Planète Cunk

I am not a fan of comedies, because, ironically, I generally do not find them funny, so I almost bypassed this Netflix series, until I realised it was British, and seriously, who are funnier than the Brits?

I'm so glad I clicked on Cunk. The deadpanned delivery, and the almost naive earnestness with which the questions are delivered to the experts is absolutely genius and hilarious. The experts are probably the stars of this series, vacillating between near hysteria to incredulity.

Only complaint I have about this series is that there are only five episodes, although I don't know if my heart could handle any more than that.

A look at human history through the eyes and by guided tour of the main character, Philomena Cunk. This irreverent and ambitious comedic docu-series is actually very funny. Diane Morgan, who plays the lead character with precision and acuity, is channelling Sasha Baron Cohen's, Ali G, as she interviews real historical scholars and puts on her best game face. Many of these scenes are actually painful and cringeworthy, in the Ali G style, and very funny. I do like the fact that Cunk does actually use real history and scenic, historic places to tell the story. I love how the scholars, who take themselves very seriously, are trying to figure out what is going on and still get their points across in an intelligible fashion. I have to imagine there was a ton of footage that is unusable due to people marching off and refusing permission to use the clips. Worth watching. Very digestible in the 30 minute segments.

"Insanity has limits but stupidity has none", Elbert Hubbard

My favourite Open Univeristy educational presenter brings us more wisdom from the ages. More of the great programming coming from the UK's BBC, which means good writing, production, and expertly delivered by one of my favourite performers, Diane Morgan. She such a distinguished dead pan delivery that i believe is now cornerstone of her acting skillset. And some of the contributors and experts leave me in stitches, especially the ones who don't really know or heard of Cunk, but the longer Cunk is on the prowl, the more awareness of the parody become clear. Most of the experts know what is going on by now. And fair play to the writers and shows creator Charlie Brooker for still surprising the experts with their intriguing questions.

If you have only come across this show, and get a giggle from this type of humour, I highly recommend going and watching the other TV shows "Cunk On ...".

I can watch the same episode like 20 times and still laugh to death. The script and dialogues are so brilliant. Each statement about human evolution contains a jewel in word playing- It is a pure Groucho Marx adaptation of Planet Earth. And Diane is just AMAZING. I don't even know how she does it to hold her face straight during some of the interviews... I had seen her in After Life and others and you notice right away how funny she can get. She deserves a price for this one and Cunk on Britain. It doesn't matter if they talk about dogs, discovering fire or cave paintings, there is always a brilliant sentence for each... A must see if you want to have some great laughs. So brilliant and funny.

How I'd missed good satire. It's becoming increasingly harder to write nowadays when the world is more surreal, but this is satirical commentary at it's finest.

Fan-favourite character, Philomena Cunk, is back to navigate the documentary series tropes expertly, with Dianne Morgan adding her usual comedic blend of dry satire, irony and faux stupidity - so well, in fact, that people such as 'b4blue' appear to have completely mistaken exactly what it is that the show pokes fun at alongside being surreally funny (spoiler, it's not solely 'experts that think they're always right').

Brilliant, top-form writing from Hazeley that's on par with his plethora of previous work. The usual contributors combined with a laugh-out-loud performance from Morgan make for a wonderful satire.