The Mighty Boosh at 20: How the deranged cult hit captured an entire generation

By ABC entertainment staff

Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt's surrealist double act The Mighty Boosh was a gamble that ended up becoming a surprise TV hit.

The comedy only ran for three seasons, from 2004 to 2007, but that was enough to garner a legion of obsessed fans who sold out a series of live The Mighty Boosh tour dates across the world.

"I had people breaking into my flat to steal my clothes," Fielding recalled in a 2023 interview. "It was very rock and roll, which I quite liked, but upon reflection, it was bizarre."

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the show's first broadcast, so there's never been a better time to look back at the unique cultural moment that was The Mighty Boosh's swift rise to cult classic (or learn just enough about it to shut your superfan friend up).

What is The Mighty Boosh about?

"What isn't it about?" is probably a better question, because this series is about as surreal as they come and is essentially extended comedic improv rooted in fantasy - but good. (Yes, there is such a thing as good improv.)

The Mighty Boosh was originally a stage show. Then it became a radio series, before it was adapted into the cult BBC TV show. It follows mismatched comedy duo Howard Moon (Barratt) and Vince Noir (Fielding), who call themselves The Mighty Boosh. Howard is a dull and achingly practical jazz enthusiast from northern England. Vince is his exceedingly shallow, but even more fashionable, scene-stealing best friend.

They are joined by a cast of ridiculous supporting characters: Naboo the Enigma (Michael Fielding); his bestie Bollo the gorilla (Dave Brown); and raucous zookeeper Bob Fossil (Rich Fulcher). UK comedy royalty Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry even have guest roles throughout the series. Oh, and Fielding sometimes puts shaving cream on his face and pretends to be the moon.

Their almost nonsensical, and surprisingly musical, adventures take them all over time and space, and yet, most of the series is deeply rooted in an early noughties Shoreditch in London (albeit a version of the city verging on a dream state).

The Impact of The Mighty Boosh

Like many shows still being talked about 20 years later, The Mighty Boosh was a leap-pad for many of its memorable cast. Fielding has become a mainstay in the British commentators cannon, Barratt is still being the best and weirdest part of various TV shows. Bit players like Matt Berry and Richard Ayoade are now household names.

In terms of film and TV impact, you could argue that was giving director Paul King a leg-up in the business, which allowed the world to be blessed with Paddington and Paddington 2.

Heck, even Rich Fulcher was in frigging Wonka, also directed by King, last year (and it wasn't a small part either!).

But in terms of legacy, the greatest influence The Mighty Boosh had was on the generation of fans that made it part of their personality.

And despite its many problematic jokes (think racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, domestic violence "gags"), The Mighty Boosh had *many* fans.

The Mighty Boosh was always a show about the underdogs, the losers and the weirdos. For the fans that connected with this, it was more than a TV show - it was a community.

And the world responded. Its third season premiere episode, 'Eels', pulled in a massive 1 million UK viewers. Mike Myers was trying to get them to write a film with him, Robin Williams would come backstage at their shows.

But as their fame and income grew, so did the friction in the group.

"It was just a lot of tension. Like a marriage. All of a sudden it was just POWWWW and everyone was sick of each other. It was mental. We didn't have a day off in 10 years. It was like being in The Beatles," Fielding told The Independent in 2015.

In 2009, after a 100-date tour, "it all sort of imploded".

Fielding tried to keep the Boosh magic alive with his 2012 E4 series Luxury Comedy, but alas, without Barratt's off-kilter straight man, Fielding was nothing but a shiny balloon caught in an updraft.

After two seasons of mixed reviews and ratings, Luxury Comedy was cancelled.

The Mighty Boosh is one of the few shows that you could not possibly reboot. Like indie sleaze and calling things "so random", the Boosh is extremely of its time. It's so of its time that in 2020 Netflix removed two episodes from their platform for containing blackface.

But isn't it wonderful that we're able to revisit such a vibrant and lively slice of pop culture history with just a couple of clicks? Here's our guide to the best episodes, free of super-problematic moment.

Four essential The Mighty Boosh episodes

The Call of the Yeti (season two, episode one)

I'm sure I'm not alone among Boosh fans who feel kinda bad for Howard, always playing the dull straight man up against the colourful Vince.

In this episode, Howard really wants to flex his creative chops and entice the crew into his neurodivergent-coded special interest by convincing Vince et al to bond with nature on a weekend in the woods.

But the start of this adventure sees me identifying with glam-rock, man-bimbo Vince yet again. Unable to cull his wardrobe for a two-day adventure from a giant mountain of clothing - including a Jacobean ruff ("I've got a strong feeling the Tudor look's gonna come back in while we're away") - he has to convince their gorilla friend Bollo to "use your monkey strength!" and compress the giant haul into a suitcase.

But I also identify with the hyper-organised Howard, as he insists his multi-purpose zip-down tweed utility suit contains everything he needs … only for it to immediately malfunction once on the road, forcing him to spend the drive there semi-nude. This kind of planning failure feels weirdly reminiscent of every ill-fated camping trip I've ever attempted.

