BBC’s ‘Cunk On Earth’ Mockumentary Is Brilliantly Stupid

“Was early man similar to us. I mean, was he made out of the same sort of meat that we are? Did he have a brand name like ‘beef’ or ‘pork’?” This is the first question Philomena, our guide to human civilization poses to a slew of ignorant experts. Her target in this instance is an archaeologist and author of “The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art,” It is a great thing to take it all in stride “All we have is bones, of course, and they’re exactly the same as our bones,” He continues on, he says. It’s a flabbergasting scene, sheer idiocy played with a straight face.

It’s also the opening salvo of the one mockumetary to rule them all: “Cunk on Earth,” Charlie Brooker created a BBC production of five episodes that he produced (perhaps to pay him for his execrable). “Twilight Zone”The -wannabe series “Black Mirror”It was recently added to Netflix.

Miss Cunk has been portrayed by Diane Morgan, an English actress for over a decade. She is confident and completely ignorant about almost everything. With supreme self-confidence, she takes her audience, episode by episode, through the defining moments of civilization, from the invention of writing to the moon landing, all the while displaying a brash certitude that doesn’t bother about such trifles as facts. Philomena Cunk alone slays the culture war urgency by showing that there is no common culture. And she’s hilarious.

It has been a long time since there were great cross-cultural exchanges between British culture and American culture. “South Park” Oder “Monty Python.” What “Cunk on Earth” It achieves something different. It tears down the notion that there is anything like a shared Western culture anymore — or even a possibility of any shared human culture.

Take a look at the episode “Mecha-Streisand,” In the first season “South Park,” It combines Japanese soft-pop with bad American pop. Kaiju flicks, and English new-wave music, all in a crashing dénouement complete with toppled skyscrapers. It’s great fun, making mockery of these strands of human artistry (though musician Robert Smith Does come across as the hero. But it’s played for mere comedy. The implications of what it’s saying aren’t clear, if there are any at all.

“Cunk” Shows its hand from the start: “Ancient people invented currency to make life on Earth easier, but in doing so we inadvertently invented capitalism, which is gonna kill everyone. Sorry, that’s not a question. It’s just something I read on Twitter.”

Cunk makes her statement. Cunk blinks once as her would-be interlocutor is a professor of ancient Middle Eastern History. Because there is no way to meet minds, there is no communication. You have to wonder if Cunk has a mind, properly speaking — a cultivated ground of thought and reason, fructified by past wisdom. Well, you don’t really — she doesn’t. What’s funny about it is that the show comes right out and shows us what it’s doing. History as a concept is now reduced to the noise of social networking.

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