The Adam and Joe Show
The Adam and Joe Show | |
---|---|
Genre | Sketch comedy |
Starring | Adam Buxton Joe Cornish |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 4 |
No. of episodes | 22[1] |
Production | |
Running time | 30 minutes (inc. adverts) |
Production company | World of Wonder |
Original release | |
Network | Channel 4 (1996–99) E4 (2001) |
Release | 6 December 1996 17 April 2001 | –
The Adam and Joe Show is a British television sketch comedy show that originally ran from 6 December 1996 to 28 May 1999 on Channel 4 for the first three series and then moved to E4 from 13 March to 17 April 2001 for the fourth and final series.
Origin and format
Adam and Joe first appeared on Channel 4 show Takeover TV in 1995, with Adam presenting alone at first and Joe joining him as the series progressed.[2][3] Following this they created The Adam and Joe Show for the same channel. Unusually for a comedy programme, the show was commissioned by Channel 4's head of religious programming, Peter Grimsdale: according to Cornish, "The remit for religion at 4 was to do with personal belief and personal expression, and somehow we came under that banner: it was almost like pop culture was our religion".[4]
The show took the form of short, condensed sketches interspersed with links filmed in what was purportedly Adam and Joe's bedsit, but was actually a shared "performance space" above a branch of The Body Shop in Brixton, South London. When in this room, Adam wore a plain black T-shirt with 'Ad' and Joe wore one with 'Joe' written on the front. Although the two comedians were involved in other projects before and after it was aired, The Adam and Joe Show remains their most popular and well-known creation, and it gained a cult following.
Opening narration
WARNING: The Adam and Joe Show is a high-density programme, start taping now!
Memorable sketches
Toymovies
Each week, Adam and Joe would re-create a popular current feature film using
BaaadDad
In the first series of the show, Adam's father
Vinyl Justice
Dressed as policemen, Adam and Joe would raid rock stars' homes, then examine their record collections for embarrassing or surprising items. The star would then be forced to dance to the shameful discoveries. Victims included
Songs
The Adam and Joe Show regularly included songs on random pop cultural themes, co-written with their school friend Zac Sandler. The most memorable included "The Footie Song" from 1998 the same year when France hosted the world cup, an ode to football sung and written by people who clearly neither cared or knew anything about it, "The Robert De Niro Calypso", a tribute to the famous actor from 1999, "My Name is Roscoe", a country and western song whose lyrics included the theory of relativity and "Song for Bob Hoskins".
Star Wars TV
In this segment, Adam and Joe used
Ken Korda
Ken Korda, a character played by Adam Buxton, was an obnoxious but self-assured media entrepreneur who undertook absurd popular cultural projects in the real world. These schemes included the production of a short film about criminal junkies called Speeding on the Needlebliss, and the formation of a teen band called
The 1980s House
This segment of the show was a parody of The 1900 House and The 1940s House, in which the Fatboy Slim family from the early 21st century travels back to the 1980s. The only 21st century object has allowed in the house was a webcam, using which the Fatboy Slim family recorded video diaries, recounting their experiences of 1980s living, such as riding the Sinclair C5, thoughts on the guy from the Ready Brek adverts, and watching the video nasty called Cannibal Holocaust on a new Betamax machine.
Media Chaos Collective
In series 4, Adam and Joe began a segment seeing them play West Country anti-authority media terrorists, who would 'interrupt' the regular programming and show their own clips harassing and playing pranks on targets they deemed suitable to cause chaos. Targets included an MP, the Millennium Dome, and banks, however the characters themselves were so inept that most of the time they end up looking foolish, an example being unfolding a mis-spelled banner on the stage of the Millennium Dome saying "The Dome is Carp". The characters came from an original prank the boys played on a hardware shop, acting suspicious when buying tools and materials to dispose of a corpse.
In some episodes, they parody other Channel 4 TV shows which were popular at the time of series 4's broadcast, such as Jam and Trigger Happy TV.
In 2003 their parody of Jam was put on the Jam DVD as an extra.
Pranks
Adam and Joe would regularly film each other performing camcorder
External links
Adam and Joe's links were performed sitting on their bed, in front of a crowded backdrop of contemporary popular cultural clutter. Memorable links included a guide to ways to fiddle with a candle while in a restaurant with a boring person; the most entertaining household objects to put in your microwave oven; and an experiment to see whether consuming
Transmissions
Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 December 1996[1] | 31 December 1996[1] | 4[1] |
2 | 22 November 1997[1] | 13 December 1997[1] | 6[1] |
6 March 1998[1] | 13 March 1998[1] | ||
3 | 16 April 1999[1] | 28 May 1999[1] | 6[1] |
4 | 13 March 2001[1] | 17 April 2001[1] | 6[1] |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "BBC - Comedy Guide - The Adam And Joe Show". 17 December 2004. Archived from the original on 17 December 2004. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Adam and Joe star in E4 revival show - Jessica Hodgson, The Guardian (2001)
- ^ Norfolk home for TV's Adam Buxton - David Keller, BBC Norfolk
- ^ theguardian.com. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
External links
- The Adam and Joe Show on Channel 4
- The Adam and Joe Show at IMDb