Monkey Dust

'Monkey Dust' is a feast of sick animation, with sketches concerning a sad-eyed man who tells wide tales about where he's been, when he's actually been doing something muckily sexual; a reality-TV series called 'People on the Toilet', where the star eventually becomes a big big star and candidate for Pope; and other such things. There's plenty of black humour, violence, and wife-swapping which turns into cannibalism.

Inspired humour and twisted tales make 'Monkey Dust' a must-see for fans of Jam, Spaced, and Big Train, as well as former viewers of the likes of Spitting Image.

After watching the first episode, I couldn't stop looking at my friend, wide-eyed and with my mouth gawping open, and repeating 'oh... my... god...'

The humour in this show is so far removed from what anyone could ever conceive as being comedy, it's disgustingly brilliant.

Obviously, as you become familiar with the format and the few recurring characters, you start to anticipate the horrors and thus it seems funny when they arrive in front of you, still born and deformed.

The point is, TV is nothing these days. It's predictable and doesn't inspire emotion. Monkey Dust bucks that trend with moments so diabolical, you'll wish you were dead.

so Cheers then!

One of the launch programmes when BBC3 launched in 2003, "Monkey Dust" is an animated sketch show, that looks at the everyday goings on in Britain after dark. Unlike other shows such as "2DTV", the material contained in Monkey Dust is dark, twisted, disturbing and sometimes slightly offensive, a "mature" cartoon if you like. But the characters you soon warm to, and you realise this is all just so original! The first time cottager, the chatroom pervert, Colin The Liar, Ivan Dobsky the Meat Safe Murderer (found not guilty after 27 years in prison), David Baddiel, the Yuppies; yet you realise that these are all wittily based on real people in the sick twisted country we call Britain today (apart from David Baddiel, who actually is a real person). The sketches all seamlessly blend into each other, but thankfully don't suffer the problem of being too long, as found in the most recent series. Anyone with a dark, satirical sense of humour will love this, its almost the animated version of Little Britain.

From what i can remember, this is a brilliant, scathing look at Britain in the 21st century. My favourite bits were many but included Ivan the meeksake murderer, Clive the depressive with the huge head, sven euran ericsson, Geoff(?) the cottager, the classically trained actor, the suicidal father, the peadophile on the chatroom......the list is endless. But one thing is true about all of them, the subject matter is usually one which isn't remotely humourous. It is this what gives Monkey Dust the edge over other controversial new comedies(except the utterly dark 'Nighty Night').

I have just watched Steve Coogans 'I am Not An Animal and its animation reminded me of this great series. It must be released on DVD!!

Come on BBC what are you waiting for??

"Monkey Dust" is a 3 season 18 episode series of a compendium of animated shorts. The animation is cheery with the bright primary colors and jaggy moves of good computer animation, combined with revisited dark and perversely humorous themes which get revisited and played upon. Themes such as badly broken relationships, implied moronic violence, and skewed motivations are rapidly brought up and dispensed with. Characters are often killed a la "They've Killed Kenny!" (reference to Southpark. There are sometimes ideas buried in the mini-plots, there are some disturbing images, but within 60 seconds you'll be off to something else. There is political critique, social observation, but if you want to gaze thoughtlessly at the moving bright images, you'll know shortly whether this is the entertainment for you. Broadcast in the early 2000s, some of the presentations are understandably dated, particularly as regards homosexuality. If you gathered from the above that the show is not for children, you are correct. Elementary school aged, preteens, should not be exposed to this.

Another show which is less in-your-face, wilder in themes, but has less perversity and reference to sex, and ranges deep into philosophical issues if you care to follow, but not totally unlike this show would be "Xavier, the Renegade Angel". If you like Monkey Dust, you might want to check it out.