Monkey Dust (2003–2005) User Reviews (19)

Violated by the TV

[csoavesmith · 9/10 · 22 August 2006]

After watching the first episode, I couldn't stop looking at my friend, wide-eyed and with my mouth gawping open, and repeating 'oh... my... god...'

The humour in this show is so far removed from what anyone could ever conceive as being comedy, it's disgustingly brilliant.

Obviously, as you become familiar with the format and the few recurring characters, you start to anticipate the horrors and thus it seems funny when they arrive in front of you, still born and deformed.

The point is, TV is nothing these days. It's predictable and doesn't inspire emotion. Monkey Dust bucks that trend with moments so diabolical, you'll wish you were dead.

so Cheers then!

Bright Animation, Dark Fantasies

[robbotnik2000 · 7/10 · 30 January 2021]

"Monkey Dust" is a 3 season 18 episode series of a compendium of animated shorts. The animation is cheery with the bright primary colors and jaggy moves of good computer animation, combined with revisited dark and perversely humorous themes which get revisited and played upon. Themes such as badly broken relationships, implied moronic violence, and skewed motivations are rapidly brought up and dispensed with. Characters are often killed a la "They've Killed Kenny!" (reference to Southpark. There are sometimes ideas buried in the mini-plots, there are some disturbing images, but within 60 seconds you'll be off to something else. There is political critique, social observation, but if you want to gaze thoughtlessly at the moving bright images, you'll know shortly whether this is the entertainment for you. Broadcast in the early 2000s, some of the presentations are understandably dated, particularly as regards homosexuality. If you gathered from the above that the show is not for children, you are correct. Elementary school aged, preteens, should not be exposed to this.

Another show which is less in-your-face, wilder in themes, but has less perversity and reference to sex, and ranges deep into philosophical issues if you care to follow, but not totally unlike this show would be "Xavier, the Renegade Angel". If you like Monkey Dust, you might want to check it out.

Utterly original, compelling, and most of all, messed up.

[jpt27 · 17 March 2005]

'Monkey Dust' contains the most ****ed up humour you will ever see broadcast on terrestrial television. It's one of those rare moments where you wonder if the grey-faced executives who OK'd the show's production knew quite what they were letting themselves in for. At least South Park was barefacedly crude.

Monkey Dust could have easily been great art, although luckily for us audiences, the creators have used their undeniable artistic flair and creative verve to sacrifice the art and wring the carcass until comedy comes splitting out the sides. This is comedy so messed up, so deeply deeply wrong, that most of the laughs come without the need for punchlines. It's very rare for a show to create situations which are just inherently funny. Monkey Dust has them like pearls on a string.

The show, half an hour long, comprises a series of interlinked sketches, with returning characters competing with one-off spectaculars. I like shows like this; they have an ongoing sense of when the comedy has been fully developed. The animation is done in a kind of new-wave, post - computer graphics style, a good blend of hand drawn and computer animation. Different studios worked on different sketches, and so there's a lot of variety in the half hour.

And now for the content. Monkey Dust has been described as Little Britain's older, edgier, criminally insane brother, and that's not such a bad way of summarising it. Both shows deal with everyday situations going on around the British Isles, and however mental the comedy may be, we're really laughing at the fact that what's being shown is not so very different from reality. Three flagship characters include a nameless elderly paedophile and his attempts to groom young girls on internet chat rooms; Steve the First-Time Cottager, whose attempts to lead a flamboyant homosexual lifestyle are hopelessly at odds with his modesty and shyness (the first time we see him he is reading a self-help book called Yes! I Can Gobble Off A Complete Stranger;) and my personal favourite, Ivan Dobsky the Meat Safe Murderer. Ivan was an friendly, innocent Liverpool lad before he was locked up 27 years ago for a crime he did not commit. Campaigning celebs have finally got him acquitted, unaware that police and prison brutality have turned him into an utter, utter psychopath. "Hullo I'm Ivan Dobsky the meat safe murderer, only I never done it, I only said I done it so the police men would take the rat out of me anus." Monkey Dust works so well because not only have they found comedy in the most unlikely of places, but because they even went looking for it in the first place. Occasionally the humour hits hard when a sketch begins with picturesque domestic bliss, because you know that in about thirty seconds time the rug is going to be pulled - hard. It also runs the risk of alienation when it makes fun of characters who closely resemble you and your friends. But the show never goes for a cheap gag, and that's admirable in a post- 'Friends' world.

