Peep Show

[frajer]

I'm pull-ing your pants down, Mark!

FUCK OFF FUCK OFF FUCK OFF ME!

[evilcommiedictator]

Mark being raped pushes the edges of overly silly farce to me, but having a family who is into war history, "I'm sorry Antony" tickles a very sweet spot, and being a neurotic man, Mark's reaction to being shows what his partner wants in sex is exactly how I've felt at a number of times

[mippy]

Watched the whole thing in about a week and a half when off sick a while back, and it really struck me that when I first watched it here and there, I thought Jeremy was the 'villian' of the two and Mark merely dull but likeable, and that absolutely isn't the case at all. Jeremy is a dick, but you know what you are getting. Mark is a fucking horrible person.

[mr. logic]

Mark being raped pushes the edges of overly silly farce to me, but having a family who is into war history, "I'm sorry Antony" tickles a very sweet spot, and being a neurotic man, Mark's reaction to being shows what his partner wants in sex is exactly how I've felt at a number of times

Love Jeremy telling him that that's cheating.

[frajer]

Also Cally perfectly describing Jeremy and Mark's lovemaking styles.

"He's like a red setter bounding after a tennis ball, you're like a captain solemnly going down with his ship."

[jobotic]

Well how do you explain all the problems in the world?

[sevendaughters]

We are not in the euro Jeremy

[frajer]

Hold your horses, honey, I've got coupons for the Pringles.

[The Bumlord]

Just because I've never been to Zimbabwe to buy someone a fucking cake

[LynnBenfield69]

I do believe in crystal skulls

[pigamus]

Watched the whole thing in about a week and a half when off sick a while back, and it really struck me that when I first watched it here and there, I thought Jeremy was the 'villian' of the two and Mark merely dull but likeable, and that absolutely isn't the case at all. Jeremy is a dick, but you know what you are getting. Mark is a fucking horrible person.

Absolutely. He might be the biggest monster in British telly history.

[Urinal Cake]

Absolutely. He might be the biggest monster in British telly history.

Yeah people tend to think that Mark is the 'good one.' The biggest example is the Christmas episode where Jez gives Mark a Cognac and Mark gives kitchen tongs. Jez atleast cares somewhat about Mark and people generally, Mark just uses people to advance his own agenda.

[neveragain]

Yes, I don't know how intentional it was but it's a very satisfying arc for the series.

My mate Paul put it best I think - "If you were out walking with the two of them then fell down a hole and broke your leg, Jez might think of leaving you there but Mark definitely would." I could possibly imagine Mark helping but probably only if it was good for him in some way.

[Ferris]

Super Hans is broadly a worse person than Mark by some distance. He's just funnier so gets overlooked.

Jez's position in the band (Jez on the national express watching Hans look at his phone ringing in the van, laughing with the others, then rejecting the call), and his stupid position on running a pub that has nothing to do with him. Also Jez not having drugs at the music festival and asking Hans for some of his:

"Love to mate, love to, but it's mine and I want it all so... gotta be a no."

[Ferris]

I like that his back story is never really explained either. Why is he called Hans? What became of "the twins"? How did he fall in with Jez and Mark?

There's a weird German connection throughout peep show that is similarly unexplained. Frankfort. Stephen Krauss. The sausage-munching boche.

[Terry Torpid]

I like that his back story is never really explained either. Why is he called Hans? What became of "the twins"? How did he fall in with Jez and Mark?

His name is Simon Hans, which suggests he's British of German heritage (he mentions being able to speak the "language of love", and tiny bit of German). Maybe he spent some time between both countries, had a relationship with a German woman, hence the twins. It goes wrong, he fucks off back to Blighty to become an absent dad (he hasn't seen them in zwei years). He falls in with Jez because they're both wannabe musician wasters.

[Ferris]

His name is Simon Hans, which suggests he's British of German heritage (he mentions being able to speak the "language of love", and tiny bit of German). Maybe he spent some time between both countries, had a relationship with a German woman, hence the twins. It goes wrong, he fucks off back to Blighty to become an absent dad (he hasn't seen them in zwei years). He falls in with Jez because they're both wannabe musician wasters.

But we (and Jez and Mark) only find out his name is Simon at the legal/vows phase of his actual wedding.

You're right on the pair of Eighters, and you can sort of piece that much together but they don't explicitly fill it in which I like. As for hanging out with Jez... how? He didn't go to Darty. Probably just met at the pub I suppose.

[Urinal Cake]

Super Hans is broadly a worse person than Mark by some distance. He's just funnier so gets overlooked.

And cooler and generally more successful in his endeavours.

I think people like Mark because he's generally tries at his job and in life. It's that good old Protestant Work Ethic.

