is garth marenghi's darkplace completely laugh-free?

[Famous Mortimer]

The live show was very funny, it was a laugh within the context of a silly student Edinburgh hour, but the joke exhausted itself on TV.

I thought there were lots of jokes, and disagree.

[Barry Admin]

I fucking hated it but never had time for the likes of Matt Berry anyway.

Tbh I also recall that I'd just recently bought the Acorn Antiques video from a charity shop, and it was so insanely fucking hilarious and inspired that I just saw Darkplace as derivative and bland. I guess I would also have been a bit irked that this was seen as some kind of brilliant, cutting edge humour, whereas a lot of comedy fans were really snotty and dismissive of anything  Victoria Wood was involved with. Just didn't seem fair.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I thought there were lots of jokes, and disagree.

Fair enough. There were lots of jokes, but they were all sub-Partridge/Iannucci jokes.

As I say, it was a fun show to watch when you were half-pissed at the Fringe, but the TV show wore out its welcome within about five minutes.

[Ron Superior]

About once I week the reading of the sex scene pops in to my head.

"They did all the positions: her on top, doggy and normal."

[TrenterPercenter]

Love Dark Place and thought it was brilliant

[The Giggling Bean]

It's not really a parody, but Psycho Goreman has a very strong Power Rangers feel. If they'd also been allowed to show heads exploding.

That is currently one of my favourite films and I've just ordered the blu ray from Canada. So many lines that keep randomly popping into my head and making me laugh.

[Cold Meat Platter]

That is currently one of my favourite films and I've just ordered the blu ray from Canada. So many lines that keep randomly popping into my head and making me laugh.

"I do not care for hunky boys... or do I?"

[madhair60]

I also enjoyed Psycho Goreman.

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Just want to say that I am genuinely delighted that this has spawned such a prosperous thread. I mean that.

[wrec]

I've stood in Dean's front room and watched him make a lot of love. Let's just say that.

[ASFTSN]

Apart from the moment when Garth sees an apeloid micturating (which means urinating) on his erstwhile colleague - which is a direct Rawhead Rex reference - are there any other straight up homages to particular horror scenes or set pieces in Darkplace?

[Jumblegraws]

Apart from the moment when Garth sees an apeloid micturating (which means urinating) on his erstwhile colleague - which is a direct Rawhead Rex reference - are there any other straight up homages to particular horror scenes or set pieces in Darkplace?

I couldn't help thinking of Troll 2 when the lady starts turning into broccoli in "The Creeping Moss from the Shores of Shuggoth", but I think any similarity is probably just coincidence.

[Antiseptic Poetry]

The first two episodes are brilliant, then the joke wears out and the following four are shite.

[ProvanFan]

What if you caught the first one from five minutes in? Would the brilliance then last five minutes into episode three?

[Zetetic]

Tbh I also recall that I'd just recently bought the Acorn Antiques video from a charity shop, and it was so insanely fucking hilarious and inspired that I just saw Darkplace as derivative and bland. I guess I would also have been a bit irked that this was seen as some kind of brilliant, cutting edge humour, whereas a lot of comedy fans were really snotty and dismissive of anything  Victoria Wood was involved with. Just didn't seem fair.

As someone who has greatly enjoyed both, in the right doses, I'm grateful for this link which I'd never thought of before.

Does the contrast of Acorn Antiques apparently being very clearly inspired by Crossroads and Darkplace being a kind of parody of something that might not have ever actually existed throw both into sharper relief?

I've no idea, since I've no idea what Crossroads was, really, so it's all much of muchness.

[Psybro]

The first two episodes are brilliant, then the joke wears out and the following four are shite.

I did find the first two episodes started hilarious and then got progressively funnier by the minute, and the last four just had a few wry smiles per episode. I always put it down to watching the first two in a room full of stoned students and the rest on YouTube on mine Larry.

[Barry Admin]

Does the contrast of Acorn Antiques apparently being very clearly inspired by Crossroads and Darkplace being a kind of parody of something that might not have ever actually existed throw both into sharper relief?

