Whack my Bonobo! (Blue Jam)

Member Name: Boonoiy

Product:	Blue Jam
Date:	27/02/02 (480 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Surreal , Hillarious, Disturbing

Disadvantages: Not for the faint of heart

Oo Voovac Welcome

Oo welcome. Oo vudge welcome. In Blue Jam.

The scene is set, the time is right, channel 4 and Chris Morris get together for an absolute masterpiece of dark comedy.

I'll warn you now, there's a couple of swear words in this opinion - nothing too drastic and I've *'d out the worst of it, you just could not write about Jam without it!

So welcome, Oo welcome........

This show is really called "Jam" - Blue Jam was the TV Show's forerunner on the Radio but Jam it was and Jam it shall be whether Blue or not.

Jam ran for a very limited season, I believe that there was a total of 6 episodes made for TV which covered pretty much the entire radio series (running 18 weeks in 3 series).

I make no excuses for it: I believe Chris Morris to be an absolute genius, his satirical mind and his immense wit and charisma bring about some of the best visual masterpieces ever to grace the usually dreary screens of Britain's TV sets. From The Day Today and Brasseye to Blue Jam he has not missed once, he takes you to other places and makes you laugh out loud in places which should (if there were any sense of morality or normalcy in the world) make you feel sick to your stomach! Jam is such a visual feast:

The programme begins, usually with Chris sat in a large room like an aircraft hanger or warehouse, we hear the intro: Oo Voovac Welcome and the wierd strobe lights begin and the rapid edit cuts begin to mess with your mind straight away. We know we're in for a treat...

Blue Jam is like this throughout, a lot of very severe edits and very crazy lighting. It's essentially a sketch show but it is a LONG way from the 2 Ronnies!

I'll start off with a mild one:

Imagine, if you will, a normal street with a man walking down towards you, he's unhappy, agitated and explaining a distressing ordeal - this is the ever popular (and j
ust about my favourite one) "Fu**ing Noddy" sketch. Not live action, cut after cut of the actor coming down the road, stop motion photography if you like. He's describing a trip to his garage to pick up his car. We hear how he took it in (in a strong cockney accent - the best in which to rant) for a job to be done and then went in a few days later to pick it up - when he gets there the car is there but it's been miniturised!! But why? He has a row with the garage manager and is convinced that he's left to drive it away - I mean what am I? Fu**ing NODDY? - fade out and insert ~mood~ music. The viusal and musical effect of this is great and you need to hear it to get the full effect - believe me, it's worth a watch.

We move on, the sketches do not deal with one particular thing but then again nothing is taboo:

-An accidental murder causes a man to call for help, the help arrives in the form of a 7 year old girl with a foul mouth and a lot of streetwise.

-A porn star dies from a mystery desease known as the "Spurt" - unstoppable ejaculation in very graphic (albeit soft focus) detail.

-A sex scene - two lovers getting hot between the sheets and asking each other to do the most bizarre things you've ever heard, just think of demanding "Introduce me to Gladstone" next time you're in this situation or "Shit off your leg" and you'll be somewhere in the mind of Chris Morris...

Gladstone even replied!

This goes on, the themes vary, the camera angles help to distort what you're really seeing and the music is continuous - mellow tunes over beatings, heavier tunes in between scenes and quite a bit of trance/synthasized music in the stranger scenes.

There's no denying it, Chrias Morris has a unique style, the way he tackled Paedophilia in Brasseye shows his lack of fear for media outrage - this is now to be nominated for an award! Sh
ows what "they" know.

Visually stunning, mentally taxing, incredibly funny and clever and musically brilliant you have not lived if you have not seen this show! There's talk of a CD of the radio show's highlights (although what you could leave out is beyond me) and, if you see it, I'd highly reccomend getting a copy - buy it, borrow it steal it - just get to know Chris Morris's Blue Jam - you will not be disappointed!

It's for adults only and really should be locked FAR away from innocent little eyes!

Welcome............

















In Jam.

Cheers for reading :)

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