User reviews

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.

They must have lost the writers and producers that make Cunk on Earth a success. The jokes are all flat, and the timing that made all the jokes worth is nowhere to be found. Philomena seems like she's trying to force all the words out in rapid fire, not giving anything room to breathe. It's also turned from a fake documentary into a self aware comedy, which makes it a bit unbearable.

It gives off the vibe that someone wanted to pump out material after the recent success of Cunk on Earth, but didn't want to put in the prerequesite work to make it good again.

A pity, Diane deserves so much better. She's gone so far and has so much further to go.

Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) is discussing Life, the Universe and Everything with her many guests in a wide ranging conversation. The first twenty minutes is really Cunk on Religion. It can come off as Cunk making fun of religion. That part depends on the audience. The comedy is a bit scattered. The issue is that some of the experts are catching on to the premise and they're not all playing it correctly. On the other hand, Brian Cox is going full grouch and that is hilarious. Pump Up the Jam is fun in the Monty Python way. There is a chance that Cunk is getting diminishing returns. We'll see.

Cunk is back! Decades after the release of the Belgian techno anthem Pump up The Jam.

This time she takes on life. Asking important questions like:

• What percentage of people have a human body?

• Is it true that the most important thing humans can do is piss in their jeans?

• How many days after death is it okay to continue our day-to-day activities?

• In a just and moral society, is it better to kill one innocent person than to save one innocent person?

• What is a hole of colour?

• What makes me me and you you and us us and we we?

As always, this was a blast. Hilarious from start to finish. Very meta too. A great special.

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)

Ok can we talk about how amazing the professor from the Munch scene (Richard Thomson from University of Edinburgh) is though, he managed to keep the conversation going and almost communicated with Cunk successfully while holding respectful boundaries. You can tell he has such passion about art that he's more shocked even a bit hurt than offended by her opinions. Enjoyed this special because I'm a fan of the series, a bit overdone otherwise with the trying to be trendy parts and self-reference but still pretty funny, right now I want more of this series but also don't want more of this series. Required characters limit finally met so I can post!

Absolutely hilarious and actually very informative mockumentary.

Diane Morgan is a genius comedian and I love everything she does.

This show talks about Adam and Eve ,birth, reproduction,God and life on earth.

I was thinking, Diane should do more stuff, like dark comedy shows ,or comedy thriller series ,maybe something like" Bad Sisters",or "Dead to Me".

She's just so talented!!!

But until that will become a reality, (Wishful thinking) I will watch Cunk on life/Britain /Earth a few times a year, just to bring me joy and laughter ,as well as Mandy series which I hope the new season will come next year .

BBC has got of good stuff on it's iPlayer,but some shows like "Cunk on"are a gem.

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.

Philomena Cunk ! What a joy to see her again ! My facourite tv-reporter is back... I love her, she makes me laughing so much... As a French, she impersonates so well the British humour and non-sense.

I love the way she asks her stupid questions or deliver her lunatic comments with such a self-assurance and a very funny natural clown face.

I already enjoyed so much Cunk on Britain, and Planet Cunk. I hope being able to see some day Cunk on Shakespeare, and Cunk and Other Humans.

By the way, she can actually be heard in the brand new Wallace and Gromit (a wonderful gem !) in which se dubs a... TV-reporter ! Who and what else, ah ah !

Humor that resonates with me every single episode of Philomena style deadpan!!!! And she done it again! With Cunk you get the answer to the question, "What if Buster Keaton came back with audio and packed into a female form doing interviews?

Plus she has a posse on the sideline that are on-side with her!!!

She's found her stride with these series and is really doing a great job of milking it. Charlie Booker has got to be really proud that he had a part in getting her the attention she deserves.

The question I have after following Diane Morgan's brainchild alter ego, Philomena Cunk, ever since she showed up as a feature in one of Charlie Booker's end of year send ups is "Does she ever go out of character?" It's easy to imagine that she's probably doing Philomena around the clock and the footage for her projects are just biographical snippets from life.

Whatever the case, she makes me laugh till I tear up. And for that I thank her.

I love Cunk. I've seen all of her shows to date and love them all. I was so excited for the new one and put it on without a moment's hesitation.

And then... Just underwhelmed all the way. Jokes felt flat and repetitive. The experts are repeats and are clearly in on the joke by now that their reactions just don't feel sincere.

I'm not sure what's gone wrong behind the scenes, but the formula that worked so well, and was borrowed heavily from the Borat/Ali G playbook, didn't work here. Maybe it's me, maybe my expectations were too high, or maybe the ideas tank is dry and they're treading the same ground without anything new or fun left to do. Probably a bit of both.

