Comedy Archeology - Is It Real?

Come the nineties and we enter a period where comedy so closely resembles the thing it is spoofing in look and style that it takes a moment to process that what you’re seeing isn’t actually what it looks like.

The Day Today / BrassEye
I have to admit, when I first saw the trailers for The Day Today, I wasn’t fully paying attention and thought that it was about a news programme launching on BBC2. The attention to style and detail that Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steve Coogan and the cast all exhibited, both in terms of performance and look/feel are what make this a bona fide classic. References to famous people of the time aside, it’s differs from a lot of other satirical programmes in that the target isn’t those people but the absurdity of news reporting itself. Much of the material itself is of an abstract and surreal nature (as with a lot of my favourites, concerned with the sounds and uses of language and their inherent silliness) and still stands strong over 25 years later (as does the original radio version, On The Hour). 

Chris Morris was to combine this with a fondness for pranks (as developed on his radio shows) when he launched BrassEye on an unsuspecting nation. It’s definitely more savage and targeted in its attacks and, by duping unsuspecting celebrities to take part, creates an even more heightened sense of realism. However, despite its more topical satirical nature, it contains a strong sense of silliness and love of language.

Alan Partridge
Originally a bit part character in On The Hour / The Day Today, Partridge graduated to his own chat show, first on radio and then on BBC2, and perfectly captured that particularly English brand of small-minded low tier celebrity (who would become targets of Chris Morris in BrassEye). It’s the minutely observed character details and fully fleshed out background (the wife who ultimately leaves him, the ABBA-themed children, the name dropping of equally D-list celebrity friends) that have made him an enduring presence in many forms - sitcom, film, autobiography and back round to chat show host again).

Over the years, the mockumentary has become something of a default setting. Across the pond, having made it a definitive comedy style with Spinal Tap, the Americans were to come up with some sterling TV examples of the genre...