I love Peep Show. Brilliant writing and endlessly quotable.
The author is correct about Mark and Jez standing in the long line of male humiliation which has been the backbone of British comedy for decades. However, he needs to go back further than Basil Fawlty.
In my opinion, the key postwar moment is Galton and Simpson’s creation, with its star, of Hancock’s Half Hour. Originally on radio in the 1950s. Hancock is the paterfamilias of all the delusional failures who follow. Men who are at odds with the modern world they nevertheless aspire to conquer in small and petty ways. Which even so, still always turn out to be ambitions outstripping their meagre talents.
There probably is something in the idea that they are allegories for Britian’s postwar decline. But I also think they speak of an endearing stoicism in the British male character. In Peep Show, Mark tells Jez in one episode, “Listen Jeremy. Nothing you want is ever going to happen. This is the real world.” But still they carry on each week, believing things might just get better. Just as Harold Steptoe, Basil Fawlty, David Brent and all the rest did.
Were Peter Cook and Dudley Moore before Hancock? I can’t now remember, but I’ll never forget those two on a park bench, Pete n Dud, with Dud in a black oilskin mac. Surely they were champion losers, and I think Cook the greatest comic genius we’ve ever had.
The “long line of male humiliation” in British comedy goes back a long way, long before the mid-century era. Diary of a Nobody, Three Men in a Boat, etc.
Hugh Bryant
7 months ago
Nice article – but the notion that our comedy arises out of nostalgia for empire is getting more than a little bit tired. The British middle class represented by David Mitchell loathes itself because it knows it has become parasitic, dependant on artificial house price inflation and money printing and the barrier to blue collar aspiration of largely worthless ‘soft’ university degrees. We laugh at ourselves because the alternative is to cry.
J Bryant
7 months ago
Despite never having heard of this show, I wanted to leave a comment congratulating the author on such a witty and engaging article. I just checked my local library catalogue and, incredibly, there’s a DVD of the first series of Peep Show (although no subsequent series). I’ll check it out.
No doubt I’m being a crass American, but from the author’s description, the show sounds like a UK version of Seinfeld: shallow, amoral people engaged in rather fruitless lives. As Seinfeld memorably said when pitching his own show to TV executives: yes, it’s a show about nothing.
I agree about the quality of writing in this piece. I’m an Englishman but have never watched it either; i don’t intend to look it up, being vaguely aware of its existence but too busy living to be bothered with it.
The one thing i’d disagree with the author about is the timing of this type of comedy. It’s present in Shakespeare, and not a product of “hankering after lost empire” which i always find to be something of a lazy trope. It’s more universal than that.
…and not a product of “hankering after lost empire” which i always find to be something of a lazy trope. It’s more universal than that…”
Yes, thanks for saying that. Saves me the trouble. I don’t know why people insist on claiming that the English yearn after our former empire.
It must surely be clear to most people that the empire was a pain in the arse when we had it, and it has been an even bigger pain in the arse ever since.
Indeed. I offer as an example, the delusional Malvolio, cruelly mocked by his staff for his unrequited passion for Olivia.
The greatest of Shakespeare’s tragic comics has no modern equivalent, though – Falstaff; possibly because he is so much a man of his time.
Falstaff was once, it seems, a man of real consequence. He is still wealthy. However the changes of Royal patronage have left him dependent upon the obnoxious, self-centred Prince Hal.
He is also disillusioned about his past, as his soliloquy about the nature of honour shows.
The modern age has no heroes. Its gods and idols are false, with feet of clay. Consider an earlier ensemble comedy of huge popularity, Dad’s Army. This is based around a core of older men (and they would mostly have been in their late 40s or 50s) who once faced hideous things because they thought it right to do so.
Wilson, Fraser and Godfrey are combat veterans. There is a clear implication that there are others in the platoon. Jones is an addled veteran of long-past wars who today, would be regarded as a PTSD victim. Mainwaring, although not a combat veteran and generally shown as a pompous wind-bag confronts a German officer with a pistol, in the full belief that the pistol is loaded.
During the “German invasion” episode, several of the platoon prepare to conduct a “rear-guard” action against a (actually non-existent) German tank supported by infantry, in the full recognition that they are probably going upon their deaths, open-eyed and because they believe it right to do so.
