THE MIGHTY BOOSH (2004 - 2007)

 

Directed by: Paul King

Created by: Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding

Starring: Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Michael Fielding, Peter Elliott, Dave Brown, Rich Fulcher, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry, Kirk Gaitskell-Kendrick, Dee Plume, Sue Denim, Gary Numan, The Horrors (Faris Badwan, Tom Cowan, Joseph Spurgeon, Joshua Hayward, Rhys Webb), Razorlight (Bjorn Agren, Johnny Borrell, Carl Dalemo), Roger Daltrey, Diva Zappa, Olly Ralfe, Dean Mitchell, Peter Kyriacou, Victoria Wicks, James Passey, Taylor Wright, Clemmie Hooton, Emma Tomero, David Westlake, Judith Milne, Martin Trenaman, Simon Farnaby, Dan Clark, Gurbachan Singh, Barunka O'Shaughnessy, Lucy Montgomery, Alice Lowe, Jeanne Mockford, Siobhan Coughlan, Kelly Dent, Margaret John, Dianne Fielding, Jeanie Gold, Nicholas Burns, Tom Meeten, Ramon Tikaram, James Bachman, John Willie Hopkins, The Ralfe Band, Victor Lewis-Smith, Alan Day, Will Borrell, Anthony Rossomando, Douglas Charles-Riddler, Claire Millan, Paul James, Stuart Silver, Snell, Kim Noble, Steve Oram, Craig Seymour, Tony Devon, Anthony Elvin, Dolly Wells, Tabitha Denholm, Zeben Jameson, Harvey Ryan, Carla Rossi, Jake Steele, Ray Fielding, Andy Pettifer, Richard Glover, Michael Bayliss, Ronnie Le Drew, Michael Fowkes, Steve Tiplady, Adam Leary

20 episodes

(TV-PG - adult language, adult themes, adult situations, surreal humor)

PLOT:

Surreal British comedy in which Vince Noir and Howard Moon have adventures filled with oddball characters while working as zookeepers, before pursuing a musical career and running a second-hand shop.

season 1 - 

Howard is blackmailed by Bob Fossil into participating in an illegal underground boxing match with a violent kangaroo. Howard thinks that by winning the fight he will impress Mrs Gideon, Head of Reptiles, so Vince decides to help him by training him up. He wins by Vince tightly squeezing the kangaroo's testicles whilst Howard punches the kangaroo in the face. Animals at the Zooniverse are rapidly disappearing without a trace; when Mrs Gideon's python and a zookeeper go missing, Howard and Vince decide to investigate. They soon discover Dixon Bainbridge's secret laboratory within the zoo and find out the terrible secret of the missing animals. He is kidnapping people and surgically joining them with the zoo's animals to create mutant hybrids. Bollo, a gorilla at the zoo, becomes terminally ill. When the Grim Reaper comes to take him away, he mistakenly takes Howard, who is wearing a gorilla suit, so that Bob Fossil can continue to accept sponsorship money for the gorillas. Vince travels to Limbo and Monkey Hell to save Howard from death. Dixon Bainbridge boasts to the Zooniverse staff about his adventures in the arctic tundra, so Howard travels there with Vince to retrieve the Egg of Mantumbi and prove that he is more of a man. They come face-to-face with the hideous ice demon Black Frost. They are rescued by a polar bear which Vince had recently become friends with. They bring back what they think is the egg, but it is found to be fake. Bainbridge obtains the real egg. Bainbridge is selling the Zooniverse so that a road can be built through it. Howard is determined to stop this, so he and Vince venture into the mysterious Jungle Room in search of Tommy, the missing former owner of the zoo. Howard attempts to write a novel in order to impress Mrs Gideon. At the same time, Vince's illustrated stories about a hideous bubble-gum creature named Charlie are suddenly discovered by a publisher, instantly turning him into a famous writer. However, his dream is quickly shattered by Dixon Bainbridge. Meanwhile, Howard undergoes psychiatric help from resident shaman Naboo, and Bob Fossil uses Vince to start a new breeding program for the zoo's pandas. Vince joins an up-and-coming electro band called Kraftwork Orange, but causes Johnny Two-Hats, the band's keyboard player, programmer, songwriter and manager, to leave the band in disgust. Out of desperation, he calls on Howard to overcome the Spirit of Jazz and help him out for an important concert. After a bear named Ivan goes wild and attacks Bob Fossil, Howard and Vince are tasked with transporting him to The Zoo for Animal Offenders. On the way, they get lost in the forest and encounter a mysterious hitch-hiker.

