The Mighty Boosh is so surreal when you first watch it. The main characters consist of two zookeepers- Howard Moon and Vince Noir, the zoo owner – Bob Fossil, one shaman and then potentially the scariest is a gorrilla. There are many other minor characters who are played by Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett, which actually could be considered as postmodern, as a form of bricolage, but also because some of the characters played are a direct reference to other people, both fictional and real. For example, the Spirit of the Jazz could be seen as a representation of Slash from Guns and Roses and also Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen. This is not only intertextual, but it also draws attention to the fact that we live in a culture which is obsessed with celebrities (Slash from Guns and Roses).
At the beginning of the first series Vince and Howard begin the show by giving a direct address to the audience about what is to come in the show. This is self-reflexive as it draws attention to the fact that the programme is merely a construction for the public’s entertainment. This also goes against ‘The breakdown of the distinction between culture and society’ (one of Strinati’s five ways to define postmodernism). This point from Strinati says that ‘art once attempted to reflect reality. Postmodern reality now incorporates art in the form of media texts and today we make sense of reality with reference to media texts.’ These references also show what is considered to be ‘high art’, the theatre, with the curtains behind them.
The use of bricolage throughout allows the show to refernce many different genres. These vary from music videos (the tundra rap),
to fantasy (‘welcome to mirror world’) and romantic comedy. Cartoons were also used in later series. This mixing of genres is generally postmodern, however, it is not bricolage as other texts do it, as all of the footage is newly shot. In fact, The Mighty Boosh does tend to blur the boundaries between different genres rather than use bricolage in the traditional sense. The Mighty Boosh can be classed as a comedy, musical, fantasy, science fiction and many more.
This show also parodies and satirises many other shows, as well as genres in general. The episode ‘Mutants’ is a parody of the horror/sci-fi genre, and a more precise parody is my personal favourite episode, ‘The Nightmare of Milky Joe’, which is a parody of the film ‘Castaway’, starring Tom Hanks. Obvious parallels can be drawn between the two texts, with Tom Hanks’ character creating an imaginary friend out of a football, and in The Mighty Boosh, Howard creates Milky Joe from a coconut. However, the Mighty Boosh takes the idea one step further into the surreal, with the coconut people coming alive to capture Howard and Vince.