This is particularly important because it is a portrayal of WW2 combat troops, BY actors who were themselves veterans (Fraser of Arctic convoys; Godfrey, of the actual WW1 trenches, Jones an infantryman and ex-PoW)
They also recognise Msinwaring to be a fool and a blowhard, but support him when it matters.
Don’t watch it with minors or elderly family members. It has very grown-up themes and can be very crude and crass. I watched a couple of episodes before deciding I hated it.
I’m an American, too (although not crass, I hope), and a huge fan of “Peep Show”. It is absolutely nothing like “Seinfeld”, which is brilliant in its own unique way.
Even though there’s a selfishness to the Seinfeld characters, the overall attitude is sunny, light, and the characters genuinely love each other. Ostensible “loser” George has a big deal job with the New York Yankees and later teams with his super successful comedian best friend to write a TV pilot. Elaine’s job as an editor leads to a right-hand-man position with a famous catalogue personality. Kramer, who is unemployed but somehow never at a loss for money, becomes a Calvin Klein underwear model and coffee table book author.
Mark and Jez’s bleak, hopeless mediocrity stands in stark difference to the bouncy optimism of “Seinfeld”, and its sharp wit and excellent acting by Mitchell and Webb is the absolute body and soul of the show. I love the author’s Godot analogy – quite apt.
Mitchell and Webb’s other partnerships are equally good, and I recommend all of them, including the wonderful but inexplicably short-lived series, “The Ambassadors”. Their book is really funny, too.
I do take issue with Victor Meldrew being included in the list with David Brent and Basil Fawlty. To me Victor was a much more gentle character who despaired of and was frustrated by the modern world and all its stupidity, lack of manners and general weirdness. I would have liked Victor in real life.
Nick Wade
7 months ago
Peep Show was hilarious. The cringeworthy nature of the show comes from the fact that, much as with Homer Simpson, we can all see a little bit of ourselves in Jez and Mark.
James Hooper
7 months ago
A genius, ‘toe curling’ piece of television that totally nails the periphery characters too. Check out Paterson Joseph’s “Johnson’ and anyone that’s worked in an office for any period of time will start to experiencing signs of PTSD……
Also worth noting that the genesis of Succession started here. Jess Armstrong wrote both……
Johnson : Just wanted to drop by and say “Have fun.” Tonight should be a free-fire idea zone. Watch a DVD, eat some pizza, f**k each other. I’m serious. F*ck a chicken if that’s what it takes. Watch a chicken f*cking a horse. What? You think the guys who invented Google sat around watching Trumpton?Mark Corrigan : [voiceover] Oh, he is good. Taboo-busting, semi-incomprehensible pep talk.Yes, this kind of stuff actually exists……
“Don’t be alarmed, Mark, it’s just Tai Chi, take a seat and I’ll just power through.
It should take 45 minutes, I’m done in 10. Stick that up your dojo!”
Tragedy is premised on the idea that moral law is a real objective thing and is just as inexorable as physical law, and that when we contravene it, at some deep level we don’t really deserve whatever punishment it metes out.
Comedy concurs on the existence of moral law, but holds, by contrast, that when we break it we deserve, one hundred percent, right down to our toes, whatever we get, and probably then some.
Gordon Arta
7 months ago
Shows such as those mentioned, with male central characters, male writers, and male producers, simply demonstrate that British men can laugh at themselves and their, wildly exaggerated, absurdities. Women can’t do that, nor can other nationalities, and the adaptations of Alf Garnet and David Brent – pale imitations of the originals – show.
Actually Americans do a pretty good job of it, too
Watch Best in Show or any of the comedies of Christopher Guest.
Also, the best American comedy ever: Arrested Development.
I’m not so sure … Mrs Bucket (Keeping Up Appearances), Diana Trent (Waiting for God – and she’s who I want to be when I get there), Carolyn Knapp-Shappey (Cabin Pressure (the last good comedy ever on Radio 4 – and another Stephanie Cole masterclass)
All women characters with certain ideas about themselves, but also with self awareness, and in the case of “the Bucket woman”, a hinterland of relatives and other characters intent on puncturing her balloon of self-importance by their mere existence.