season 2 - 

Howard takes Vince, Naboo and Bollo on a weekend holiday to a cabin in the woods, owned by a yokel, Kodiak Jack. Naboo and Bollo, bored by the prospect of a lecture from Howard, go shopping, leaving Vince with Howard. Kodiak Jack arrives, taking a liking to Vince, who is once again mistaken as a female and informing Howard, who is having delusions of grandeur about being a photographer, of the Yeti. Howard sets out to photograph the Yeti at "Piney Ridge", leaving Vince with Kodiak Jack. While shopping, Naboo learns of the Yeti's breeding night, as Vince fends off Kodiak Jack's advances. Meanwhile, Howard is captured and brainwashed by the Yeti. Vince, Naboo, and Bollo set out to save Howard, and also end up brainwashed by the Yeti. As they are all about to be raped, they are saved by Kodiak Jack, who is then instead apparently raped. However, his last words are "Oh yeah!" They flee back to the cabin, pursued by the Queen Yeti, who is eventually defeated after stepping on Vince's bulging suitcase, catapulting her through the roof. Howard, Vince, Naboo, and Bollo then return to Dalston. Howard and Vince are up late, struggling to find a new musical direction in order to get signed the next morning by Pie Face Records. To inspire them, Naboo tells them the story of Rudi van DiSarzio and Spider Dijon; the Bongo Brothers, who form the band Rudi & Spider. Rudi and Spider wander the desert in search of inspiration, looking for the New Sound. After an argument, Spider leaves with the intention of drumming for Carlos Santana, becoming temporarily distracted by a town populated only by women. Rudi soon happens upon the town, meeting and bonding with an inhabitant of the town called Monkey, who tells him of a bandit called Betamax, who regularly terrorizes the town. Rudi and Spider reconvene; the latter then earns himself a Door of Cuckundu by refusing tickets to Santana in Rio de Janeiro from Rudi, and together go to face Betamax. Spider eventually defeats him by rewinding him with his Door of Cuckundu. Rudi & Spider then showcase their newly found sound; found inside their own minds. This is of no help to Howard and Vince, to whom Naboo gives Lucozade, telling them it is a magic potion to help their performance. Vince offers Howard the chance to spend the night with two goth girls, Anthrax and Ebola, under the agreement that he dresses like a goth. It transpires Vince drunkenly bragged to the girls that he was a Warlock, stealing Naboo's book of black magic. Vince then inadvertently summons Nanatoo; the most evil spirit known to man. The goth girls depart in disgust, as Nanatoo looks like a harmless old lady, distracting Howard and Vince from Nanatoo, who steals the book of black magic and also departs. Naboo and Bollo return, and immediately suss that Howard and Vince have summoned a demon. Naboo warns Howard and Vince of the imminence of Nanageddon, and is then summoned to the Board of Shaman who decide to remove his shaman powers, and send Saboo and Tony Harrison to retrieve the book of black magic, which neither succeed in doing. Meanwhile, Howard and Vince retrieve the book from Nanatoo at the bingo, and flee back to the flat, pursued by Nanatoo and her army of Nanas. Naboo reverses the spell, causing Nanatoo to disappear. The next day, a gothic Naboo and Bollo accompany the goth girls out, leaving Howard and Vince disgruntled. Howard has an age crisis after being heckled at a gig of his and Vince's. After hearing from Bollo about the Fountain of Youth on Naboo's home planet Xooberon, Howard and Vince steal his amulet and travel there, where they wander the Desert of Nightmares and meet the Xooberon Tribe. Back at the flat, Naboo finds out about Howard and Vince stealing his amulet, and is annoyed that he has to save them. The