Snuff Box



"Ear Worm I can't be in love if it's plastic To live on my own just seems tragic But we'll raise our swords high when our day comes We thought it was gold but it was bronze."

Highly surreal and bawdy Sketch Comedy / Britcom, starring Englishman Matt Berry (aka George the Volcano) and American Rich Fulcher. Each episode has one plot focusing on them as a pair of well-to-do hangmen at a gentleman's club, as well as various sketches of tangential relevance and canonicity. To add to the confusion, almost every character has the same name as their actor, so it's difficult to tell which Matt it is you're watching, but the show is funny enough that you don't care.

The show was highly reliant on Running Gags that, though hilarious, probably would have gotten old eventually were it not for British Brevity: the series only ran six episodes.

Also see Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, most of whose cast have appeared on this show at one time or another. Also also see The Mighty Boosh, the show on which Messrs. Fulcher and Berry met.

Tropes used include:
"Show me some respect, motherfucker!"
 * The Ace: Matt is better than Rich at everything. When he's not around Rich, though, he can be just as much a Chew Toy as anyone.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Jimi Hendrix is very patient with an obliviously abusive Rich, until he snaps and basically turns into Samuel L. Jackson.

""I'm a great kisser!" "I gotta piss.""
 * British Brevity
 * Catch Phrase:
 * Rich:

""What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." "Whiskeyyyyyy!" "After all I've done for him!""
 * Matt:

"Rich: Matt, you know how you used to call me a prick? Mat: I never stopped calling you a prick. Rich: Yeah, well this guy is King Pricko. Of Pricksburg, Cockachusetts."
 * Caught with Your Pants Down: "What about that time you got caught in your dad's study, jerking off over a map of Scotland?"
 * The Chew Toy: On Matt's quest to get his silver cowboy boots back from the cleaners, he is brutally beaten by store attendants, including a man from Oop North, a Camp Gay black man who knows martial arts, and a Violent Glaswegian.
 * Rich is also an example, as in the episode where he goes blind.
 * Cluster F-Bomb
 * Coitus Uninterruptus
 * The Danza: Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher's characters almost all have their own real names. We can only hope that the actual actors are nothing like the characters.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Matt apparently has a part-time job as a Jack the Ripper tour guide. When he gets Rich to fill in for him, it becomes apparent that Rich has no idea who the Ripper was or what he did.
 * Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune: Matt wrote all the original music for the show, and he and Rich sing it.
 * The Cast Showoff
 * Drink Order: Whiskeyyyy!
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: As an art gallery tour guide, played by Fulcher.
 * Perverse Sexual Lust: He's in love with a pair of ballerinas in one of the paintings.
 * Eagle Land: Rich is not so much an American as a British caricature of an American: uncouth, inconsiderate, culturally illiterate and foul-mouthed (even by the show's standards). His brother (also played by Rich) is even worse.
 * Easily Forgiven: When Matt is caught.
 * Fan Service: All over the place. Mostly for the guys (and lesbians), unless for some reason the ladiiiieeeeesssss like seeing Matt Berry topless.
 * Gallows Humour: Often literally.
 * Fridge Logic: Matt begins trying to find out who Rich's mother is when he finds out Rich gets royalty checks from her estate. Why didn't he just look at the name on the check?
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: One series of sketches has the two of them as movie censors. Murder, violence, and sex are all a-okay (even in conjunction), but a single animal gets killed or someone is wearing fur, and the movie gets banned.
 * Hammerspace: Where did Matt get that cavalry sabre?
 * Heroic Sociopath: Matt, who, and Sir Charles, who.
 * Identical Grandson: Well, great nephew. Sir Charles looks exactly like Matt, and his valet, Wormwood, looks exactly like the club's current valet, Ken. How the latter two are related is unclear.
 * Also, Matt's brother is played by Matt, and Rich's brother by Rich. Rich also plays his character's mother,.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: "Now Mr. Rich, you said you wanted to dash off to eat a pie. Might I tempt you with one of mine?" [motions to gaggle of topless prostitutes]
 * The Jeeves: Ken, Wormwood
 * Jerkass: Essentially everybody, but particularly Rich's brother

{{quote|Rich: [as a crimp] I haven't got a bean, but my shoes are clean!
 * Large Ham: Matt Berry
 * Larynx Dissonance: In the final episode, Rich falls in love with (and marries) a woman named Grendel, who, though beautiful, speaks entirely in dubbed-in chimpanzee noises.
 * Looping Lines: Deliberately invoked, and deliberately terrible.
 * Mood Dissonance: "The Empty Room", a song Matt wrote after his brother committed suicide, and then plays on a talk show hosted by Richard Ayoade (aka Dean Learner) quickly turns into an instrumental glamrock piece
 * Nipple-and-Dimed: Nipples, either male or female, are not uncommon.
 * Notable Original Music: The theme tune, "I'm A Rapper With A Baby", and the Rude Song (mentioned below under Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome)
 * Not Quite Starring: Quite a few impersonations, including Christopher Lee as a pornstar, David Bowie (played by Alice Lowe of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace), Charles Manson, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis, David Beckham, and others.
 * Running Gag: Quite a few. One particularly delightful one is that Matt will be hitting on a beautiful woman, often carrying something for her, when she will mention her boyfriend, causing him to matter-of-factly announce "Fuck you!", drop whatever he was carrying, and leave.
 * A subtler one is the frequent references to rabbits, particularly when being eaten.
 * Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "YOU! WILL! NOT! TITTER!"
 * "On the Next...": "In the Snuff Box next time..."
 * Shout-Out: Rich is given a birthday present by Ricky from {{the office]]."
 * Sinister Minister: A fairlry mild example: Alan Ford (best known as Brick Top in Snatch) plays a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking priest. So far as we know, he's not really evil, though.
 * Status Quo Game Show: Rich and Matt go on a quiz show. It doesn't go well. Mostly because they didn't prepare in the slightest.
 * Take That: At the beginning of the first episode:

Matt: What the hell is that?

Rich: Oh, it's just an old song... }} {{quote|Rich: Hey, wait a minute. He just effed. Alan Ford: 'Course I did. I'm a fucking priest, ain't I? }}
 * Time Travel: Once an Episode, Rich goes through a door marked "1888", which takes him to Victorian London where he meets the club's founder and Matt's great-uncle, Sir Charles Berry, who gives him advice and showers him in prostitutes. Sir Charles is subtly intended to be {{spoiler|Jack the Ripper}}.
 * Tomato Surprise: The identity of Matt's father
 * Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome: In stereo!
 * Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist
 * Unusual Euphemism: "Effin' and a-jeffin'", for swearing

{{reflist}}