The Mighty Boosh
Created | Updated Mar 26, 2008
Come with us now on a journey through time and space...to the world of the Mighty Boosh.
What is the Boosh? Well, it's many things; perhaps it's all things. The Mighty Boosh is the name given to radio and television comedy series (and originally a stage show) created by Noel Fielding and Julian Barrat. But they are themselves collectively referred to as 'The Mighty Boosh'. And why on Earth is it called 'The Mighty Boosh'? No particular reason. One thing the Boosh does away with in its entirety is that pesky thing called reason.
When he was young, he had really curly hair and his little friend when he was five used to say 'You've got a mighty bush!', but his ridiculous Portuguese accent made 'bush' sound like 'boosh'. I thought it was funny, I just overheard them say that once and thought 'Mighty boosh, that's quite cool.' We didn't want to be Barratt and Fielding, that sounds dreadful.'
- Noel Fielding, on a Portuguese's comments on his brother Michael Fielding's hair.
So let's begin our quest through this mystical world, with a brief history of the Boosh.
History
In the pre-Boosh days, Julian Barratt was primarily a musician, and was involved in a jazz band. Noel Fielding was a visual artist. They met at art college and began to realise their talent for making people laugh and 'being ridiculous'. While working with Stewart Lee on a stage show, King Dong vs. Moby Dick (where Julian and Noel played a giant penis and a whale respectively) they came up with the Mighty Boosh. Or, to be more specific, its two protagonists, the inimitable due of Howard Moon (Julian) and Vince Noir (Noel).
On Stage
The Boosh began as a stage show in 1998. Its creators weren't really expecting it to be a huge success, but it was received warmly. They worked with their transatlantic colleague, the comedian Rich Fulcher, at the Edinburgh Festival, and they won an award for Best Newcomer. This was followed by a new show, Arctic Boosh for the next year's festival. It would form the basis of the Boosh television pilot and the later episode, 'Tundra', where the duo journey to the Arctic in search of the legendary Stone of Mantumbi.
Autoboosh was acclaimed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2000. By now there was some kind of team structure developing. The Boosh could just refer to Noel and Julian, but was sometimes used to as a collective term for the whole lot. This now included Noel's brother Michael (in his role as Naboo the Shaman).
Hitting The Airwaves
This success led to a BBC signing in October 2001. Their six-part radio series won the Douglas Adams Award 'for innovative comedy writing'. The series is the award's only recipient, since it was created specifically to honour it.
All but one of the radio programmes went on to form the basis for the plots of the TV programmes. It began with the pilot, which used a laughter track from a live audience. This was quickly dispensed with, as it was decided the Boosh's audience were clever enough to decide which bits were funny. It was first shown on the BBC Three on May 18, 2004, and on BBC Two soon after. The cult following which had begun during the stage shows expanded and in July 2005 the Boosh returned with a second series. Strangely, it was given a smaller budget, which meant the complex animatronic gorilla Bollo from the first series had to be replaced by a man in a suit.
'The Ruby of Kukundu' formed the core of another Boosh tour in 2006. It followed the traditional Boosh formula of a quest for some object or other.
Series Four
They always planned on making a Series Four, but never a Series Three. It was a little joke on future generations who would wonder what had happened to the third series. So, though usually referred to as Series Three, Series Four is perhaps more correct. It was aired in November 2007.
Characters
So now you know something of how the Boosh came to become the cult it is today. But that little history section does not tell you why. Read on.
Howard Moon - 'Jazz Maverick'
I do many things. I span the genres - they call me the genre spanner.
Highly delusional in a loveable, irritating way, he is not quite as clever as he thinks he is. Deep down, he is probably reasonably intelligent, but not the genius polymath he claims to be. Harbouring a love for jazz, particularly jazz-funk, and poetry, he describes himself as a maverick. Obviously, since he is a comedic character, he is in fact deeply conservative and slightly weak-natured.
Howard is an aspiring author and musician, but he is always rather further away from his big break than he makes out. Vince sums up his lack of jazz presence thusly: 'You're a bit white'. Poetry-wise, he claims to be "Britain's leading cream poet". A 'cream poem' is a type of verse in which various parts of the object of his affection are likened to cream.
As he would be quick to point out, Howard Moon has a dark side. He is prone to occasional fits of violence, especially when his writing is criticised. He threatens Vince often: "I'll come at you like a buzzard!", "I'll be all over you like a powerful moss!" and so on.
Vince Noir - 'King of the Mods'/'Goth Fairy'
The tie's a multi purpose accessory, y'know, belt, school boy, Rambo.
A combination of a cheeky cockney lad and a French Duke. Like Howard, he is vain in the extreme, but has a rather different idea of style involving less tweed. His favourite music is electro (much to Howard's disgust), and he idolises Gary Numan, David Bowie and Mick Jagger. He can talk to animals - imagine Mowgli in flares.
Endearingly naive and childish, Vince is rather proud of the way he blurs the gender boundaries. As he tells Howard, "I'm the confuser! Is it a man? Is it a woman? I'm not sure if I mind!" While the dynamic duo are off on adventures, other characters often assume he is Howard's wife. His hair, with its "basic back-comb structure, root boosted" helps give this impression. It also fulfils the function of a hat in many circumstances.
Among Vince's achievements is the establishment of the first ever glam-folk band with his and Howard's friend Leroy1.
Naboo - The Enigma
The blow-up crystal ball, for the shaman who likes to travel!
Played by Noel Fielding's brother Michael, he was, as we learn in an episode of the second series, born in the 16th Century on the planet Xooberon. The King of Xooberon, mistaking him for one of his most trusted warriors, sent him to Earth to protect an amulet which gave access to Xooberon's Fountain of Youth (which has been all done up nicely as a shower cubicle). A wise shaman, he is usually the one who helps Vince and Howard out of their little scrapes.
Musing on his future, he can't decided whether to transform himself into a mighty hawk or to work at Dixons. It's a tough choice, as Vince notes. His love of recreational drugs is well-known. In series three he opens a shop called the Nabootique, which appears to sell nothing in particular, but everything in general.
Bollo - The Gorilla Familiar
Naboo's animal familiar was a full animatronic model in the first series. In the second, it was decided this approach was far too time-consuming and expensive, so they stuck a guy named Dave Brown in a gorilla suit.