The only American series that comes close to the subtlety of British humour is “Frasier”, but not the reboot. That looks PC and dire …
“Women can’t do that”? So not true. Absolutely Fabulous comes to mind as one, In Australia Kath and Kim, The Carol Burnett show, I love Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore in the US, Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances and on and on.
‘Frasier’ is a masterclass in the highly humourous and witty mocking of male pretension.
Sonny Ramadhin
7 months ago
I loved the peep show in the later years. Found it a bit strange when I was younger. I scene I remember so well is of Mark struggling to bring himself to terms with using an un-PC term to refer to a Chinese takeaway. It seemed so strange as the term was common place where I was from and never used to be disparaging. The term has now disappeared almost all together and seems so strange to say. On reflection, it is not possible to see what was so wrong, you must take someone else’s opinion that is wrong. You must cede to those who claim to know better and speak on behalf of the unheard.
The author hints at the time period of the show in terms of the ongoings in politics. Almost as if to suggest that the Blair government was the main driver in the feeling and nostalgia towards the early 21st century.
I see this period as the last before the digital age. This I why I believe the show may have grown out of cult popularity. I remember this as a better time because people were still people. Everyday interactions were still allowed by technology. The smartphone since represented a step change following decades of gradual evolution.
Britain wasn’t divided by Brexit, it was divided by the iPhone. The introduction of the iPhone was the breaking of the dam that allowed the power of technology to wash away humanity, carrying Brexit and the rest with it. The 90s & 00s were the pre-modern age of the good before the bad.
I think you’ve found the chink in the author’s argument.
Paul Cree
7 months ago
Spot on. I was a late convert, dismissed it when it first aired. However, I got really into it. It’s brilliant.
Both Jez and Mark are like symbols for the worst excesses of us all, particularly politically. Both inept, narcissistic, deluded and selfish.
I still quote Peep Show, so much
Marissa M
7 months ago
Brilliant show.
The Brits are so likable when they make dry fun of themselves vs. being represented by foppish and unrelatable characters played by Hugh Grant types.
Sue Ross
7 months ago
Well, that’s as maybe, but it’s still the best comedy show ever and that’s enough for me.
I AM James Bond.
Chris Hayes
7 months ago
Peep Show: the Radiohead of comedy.
Frank McCusker
7 months ago
F Towers and Inbetweeners are hysterical. Peep Show was funny as well, but had an all-pervasive gloom about it which rather spoilt it for me, certainly by comparison to the other two.
Chris Hayes
7 months ago
To paraphrase…all comedy is humiliation…if it’s any good. And in this regard Peep Show humiliated everyone: including the viewer from time to time. I loved it.
Emre S
7 months ago
I’ve always seen Peep Show as a criticism of the supposedly triumphalist Neoliberalism of the time. In the light of everything that’s happened since then, Peep Show almost feels naively optimistic to me today despite its cringe humour and cynicism.
Last edited 7 months ago by Emre S
Mark Gilmour
7 months ago
First two seasons are brilliant black satire. The toe curling scene in which Mark attempts to leave an answering machine message for Sophie in his risible attempts to woo her is brilliant writing – so relatable you feel every moment of Mark’s pain.
From Season 3 onwards the writers ramped up the elements of farce which some prefer but not I.
I remember enjoying the 3rd and 4th seasons quite a bit too – but I think around then it had its ‘jump the shark’ moment when Jez ate that dog.
Tyler Durden
7 months ago
What a strangely scathing eye to cast on a largely insipid if harmlessly beign British comedy. Is this Year Zero generational warfare again, where all that came before internet cultural activism must be attacked then discarded as decadence in need of political purification?
No, it’s comedy for everybody. The characters aren’t even losers, they’re all simply deeply flawed
Andrew Boughton
7 months ago
“Is itcthe bad English weather?” Or perhaps something analogous and just as prosaic, 100 years of unrelenting Marxist feminism being finally internalised? The appeal to women being someone to blame, after the untimely death of God, for the difficulty and pain of life.
And instead of “praise Him, praise Him” more “braise him, braise him!”
I stopped watching British sit-comedy with Fawlty Towers. Whatever you might think of the attitudes that satirised, it did rise above everyday life. Having said that, maybe it is time to build a series about an arch-brexiteer, say modelled on Nigel Farage (is he still in this country?).
I love Peep Show. Brilliant writing and endlessly quotable.