If you're after some dark comedy which is going to stay with you for a unconsensually long time, then Monkey Dust might just be the gimp suit that fits.

Superb observation of this screwed up world of ours.

[rick-mather-1 · 10/10 · 10 November 2009]

Monkey Dust is absolutely magnificent – As an UK Adult animated sketch show it pushes the boundaries and is extremely thought provoking - IE - First sketch - Advertising Executive comes up with new campaign to re brand Cancer for the masses to improve its name . ( which is typical in this screwed up world of ours ) It is funny ( not funny Ha Ha but funny peculiar / reflective ) but has some had some real thought written into all the sketches – IE ( Father who kills himself because he's divorced and cant do enough for his son (a real emotion of fathers ) It makes fun of TV ( IE New Reality show called Sitting on the Toilet which views someone sitting on the bog ) Everything is fair game – Muslims / Asylum seekers / pedophiles / Swearing /.....It's / cynical / reflective / funny / clever / well written / .... Nothing is spared – Black Humour / Reverse Political Humour / Oh the list is endless - It observes this corrupt / sold out / strange / world we live in. ...... I know the writers will go on to do more well known things but here its raw and magnificent. ( and not watered down by appealing to the masses ) It is a real treat where the writers are allowed to express their views of the world with no limits and ....... its simply superb.

Please watch even a few episodes –

Absolutely, disgustingly, satisfying

[gothicgoblin1334 · 10/10 · 21 May 2006]

One of the greatest shows on BBC, I can't believe how Harry Thompson thinks of this stuff! The show revolves around oddly coloured characters and weird settings in every-day London. This show should be on for ever and ever, and it DOES make South Park look like Scooby Doo, only this show is smarter than South Park because it actually isn't pointless. But anyway, it's dark and surreal, just the way that I like it. This film is like John Waters making animation along with help by some other great folks. I am sad, however, that the creator died...rest in peace Harry, and may your show live forever unlike you did however Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this comment as much as I did writing it, because I really hated writing it. No really, I have a bloody headache.

Genius!

[alexeykorovin · 10/10 · 4 July 2014]

It's a cartoon series with dark humor which is absolutely fun to watch. The series shows the UK (which is in most respects quite similar to other EU countries) from its dark "insider" perspective, something you would rarely see on TV or in movies. Here you will find a gay guy who struggles to find a partner, a wrongly accused murderer who spent 27 years in prison and forgot how to live a normal life, a hilarious "classically trained actor", a group of "wankers" who talk about completely useless things, then another group of idle young people who have nothing to do or talk about and end up playing Russian roulette, a suicidal father and so on. The images are frequently very violent which might turn off some people. But actually I would recommend this series to everyone except maybe small kids. Most characters who die in some of the episodes are alive again in the next episode - typical for comedies, it's more like a cycle or a snapshot of reality rather than a long story split into scenes (although some of the sub-plots do develop across episodes). The satire here is very smart, really British-level smart. E.g. I could hardly imagine such a series appearing in the US, for comparison. Some jokes here have very deep meaning and stay in your head for a long time. This show is so great that it totally deserves to be released on DVD, translated to other languages (German, Russian, Spanish etc). It's a true gem! Frankly, I am happy that in case of this series the artistic genius totally prevailed over suits, marketing and political correctness.

Twisted Hilarious Snapshot of contemporary Britain

[philipcy · 10/10 · 26 August 2009]

When people ask me what its like to live in England, I might even ask them first if they have seen monkey dust before. But to be honest, I think this fantastic series has been somehow hidden away from most people.

With only a handful of seasons, each one containing various characters with unusual flaws and twists. Not forgetting the great artwork, with each sketch featuring a different design technique and a whole variety of artists.

The comedy is top notch, I would say that the vast majority of the sketches are spot on. If you are British, or have any connection with the UK, I highly recommend, otherwise, I recommend highly! 9/10, highly entertaining series which grows on you.

Depressingly True

[tobersmit · 9/10 · 7 August 2007]

For all those with a smile when things annoy you - here is Monkey Dust. I originally saw this programme on TV, purely by accident and wow, was this not what i was expecting...

