Brilliant series, but it seemed to divide people. I saw it first time around and I think it passed a lot of people by or they didn't get it. Ironically, I think its format and sketches have been like a prototype for many series that started as a web series such as Limmy's Show and Consolevania.
It has Adam and Joe playing characters and doing silly hidden camera stunts like eating the 10% free portion of a box of cereals, Vinyl Justice where they looked at people's record collections such as Frank Black and said if they were bad or good while dressed as policemen, Adam's Dad reviewing chart pop music, silly observations of things to try; clearly spoofing the format of "Why Don't You?", the most famous sketches spoof films and TV using stuffed toys and Star Wars action figures such as: Toy-tanic, Furends (Friends), Stuff This Life (BBC 2 drama series This Life) etc.
IMHO it wouldn't get commissioned today due to Channel 4 focusing on what is middle-class safe reality TV or pseudo-game shows such as The Circle, Four in a Bed or really patronising shows featuring an excuse to show excessive full frontal nudity. Back in the late 90s they out-shined BBC in terms of comedy content (Brass Eye, Father Ted, buying big American comedies like Frasier and treating them with respect by showing them at a time when people are awake - Seinfeld at midnight come on BBC 2!). Adam & Joe probably would have been a successful Youtube channel instead if it was invented a decade later.
The Adam Buxton podcast is well worth checking out for more of the same with high school chums Joe Cornish and Louis Theroux as recurring interviewees, as is their now defunct BBC 6 Music and comedy show.
