''Monkey Dust'' is a British

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

series created by

Harry Thompson Harry William Thompson (6 February 1960 – 7 November 2005) was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer. He was the creator of the dark humour television series '' Monkey Dust'', screened between 2003 ...

and

Shaun Pye Shaun Pye is an English actor, comedian, writer, critic, television producer, editor, and journalist, known for co-creating the animated sketch comedy ''Monkey Dust'' with Harry Thompson, and for his role as Greg Lindley-Jones on Ricky Gerva ...

. The series is characterized by its

dark humour Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

, frequent shifts in animation styles, and handling of taboo topics such as bestiality, murder, suicide and

paedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...

. Three series were broadcast on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

between 2003 and 2005. Following co-creator Harry Thompson's death, no further series were made.

Episodes

Each episode featured animation by several different companies including Slinky Pictures,

Nexus Productions Nexus Studios is an animation, film and interactive studio based in London and LA. It was founded in 2000 by Charlotte Bavasso and Christopher O'Reilly. Creating a range of both handcrafted and high-tech work, Nexus Studios has a team of product ...

, Sherbet Animation,

Caroline Mabey Caroline may refer to: People *Caroline (given name), a feminine given name * J. C. Caroline (born 1933), American college and National Football League player * Jordan Caroline (born 1996), American (men's) basketball player Places Antarctica * ...

, Picasso Pictures, and VooDooDog, but is linked by recurring themes/jokes and seamless transitions between sketches. The episodes are untitled but instead are known by the characters introduced or the one-off sketches included. The principal writers and creators of the series were

and

, although other contributors were responsible for a significant proportion of the work; sometimes collaborating with Thompson and/or Pye; sometimes contributing fully formed sketches to the show. A short overview of the main characters, called a

nocturne A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. History The term ''nocturne'' (from French '' nocturne'' 'of the night') was first applied to musical pieces in the 18th century, when it indicated an ensembl ...

, set in the various characters' bedrooms with no dialogue and a depressing accompanying song, usually precedes the final section.

Music

The animation in each episode is accompanied by contemporary music which helps the transition between scenes. Numerous songs by

Goldfrapp Goldfrapp are an English electronic music duo from London, formed in 1999. The duo consists of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals, synthesiser) and Will Gregory (synthesiser). Despite favourable reviews and a short-listing for the Mercury Prize, their ...

Boards of Canada Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, formed initially as a group in 1986 before becoming a duo in the 1990s.Hoffmann, Heiko.Pitchfork: Interviews: Boards of Canada (Septemb ...

and

Black Box Recorder Black Box Recorder were an English indie rock band. They debuted in 1998 with '' England Made Me'' and followed this up with '' The Facts of Life'', which gave them their first hit with the single of the same name in April 2000. Their third ...

. The theme music for all three series is by

Eels Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

("That's Not Really Funny" from ''

Souljacker ''Souljacker'' is the fourth studio album by American Rock music, rock band Eels (band), Eels, first released on September 19, 2001, in Japan and later on March 12, 2002, in the United States. Content Unlike some of Mark Oliver Everett's othe ...

''). The inclusion of music from Goldfrapp during the first series would have pre-dated the commercial release of their debut album, but production on the series took so long that by the time of airing, Goldfrapp were about to release their second album. Thompson and Pye comment on this in the Series 1

DVD commentary An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...

Release

On 8 November 2004, the first series of ''Monkey Dust'' was released in the UK on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

. Several musical substitutions had to be made from the television airing, as artists such as

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

and David Gray would not allow their work to be used on the DVD. Cover versions of the original songs were used instead. The second and third series were broadcast on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

and

respectively. Only the first series of Monkey Dust was commercially released on DVD, however, in September 2009 eight episodes from across series 2 and 3 (along with four episodes from the already released series 1) were made available for download from

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

, though these are no longer available. Another reason for the lack of DVD releases of the later series is thought to be the 'teenage jihadi' sketches being considered unsuitable in the wake of the

7 July 2005 London bombings The 7 July 2005 London bombings, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamic terrorists in London that targeted commuters travelling on the city's public transport system during the mo ...

that occurred a few months later.

Reception

In 2003, ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' listed Harry Thompson as one of the 50 funniest or most influential people in British comedy, citing ''Monkey Dust'' as evidence and calling it: "the most subversive show on television. The topical animated series is dark and unafraid to tackle taboo subjects such as paedophilia, taking us to Cruel Britannia, a creepy place where the public are hoodwinked by arrogant politicians and celebrities. This edgy show doesn't always work, but when it does there is nothing quite like it". It has received positive reviews from ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'' and ''

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

''.

Characters

Awards

*2003: International Student Jury Award (Banff Rockies Awards) *2004: Best Multichannel Programme (Broadcast Awards) *2004: Best Comedy (British Animation Awards)

References

External links

* * * * {{Epguides, MonkeyDust 2003 British television series debuts 2005 British television series endings 2000s British adult animated television series 2000s British animated comedy television series 2000s British black comedy television series 2000s British satirical television series 2000s British television sketch shows BBC controversies British adult animated comedy television series Animated satirical television series British flash animated television series English-language television shows BBC television sketch shows Animation controversies in television Obscenity controversies in animation Obscenity controversies in television Television controversies in the United Kingdom Television series by BBC Studios