There is a tendency for a certain group of people to express a wry smile when things don't go your way - a sort of "Oh well" expression. This is the best way to sum up this programme. British animation has been somewhat lacking to my recollection, but this show makes up perfectly. With a wide range of animators, every scene has a different feel whilst at the same time, the producer/editor has managed to keep the overall feel of the programme as one. There have been many descriptions of this show, many commented on already by people on this site; it's funny, it's hard hitting, it's "south park with a twist of little Britain", but i think the most accurate is that it's true. You watch it and you cant help feel a taint - you've done this, or you've thought like that - it's the magic, and the truth, of Monkey Dust

Cutting Edge Black Comedy

[radeo123 · 10/10 · 4 November 2009]

Difficult to add anymore than already great reviews.

The first time you watch Monkey Dust is like an awakening, you'll either love it or be totally offended, so best to keep an open mind! I have Series I on DVD, not sure whether Series II and III will ever be released, so c'mon BBC, make our license work for us!

I downloaded a couple of podcasts (Traces Of Nuts and The Atrocity Machine) which reminded me somewhat of the fantastic BBC series. Both are now finished but you can still get hold of them, quite sure that if you enjoyed Monkey Dust as much as I did you will definitely like these.

Enjoy!

Monkey Dust

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 17 May 2005]

Monkey Dust is quite a confusing cartoon with many different uses of animation. Every sketch of the show, unless they are using regular stories or characters, they change the type of animation used. There are some disturbing incidents in this show. There's drug use, suicide, some swearing, some light violence and much more. But it's just an example that a show will do pretty much anything to get laughs. But it does make you laugh occasionally. They have very short stories in pubs, hospitals, night clubs, homes, on the streets and many other outrageous or even normal places. I wouldn't say this was one of the best cartoon or animation shows, but it is good. It won the British Animation Award for Best Comedy. It was number 48 on The 100 Greatest TV Treats 2003. Very good!

lame, pretentious show that pretends to be smarter than it really is.

[DonkeyManKing · 1/10 · 8 January 2020]

I tried to like this show, but I just couldn't. The humor is very juvenile, relies on things like sex, cursing, and shock value without any clever charm or wit and the show uses a lot of surrealism and pseudo intellectual dialogue to try distract viewers from how flat the comedy is in this show, and the satire itself isn't very good either, as it lacks any subtlety and is very in your face. Lots of people about how this show is more intelligent than south park or family guy, but if anything, monkey dust is no different, just slightly more pretentious.

addictively acidic

[didi-5 · 7 January 2005]

'Monkey Dust' is a feast of sick animation, with sketches concerning a sad-eyed man who tells wide tales about where he's been, when he's actually been doing something muckily sexual; a reality-TV series called 'People on the Toilet', where the star eventually becomes a big big star and candidate for Pope; and other such things. There's plenty of black humour, violence, and wife-swapping which turns into cannibalism.

Inspired humour and twisted tales make 'Monkey Dust' a must-see for fans of Jam, Spaced, and Big Train, as well as former viewers of the likes of Spitting Image.

Heavily overrated.

[artatrm · 1/10 · 18 July 2013]

Monkey dust strikes me as something that only a person with the mentality of a 15-year old could enjoy. The commercialistic, corruption and capitalistic themes that come up are overly obvious, thus loosing the touch of hyperbolisation, because the whole show is so over the top, you expect every frame of it to be exactly what it is. The reoccurring characters are one-sided, and have no depth, for they do the same thing over and over again. The guy, who never gets what he wants and is watched, the middle-aged man who comes back to his wife, and tells her that he did something, and then she points it out that it's the plot of a song/show/book/movie, and then he admits to doing something like "being a cum-dumpster in a anonymous bukkake", the child with the father hating mother-divorcée, the paedofinder general, and others do the same thing over and over again, and sadly, it becomes boring after the first witnessing. Also, oftenly the "joke" is stretched out for the sake of showing how horrific and macabre everything around them is, but with the first part of the joke(and the remaining part of it) overinflated, the show gets lost in the concept of shock. To introduce shock, no matter if it is considering culture/nature/greed/etc, you need contrast. Example - Baraka. In monkey dust, the point is, I guess, to show people that the world is wicked, and everyone is screwed up in their own way. Sadly, there is no contrast, and the viewer gets used to the setting, gets used to the fact that everything will go wrong, that everyone will be cruel, that babies will curse, that children will die, and that lie,rape,sodomy,burglary will rule the day, and no suffering will be shown. The idea is to show, again, I guess, that the public is blindly dominated by the onslaught of different media, thus no reaction is gotten from it when introduced to a stupid commercialistic concept, but this idea is again, overinflated, and it just seems that the people are better off like this, unsuspecting, unknowing. With no contrast, we don't get the shock. With no knowledge of what is good and what is bad we cannot laugh at the bad and see that all light has gone. In short - overrated, one sided, no depth, reoccurring theme, no variety, no plot.