I've no idea, since I've no idea what Crossroads was, really, so it's all much of muchness.

Yeah, I dunno. I wouldn't be as precious these days, and it's hard to remember clearly and put some of this in historical context.

For instance, I know Darkplace was big around the time of a weird "monkey (or just animal) whimsy" trend that really bugged me, so people larking about on BMX's in Darkplace just irritated me. British comedy at that time felt very slight, and immersed in pissy, studenty references that would get an easy laugh out of people. Just that whole Boosh-y awfulness where people would talk about ninjas and stuff.

I'd be intrigued to revisit Darkplace - I think I'll definitely be watching the Acorn Antiques video, as I found the whole thing on YouTube. Just the richness and variety of approaches there is astonishing, given it also includes Susie Blake's continuity announcer, and the insanely good documentary at the end.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UPsAchIqNQ4

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Every time some writer or director gets the tortured artist syndrome, Darkplace gets funnier.
When I watched Zack Snyder's Justice League, whenever there was a shot in slow-motion, I would think about Darkplace.

[The Mollusk]

Barry Amblin it's just "Darkplace" all one word like that. I dunno if you're new here or what but we take this stuff pretty seriously, just watch your step in future.

[Barry Admin]

😅 fixed, thanks.

[The Mollusk]

STRIKE ONE!

[studpuppet]

...so people larking about on BMX's in Darkplace just irritated me.

STRIKE TWO!

Where do these newbies get dredged up from, FFS...

[Barry Admin]

STRIKE TWO!

It's so fucking wacky, Jesus wept, I hoped I'd mellowed towards it.

Noel Fielding and Richard Ayaode are dire, they can't act; you have to be able to act well in order to act badly in a convincing way.

Noel Fielding dressed as some kind of a monkey? See what I meant above! I haven't seen that clip since it was broadcast and had no idea about that, but there was just so much boring animal whimsy bollocks, and student-pleasing monkey references back then. I made a big thread raging about all the monkey stuff specifically when "Monkey Trousers" came out 😂

All I wanted was some good satire, or comedy with some kind of point and inspiration to it, and instead you got shit like Darkplace and Dare To Believe.

Thanks for the clip, I hate it.

[willbo]

I never really got big into Darkplace - I find the constant "OTT 80s TV tone" just too tiring to be honest - but I actually enjoyed the Dean Learner chat show a lot more, and thought it made a really good "Supermarket brand Alan Partridge/KMKY". I wouldn't re-watch Darkplace but I do want to dig out my "man to man with DL" dvd again.

I never really stopped to think if Darkplace was a spoof of some specific show, to me it's just all 70s/80s TV, Quincy, A-Team, Kojak, US hospital soaps, all crammed into one horror show.

[Mr Trumpet]

Great music in that chase scene, and I always thought those woods looked appealing

[sevendaughters]

Great music in that chase scene, and I always thought those woods looked appealing

guessing it's the New Forest? I've never been but that's what I imagine.

[sevendaughters]

I sort of see what Barry Admin is saying with that clip looking studenty - I hated all that sort indie revival era comedy that was just broad caricatures and wackiness and different dilutions of Noel Fielding and Noel Fielding adjacency (Bruiser [edit: I meant Blunder] and Campus being the dirt worst) - but there's far more going on in Marenghi. If anything that is an unrepresentative clip elevated beyond its status.

[Captain Z]

I've been catching the odd episode of Travel Man recently, and it strikes me that Richard Ayoade seems to act more comfortably portraying Dean Learner than he does portraying Richard Ayoade.

[phantom_power]

"Richard Ayoade" that you see on screen is just as much a creation as Dean Lerner I think

[The Mollusk]

In mild defence of the above chase scene clip, it does suffer a little as one of those things which doesn't really work out of context, since it is deliberately overlong it does look quite crap. It's also not really representative of the show as a whole at all. The murky indoor artificial sets and sound design are a huge part of what make it so good.

[Magnum Valentino]

It helps liking the aesthetic side of the show on its own merits, too. I love the way it looks and, in particular, sounds. The shit foley and the music (which is not shit) are extremely comforting to me.