Xooberon Tribe notice Vince has the amulet and make him their leader, and Howard his slave. Meanwhile, The Hitcher overviews these events, planning to steal the amulet for himself. Vince's status as the Chosen One is tested when a beast named Sandstorm threatens the Xooberon Tribe; Vince befriends him by giving him gloves which he uses to masturbate. Howard is tricked into stealing the amulet by The Hitcher, who knocks Howard out and leaves. He awakens with Vince, buried up to their necks in sand; a punishment from the Xooberon Tribe for losing the amulet. Naboo and Bollo arrive, and accompany Vince and Howard to the Fountain of Youth, hindered by an evil tree; Vince summons Sandstorm who destroys the tree. Naboo then flushes the toilet of the Fountain of Youth, liquefying The Hitcher. The King who first gave Naboo the amulet and sent him to earth in 1978 arrives and congratulates Naboo. On the way back to earth, Howard and Vince drink Youth Juice against Naboo's advice, reverting them both into newborn babies. After a bad gig Howard and Vince travel to a village called Black Lake to take a break. At the pub they get the idea of going fishing; in which Vince seems instantly proficient. Vince soon leaves a disgruntled Howard to fish by himself. Vince returns to the pub where he learns about Old Gregg. Howard then inadvertently catches Old Gregg (an intersexual merman with female genitalia the creature refers to as a 'mangina') who takes him to his underwater cave. Vince phones Naboo to help him rescue Howard which Naboo grudgingly agrees to do. While having a meal with Old Gregg Howard learns of his possession of The Funk and ends up getting engaged to Old Gregg. While Old Gregg is preoccupied, Vince, Naboo and Bollo arrive in a submarine - driven by a game of Pac-Man - and rescue Howard, who steals The Funk from Old Gregg. They use it to perform at the pub; singing a song about having "The Funk". They then leave, planning to bring the funk back to London. Old Gregg is shown to be riding atop their van in a wedding dress while exposing his mangina. Howard and Vince plan to travel to America to perform on the Pie Face Showcase. Due to Howard's fear of flying they travel by boat. However, after Vince gives the captain a mullet haircut whilst he sleeps, the two are thrown overboard and stranded on a desert island. Howard's condition quickly deteriorates due to lack of nourishment, so they decide to eat coconuts. Howard begins keeping a journal, and Vince fashions bamboo drainpipes. Howard and Vince begin arguing, and build separate huts: Vince's elaborate and complicated, compared to Howard's board on a stick. Howard fashions a male companion out of a coconut, calling it Milky Joe and eventually builds a proper hut with the "help" of Milky Joe. Milky Joe is highly intellectual, with particular interests in both fossils and Jean-Paul Sartre. Vince then fashions female companions out of coconuts called Ruby and Precious Lilywhite. Vince dates Ruby and Howard eventually ends up with Precious who turns out to be physically abusive. While Vince has a party on the beach, Howard accidentally kills Precious which he and Vince try to cover up, but they are caught on film (by a coconut filming the party) burying Precious. After a "car chase" they are caught by the coconut police and sent to coconut court, where they are found guilty of murder, and used as attractions in a coconut shy run by The Hitcher. At this point, Howard and Vince are splashed with water by a sailor, which awakens them from what turns out to be a rancid coconut-induced nightmare or "Coco-Loco" as he calls it. They return home to watch the televised version of the Pie Face Showcase; headlined by Milky Joe and the Coconuts, much to Vince & Howard's horror and disappointment. 

