WEIRD COMEDY
Insane Doctor Discovers “Symptomless Coma” and Massages His Own Leg
The surreal dreamlike medical scenes from Chris Morris’s absurd “comedy” series
Are you in the mood for some weird comedy? If so, this is for you.
In 2000 in the UK, Channel 4 broadcast Chris Morris’s “comedy” series Jam. It was essentially a visual version of his earlier radio series Blue Jam, and most of it was TOTALLY INSANE. I still wonder how he managed to get it broadcast on a mainstream channel.
Each episode had an absurd introduction narrated by Chris Morris himself. Like this, for example:
“When walk to work all swig-faced, six months since you clowned it up. And old friends cross the street, and no-one pays you any heed…except…the dung-breathed men, who often now will pick you up and van you to The Fens to wrestle pigs.”
Some of my favourite scenes are the ones featuring the doctor. In each scene, he is in a medical setting, but something strange or ridiculous always happens.
My favourite one ever was at the end of the first episode. It’s slowed down and has Brian Eno’s ambient music An Ending (Ascent), giving it a surreal, dreamlike quality.
My next favourite one is Symptomless Coma. This time, the doctor is in a hospital. He is diagnosing patients with a new illness he has invented which has no symptoms. It’s really sinister!
This next one is slowed down like the first one, but with disturbingly unsettling “music”. The doctor reassures a young boy about his bedwetting. Then something unexpected happens.
In this one, the patient comes in complaining of a headache and blocked sinuses. But the doctor wants to examine a different part of his body.
Here, the patient is puzzled by the doctor’s unusual way of raising funds for the medical centre.
That’s it for the doctor scenes. But I just want to end with another favourite bit from the same show. Here, a robber goes into a shop with a gun but still wants to pay. What unfolds is delightfully absurd, and the music is a perfect fit.
In case you’re interested, the actors in these scenes are:
Read next: Did Frankie Boyle Go Too Far With His Jimmy Savile Joke?