jam
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam
Up until recently, there were only a few types of Jam in the world. A preserve made from the pulp of non-citrus fruits happily took the name, as did Paul Weller's subway-loving mod troupe, and of course, our good selves at my college paper. But in the beginning of this year (2000), Channel 4 has given airing to a wholly different type of Jam...
"I realised shortly after my 46th birthday that I wasn't going to get a wife... so I decided I'd marry myself, I'd do it alone."
A mess of thoughtfully disturbing sketches, shot from all angles and often lit like disconcerting dreams, underscored by the likes of the Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin; Chris Morris' 'Jam' was an intelligently queasy joy to behold. Starting life as the award-winning (and late-night squeak-inducing) sketch collage 'BlueJam' on Radio1, when the series finally made it to television it effortlessly managed the ultimate radio goal of appearing onscreen exactly as it had been imagined. Considering its viciously wry look at the world however - subjects unflinchingly covered include unhinged doctors, rapist boyfriends and a child's murder clean-up service - that there was little 'toning down' in the radio-TV transition might not be so pleasing to all. But then. This is the man who announced the deaths of both Michael Heseltine and Jimmy Saville ("but the patients are far from mourning") on a previous radio show, persuaded Noel Edmonds and Bernard Manning to deride the lurid evils of the 'made-up drug' Cake ("one lad was so ill on CAKE he coughed up his own pelvis") on 'Brass Eye', and incensed Kim Wilde on 'The Day Today' with the news that officials were now clamping homeless people on the Strand ("I didn't know that, that's awful!"). Chris Morris has a confident broadcasting history behind him, where he's waged a satirical war on the nation's stupidity, and produced some screamingly hysterical and wholly unsettling comedy en route. I'm just happy Channel4 have had him back - in the last episode of 'Brass Eye', following censorship orders from on high, Morris inserted a blipvert, stating 'Michael Grade Is A C***'. Amoral and apolitical, his slyly wielded use of language makes for ever juicy entertainment; I would very much like to think that in all ways, 'Jam' is the future...
"It's a niche business; we specialise in providing thick people for jobs they're particularly good at. Thick people are particularly good at winning arguments because they're too thick to realise they've lost."
Up until recently, there were only a few types of Jam in the world. A preserve made from the pulp of non-citrus fruits happily took the name, as did Paul Weller's subway-loving mod troupe, and of course, our good selves at my college paper. But in the beginning of this year (2000), Channel 4 has given airing to a wholly different type of Jam...
"I realised shortly after my 46th birthday that I wasn't going to get a wife... so I decided I'd marry myself, I'd do it alone."
A mess of thoughtfully disturbing sketches, shot from all angles and often lit like disconcerting dreams, underscored by the likes of the Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin; Chris Morris' 'Jam' was an intelligently queasy joy to behold. Starting life as the award-winning (and late-night squeak-inducing) sketch collage 'BlueJam' on Radio1, when the series finally made it to television it effortlessly managed the ultimate radio goal of appearing onscreen exactly as it had been imagined. Considering its viciously wry look at the world however - subjects unflinchingly covered include unhinged doctors, rapist boyfriends and a child's murder clean-up service - that there was little 'toning down' in the radio-TV transition might not be so pleasing to all. But then. This is the man who announced the deaths of both Michael Heseltine and Jimmy Saville ("but the patients are far from mourning") on a previous radio show, persuaded Noel Edmonds and Bernard Manning to deride the lurid evils of the 'made-up drug' Cake ("one lad was so ill on CAKE he coughed up his own pelvis") on 'Brass Eye', and incensed Kim Wilde on 'The Day Today' with the news that officials were now clamping homeless people on the Strand ("I didn't know that, that's awful!"). Chris Morris has a confident broadcasting history behind him, where he's waged a satirical war on the nation's stupidity, and produced some screamingly hysterical and wholly unsettling comedy en route. I'm just happy Channel4 have had him back - in the last episode of 'Brass Eye', following censorship orders from on high, Morris inserted a blipvert, stating 'Michael Grade Is A C***'. Amoral and apolitical, his slyly wielded use of language makes for ever juicy entertainment; I would very much like to think that in all ways, 'Jam' is the future...
"It's a niche business; we specialise in providing thick people for jobs they're particularly good at. Thick people are particularly good at winning arguments because they're too thick to realise they've lost."