The author is correct about Mark and Jez standing in the long line of male humiliation which has been the backbone of British comedy for decades. However, he needs to go back further than Basil Fawlty.
In my opinion, the key postwar moment is Galton and Simpson’s creation, with its star, of Hancock’s Half Hour. Originally on radio in the 1950s. Hancock is the paterfamilias of all the delusional failures who follow. Men who are at odds with the modern world they nevertheless aspire to conquer in small and petty ways. Which even so, still always turn out to be ambitions outstripping their meagre talents.
There probably is something in the idea that they are allegories for Britian’s postwar decline. But I also think they speak of an endearing stoicism in the British male character. In Peep Show, Mark tells Jez in one episode, “Listen Jeremy. Nothing you want is ever going to happen. This is the real world.” But still they carry on each week, believing things might just get better. Just as Harold Steptoe, Basil Fawlty, David Brent and all the rest did.
Spot on. Hancock was a comic genius and the first of this long line of great comedy losers.
Were Peter Cook and Dudley Moore before Hancock? I can’t now remember, but I’ll never forget those two on a park bench, Pete n Dud, with Dud in a black oilskin mac. Surely they were champion losers, and I think Cook the greatest comic genius we’ve ever had.
The “long line of male humiliation” in British comedy goes back a long way, long before the mid-century era. Diary of a Nobody, Three Men in a Boat, etc.
Nice article – but the notion that our comedy arises out of nostalgia for empire is getting more than a little bit tired. The British middle class represented by David Mitchell loathes itself because it knows it has become parasitic, dependant on artificial house price inflation and money printing and the barrier to blue collar aspiration of largely worthless ‘soft’ university degrees. We laugh at ourselves because the alternative is to cry.
Despite never having heard of this show, I wanted to leave a comment congratulating the author on such a witty and engaging article. I just checked my local library catalogue and, incredibly, there’s a DVD of the first series of Peep Show (although no subsequent series). I’ll check it out.
No doubt I’m being a crass American, but from the author’s description, the show sounds like a UK version of Seinfeld: shallow, amoral people engaged in rather fruitless lives. As Seinfeld memorably said when pitching his own show to TV executives: yes, it’s a show about nothing.
I agree about the quality of writing in this piece. I’m an Englishman but have never watched it either; i don’t intend to look it up, being vaguely aware of its existence but too busy living to be bothered with it.
The one thing i’d disagree with the author about is the timing of this type of comedy. It’s present in Shakespeare, and not a product of “hankering after lost empire” which i always find to be something of a lazy trope. It’s more universal than that.
…and not a product of “hankering after lost empire” which i always find to be something of a lazy trope. It’s more universal than that…”
Yes, thanks for saying that. Saves me the trouble. I don’t know why people insist on claiming that the English yearn after our former empire.
It must surely be clear to most people that the empire was a pain in the arse when we had it, and it has been an even bigger pain in the arse ever since.
Indeed. I offer as an example, the delusional Malvolio, cruelly mocked by his staff for his unrequited passion for Olivia.
The greatest of Shakespeare’s tragic comics has no modern equivalent, though – Falstaff; possibly because he is so much a man of his time.
Falstaff was once, it seems, a man of real consequence. He is still wealthy. However the changes of Royal patronage have left him dependent upon the obnoxious, self-centred Prince Hal.
He is also disillusioned about his past, as his soliloquy about the nature of honour shows.
The modern age has no heroes. Its gods and idols are false, with feet of clay. Consider an earlier ensemble comedy of huge popularity, Dad’s Army. This is based around a core of older men (and they would mostly have been in their late 40s or 50s) who once faced hideous things because they thought it right to do so.
Wilson, Fraser and Godfrey are combat veterans. There is a clear implication that there are others in the platoon. Jones is an addled veteran of long-past wars who today, would be regarded as a PTSD victim. Mainwaring, although not a combat veteran and generally shown as a pompous wind-bag confronts a German officer with a pistol, in the full belief that the pistol is loaded.
During the “German invasion” episode, several of the platoon prepare to conduct a “rear-guard” action against a (actually non-existent) German tank supported by infantry, in the full recognition that they are probably going upon their deaths, open-eyed and because they believe it right to do so.