It's a shame. I hope they can find their spark again. Until then, I'll continue to enjoy what was.

Cunk: "Am I wasting your time?" Dr Brian Cox: "Yes". I don't know how the people interviewed keep a straight face. They were all good sports. Some of the hilarity is the interviewed folks playing it straight and Cunk being annoyingly dim-witted. Diane inserts ad-lib and spontanious redirection in her interviews which is sometimes bang-on hilarious. The look of disbelief and/or confussion in the interviewee is priceless. I've watched Diane's special "Cunk on Britain" and "Cunk on Life" lives up to my expectations. I plan to look up her other work and watch that as well. Well done Diane and crew. I also like Diane's character on "After Life".

Very funny. But if you find it a little too funny, there are also some moments of despair. Cunk brings plenty of comedy to serious people with serious professions, and it always flies right over their heads. Brain Cox was particularly serious. That's too bad. Anyways, I just thought I'd recommend this show. It's for anyone looking for a way to not waste any time. It's well worth watching. You will certainly laugh. If you do not laugh, you will at least learn that you have no soul. Oh well. There are plenty of questions that don't need to be asked, and here is where you will find them. Don't believe me though. Just find out for your self. Watch it. Do it now. You won't regret it.

Part of the appeal of the Cunk series is that you do actually have to know something about the subject matter to get the jokes. The writers seem to have foregone that with some of the pieces here, and opted instead to go the easy route and try for the low-brow score.

Still, it's miles ahead of most of the stuff considered comedy these days and Morgan's delivery as always is spot on. It's refreshing to view something that doesn't have a laugh track, enacted by someone who apparently doesn't know how to laugh. I'm not sure how she can keep that deadpan look while delivering some of the funniest lines ever written, but Morgan manages it with apparent ease.

...it starts becoming more and more unhinged and completely justifying the decision to do another one. I would never have expected the crossover with that thing from that other British Netflix hit (no spoilers here) nor that kids song from that segment, I was rewarded in the best way for having watched all Philomena content more than once, and stepping out of the formula but not altering it felt FRESH. I simultaneously hope for more Cunk stuff and also think that there is nothing else that can be done and not seem repeating or reductive. But that is what I also felt when I saw the trailer, and I was wrong.

This is obviously not everyone's cup of tea, and this makes it even better.

All of the other Cunk videos were great and they were lots of laughs. This one had perhaps two laughs and unfortunately a lot of it was really annoying. Specifically the sex scene and the interview with the prisoner on death row, although I understand, the prisoner was played by an actor. The spontaneity is gone by which I mean the experts that she consults know that she's going to ask stupid questions so they don't even crack a smile on like the original series where they would start laughing.

And references to her boyfriend's penis and questions about the shape of poo were just gross. I don't recommend this one.

This mockumentary doesn't really add any information if you are decently educated and it's supposed to be funny but I guess it can be only if you "dislike" science and want to find a way to laugh on something that you can't fully understand.

The topics are potentially very interesting but none of them is really deepened and no question is really answered in this show.

The only part that I have found entertaining was to see how smart and professional the experts were even when they were asked the dumbest questions. Probably exactly the opposite of the author's intent which seemed to be to ridicule them, and that says a lot about the quality of this product.

Absolutely brilliant. Cunk discuss life with her own sense of comedy. Usually a myriad of informative documentary utilize hardly understanding professional words which confuse audiences and create a weary milieu

Cunk however leveraged her own sense of humor discussing from the different forms of religions in world, the evolution of human from different perspectives and subject, biology, physics, sociology, psychology, computer science and the list goes on.

The one hour-and-10 minutes film contains a cornucopia of punchlines and laughter which could distract you away from informative information. Cunk somehow exhibits an admirable audacity, unperturbed by the potential to vex seasoned professionals with inquiries that might be deemed trivial or stereotypical. Her relentless pursuit of unadulterated laughter, unfiltered and genuine, is a testament to her remarkable character.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short film, much appreciated.

I was waiting to see more from Diane Morgan after watching Cunk on Earth and Netflix just threw a beautiful surprise for us at the very start of the year!! Her sense of humor and comic timing is impeccable. The way she manages to tie up unrelated topics together and make it sound so funny is so amazing..I first saw her on death to 2020 , though she played a small character it was so memorable for me. I am waiting to see so much more from the amazing Philomena cunk world !! Netflix if you are reading this please give us more such gems in the comedy genre. Don't make us wait too long for the next one 😁