The Mighty Boosh season 3 episode 6 (The Chokes) review

The continued good/bad episode routine of this third season of the Boosh carries on as we unfortunately reach the final episode of the current run. Returning to the self-indulgence of the Flighty Zeus episode, the main plot of this week’s show involves Vince trying to get into the world’s tightest drainpipe trousers to become the lead singer of the Black Tubes – a band made up of young indie-pop types that that Noel Fielding is mates with in real life. The vacancy was created when their lead singer ‘accidentally’ got mauled by a familiar gorilla and run over by a Shaman in van (35 times). If somebody could name any of these young cool dudes for me, it would be greatly appreciated. Being in my early 30s, I am far too old and unhip to know about stuff like this (I’ll get back to my pipe and slippers).

As Vince sets his sights on stardom, Howard aims for artistic recognition by trying to act his way into getting a role in post-modern art director’s, Jurgen Haabermaaster’s, new work after watching his new 7 hour film on BBC4. There is, however, one problem: Howard is probably the worst actor in the world. To exacerbate the problem, he also suffers from ‘the Chokes’, meaning he freezes up when even a small audience is watching. There’s one chance for Howard to improve his acting skills after a change meeting with the insane former actor Montgomery Flange. We get the obligatory 80s training montage scene deep in Monty’s secret wilderness fortress where we get to see Howard put to the test with the difficult and taxing ‘Pencil Test.’

So two mediocre plots and a lot of self-indulgence so far, it looks like things aren’t going too well for this episode at all. So what is there to like this week? Well, not very much at all, really. Gags fall flat, we get no crimping, no Shamans, no cartoon, not even a bit of fun. After last week’s comedy-packed party episode, this episode is really, well, a bit crap.

Much as I hate to say something is crap, this episode is. It has no redeeming features and, even worse, the moon isn’t funny! Even the finale at the Velvet Onion is rubbish with the ‘star’ of the show (and nemesis of Monty Flange) Sammy the Crab being a real let-down, nowhere near as good as any of the other bad guys of the series (even if he did do 11 encores). It’s a real shame that this series ended on such an unfunny episode. Even if we did get a cameo from Bob Fossil and Bollo getting down and walking like Egyptians, this was hardly the best way to end what has been a patchy series. I really do like the Boosh: it’s fantastical fun and I find it full of shiny objects that distract me from these cold winter nights. I love the Shamans, the fun stories, the magic and fun and coolness of it all but, like Christmas itself, too much self-indulgence is a bad thing. In my opinion, this was the worst episode of the entire series.

Come on boys, bring back the magic for the tour next year!