For most people, Charlie Brooker is best known for his dystopian series ‘Black Mirror’, an anthology that shows several different technological dystopias. The show is dark. From a social credit like app to a Prime Minister forced to have sex with a pig, and have it shown to the internet (which spookily occurred prior to David Cameron\u2019s premiership). Brooker has done very well out of the series, with Netflix paying him $40 million for its third season, and it is fair to say the man has done pretty well from starting out as a video game reviewer.<\/p>\n
But in-between his time with Netflix and his journalism days, Brooker would star in an annual review of the year, titled \u2018Charlie Brooker\u2019s 20\u2014Wipe\u2019 alongside a weekly iteration of the same series, during which time he created the character of Philomena Cunk, who alongside the character of Barry Sh**peas (I think the name is German) would give insight and general views of the public on certain matters. It was with the character of Cunk\u00a0 that he would branch off into spin off series, with the most recent one being \u2018Cunk on Earth\u2019. Like I said, Charlie Brooker is best known for his darker material, and his comedic writings won\u2019t be for everyone, but I would highly recommend Cunk on Earth to anyone, especially if you find the following from the end of episode one funny: \u2018next time\u2026 we\u2019ll be looking at two of the most important books in history, the Bible and the Quar\u2019an, and finally answering the question \u2013 which is best?\u2019<\/p>\n
Cunk on Earth is a 5-part mini-series staring the ever-talented Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk \u2013 alongside Al Campbell as the aforementioned Barry Sh**peas. The two would often talk about current events, with the main joke being one or two major flaws in their knowledge, one example being from an episode of Weekly Wipe, where on the topic of a TV show discussing Irish Travellers, Barry stated \u2018people said it was racist, but it wasn\u2019t, cause none of them were black.\u2019 The character of Cunk\u2019s role increased in the yearly ‘Wipes’ as she was given an extended segment away from the \u2018recent historian,\u2019 entitled \u2018a moment of wonder.\u2019 This allowed the character of Cunk to discuss more serious ideas like a \u2018Pocalypse,\u2019 and interview intellectuals like Professor Brian Cox \u2013 in which she responded to his statement of the sun incinerating the earth by asking \u2018do you think we might be able to do something about it? Can\u2019t we put it out with a big hose or something?\u2019<\/p>\n
The character of Cunk acts like a serious presenter with a childlike view on the world, often getting in funny quips about different subjects, a few examples include: Mother Shipton, \u2018a mystic in Yorkshire who lived in a cave, which at the time was better than living in Yorkshire, just like it also is now;\u2019 the subject of society and early cities, in which she stated \u2018it\u2019s hard to believe I\u2019m walking through the ruins of the first ever city, because I\u2019m not. That\u2019s in Iraq, which is miles away, and f***ing dangerous.\u2019 It\u2019s hard to really describe the brilliance of these lines alone as text, as so much of the humour comes from Morgan\u2019s monotone delivery of the lines (which is recommend googling to see for yourself). Cunk on Earth acts also as a sequel to \u2018Cunk on Britain,\u2019 a show with a similar format, but only confined to British history, rather than general world history as does Cunk on Earth. The series can be described as somewhat formulaic, and you can often guess a few of the jokes: Cunk discussing a wild theory\u00a0 with her mate Paul in opposition to that of an intellectual; Cunk meeting intellectuals and talking utter nonsense about a subject (in which the scenes can vary depending on the intellectual they get); a brief clip of Technotronic\u2019s 1989 song \u2018Pump Up the Jam\u2019 (which in later episodes has text appear, asking such culturally intriguing questions as \u2018can you get me a Twix?\u2019).<\/p>\n
A lot of the humour can only last a first time view, making rewatching a bit poor, but nontheless still hilarious. There is also some slight visual humour that may go unnoticed, such as one seen where an Indiana Jones \u2018travel by map\u2019 scene occurs, and lists place names incorrectly, like the continent of Africa as \u2018Wales,\u2019 and also areas around Mongolia (which in itself is labelled \u2018Ghengis\u2019) are labelled \u2018Ghengisn\u2019t.\u2019 The following paragraph will go over mild spoilers of the show, and if I have convinced you of seeing it I highly recommend you stop reading this article, get off the toilet (where you probably currently are) and start watching it on iPlayer. If I haven\u2019t, then feel free to continue reading.<\/p>\n
