Jam: Difference between revisions

[[File:jam_2323.jpg|frame| Jaaaaaaaam.]]

 

 

 

From the creator of ''[[Brass Eye]]'' and ''[[The Day Today]]'' came ''Jam'', a [[Sketch Comedy]] show with a difference. A unique combination of filming techniques and ambient music were used to create the sensation of the viewer being on drugs. At least one memorable piece was 'filmed' via security cameras and a double to blur the line between 'reality' and 'sketch' even further. There were no ad breaks, no canned laughter and no closing credits, all of which, it was felt, would ruin the mood of the show. It just faded in www.jamcredits.com for a few seconds. [[Chris Morris]] wrote and produced it and appeared in some of the skits.

* Mr Ventham: A man who visits what seems to be an expensive therapist, only to ask really obvious advice: "I can't find my wallet?" ... "It's probably on one of the surfaces."

* The suicidal man who jumps off of a one-story drop forty times, in case he changes his mind.

 

* [[Absurdity Ascendant]]

* [[Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male]] - Not sure whether it's been played straight or subverted in the sketch where a woman beguiles a man into groping her, culminating in him being arrested for sexual assault... with mutual consent.

** [[Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour]]

* [[Dead Baby Comedy]] (but of course)

* [[DVD Bonus Content]] - mercilessly mocked with the DVD release. The "extras" include a "play all at once" feature (which yields stills from all six episodes, the [[Thames Television]] fanfare and the word "WHY?"... as well as a bona fide, if rather odd, bonus scene), an option for "Undeleted Scenes" which merely tells you to go down to the shop you got the DVD from and complain loudly and profanely about the DVD not having any undeleted scenes, and a version of each episode that has been digitally altered in such a way as to make it entirely unwatchable (for example, shrunk down to a tiny size and bouncing around the screen.)

* [[Loners Are Freaks]] - one sketch features a woman who deliberately causes accidents and does other upsetting things so she can spend time with the people she's hurt/upset, with the implication that nobody else will do so.

* [[Mind Screw]] - Look at the examples above and tell me I'm wrong.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] - Averted, hard, as is Morris' style. A fake [[Acceptable Targets|Kilroy]] is shown to gave gone insane and is running around naked in a shopping centre, urinating on a window containing a television displaying his face. Fake Richard Madeley is shown beating up an innocent cleaner and having sex with a coffee machine.

* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] - "Mr. Lizard", who installs a television in a couples' home which inexplicably begins spewing lizards, then denies all responsibility - suggesting that the cable company are sending the lizards down the wire while repeating "it's nothing to do with me" and taunting the pair.

* [[Overly Long Gag]] - a couple.

* [[Surreal Theme Tune]] - No real theme tune, but every episode would begin with Chris Morris delivering a rambling monologue that had seemingly little to do with the show, and ending with "Then welcome... in Jaaaammmm"; see page quote.

* [[Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour]] - Maria, the six-year-old assassin

** The sketch where a semi-naked man and a woman run through a forest around police officers singing "Mah Na Mah Na", while a dead body is found. They then proceed to sit on the body to squeeze out a noise into a bass clarinet in time with the music. Yeah...

** Not only is the source material, editing, soundtrack and general ambience extremely tripped out and unsettling, there's also the video remix version "Jaaaam" which is the same footage, but with each scene put through various visual filters - pixelation, solarisation, all sorts. It's ''extremely'' hard to watch in a darkened room and still feel sober.

[[Category:Sketch Comedy]]

[[Category:Jam]]