Something completely different for a change.
So, after having not felt the desire for years I re-watched all of the Mighty Boosh and listened to the radio show again. This is a show that featured heavily in my teenage years and that I’ve seen through countless times, and like many fans the mere mention of “the Crunch”, something being “an outrage”, Baileys or pretty much anything that featured in a crimp is more than plenty to make me recite scenes from the show entirely for my own amusement, and no doubt the consternation of those around me.
However, one thing that has bothered me for a while is that S1 doesn’t seem to have been aired in order. With a show so off the wall and with such a loose sense of canon at the best of times, this doesn’t actually matter, within a little you can watch the episodes of each season in any order and it would work fine, but there are some parts of season one that would really benefit from a reshuffle in my opinion.
Looking at it, the season almost has two separate arcs, one where everyone has to deal with the capricious plots of Bob fossil acting as the antagonist and another after Dixon Bainbridge arrives back from adventuring and tries to sell the Zoo. The episodes under fossil could all conceivably happen after Bainbridge’s return, but he is conspicuously absent, even in mention, from these 4 episodes. As when they do share an episode Fossil is totally subservient and love struck in everything he does, I find it hard to imagine him showing the initiative he does in these episodes with Bainbridge at all on the scene, so I think they all work better before his arrival.
So, this overlong preamble over, I present to you your right bookend Peter’s approved fan viewing order for the Mighty Boosh season one. I’ve endeavoured to explain myself and what holes I feel it closes as I go.
1 - Killeroo
Highly uncontroversial choice to start with, I know, beginning with the first episode that aired normally. Regardless, I can think of few, if any reasons to move it from this spot. The pre show preamble works well for a first episode, it introduces Howard’s infatuation with Ms Gideon which is a running theme in the series and I can’t think of other way I’d want fossil introduced than Dancing to 10cc’s Dreadlock Holiday. The fact there is no Bainbridge means it should be put in the first 4 episodes at the very least and Joey Moose being around means it has to come before Mutants. Naboo, being the enigma, gets as good an introduction here as anywhere, that is to say no real introduction at all. But ultimately, the main plot of the episode could fit anywhere in the fossil arc, and plenty of the episode is set up in such as way as make it a great introduction to the series.
2 - Bollo
Somewhat tricky choosing where this should go, other than in the first 4 to be part of the Fossil arc, it could easily trade places with my pick for number 3. My main reason for picking this one first is that it offers a better introduction to Bollo, who turns up in passing in some other episodes I put after this one. That said, an obvious issue here is that at the end of the episode Bollo clearly dies in the background. I think we have to just write this off as a joke, as, even if we put this episode as the last in season 1 to feature Bollo, we’d still have him turning up as a main character in the rest of the show. It also provides us with a few scenes alluding to Howard’s love of Jazz, which acts as a good lead in for my next pick...
3 - Electro
It feels off putting having this episode so early in the series, and really, it could go anywhere. There’s no Bainbridge, but then again there’s almost no Bob Fossil to speak of either (he speaks on the intercom to call Howard and can be seen dancing while Craftwerk Orange play), with the episode revolving around conflict between Howard and Vince, with some of the Spirit of Jazz mixed in. That said, I don’t think Bainbridge would have allowed a band to play inside the Zoo, at least not without him being involved and getting attention or money from it somehow, and putting Electro here adds some separation from Vince’s other flirtation with leaving the Zoo in Charlie.
4 - Hitcher
Again, feels odd putting what is the season’s usual finale here, but aside from introducing one of their most iconic characters in the Hitcher, there’s not really any reason this has to be so. It could go anywhere in the series with no real issue, but due to the fact Fossil appears so much and is the indirect cause for sending Ivan to the Animal Prison, I think it belongs in the Fossil arc. In fact, I think this makes a good close to the arc as it’s the only time Fossil is broadly ‘good’, trying to help save Vince and Howard due to his infatuation with Naboo for saving his life. And we also get a relatively good excuse for the reset in his newfound good(ish) nature when his true Love returns next episode - the dastardly Dixon Bainbridge.
5 - Tundra
An easy pick here once I decided that Fossil and Bainbridge should have two separate arcs in the show, as this episode treats it like we’re meeting Bainbridge for the first time. One thing, in no other episode does Bainbridge seem to be missing a hand, or wearing a glove anyway. Maybe he was just lying about losing it, or even more likely they all just forgot about it while filming the rest of the series.
6 - Charlie
This is another case where it could be easily switched with the next one in the list, but I feel that Bainbridge’s attitude means this should come before Jungle, as he just seems to be looking to accrue money and fame from the Zoo, rather than trying to sell it outright, with the added bonus of the Hubba Bubba nightmare being a possible reason why decided he wanted to be rid of the Zoo and his increasingly twisted behaviour from this point onwards. The main Sticking point here is that this episode does offer a solid end to Howard’s infatuation with Ms Gideon, but I feel my pick for the finale also works well as end to this plot, as well as offering a good excuse for overlooking what happens between them in Charlie.
7 - Jungle
As I said for Charlie, I picked the penultimate position for this one as it marks a change in Dixon Bainbridge’s attitude to the Zoo, this time trying to sell it. This also goes towards an atmosphere of increased tensions at the Zoo, with Howard starting to get vocally worried about the running of the Zoo before the sale was even announced, showing the ratcheting up of the jealousy in Tundra to outright mistrust towards Bainbridge. These are the only real reasons I put it ahead of Charlie. One issue is that Naboo does disappear off to become a Mighty Eagle (or work in Dixons) after he drops the amulet for Vince to find, and he still turns up in my final episode, but being the enigma he is it’s hardly surprising Naboo found out the Zoo sale fell through, so came back to his kiosk.
8 - Mutants
While not without a few problems, of all the season one episodes I feel this one makes the most sense as a finale. First of all, all the animals being spliced into mutants explains why the Zoo had to shut down, hence Howard and Vince working on their music career in Season 2. It also offers some nice resolutions to some of the sub plots, if we can call them that. Bainbridge finally gets a real comeuppance as the mutants turn on and presumably kill him. Likewise with with Ms Gideon, she finally makes Howard's day by at least pretending to remember him and thanking him for his help, with Howard’s generic face helping to explain why she doesn’t remember him hitting her in the fact in Charlie. Plus it works well with the conflict at the Zoo reaching its fever pitch, with Howard and Bainbridge (sort of) squaring up to fight, Bainbridge literally planning to chop Howard into a mutant to get rid of him and the staff of the Zoo going into disarray over the missing animals. One issue is the matter of Joey Moose, who only turns up in Killeroo and this episode, and none of the other scenes that has other Zoo staff in the intervening episodes feature his actor, but those are so few and far between I find that far easier to rationalise than what happens to the animals and Bainbridge this episode. I also think the Kobra Drum and Bass would make for an odd way to end the season. But Bryan Ferry talking to Naboo and Fossil in Hitcher is hardly any better, so I don’t know if that should be a concern.
So there you have it, the Peter approved fan viewing order for S1 of the Mighty Boosh with all my reasoning. While I feel like this makes the most consistent narrative and leaves the least holes, really the only truly important changes are to have Tundra comes before Mutants, and have Charlie and Jungle come between them at some point, really the rest of the episodes could be put anywhere without it causing any real inconsistencies.
There you go. If you didn’t think the podcast was proof enough of my insanity, I’m sure this blog post has decided it for you.
Frankly I should have been editing the next episode rather than writing this, so hopefully we’ll have the next episode out soon.
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