Although wacky and certainly “out-there”, I enjoyed The Mighty Boosh and found it to be entertaining. It was definitely something that you would describe as being best watched while on drugs, but it still found its moments to be not too bizarre and thus a fun watch. But perhaps what interested me most about the show is how it was adapted from radio, much like many other programs in the UK. I tried to think of a recent television series in the last fifty years that was adapted from radio and had a hard time coming up with anything after I Love Lucy, which was adapted for television in 1951 (so more like sixty years).
This certainly speaks to the differences between television cultures, and I guess entertainment cultures in general, in the US and UK. There’s an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to BBC Radio programs that have been adapted to television. And perhaps even more interestingly, there are also BBC television series that have been adapted for radio, something I am almost certain would never happen in the US. A particular program that I was surprised to see on the list for being adapted from radio was Whose Line Is It Anyways? which of course was also a successful television series in the US. The British series came before the American one, thus I guess you could say this was an example of an American television series adapted from radio during the past twenty-five years.
However, I think the most interesting part about this is how Americans have moved away from radio as a source for narrative entertainment from various genres and instead see it as a source for news and talk radio, which is often political. Meanwhile, the British have maintained a capacity for enjoying narratives on radio, which allows for a show like The Mighty Boosh to find different routes onto television. Nevertheless, I can’t fathom how bizarre The Mighty Boosh might sound on radio. How could half of the things we saw during the episode we watched possibly be communicated clearly through radio? It would be fun to hear an adaptation and see if it came across as even more radical and surreal.
I think you bring up a really interesting point. The only shows over here that are still on today that came from the radio are soaps, and those are dropping like flies lately. I think TMB was extremely visual, and while they obviously changed a lot when they moved to TV, I think it would be interesting to listen to what kind of comedy it had back on the radio. I don’t think there’s been a radio play on US radio waves in decades, but they still do stuff like that in the UK. We turn to radio here for music or news, but not for non-musical entertainment, so the fact that you bring up the fact that that’s a cultural difference between the US and UK really leaves me wondering why.
I agree with Brenna in the sense that The Mighty Boosh was a very visual comedy. I wouldn’t consider it to be a physical comedy the way that we characterize some American comedy, but it absolutely demands the use of visuals for its comedic style. That being said, I think that most comedians are capable of using whatever they are given in order to make people laugh. I think we commonly associate British comedy with wit and verbal humor that we could easily listen to on radio, but (having listened to the link above of the Mighty Boosh radio) it seems that if you tell a comedian to create a show for radio, they will alter their comedy to fix the venue. I think that the Mighty Boosh would still be weird with or without visual elements but it can also be funny if you’re in the right mood.
Good point Ronnie; I’m always shocked when I find out certain British shows started out in radio. Another example is Whose Line is it Anyways? I was a huge fan of the American version of that show, and I remember being quite confused when I discovered it had its roots in British radio. Although I agree with Alex that yes, comedians are often quite deft at changing their styles to suit the medium, I just can’t imagine shows like Whose Line or The Mighty Boosh being funnier without the accompanying visuals. I suppose I’m just so used to our image-based culture that my bias is showing. Even when listening to hilarious American radio programs (my Dad always listens to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on NPR so I often listen along) I often can’t help but wonder what the show would look like if it were on TV.