suicide with an escape clause'

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGex0kLgNok - 'Thick People as a Service'

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKxM4ToLLR8 - 'Symptomless Coma'

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhKla4MEstY - 'Living Outside'

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krsj2bcnRlM - 'Lizards'

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-i0XIux9vo - Intro compilation

[lordfrito]

Wow some seriously strange/funny/interesting stuff... Laughed my ass off at "Thick People as a Service"

American here. Reminds me heavily of Monty Python. I didn't realize there were other shows in such a similar vein. Will def checkout Jam / Blue Jam. Can you recommend any other shows I might not be aware of?

[cal85]

Look Around You [0] is little known even in the UK, but I think a lot of HN readers might love it. It's a surreal but perfectly observed parody of the 80s/90s educational videos we used to watch in school science classes.

[0] Episode 1: Calcium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBaVwwuErmU

[louthy]

The series of 'Look Around You' that is a pastiche of 'Tomorrows World' is amazing. The 'Music 2000' episode is my favourite [1].

This is an example of the original 80s TV show it was doing the pastiche of [2]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2myFLUDB74

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0dn0lcvWkY

[quietbritishjim]

It's more based on Open University programs made for showing in schools. But Tomorrow's World is a similar ilk.

[louthy]

That's the first series, the second series [1] is a parody of TW.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Around_You#Series_two

[quietbritishjim]

Oh wow, I didn't know there was a second series!

[amiga386]

Thanks, ants.

Thants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaI6kBVyu00

[notahacker]

I'm feeling nostalgic just over the clock at the beginning!

[dataveg]

Synthesizer Patel!

[frereubu]

One that I absolutely loved, but which rarely comes up, is Mr Don & Mr George by two Scottish comedians Moray Hunter and Jack Docherty. I think there was only one series, but it has a beautifully gentle, slightly surreal, slightly slapstick humour.

Edit: And for a much more brutal sense of humour, I don't think any political comedy has bettered The Thick Of It.

[olddustytrail]

I recommended Still Game to an American colleague and he found it hilarious even though I thought it would be a bit crude at times for an older gentleman. I guess the fact they're pensioners themselves softens the humour a bit.

[frereubu]

Maybe you should him on try Rab C Nesbitt next :)

[amiga386]

> Mr Don & Mr George

It was very funny, but also a spin-off to Absolutely!, which itself was a great series - 4 series! - with lots of funny characters:

* Calum Gilhooley, the most boring man in the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebG3ZE4Ugqs

* McGlashan, the Scottish nationalist and anglophobe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND-SVKrvCxs

* Denzil and Gwenned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw7tQOyfwyk

* Stoneybridge Town Council: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njiH4i4Kkf0

* The Little Girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGNc9VOipw0

They were Edinburgh's answer to Glasgow's Naked Video (Gregor Fisher, Elaine C. Smith, Andy Gray, Helen Lederer, etc.) although the welsh John Sparkes was in both, and had is own spin-off series, Barry Welsh is Coming

[Joeboy]

It's a fair bit less dark, but you could give Big Train a go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rEBtpWQ7x8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8ofz1OnlNI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtllWIiOTuA

Edit: The League of Gentlemen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wB0OkcCps8

[louthy]

Love Big Train, some seriously good sketches. Here's some more of my favourites (outside of the ones you've already mentioned).

Unfortunately my favourite sketch, 'Cake Factory', isn't on Youtube any more. That was where I first realised how brilliant Simon Pegg was as a comedy actor.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcAqR-Hs9II - Join the Army

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxUm-2x-2dM - Do You Speak English?

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyj5cv5FPWA - Eagle Line Super Train

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxiOfepOxe8 - Evil Hypnotist

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIIAQME1Uhg - Jockeys in the Wild

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GmmAUbfhMU - Champion sprinter

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKRBYGhqI8Y - On Call Surgeon

[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMh9CDNQhBg - Office Politics: Jesus vs Devil

[Joeboy]

Cake Factory was indeed a great sketch!

[rwmj]

You missed the classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKH9ECC_Qa4 (apparently not intended as an analogy for smoking, although it does work for that).

[mdp2021]

Big Train: directed by Graham Linehan - Father Ted, Black Books, The IT Crowd...

(And the guard of the hospital in Darth Marenghi's Darkplace.)

[mdp2021]

> Can you recommend any other shows I might not be aware of?

Really, too many.

Other genius-level of strangeness? The Mighty Boosh, by Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding (radio, TV, theater). - Radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OZN1zyS7gY&list=PLflSnz9gSh... ; also live shows are on YT. The core are the TV series though.

Logical genius to the extreme, madness revealing? People Like Us, by John Morton (arguably the best thing ever made for the radio). - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjZ4mBz5Qcc&list=PLJPeS4Ugqq...

[mattkevan]

I’d recommend anything by Julia Davis, who was in the ‘thick people’ sketch. Her comedies are pitch black and very good, including Nighty Night and Hunderby.

For a sketch show I’d recommend Big Train - it went slightly under the radar, but has an absolutely incredible lineup of talent.

[Joeboy]

I love her Dear Joan and Jericha podcast, where she and Vicki Pepperdine play wildly inappropriate agony aunts.

[taylorius]

Slightly different, but Charlie Brooker (of Black Mirror fame) had a series called Screenwipe, which lampooned the tropes of television in the mid 2000s. It was pretty funny, and quite dark in places.

[tudorw]

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/ might be a good place to start rummaging...

[gizajob]

You forgot “baby plumber” - I sent this to Americans a few times and they couldn’t even compute it as comedy

[mattbee]

Here's a great parody of Jam by Adam and Joe. I enjoyed Jam but when it misfired this was exactly how ridiculous it came across - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0t0Ocau-CUg

[lampington]

That was brilliant! Thank you for sharing it.

[louthy]

I didn't forget, I thought that might be a step too far for HN ;)

[mattkevan]

My housemates and I used to do Jam nights where we’d binge the whole series in one sitting, usually the Jaaaam version that was even more woozy and disorienting.

Ended up in some very strange headspaces at about 2am.