This is particularly important because it is a portrayal of WW2 combat troops, BY actors who were themselves veterans (Fraser of Arctic convoys; Godfrey, of the actual WW1 trenches, Jones an infantryman and ex-PoW)
They also recognise Msinwaring to be a fool and a blowhard, but support him when it matters.
Don’t watch it with minors or elderly family members. It has very grown-up themes and can be very crude and crass. I watched a couple of episodes before deciding I hated it.
I’m going to hazard a guess that there is a high correlation with fans of Infinite Jest.
Nah it’s not that high-brow
I’m an American, too (although not crass, I hope), and a huge fan of “Peep Show”. It is absolutely nothing like “Seinfeld”, which is brilliant in its own unique way.
Even though there’s a selfishness to the Seinfeld characters, the overall attitude is sunny, light, and the characters genuinely love each other. Ostensible “loser” George has a big deal job with the New York Yankees and later teams with his super successful comedian best friend to write a TV pilot. Elaine’s job as an editor leads to a right-hand-man position with a famous catalogue personality. Kramer, who is unemployed but somehow never at a loss for money, becomes a Calvin Klein underwear model and coffee table book author.
Mark and Jez’s bleak, hopeless mediocrity stands in stark difference to the bouncy optimism of “Seinfeld”, and its sharp wit and excellent acting by Mitchell and Webb is the absolute body and soul of the show. I love the author’s Godot analogy – quite apt.
Mitchell and Webb’s other partnerships are equally good, and I recommend all of them, including the wonderful but inexplicably short-lived series, “The Ambassadors”. Their book is really funny, too.
You’ve sold me on it!
I shall stick to reruns of Yes, Minister and Mr Bean.
Careful. It’ll kill you.
I do take issue with Victor Meldrew being included in the list with David Brent and Basil Fawlty. To me Victor was a much more gentle character who despaired of and was frustrated by the modern world and all its stupidity, lack of manners and general weirdness. I would have liked Victor in real life.
Peep Show was hilarious. The cringeworthy nature of the show comes from the fact that, much as with Homer Simpson, we can all see a little bit of ourselves in Jez and Mark.
A genius, ‘toe curling’ piece of television that totally nails the periphery characters too. Check out Paterson Joseph’s “Johnson’ and anyone that’s worked in an office for any period of time will start to experiencing signs of PTSD……
Also worth noting that the genesis of Succession started here. Jess Armstrong wrote both……
“People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can’t trust people Jeremy!”
Johnson : Just wanted to drop by and say “Have fun.” Tonight should be a free-fire idea zone. Watch a DVD, eat some pizza, f**k each other. I’m serious. F*ck a chicken if that’s what it takes. Watch a chicken f*cking a horse. What? You think the guys who invented Google sat around watching Trumpton?Mark Corrigan : [voiceover] Oh, he is good. Taboo-busting, semi-incomprehensible pep talk.Yes, this kind of stuff actually exists……
“Don’t be alarmed, Mark, it’s just Tai Chi, take a seat and I’ll just power through.
It should take 45 minutes, I’m done in 10. Stick that up your dojo!”
Absolutely. Peep Show has a brilliant recurring cast of supporting characters. Johnson, Super Hans, Gerald, Dobbie, Sophie, Geoff etc.
You’re NEVER… TAKING… THE GAGGIA!
Tragedy is premised on the idea that moral law is a real objective thing and is just as inexorable as physical law, and that when we contravene it, at some deep level we don’t really deserve whatever punishment it metes out.
Comedy concurs on the existence of moral law, but holds, by contrast, that when we break it we deserve, one hundred percent, right down to our toes, whatever we get, and probably then some.
Shows such as those mentioned, with male central characters, male writers, and male producers, simply demonstrate that British men can laugh at themselves and their, wildly exaggerated, absurdities. Women can’t do that, nor can other nationalities, and the adaptations of Alf Garnet and David Brent – pale imitations of the originals – show.
Actually Americans do a pretty good job of it, too
Watch Best in Show or any of the comedies of Christopher Guest.
Also, the best American comedy ever: Arrested Development.
Curb too.
It’s a total myth that Americans can’t do humour.
AD and CYE are both awesomely funny.