Dark, slick, surreal and very very nasty.

[Monstro-1 · 1 December 2003]

Monkey dust is not a show you should let your kids watch. Or your parents. In fact, Monkey Dust is pretty much unsuitable for everyone. Basically, It makes South Park look like Scooby-Doo.

Its a very fast-paced cartoon sketch show, mostly set in london, its all very grim and bleak. Topics it covers include Pedophilia, suicide, child murder, and the Nazis. The funniest moment so far was "The Diary of Anne Frank" as made by Jerry Bruckenheimer. Its not pure comic genius, its dirty, dark and filthy comic genius.

Its compulsive viewing if you're into stuff like Brass Eye, Big Train or Jam. I cannot recommend it enough.

Animated genius

[StuOnline · 9 February 2005]

One of the launch programmes when BBC3 launched in 2003, "Monkey Dust" is an animated sketch show, that looks at the everyday goings on in Britain after dark. Unlike other shows such as "2DTV", the material contained in Monkey Dust is dark, twisted, disturbing and sometimes slightly offensive, a "mature" cartoon if you like. But the characters you soon warm to, and you realise this is all just so original! The first time cottager, the chatroom pervert, Colin The Liar, Ivan Dobsky the Meat Safe Murderer (found not guilty after 27 years in prison), David Baddiel, the Yuppies; yet you realise that these are all wittily based on real people in the sick twisted country we call Britain today (apart from David Baddiel, who actually is a real person). The sketches all seamlessly blend into each other, but thankfully don't suffer the problem of being too long, as found in the most recent series. Anyone with a dark, satirical sense of humour will love this, its almost the animated version of Little Britain.

Satirical excellence that must see a DVD release!!!

[smiths-4 · 10 May 2004]

From what i can remember, this is a brilliant, scathing look at Britain in the 21st century. My favourite bits were many but included Ivan the meeksake murderer, Clive the depressive with the huge head, sven euran ericsson, Geoff(?) the cottager, the classically trained actor, the suicidal father, the peadophile on the chatroom......the list is endless. But one thing is true about all of them, the subject matter is usually one which isn't remotely humourous. It is this what gives Monkey Dust the edge over other controversial new comedies(except the utterly dark 'Nighty Night').

I have just watched Steve Coogans 'I am Not An Animal and its animation reminded me of this great series. It must be released on DVD!!

Come on BBC what are you waiting for??

Baffling

[cactusx · 9 May 2004]

Monkey Dust is a weird show. It must be said. The show's producers will do ANYTHING to get a laugh out of the audience. Sketches involving drug use, suicide, paedophilia may not be everyone's cup of tea and you need a strong stomach to sit through an episode. If you are a parent, don't let your kid watch it. If you are a kid, don't watch it in front of your parents (they'll have you back watching CITV before the end credits.) But aside from the various course swearwords and disturbing scenes there is a clever parody of British and London culture going on. The show's writers love mocking reality TV (Big Brother, I'm a celebrity, etc) and one frequent joke involves Monkey Dust's own reality TV show, People on the Toilet. There are funny sketches involving such popular tabloids as The Sun and the Daily Mail and their attitudes towards asylum seekers and paedophiles (eg the Paedo Finder General.) So watch Monkey Dust on BBC3-if you dare...

Darkness has The sense of humoUr

[godofme · 30 March 2012]

LotR of comedy. I don't laugh when I watch this. I just curse in silence. 10 lines of text; it's below the level. It's when you wake at night and realize you didn't switch the oven off. It's how you realize your children would be like. It's your darkest nightmare and very best dream involving your high-school crush. It's how you know that you aren't dreaming; no one can imagine this "stuff". It's god godly musics. And it's not disturbing at all. Intro is pure brilliance (think mad men). 10 is all I got, 11 s what I give. The formatting in here is horrendous; you won't get bored by that when sprinkled with monkey dust. 10 lines, the obsession with volume. It's got brit accent. It's not what you think that sums it up nicely.