Arriving at their magical forest location, inevitably all kinds of kooky misadventures are afoot, including an overly amorous, lonely mountain man inviting himself into their cabin, and a full moon that means the Queen of the Yetis is out looking for a mating partner - "and she's horny as hell!"

The highlight is when our faves all end up falling under the spell of the portented yeti's mating song.

I find all of Boosh's TV comedy songs so catchy that I'm surprised none has crossed over into the real-life charts. This one, which is meant to be a hypnotic chant that entices one and all who hear it into the lair of the yetis, would 100 per cent lure me into a cult any day.

- Genevieve Dwyer

The Legend of Old Gregg (season two, episode five)

If Mighty Boosh was Radiohead, Old Gregg would be their 'Creep'. If they were Blur, Old Gregg would be their 'Song 2'. If they were … well you get the picture: Old Gregg is so synonymous with The Mighty Boosh that it's often the only point of reference for non-fans.

The Legend of Old Gregg sees Howard venture into a foggy sea to try to shake off a crappy gig, only to wind up in a rowboat with Old Gregg - a half-man, half fish (others say 70/30) creature that wears a tutu and has a penchant for Baileys drunk out of a shoe.

While Fielding's crouched and creepy Old Gregg is the focal point of the episode, Howard does some of his finest straight-man work, and Rich Fulcher's grizzled fisherman gets to utter one of the funniest lines in the whole episode ("Not you, Naan bread").

Old Gregg was my first introduction to the Boosh, through a badly edited YouTube video that my friend excitedly showed me at a sleepover. Soon we could hardly get through a conversation without asking each other if we wanted to go to a club where people wee on each other.

Has the humour around Gregg's genitals and abduction of Howard aged a bit in the past 20 years? Of course it has. But despite only appearing in one episode (and one deleted scene) towards the end of the Boosh's second season, the eclectic merperson has achieved cult status, becoming one of the early instances of meme culture.

At least that's what I tell myself when I remember that I dressed up as Old Gregg, face paint and all, for my Year 12 sports day (we were the green house! It made sense!*)

*It didn't, no one at my Gold Coast public high school knew who I was supposed to be and a few were quite frightened.

- Velvet Winter

Milky Joe (season two, episode six)

The two Boosh boys head off to California to make their fortune, via boat - the only way to arrive in the States, according to Howard Moon. What could possibly go wrong?

Obviously everything, immediately. After Vince decides to cut the captain's hair into a mullet while he's sleeping - he is the Midnight Barber, after all - they are made to walk the plank and end up stranded on a remote tropical island with no food or supplies.

Luckily, they discover a bounty of coconuts right before they are about to cannibalise each other. But after an isolation-induced fight between the pair, Howard goes all Tom Hanks in Castaway and creates Milky Joe, a friend made out of a coconut shell (with a striped shirt, because he's French).

The silly kind of chaos to be expected from this show ensues as the coconut companions start to multiply. Howard gets jealous over Vince's coco-girlfriend, Ruby, and then begs to be set up with her friend, Precious.

The silliness only escalates as they commit wholeheartedly to spending the rest of their days in a coconut community. That is, until things with Vince's new love turn sour…

This is quintessential Mighty Boosh: zany plots, appearances from The Moon, Vince dressed up in eccentric fashion (this time made out of plants from around the island), ridiculous little songs that will be stuck in your head for days, coconuts dressed as people, and not too many off-colour jokes! Winning.

- Katherine Smyrk

The Power of the Crimp (season three, episode three)

When I think of The Mighty Boosh, I think of crimping. What's crimping, you ask? The style of utterly nonsensical, improvised singing/chanting that Vince and Howard frequently break into throughout the show.

The lyrics can be anything from, "Ooh, ooh ooh, I did a twisty, ooh, ooh ooh, a tiny twisty," to "chapati, chapati, chapati, basmati," and my favourite: "The freaking mole, the vole, the hamster - and that completes the top 100 most dangerous animals … in Wales."

The Power of the Crimp sees everyone's favourite ludicrous duo share their crimps with the world for the first time. Until this point, crimping was something Howard and Vince kept "for you and me when we're on our own, at night times!"

But Lance Dior and Harold Boon, the villains of this episode, force them to take drastic measures.

The pair dub themselves The Flighty Zeus and steal Vince and Howard's looks ("Cockney bitch/ragamuffin from the streets who dresses like a futuristic [sex worker]" and "tall Northern jazzy freak with a moustache and no dress sense"). Not only that - they pretend to be the originators of crimp, and that's one step too far for Howard and Vince.

The episode culminates in a crimp-off, which sees The Mighty Boosh fight to prove they started crimp. Somehow, the battle only takes place in the last five minutes - I say somehow, because in those five minutes we're gifted with a deluge of crimps that seem to go on forever, in the best of ways.

I still have each of them committed to memory.

- Yasmin Jeffery

- ABC