The first episode entitled \u2018In the Beginnings\u2019 goes over early civilization, discussing cave paintings and early civilizations \u2013 in which Cunk states \u2018if you use a modern computer to simulate what it used to look like, the results are nothing short of breath-taking,\u2019 a line that narrates over footage of a Minecraft base (and I mean that literally) \u2013 alongside the \u2018tragic invention of maths.\u2019 The episode ends with the discussion of Rome, and Cunk playing a game of \u2018invented or perfected,\u2019 in which she listed out things that the Romans either invented or perfected, which included underfloor heating, the calendar, roads, concrete, the alphabet and \u2018anal bleaching.\u2019 Episode 2, Faith\/Off, discussed faith, discussing the likes Jesus \u2013 \u2018born Jewish but converted to carpentry, as he followed his dad into the primitive chair and table industry\u2019 \u2013 before moving onto to the dark ages and religion and South American religions (with an advert for the fictional holiday resort of Talum). Before discussing the spread of Islam, with a 15 second black out over Cunk\u2019s opinions on Islam with \u2018This content is not available in your territory\u2019 presented over it, accompanied by royalty free elevator music. The episode then goes onto to discuss the spread of Christianity, alongside Cunk\u2019s view of medieval times \u2013 \u2018suddenly the gaiety is interrupted when\u2026 an arrow flies into the room, it thuds into this wall, right in the middle of the Bayeux Tapestry\u2026 the arrow has a message on it\u2026 it\u2019s from Robin Hood, threatening the entire Round Table for what they did for Gandalf\u2026 it\u2019s chaos, a dancing bear howls in anguish, someone starts loading pigs into a catapult, a space invader floats across the room sh**ing a harpsicord made of glass horses onto the floor.\u2019 The next instalment, The Renaissance Will Not Be Televised starts off in \u2018the year\u2026 1440, not now but then.\u2019 It covered the printing press, arts work like that of the Mona Lisa, and Galileo\u2019s trial. It ends with the discovery of America, the formation of the United States of America, and the French Revolution, also discussing the works of Beethoven, who has been reincarnated as an Amazon Alexa rip off called the \u2018B8-Hoven Smart Home Plus\u2019 by Silicon Valley Boffins. Episode 4, The Rise of the Machines, discusses the industrial revolution, which starts off with Cunk looking at old guns, and discussing the pain that would (or not) come with getting shot in the eye, with Cunk concluding \u2018guns played a huge role in shaping America, and also in killing people.\u2019 Cunk also asks how Lincoln being shot in the head impacted his ability to lead, before moving on to electricity and transportation, discussing her confusion with planes, and humanity\u2019s obsession with the sky as \u2018there\u2019s nothing up their\u2026 not even seats,\u2019 believing that planes only fly by belief of the public. A brief homage to Top Gear occurs with a replica Model T Ford, a car at such a slow speed, the segment was only narrowly more exhilarating than modern Top Gear. Cunk also talks about both world wars, getting emotional at the end of the penultimate episode after finding out nukes were still around, and that they were not, as she previously assumed, blanks. The final episode, Wars of the Worlds, goes over the cold war and its several proxy wars asking, \u2018is that a bit like picking your character to fight with in Street Fighter 2\u2019 and \u2018If this was Street Fighter 2\u2026 would the Russians pick Zangeif because he\u2019s from the Soviet Union?\u2019 (presumably Brooker getting use out of his old video game journalism day). Cunk also expresses her disgust after finding out Laika the dog died during the space race, and that there is, as she stated, \u2018a dead dog in space.\u2019 Cunk also talks about popular cultural of the time, including Elvis Presley who had \u2018overcome childhood poverty and a hip impediment.\u2019 The episode also catches up with the release of \u2018Pump Up the Jam\u2019 and goes over the advancements of computers, mobile phones and the status of Bill Gates\u2019 Marriage. The episode ends with Cunk in a green screen to joke about the Covid Travel Restrictions during filming (It appears that the crew only went to Rome, and for the rest of the shoot stayed within the UK).<\/p>\n
‘Cunk on Earth’ is not a ground breaking series in many regards, and many of the jokes it does are repeated from prior Cunk series, but Brooker, Morgan and the whole team have produced a short series with less than a 3-hour watch time that is extremely funny, whilst also getting a few quips about different subjects in, like that of religion. Like I said, not everyone will find the series extremely funny, and the only times that I laughed out loud on rewatches was during either slightly non-PC jokes, or ones with mild swear usage. But if you do like mildly topical humour, and any or Brooker\u2019s other works, I can highly recommend that you give it a watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hot on the heels of its global Netflix release, Monty Asker profiles the popular series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":81,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computing.ashville.co.uk\/iaintest1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}