Cunk on Life

I am in such conflict here. I love the concept of the Cunk series -the mockumentary style. But the jokes are mostly toilet and genital humour that a 14 year old boy would be proud of.

What made the earlier Cunk mockumentaries quite riveting is that the humour might have had a smattering of genital and toilet humour but it was generally clever. In this special, it seems that the writers decided that virtually every word needed to have a double entendre. It simply felt very childish, silly and a sad, weak attempt at humour. The second serious problem is the too much repetition of Cunk's poor social skills in mentioning vile information using her ex boyfriend and now, a new character, her Aunt. This technique worked well when spaced across episodes. It lost it's impact compacted into a one hour special. Sadly, the, dare we call them 'thoughtful' real scientific information that was present, albeit briefly in each episode of earlier Cunk, was lost in this quest for a laugh a minute.

Having said all of that, Morgan is so brilliant an actor that her expressiveness alone is enough to create amusement. Thanks to her, this special is lifted higher than the writing deserves.

Just stepped up a gear from the other mockumentaries which I already loved.

Fair play to Charlie Brooker and the other writers - this was superb. I didn't stop laughing.

Every interview and comment was yet another gag, with absolutely no fluff or respite. Easily my favourite programme from Xmas 2024 - possibly the year.

Having chaptered elements through this extended version helped prevent this getting too stale.

You do wonder how much the interviewees are prepared for these. Do they know whats coming are are just told to keep a straight face - or are they told they need to dumb the answers down as if to a small child or Golden Retriever (Thanks Jeremy Irons for that line)

I'll start by saying that it is my style of humour but blow after blow leaves you limp and no longer interested.

It could have been a funny half hour show - that would be enough.

I enjoyed it at first, seemed witty and cheeky and funny but then it just starts to repeat and it's just painful.

This is my first Cunk to be fair so I didn't know what I was getting into.

I suspect that a lot of the 9-10 star reviews are by mega fans or maybe some involved in the production. But I get why some people would love it.

Like I said I did, it's funny, until it isn't Like Dad jokes, funny, 2nd one funny... but then pleases stop.

I noticed that some reviewers didn't like the jokes, but I laughed from beginning to end.

The reason this works for me is that she is dead serious when she asks the questions and the interviewees answer the questions without laughing.

I love all of her stuff. It's a shame that this got lower marks because I want her to keep on making these series.

I also find it exceedingly annoying that we have to type so many characters to leave a review.

I have nothing left to add to my review. Just came here to say that I found it hilarious and worth the watch despite some of the lower reviews. I'm not a someone who laughs at just anything. The bar is higher with me. So give it a try.

Philomena Cunk examines life and its meaning. By speaking to academics and other experts in their fields she looks at the big questions regarding life.

If you've watched Cunk on Earth you'll know what to expect: Philomena Cunk (Dianne Morgan) essentially asks absurdly silly but funny questions to some of the brightest people on the planet. If you've watched Da Ali G Show this will seem familiar as Cunk is derivative of that (and not as good).

However, despite not being entirely original it is pretty funny and entertaining. Dianne Morgan is great with spot-on timing.

Not as good as Cunk on Earth though. The set-ups are less intelligent, the humour cheaper and lower-brow and the experts less easily shocked.

Last time they seemed shocked at the silly questions but, to their credit, didn't lose their composure. Here they seemed to expect the silly questions (possibly they'd done their research and seen previous Cunk stuff) and rolled with it. Brian Cox, the eminent physicist, even seemed to be successfully anticipating where Cunk was going with her double entendre questions but played along anyway.