[Terry Torpid]

But we (and Jez and Mark) only find out his name is Simon at the legal/vows phase of his actual wedding.

At the wedding, Mark turns round and gives Jez a quizzical look when he hears the name Simon, and Jez acknowledges the glance and nods as if to say he already knows.

In S9E05, Hans and Jez earn some money from one of their songs being used in a football video. Hans gives Jez a cheque, which reads Mr S Hans, so presumably it's his real surname.



Okay, it's probably just something the props department knocked up without discussing it with the writers, but I submit it as evidence his name is indeed Simon Hans.

[Ferris]

Presumably the props department assumed his name was Mr S(uper) Hans and it's a bit of an inside joke like he's even told/convinced his bank that's his name. The music is for a Hertha Berlin left-back highlights video which is one of my favourite bits of incredibly accurate (albeit silly) observational bits from the show. I nearly mentioned it earlier but thought it was too niche to work.

Anyway; his name is canonically Simon Hans I guess? Good detective work! Molly is his normal relationship, sort of his last shot at a straight-edge life. In a way, vanning to Macedonia is quite a bleak end for the character because it implies he's going to stay a heavy drug user forever. Still, at least he can watch Spurs now.

I maintain he's a less-nice person than Mark though. No idea what my point was. Just agreeing I suppose.

Edit: though that means he has some German heritage already, so it's stranger that he fathered the twins and moved back to the UK? Maybe I'm overthinking this.

[Terry Torpid]

Presumably the props department assumed his name was Mr S(uper) Hans and it's a bit of an inside joke like he's even told/convinced his bank that's his name.

Perhaps, but it's worth noting that episode comes after the wedding episode, so the props people would have known about the Simon thing.

[The Bumlord]

I have very little to say to my closest friends. What the hell am I going to say to a fully grown man for a whole night?

[The Bumlord]

oh ffs

[sevendaughters]

You know what I never understood? 'Wedding tuna' and why Sophie's dad feels he has to drop it off at Mark's.

[ajsmith2]

I rewatched the Gym episode from series 4 last night, it's pretty awful. Insulting to the characters and the audience the way it ends on an unresolved cliffhanger Bottom style with the lads cowering behind their ladies in imminent danger of getting an arse kicking, and and we're just supposed to presume 'the funnymen no doubt extricated themselves from that sticky situation and everything reset itself in time for next weeks chucklethon, who really cares'. Why not have Mark get married and then it was all a dream next week if events matter so little. Cartoonish to say the least:  At least the dog eating is amusingly ramped up and the situation is largely resolved.

[Psybro]

Once The Simpsons started doing that they kept on doing it, in Peep Show's case it felt like they still had some restraint.  In the earlier seasons, some of the bleakness comes from the insistence on putting a cap on each episode's plot, e.g. Mark's only adult friend leaves forever due to being a racist, Mark leaves Dartford still a broken man but now one who does trespass at higher education institutes, etc.

The gym episode really does stand out like a sore thumb as I think it goes along at a fair clip with some decent gym gags and then it just blows up in its face.

[markburgle]

we're just supposed to presume 'the funnymen no doubt extricated themselves from that sticky situation and everything reset itself in time for next weeks chucklethon

Are we? I just presumed they got the shite beat out of them. It'd be wierd if they actually showed it

[ajsmith2]

Are we? I just presumed they got the shite beat out of them. It'd be wierd if they actually showed it

if they got beaten up I'd say the essence of my point still stands, in fact maybe more so: it seems like Tom and Jerry logic where everything resets and we don't have to be invested in situations like that cos they'll just skid back on in the next scene/episode unscathed.

I've also just noticed on my rewatch that it's never explained why Nancy appears to end up hanging out in the flat again for the rest of the season after this incident, which you'd think would have put her right off Jez (again). Again, it just cuts away and suddenly she's (briefly anyway) part of the gang again, not even a passing line to explain why.

[markburgle]

I've also just noticed on my rewatch that it's never explained why Nancy appears to end up hanging out in the flat again for the rest of the season after this incident, which you'd think would have put her right off Jez (again). Again, it just cuts away and suddenly she's (briefly anyway) part of the gang again, not even a passing line to explain why.

That just seems like standard Peep Show selective-realism logic though - I don't know if it's still there but at one point the wikipedia listed as a running gag the fact that Sophie keeps giving Mark endless chances without regard to what came before, e.g. hacking her email. I haven't done a rewatch for years though so I don't know, maybe that stuff is explained

[Dr Marbles]

Apposite to this thread, if anyone is interested in 8000-word essays on Peep Show then you're in luck.

https://jackbern23.medium.com/a-powerful-sense-of-dread-the-inevitable-darkness-of-peep-show-and-the-voices-in-our-heads-e56a28825765