The Cutprice Guignol

I’m very sorry to have to tell you this, but I’m afraid to say that you’re going to have to drop everything you’re doing right now and watch Funboys.

Created by Rian Lennon and Ryan Dylan, who also star, Funboys follows a group of early-twenties male friends in Northern Ireland. – the haplessly pathetic but well-meaning Callum (Dylan), wise and earthy Lorcan (Lee R. James, in the best hair this side of Drag Race), and monstrous manchild Jordan (Lennon) as they navigate through life, sex, friendship, and work, alongside Lorcan’s girlfriend Gemma (Ele Mackenzie). It’s exactly the kind of loose, open-ended premise that could so easily fall into rambling blandness without a distinct approach to point it in the right direction, but, thankfully, the show is built around some of the best, strangest, and daftest comedy writing I’ve ever seen.

Look, I’ll just cut to the chase: Funboys is one of the funniest fucking shows I’ve seen in ages, and I need everyone else to get on it instantly so we’re guaranteed a third season. Even though both series so far are short at just four episodes apiece, they pack in the most tilted and brilliant wit that spans everything from ridiculous potty humour to the lyrical life advise with gleeful lunacy, the mild, underplayed performances of the leading cast serving as this perfect counterpoint to the absurdity of the subject matter.

It’s billed as a sitcom, but that doesn’t feel entirely accurate for just how strange Dylan and Lennon get with this show. We’re talking the spirit of a pig Mufasa-ing it up in the sky, humiliation kinks taken to a place you never seen nor wanted to see them taken before, geese in jumpsuits, the lot. There’s an entire episode who’s main plot is basically a very well-acted historical drama taking place against the backdrop of a rural museum, played completely straight in a way that only makes it all the more absurd and hysterical as a result. With such a broad range, there are a few gags that miss the mark (the first season ends on a particularly eye-rolling “wouldn’t it be funny if something went up a man’s bum?!” bit that I am ready to see die a death for good already), but it’s a show that very swiftly nails its identity and revels in its absolute weirdness in every episode after that.

Small towns and communities have proved ever-fertile ground for comedy, and some of the best and funniest British TV in recent memory has sprung from that very notion. From This Country to Henpocalypse!, there’s no shortage of creators making the most of the uniquely bizarre experience of living in a place full of people too weird for the rest of the world (and I say this, firmly, as one of them myself). As the show establishes itself with this second season, it’s building out an excellent supporting cast as well as attracting some great guest stars (including my beloved Jamie Demetriou, star of Stath Lets Flats), and I can only hope that it gets a chance to make the most of that with a third season and beyond.

In just eight episodes, Funboys has established itself as one of the most howlingly funny and inventive new comedies on TV, an authentically madcap and bizzare little show that I am going to make you watch whether you like it or not. Or, um, as a less threatening note to leave this review on – have you seen Funboys? Do you know of any other shows that scratched the same itch? Let me know in the comments below!

(header image via Northern Island Screen)