I was first made aware of Jam after waking up in the middle of the night in a hot sweat at around 3am having left the radio on. There were strange noises coming out of it and in a blurry eyed half conscious state I was having trouble deciphering what exactly I was listening to. Chris Morris originally broadcast a series of twisted, dark and surreal sketches accompanied by ambient music under the name Blue Jam on BBC Radio 1 in the early hours of 1997. It was disturbing and unnerving with sounds of babies crying and a doctor's voice administering some sort of medication, among others. It was the audio equivalent of being in that weak, nauseous, helpless state just before you are about to faint.
Jam was made several years later in 2000 and is the visualisation of those surreal broadcasts, and it lives up to what you imagined was going on, in some cases the imagery is even more disturbing. For example sketches include a plumber trying to fix a dead baby as if it was a boiler, a porn star gushing to death as he climaxes and a man throwing himself into an industrial shredding machine to get back with his ex-wife. These are just a couple of the nightmarish delights Morris throws at you in a series of six episodes that will shock, disturb, get under your skin and make you laugh at things you shouldn't really be laughing at.
Jam is not for the faint hearted as it features perverse ideas featuring bizarre sex, horror and violence, sometimes happening just off camera so you can only imagine what's going on while at other times it's in your face. However the most disturbing and sinister moments are with Dr Perlin who features in every episode with his calm, methodical prognosis lulling you into a false sense of security as he offers inappropriate advice to the strains of unassuming, unconnected ambient music playing constantly in the background.
Chris Morris is a disrupter and likes to push the boundaries of comedy. Some consider him to be a genius while others are completely turned off by his juvenile shock tactics. He courts controversy and works on the fringes always challenging the viewer and the censors. Here he is given more or less free reign to bring his Blue Jam creation to life on Channel 4, a station that prides itself in pushing the envelope, so it's a good home for someone like Morris. However his other creation that aired on the channel called Brass Eye (1997) proved to be even more controversial than Jam, maybe because here you know you're in a surreal world but in Brass Eye Morris plays it straight like he's presenting a factual documentary.
Chris Morris's warped vision is ably brought to life by the actors he has assembled and whose conviction to each bizarre sketch, some featuring Morris himself, only helps to blur the line between reality and your deepest darkest nightmares.
Jam was made several years later in 2000 and is the visualisation of those surreal broadcasts, and it lives up to what you imagined was going on, in some cases the imagery is even more disturbing. For example sketches include a plumber trying to fix a dead baby as if it was a boiler, a porn star gushing to death as he climaxes and a man throwing himself into an industrial shredding machine to get back with his ex-wife. These are just a couple of the nightmarish delights Morris throws at you in a series of six episodes that will shock, disturb, get under your skin and make you laugh at things you shouldn't really be laughing at.
Jam is not for the faint hearted as it features perverse ideas featuring bizarre sex, horror and violence, sometimes happening just off camera so you can only imagine what's going on while at other times it's in your face. However the most disturbing and sinister moments are with Dr Perlin who features in every episode with his calm, methodical prognosis lulling you into a false sense of security as he offers inappropriate advice to the strains of unassuming, unconnected ambient music playing constantly in the background.
Chris Morris is a disrupter and likes to push the boundaries of comedy. Some consider him to be a genius while others are completely turned off by his juvenile shock tactics. He courts controversy and works on the fringes always challenging the viewer and the censors. Here he is given more or less free reign to bring his Blue Jam creation to life on Channel 4, a station that prides itself in pushing the envelope, so it's a good home for someone like Morris. However his other creation that aired on the channel called Brass Eye (1997) proved to be even more controversial than Jam, maybe because here you know you're in a surreal world but in Brass Eye Morris plays it straight like he's presenting a factual documentary.
Chris Morris's warped vision is ably brought to life by the actors he has assembled and whose conviction to each bizarre sketch, some featuring Morris himself, only helps to blur the line between reality and your deepest darkest nightmares.