season 3 - 

Naboo and Bollo go away to go to Dennis the Head Shaman's stag party, leaving Howard and Vince in charge of Nabootique. The two challenge one another to a sales contest, each trying to sell their latest fads; Elbow Patches and The Indie Celebrity Radar, respectively. Later, while Vince is out to tag Pete Neon for his Celebradar, Howard is paid a visit by The Hitcher, who frightens Howard with eels into a protection racket. Howard proceeds to prostitute himself to a transvestite called Eleanor for the required €1,000, but when the Hitcher comes to collect the money, he decides to kill Vince and Howard anyway. Before being able to do so, he is shot by Eleanor. The Hitcher awakens, having been saved by the Survival Elbow Patch he had stolen from Howard earlier. Feeling dejected, he turns to leave, before being stopped by Vince and Howard, who convince him to perform a song about eels with them in the New Rave style. Howard acquires a rare Jazz record ("Voodoo Scat" by Howlin' Jimmy Jefferson) which Vince, now a punk, bites into, submitting to peer pressure from his new punk bandmates. It transpires that "Voodoo Scat" was made with a drop of Howlin' Jimmy Jefferson's blood, infecting Vince's bloodstream with a malignant rogue Jazz cell, causing him to embarrass his bandmates by scat singing at their gig in the Velvet Onion, which causes a riot. Vince is rushed back to the Nabootique, delirious, as the Jazz cell begins killing his cells. To save him, Naboo shrinks Howard and his blind friend Lester Corncrake down to microscopic size and injects them into Vince's body to kill the invasive cell. Howard eventually succeeds in reaching the brain, where the Jazz cell begins to chase him. Howard and Lester catch it, and regrow to normal size. The Jazz cell is now also normal size, but is defeated by Lester, who stabs him with Sid Vicious' safety pin, causing him to stumble away crying, falling over one of the now dead former bandmates and dying in the doorway. Vince arrives at work late, depressed and distraught that a copycat named Lance Dior is stealing his style. Howard attempts to cheer him up by showing him Gary Numan and by telling him its what's inside that counts. Howard quickly abandons this philosophy when he has his style stolen by Lance Dior's partner, Harold Boom, who together become The Flighty Zeus. As The Flighty Zeus become increasingly more popular, The Mighty Boosh become increasingly dejected, feeling the Zeus are always one step ahead of them. The Boosh almost give up, before having the idea of premiering their music invention, crimping, at a gig at The Velvet Onion. They arrive to find The Flighty Zeus plagiarising an earlier crimp of theirs. The Boosh challenge the Zeus to a crimp-off, eventually winning by way of a four-way crimp, involving Howard, Vince, Naboo, and Bollo. Howard departs to a jazzercise class, leaving Vince to sort out the towering pile of bin bags in the back alley behind the Nabootique. Whilst doing so, Vince meets an urban crack addict fox named The Crack Fox, whom he invites into the Nabootique. The Crack Fox then knocks Vince unconscious, and steals Naboo's powerful Shaman juice. Vince lies to Naboo, saying it is Howard who is responsible. Naboo then fires Howard, and is imprisoned by the Board of Shaman to be executed. Vince eventually decides to attempt to save Naboo, meeting Howard, who has taken up his old bin man job again, on the way. Howard and Vince descend to the sewers, discovering the Crack Fox, who has taken some of the stolen Shaman Juice and now wields supernatural powers. Howard and Vince recover the Shaman Juice, and are chased through the sewers by the Crack Fox, who is eventually crushed to death by a bin lorry, which is waiting for him at the sewer exit. Howard and Vince then rescue Naboo, and the Board of Shaman celebrate by taking drugs. Vince convinces Howard (by paying a female friend of his to feign an interest in jazz and stationery) to allow him to throw a party in the flat, supposedly in celebration of Howard's birthday, but in reality for Vince to show off his new outfit. He invites all his friends, who are seemingly unaware of who Howard is, or what his involvement in the party might be. After a short game of spin the bottle downstairs in the Nabootique, which is broken up by Naboo, Howard inadvertently reveals that he is a virgin. As everyone awkwardly heads back upstairs, Vince is propositioned by the wife of Dennis the Head Shaman in the stock room. When Vince discovers her identity he leaves immediately, claiming that Dennis will kill him, and sure enough, once he has discovered his wife's infidelity Dennis vows to kill Vince. Attempting to hide on the roof, Vince finds a dejected Howard. Dennis then catches up with Vince, who pretends to be in love with Howard by kissing him. This repulses Dennis into leaving, but has an inadvertent effect on Howard... The two then fall off the roof and on to Vince's present for Howard: a bouncy castle. Howard proceeds to renounce his new-found homosexuality as soon as he sees the jazz girl from the start of the episode, but Vince is heartbroken and claims he will never love again; until his female friend walks outside. The episode ends with the whole party on the bouncy castle. Vince is MCing a night at the Velvet Onion, which is being headlined by The Black Tubes, who have a strict thin-legs policy. Although Vince is desperate to join as their singer, they will only allow him to if he can fit into a pair of drainpipe trousers that they give him. After learning that Jurgen Haabermaaster, a Danish art-house director, will be in the audience to see acclaimed actor Sammy the Crab, Howard tries to get onto the bill in a bid to win a part in one of Jurgen's films. However, Vince won't let him as he suffers from The Chokes, an intense form of stage fright. To cure him of this, Howard is involved in an acting montage with aged actor Montgomery Flange, who has a heart attack after absorbing Howard's Chokes and showing him his impersonation of a crab. The Black Tubes, unaware that Sammy the Crab is a raging alcoholic, pour beer in his tank upon his request, and he proceeds to run amok, killing support act The Blue McEnroes in the process. Vince phones Howard as a replacement, who stuns everyone – including Jurgen and a cheese plant – with his impressive acting. Vince eventually gets his drainpipes on, but the excess weight is squeezed up to his head, causing him to overbalance onstage, ruining the gig. It later transpires that Sammy the Crab has replaced him as the frontman of The Black Tubes. Howard returns from working with Jurgen Haabermaaster, dissatisfied with the work he was offered. It turns out his only role was the Angry Crab of Trapped Wind in a trapped wind commercial, much to the amusement of Naboo, Bollo and Vince.