Cunk on Earth brings British humor and parody to the documentary. Philomena Cunk, played by a straight-faced Diane Morgan, is a cornucopia of bad information, mispronunciations, and malapropism. She asks ridiculous questions of real experts and they do their best to answer as if the questions made sense.
Cunk on Earth and the character Philomena Cunk are familiar to the British, but Netflix bringing this 5 part comedy to the U.S. is our first exposure to the daffy documentary interviewer.
Philomena visits cave paintings, or Roman ruins, or the Great Wall of China, or Pompeii. Then she sits down with a real expert on the topic and presents them with hilariously bad questions. They do their best to answer as if it were a serious question, and even manage to correct some of Philomena’s bad information. Kudos to the academics and experts she interviewed, because only one of them cracked up at her questions.
Every episode is interrupted by a bit of “Pump Up the Jam” with hilarious misinformation about the song given as facts underneath the video.
Everything about the series is cracked and bananas. The trailer barely gives you a hint as to the demented humor in this film. I’d love to sic Philomena Cunk on the GOP, but they’d probably agree with every misshapen bit of information that comes out of her mouth.
If you watch this series, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
Yes, this is a terrific series, not to be binged but to be enjoyed periodically. I marvel at Diane Morgan’s ability to stay in character while inventively misconstruing the real academics’ remarks. The experts being interviewed know the comic premise ahead of time (they aren’t being pranked, like some innocents in Borat movies), and they probably have a lot of experience replying patiently and respectfully to the occasional howler question from undergraduates. Watching their responses and disparate styles is half of the fun.
While the Philomena Cunk episodes seem intended primarily to satirize the breathless BBC documentary style, they manage as well to satirize, more importantly, any contemporary awash in pop culture trivia but utterly ignorant about fundamentals of history, science, the arts, and logic.
Thanks for commenting on this very British comedy.
Ditto the above. Dont have enough time to do a really good review but will simply say that this is a hilarious mockumentary and a slice of todays thinking that’s also upsetting. I prefer to not focus on that but on the absolutely hysterical “MS Cunk”. Wow, I’ve not laughed so hard and often in a long time. I’ve rewatched episodes and find them even funnier. I expect that I will rewatch often and for a long time to come. THIS IS A CLASSIC!!!
Indeed, Ms. Cunk is a classic.
Great series. Ms. Morgan is a gifted comic actress. IT Crowd was a classic. Shame that the reviewer felt the need to inject her politics into the review. Shows a small brain and a limited perspective.