I always thought that the programmes issuing from the stable of Baby Cow Productions didn't quite live up to the comic standard set by their founder, Steve Coogan, in The Day Today and I'm Alan Partridge. Ok, so a smile played over my lips during Marian and Geoff, The Mighty Boosh still doesn't really tickle my funny bone although I know plenty of people for whom it does, and the outtakes of Nighty Night are probably more amusing than the programme itself in my opinion. Lots of Baby Cow programmes specialise in comedically uncomfortable territory, the divorced cab driver ostracised from his kids (Marion and Geoff); the murderous, morally bankrupt, self-centred slutbag (Nighty Night); a whole host of educationally subnormal or sexually deviant misfits (Human Remains). Attempting to get laughs out of these excruciating social types didn't wash with me. It's not that it's beyond me, it just isn't funny to me. And I am a fully-fledged graduate of the school of Brasseye, the progenitor of this kind of show and one which I watched originally in the mid-nineties as a mid-teen teenager.
But Baby Cow's Ideal (BBC3 - I know) has been slowly going up in my estimation until yesterday, when it struck me that it really is a challenging, and dark, and unique, as well as very, very funny programme. During last night's episode, my uncomfortable laugh was also a genuine one during the most hilarious conversation about necrophilia that has ever been scripted (The necrophiliac's rationale? "Normal sex disgusts me"). Anyone who read my blog about the drug dealer I knew who appeared on Trisha and recognised their own experiences in it, will know that I was talking about those people who have no intention of ever contributing more to society beyond making sure that everyone who wants it is sorted for skunk. There are loads of them, and they do not fit the media portrayal of dangerous individuals hanging outside schoolgates; they are mums, and people on the dole, and utterly harmless. Ideal depicts just such a character - a stoner who deals to chavs and trustafarians alike - the sort of person whom society renders invisible, but who holds a crucial place in many of its members' lives. That's one reason why this programme should have been made. Laughter is derived partly from recognition, and I recognise the Vegas character. But it's the writing on top of this which makes Ideal pretty special. I repeat, they made necrophilia comic. And not in a Jam way, not in an involuntarily-emitting-startled-barks-as-you-squirm-on-the-sofa way (I'm thinking of the plumber who fixes the dead baby). Actually, truly, really funny. To me anyway. In fact, its the only comedy I rate on TV at the moment. Honestly, whatever your feelings about Vegas, I suggest giving it a go.
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