Magnificent, brutal and absurd: Is Cunk on Earth the funniest show on TV?

By Michael Idato

Almost a history lesson? Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk in Cunk on Earth.Credit:Jonathan Browning

Like dozens of documentary presenters before her, Philomena Cunk delivers her script in a dry, unremarkable monotone: “The Greeks had an empire, and the Chinese had an empire, but when most of us think of the word empire, we think of the big one. Star Wars. Or Rome,” she says matter-of-factly. “And this is history, so it’s Rome I’m afraid.” Wait, what?

The presenter of Cunk on Earth is not at all what she seems. Her real name is Diane Morgan and she sprang from the creative wellspring of Charlie Brooker’s satirical news analysis Weekly Wipe, where her dry-as-a-desert take on intellectual issues led to two spin-off television programs, Cunk on Shakespeare and Cunk on Britain, and now, launching to a global audience on Netflix, the ambitious history-of-the-world-in-five-half-hour-episodes, Cunk on Earth.

Cunk on Earth is brilliant, peppered with deadpan epithets and stunned interviewees. It is History of the World, Part One, but with the sensibilities and dark humour of the best mockumentaries, such as The Games or The Office. Cunk is an everywoman, bringing both a dry satire of the serious, but also an intellectually accessible portal to otherwise stiff topics.

“The ancient Greeks invented lots of things we still have today, like medicine and olives, and lots of things that have died out, like democracy and pillars,” she says, without a shred of irony. Nobody is watching Cunk on Earth for a serious history lesson, but it works because if you wanted to, you very almost could.

The droll Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) teaches us about the world in Cunk on Earth.Credit:Jonathan Browning

And the magnificence of Cunk is that her best interview subjects meet her halfway, matching ever more absurd questions with ever more patiently articulated but scientifically sound answers. A question about whether any early cave paintings were adapted as films is met with an explanation that filmmaking was invented long after cave painting ceased to be the principal storytelling tool of the day. Right.

The narrative also follows what we might almost call Cunkian logic: that farming came about not because early man was brilliant, but because he was lazy, and he had happened upon the idea of shifting his focus from hunting moving prey to the much easier task of hunting immobile plant life. Cunk works because at the same time it makes sense, and makes no sense at all.

“It’s hard to believe I’m walking through the ruins of the first ever city,” Cunk says, while walking through the ruins of an ancient city. “Because I’m not,” she continues. “That’s in Iraq, which is miles away and f—ing dangerous. But the remains of it look pretty much like this, so you’d never know I wasn’t actually there if I wasn’t telling you now by accident.”

I enjoy being Philomena and actually feel more comfy as her than me because she’s totally bulletproof.

The comedy of Philomena Cunk succeeds in part because Cunk’s droll, everyday way into traditionally intellectual topics is naturally funny. But it also works because of the willingness of her subjects to not only patiently endure her questions, but to contemplate them and give honest answers in reply.

Best example: Professor Douglas Hedley, from the University of Cambridge, who replies to a question about the “pipes in a brain” with an explanation of the two schools of philosophy. And to an anecdote about Philomena’s friend Paul’s car accident with an explanation of the nature of providence.

And when the dots are joined between modern-day emoji and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, the whole thing goes next level.

“It was just [about finding] a different way into topics,” says writer Charlie Brooker , who developed Philomena Cunk after the success (and mixed reaction) to another fictional character, Barry Shitpeas, played by director Al Campbell. “We could get quite sharp commentary in the guise of these idiots,” Brooker says. “And we were just really laughing in the edit, which is always a good sign.”

The role of Philomena Cunk went to Diane Morgan, a comic actress whose credits included Motherland (co-written by Sharon Horgan), Inside No. 9 with Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, and After Life, Ricky Gervais’ stunning examination of grief. Give yourself extra points if you remember her from brilliant performances in Phoenix Nights or Frayed.

From an Australian perspective, Norman Gunston was perhaps our earliest celebrated mockumentarian, though his work was wrapped up in the slightly more everyday persona of a comic TV character deployed in various situations, such as real-life news conferences and other events. He was born on The Aunty Jack Show in 1973, got his own show, The Norman Gunston Show, in 1975, but he is best remembered for a series of real-world conversations with stars that went hilariously off course: Sally Struthers, Muhammad Ali, Warren Beatty and Rudolf Nureyev among them.

Precisely what constitutes a mockumentary is somewhat elusive, however, largely because the camera and interviewer are not always seen. The most famous cinematic example of the genre might be This is Spinal Tap (1984), written by Christopher Guest and directed by Rob Reiner. They followed it with Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006). Sacha Baron Cohen also co-opted the form for Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), Bruno (2009) and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020).

Morgan on Philomena Cunk: “She’s totally bulletproof.”Credit:Jonathan Browning

On television, and closer to home, The Games (1998-2000) is one of the finest mockumentaries ever produced, and perhaps the best comedy in Australian TV history. (With honourable nods, before the villagers light their torches and pick up their pitchforks, to Frontline and Kath & Kim). The UK’s The Office (2001) was a brilliant mockumentary. And the suggestion that Americans do not understand mockumentary’s sharpest tool, irony, is somewhat dispelled by the success of The Office (2005-2013), Parks and Recreation (2009-2015), and Modern Family (2009-2020).

Even television’s now shadow-banned comedies – Come Fly with Me (2010), We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year (2005), Summer Heights High (2007), Angry Boys (2011), Ja’mie: Private School Girl (2013), Jonah from Tonga (2014) and Lunatics (2019) – overtly or covertly used the tools of mockumentary.

Mockumentary, in its purest form, is ultimately the addition of an external observer to an otherwise unfilmed environment, such as the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg (or the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin) in the various iterations of The Office, the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Best in Show, or even the Pritchett and Dunphy homes in Modern Family.

Cunk, on the other hand, is perhaps a more clearly intentional working documentary satire, brushed against the knife’s edge because while the interviewer is plainly writ large from the world of comedy, her topics and the academics she interviews are speaking in deadly earnest. Remember, not everyone here is an actor.

How those two elements – absurd questions and at-times earnestly serious answers – mesh is where Cunk comes to dazzling life. Most of it is funny, but the best of it is so brutal that it hovers between hilarious and hurtful. Such as the look of speechlessness from an archaeologist when Cunk suggests “horfe” as a brand name (like “beef”, or “pork”) for human flesh. Or Cunk asking an increasingly uncomfortable academic to look down the barrel of the camera and say that Jesus Christ was the first victim of cancel culture. Or Cunk asking why people say it’s a mystery how the pyramids were built when it’s obvious they are just big bricks in a triangle?

From Morgan’s perspective, Philomena Cunk’s superpower is that she is a shield. “Staying in character isn’t difficult for me. I enjoy being Philomena and actually feel more comfy as her than me because she’s totally bulletproof. She doesn’t care what anyone thinks about her. She’s a suit of armour. She can say anything, go anywhere, do no wrong.”

Cunk on Earth airs on Netflix.

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