Snuff Box: The
Complete Series (2006/Severin
DVD/CD Set)
Picture: B- Sound:
B-/B (CD) Extras: A Episodes: B-
Looking for sketch comedy that is both weirder and rawer
than Kids in the Hall and Upright Citizens Brigade? Snuff Box delivers. The show is the creation of American Rich
Fulcher and Britain’s Matt Berry. Both
Fulcher (Mighty Boosh, Sarah Silverman) and Berry (IT
Crowd and Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place)
possess plenty of experience for the form, and this series shows off what the
two can do when completely unfettered by the bounds of convention, good taste,
or any other kind of break. At the
direction of Michael Cumming, the pair play a series of bizarre characters that
run the gamut from terrible, self-taught musicians to twisted Victorian
gentlemen.
The sketches in this short collection of episodes range
from bizarrely hilarious to confusingly obtuse, but the weight of the good
stuff overwhelms the stuff that’s too weird to laugh at. Some of the humor
reaches does not merely cross boundaries of good taste, it pisses on them as it
goes by. The Russian Roulette “Blood Money” mini-sketch is one of the
ones that will probably cross many people’s lines. The diary reading sequence also comes to
mind.
The strangely funny “Rapper
with a Baby” sketch (including lyrics penned by Mr. Berry himself) is at
once funny and disturbing. Mr. Fuclher’s
funniest moments come when he plays himself as bumbling single trying to date
different women, and as he fouls up, a weedy, officious looking fellow appears
with a clipboard to grade his performance. Mr. Berry enjoys so many great moments in the
show it’s hard to single out just one, but his sequences as a member of the Mommas
and the Poppas interspersed with him practicing moves from the Kama Sutra with
a lovely young blond rank right up there.
Plenty of quality extra material is packed into this set,
including an accompanying audio CD soundtrack. Included is Mr. Berry explaining how he wrote
the score for the show. This is classic
Berry, showing his genius as a comic and his talent for music in one go. He literally plays the “character” Matt
Berry, musical comedian, as he explains the mechanics of writing the show’s
music. His singing voice nearly equals
his amazing speaking voice, revealing even greater depths of the man’s talent
pool. Among the other extras include
some hilarious faux-testimonials.
Jaded fans of sketch comedy will find a lot to like in Snuff Box. It’s weird, edgy, strange, inscrutable, and
ultimately pretty damn funny.
- Scott Pyle