I’m not so sure … Mrs Bucket (Keeping Up Appearances), Diana Trent (Waiting for God – and she’s who I want to be when I get there), Carolyn Knapp-Shappey (Cabin Pressure (the last good comedy ever on Radio 4 – and another Stephanie Cole masterclass)
All women characters with certain ideas about themselves, but also with self awareness, and in the case of “the Bucket woman”, a hinterland of relatives and other characters intent on puncturing her balloon of self-importance by their mere existence.
The only American series that comes close to the subtlety of British humour is “Frasier”, but not the reboot. That looks PC and dire …
“Women can’t do that”? So not true. Absolutely Fabulous comes to mind as one, In Australia Kath and Kim, The Carol Burnett show, I love Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore in the US, Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances and on and on.
‘Frasier’ is a masterclass in the highly humourous and witty mocking of male pretension.
I loved the peep show in the later years. Found it a bit strange when I was younger. I scene I remember so well is of Mark struggling to bring himself to terms with using an un-PC term to refer to a Chinese takeaway. It seemed so strange as the term was common place where I was from and never used to be disparaging. The term has now disappeared almost all together and seems so strange to say. On reflection, it is not possible to see what was so wrong, you must take someone else’s opinion that is wrong. You must cede to those who claim to know better and speak on behalf of the unheard.
The author hints at the time period of the show in terms of the ongoings in politics. Almost as if to suggest that the Blair government was the main driver in the feeling and nostalgia towards the early 21st century.
I see this period as the last before the digital age. This I why I believe the show may have grown out of cult popularity. I remember this as a better time because people were still people. Everyday interactions were still allowed by technology. The smartphone since represented a step change following decades of gradual evolution.
Britain wasn’t divided by Brexit, it was divided by the iPhone. The introduction of the iPhone was the breaking of the dam that allowed the power of technology to wash away humanity, carrying Brexit and the rest with it. The 90s & 00s were the pre-modern age of the good before the bad.
I think you’ve found the chink in the author’s argument.
Spot on. I was a late convert, dismissed it when it first aired. However, I got really into it. It’s brilliant.
Both Jez and Mark are like symbols for the worst excesses of us all, particularly politically. Both inept, narcissistic, deluded and selfish.
I still quote Peep Show, so much
Brilliant show.
The Brits are so likable when they make dry fun of themselves vs. being represented by foppish and unrelatable characters played by Hugh Grant types.
Well, that’s as maybe, but it’s still the best comedy show ever and that’s enough for me.
I AM James Bond.
Peep Show: the Radiohead of comedy.
F Towers and Inbetweeners are hysterical. Peep Show was funny as well, but had an all-pervasive gloom about it which rather spoilt it for me, certainly by comparison to the other two.
To paraphrase…all comedy is humiliation…if it’s any good. And in this regard Peep Show humiliated everyone: including the viewer from time to time. I loved it.
I’ve always seen Peep Show as a criticism of the supposedly triumphalist Neoliberalism of the time. In the light of everything that’s happened since then, Peep Show almost feels naively optimistic to me today despite its cringe humour and cynicism.
First two seasons are brilliant black satire. The toe curling scene in which Mark attempts to leave an answering machine message for Sophie in his risible attempts to woo her is brilliant writing – so relatable you feel every moment of Mark’s pain.
From Season 3 onwards the writers ramped up the elements of farce which some prefer but not I.
I remember enjoying the 3rd and 4th seasons quite a bit too – but I think around then it had its ‘jump the shark’ moment when Jez ate that dog.
What a strangely scathing eye to cast on a largely insipid if harmlessly beign British comedy. Is this Year Zero generational warfare again, where all that came before internet cultural activism must be attacked then discarded as decadence in need of political purification?
So is this comedy for losers?
No, it’s comedy for everybody. The characters aren’t even losers, they’re all simply deeply flawed
“Is itcthe bad English weather?” Or perhaps something analogous and just as prosaic, 100 years of unrelenting Marxist feminism being finally internalised? The appeal to women being someone to blame, after the untimely death of God, for the difficulty and pain of life.
And instead of “praise Him, praise Him” more “braise him, braise him!”
OMG!!
I stopped watching British sit-comedy with Fawlty Towers. Whatever you might think of the attitudes that satirised, it did rise above everyday life. Having said that, maybe it is time to build a series about an arch-brexiteer, say modelled on Nigel Farage (is he still in this country?).
I think Alan Partridge would definitely have voted Brexit
And Alan B’stard