User Reviews

This episode is, perhaps, the definitive episode of The Mighty Boosh. It combines all of the elements that make the show what it is in the most precise way. It's zany, it's very creative (riding that line between randomness), and upon each viewing it makes more and more sense of what this is all about.

It's an adventure storyline, only every convention is tweaked to define what the Mighty Boosh it is. It doesn't have to make "complete" sense because the Mighty Boosh never has. It's about fun and fantasy and being a kid as an adult again.

It's way too easy to cast liberal aspersions on a sketch like OLD GREGG. The sketch could easily be dismissed as racist, mysoginist and well, offensive to the memory of bootsy collins, but, well, um, yeah; any fan of bootsy collins knows full well that drinking bailey's out of a shoe is a beautiful thing.

Personally, i think the whole sketch could be interpreted as a brilliant deconstruction of uptight middle class white men ( several redundant terms there); the whole point is the polite horror that gregg engenders in the middle aged hipster whilst he keeps trying to play it cool.

Quite honestly, the sketch still makes me feel slightly uncomfortable because i am not quite sure how the hell to respond, or if i shall be judged harshly for laughing at something that must point out my own prejudice and perversion...see? It's goddamn hilarious!

I mean, is it okay to laugh at this? Is it okay to laugh at a vaguely homosexual but obviously horndog manfish who is also vaguely black, into oldschool funk, watersports, and, apparently, middleaged white hipsters? ( that last one is the true perversion)...

Anyhow, let the record show that slinky scaly manfish lovers are still building altars to the majesty and squalor that is Old Gregg in the year 2024.

May Old Gregg someday sip Bailey's out my very own Christian Louboutin before the funk carries us off to dark corners where people wee on each other.

Amen.

I've just gotten around to seeing this one for the first time recently and I think I can draw a bead on why people dig it. Much like The Hitcher segments, much of Chris Morris' work, and even the Gervais/Merchant Office, the humor is all based in discomfort and anxiety. We've seen happy-go-lucky Vince so much, and knowing Noel Fielding also plays this appalling, intense, cringe-inducing abomination spouting beyond-bizarre dialogue is really disquieting. So much so that the only response one can find is to laugh or writhe in tension. Not to mention that the things Old Gregg says are written like much of the rest of Boosh, but are delivered with the unpredictability and vocabulary of a crazed bum. It's a completely surreal situation, yet painfully understandable and frightening when accepted on its own terms. Old Gregg has no supernatural powers, no deus ex machina resolution, nothing but weird vibe and genetic mutation. In the face of fear, one can laugh or be crippled, and Old Gregg is frightening enough to haunt the wet cave of memory, drinking Bailey's out of a shoe, incessantly reminding us who he is and that he still is. He's Old Greeeegggg...

This one I didn't quite as enjoy as much as others and simply cannot see fans' admiration for it. Sure, it's a funny episode, with some brilliant interaction between Howard and Vince, but 'Old Gregg' just didn't do it for me, sorry. There simply isn't enough to him as a character that makes him funny. Sure, he's pathetic, a little psychotic and he's got a 'mangina', but to be honest, he never really made me laugh; like Howard said, he's just quite irritating.

The plot as a whole isn't too bad, at least until Howard and Vince are separated. Usually this technique works, allowing both to flex both their characters in hilarious situations before Vince comes in to save the day, but it doesn't work quite so well here. Instead both just kind of wait a little, in a bit of lull until the problem can be resolved. It's a shame too that Barratt's performance seems a little off during the scenes with Old Gregg, never really bringing out any of the humorous sides of Howard. Instead he's portrayed as rather despondent and nothing else.

Nevertheless I did love the fishermen, the tale of the funk, the 'love games' song (one of the best yet!) and the brilliant scenes with Howard and Vince just working the chemistry together; trading dialogue and creating some of the best scenes of the episode. Overall, a good show, but certainly not the classic it's made out to be- the poorest effort of season 2 I'd say.