The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding that aired on BBC Three from 2003 to 2007. The show uses postmodern techniques like parody, pastiche, hyperreality, and intertextuality to blend genres and reference other media in spontaneous and unpredictable ways. It draws attention to its constructed nature by having the hosts directly address the audience at the beginning of episodes. The Mighty Boosh mixes and blurs genres, referencing things like music videos, fantasy, and romantic comedy to create a random and evolving storyline that keeps viewers entertained because they cannot anticipate what will happen next.

1. What Is Postmodernism?
Postmodernism:

2. Shows that demonstrate elements of
postmodernity.
Shows can be described as postmodern in a variety
of ways including:
Parody.
Pastiche .
Hyper reality.
Intertextuality
Many shows can be described as postmodern
as postmodernism is made up of many different
features.

3. Key words
• Bricolage: Mixing up and using different
genres and styles.
• Intertextual reference: One media text
referring in an original way.
• Pastiche: A stylistic mask, a form of selfconscious imitation.
• Hyperreality:

4. Institutional Information: The mighty
boosh
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The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe
featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding.
Producer: Danny Wallace
Station: BBC three
Highest viewing figure: 1 million (Series 3 ep 1)
Running time: 2003-2007

5. Clip analysis-The might boosh
• The main genre of the show is comedy, they use
postmodernism within the show to make people
laugh. The show is very spontaneous meaning
people find the storyline more entertaining as its
always changing and they don’t know what’s
coming in the next episode.
• The show doesn’t have any typical conventions
as its random in the way its structured. However
each episode does have specific theme.

6. How is the show postmodern
• At the beginning of the first series, Vince and
Howard begin each show by giving a direct
address to the audience about what is to
come. Not only is this self-reflexive, as it draws
attention to the constructed nature of the text
it also includes references when considering
what is to be to be 'high art', the theatre, with
the curtains behind them.

7. Continued…
• The use of bricolage throughout allows the show to
reference many different genres, from music video (the
tundra rap) to fantasy ("welcome to mirror world") and
romantic comedy, not to mention the cartoons used
throughout later episodes. This mixing of genres is
typically postmodern. The Mighty Boosh tends to blur
the boundaries between genres rather than use
bricolage in the traditional sense. Much like '24 Hour
Party People' shares genre characteristics with that of a
documentary and a drama, the Mighty Boosh can be
classed as a comedy, musical, fantasy, science fiction
and many more besides.