MONKEY DUST - The Greatest Dark Comedy Ever Drawn | Cynical Reviews 

Remember folks: Don't stray off the path... This was a passion project of mine, a video I wanted to make for a long time. Although it took me a while to get around to it, I had a lot of fun with it and I'm very proud of it, and I hope you all enjoy it too!

Everyone's gangsta until the dog man laughs

Hey, how did you get footage of my parents splitting up?

Judging by the clips I think it’s just a reality British show

the cyclist hands moulded into the bikes got me, I laughed hard, my father in law is a bike guy

"- What are those kids doing? - They are enlarging the EU. _ Ah... typical..."

I've always said that watching Monkey Dust should be a requirement for UK citizenship applicants, it captures British society perfectly even nearly 20 years later. I'd love to see a one off updated version but sadly I fear that there's no platform that would host it. Pure genius, excellent review.

I read the second and third series' have never been released because of Harry Thompson passing away. But BBC Three did start getting cold feet with their animation sadly, they commissioned another, PopeTown and never aired a single episode. But a problem with the other "adult" shows was they always tried emulating another established show like South Park, Family Guy or The Simpsons.

Monkey Dust was pure genius and the lack of DVDs of seasons 2 and 3 is a travesty.

It's always felt like I was the only person who ever watched and remembers this show! I loved it. I wish they'd released the whole series on DVD.

If anybody could get this series brought back it would be David Baddiel, he's a famous comedian, he can do anything!

That bicyclist sketch is so relatable. The town I lived in, every month for quite a while we got at least one article from some bicyclist in the paper complaining about something but also how they were so great just for cycling. They just couldn't catch on how the rest of us wanted to strangle them.

I had to google "british slang cottage" lol never heard that anywhere before

I'm shocked this made it onto a major network like the BBC, this is like a mid 2000s Newgrounds series

Obviously something like this is British.

Gotta thank the ABC for airing this in Australia when it came out. Helped me discover my own penchant for dark humour.

OH GOD! Just finished watching it. We never changed. all the shit we are fighting among each other nowadays has been here ages ago too.

I'm 27 - I discovered this via a Boards of Canada fan page and managed to find a download. Such an all-encapsulating show that just hasn't been given the credit it deserves. It's a sick, sad world, indeed. Great video!

The closest thing is probably David Firth.

jesus christ, I am british how have I not found out this existed till now, it is like finding the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that was missing for years.

'Blue Jam' and 'Jam' came before this. I'd say Monkey Dust is pretty heavily influenced by those two shows and the satirical comedy of Chris Morris in general.

I grew up with Monkey Dust. It is brilliant! Best animation from the UK in ages. A must watch. I hope they release the last two seasons.

It was broadcasted in Russia in 2010 or so. Quite the experience

I actually watched this show as kid on Russian tv (seeing its history actually makes me wonder how was it even on Russian tv ) and it's fucking amazing.

I remember when this first started, I was about 10 or 11. It always stuck in my head. Particularly Clive, Lovely Head by Goldfrapp will always make me think of "spit-roasting a hooker with your dad".

This looks like something I would think AdultSwim would’ve picked up. 😂

Monkey Dust is so full of disconcerting truths that is often difficult to laugh. A work of art, no doubt

I LOVED this series, it was so delightfully melancholy. It came around at just the right time (not just in comedy but also for my age) and gave me an insight not only into dark comedy and alternative electronic music. A highlight for me is the end of series 1 where they use Pulp's 'Sunrise' in a very surprising way. When I found the 2nd and 3rd series were to remain unreleased I made it my mission to find them via.... other means and to this day they lie dormant in an external drive, waiting for me to show them to any curious friend who happens to still be round mine at 3 in the morning.

I very rarely watch film or series reviews, but I saw this in my feed with your comment that it was a passion project, and that kinda tugged on my heartstrings. So I decided to give it a go. Turns out I wanna turn over every stone to find a way to watch the whole series now. Also gonna watch more of your reviews from now on, I really like the way you present stuff.

"My name is Clive Pringle, and today has been the longest day of my life." Lmao Season 1 was a masterpiece.

I live in Camada, and somehow found this show in my 20's. I showed it to a few of my friends, and we ended up being this tiny group of people within our city that referenced this show all the time. It was like we all shared a hilarious secret. It also taught us a long of British slang.

Monkey Dust strangely reminds of the Netflix anthology series; Love, Death, and Robots. An amazing but super dark, creepy, demented, and incredibly fucked up anthology series. It's a great show that gives zero fucks and features a lot of disturbing images throughout many of it's episodes. A fantastic series worth checking out, only if you have the stomach to handle it.

I think you said it best, it's the extreme version of British humor that laughs at itself because of the grim reality of everything. I fucking love it.

You beautiful fucking specimen ! You have no idea how long I've been looking for this ! I saw an episode ages ago before we could rewind live tv, and I've literally asked everyone (including Reddit) 😭💕

6:25 I always wondered if anyone had ever made that joke before

Love this show. I was at school with Harry Thompson for 8 years...

I'm so glad someone is talking about Monkey Dust. I watched this when it was shown on BBC3 and I find myself thinking about it on and off over the last 15 years. Its weird, but it hits home somehow

Man, this was one of the best series that BBC3 ever put out, from the PD Finder General, to Tony Blair dishing out free everything in the shop window TV's, to Mr Hoppy, the racist tomatoes, the man who tells movie stories to his missus when he gets home from being a degenerate. Proper madness.

I'm so glad to see this show get the recognition it deserves. My mum would let me watch this from time to time as a teenager and it was by far the funniest thing I ever watched

THANK CHRIST My father introduced me with his DVD of season 1. Its possibly the strangest thing I've ever seen. I've literally never heard anyone talk about it

So glad I found this. I remember monkey dust from it's first run and it was and is the best thing I have ever seen. I try to describe it to people, even show them the odd clip, but it's just not the same as watching the episode in full. Thanks for this! Let's hope one day they release all of it

Nice music taste

This show looks amazing. Let's hope internet historians never let this show be forgotten. It's messages of free and brutal comedy are amazing.

Still my favourite comedy show - sad that only the first season is on DVD :(

Man, the use of Bloodlines soundtrack really fit this darker twisted show. Well done! Also, the music is great.

Thanks for bringing this obscure show to light! I’ve always liked strange animated comedies, like Cartoon Sushi from MTV in the 90’s, Adult Swim, and even TripTank from Comedy Central. This one definitely looks like a must-see for me!

6:23 Holy shit is that a Goldfrapp song from their first album? I'm already in love with this show. EDIT: 7:41 And a Bent deepcut? Can someone show me where to throw my money?

Thank you so much for making this. This is one of the favorite shows. I remember buying a freeview box for the first time and being hooked on some great comedy on BBC3 (smoking room springs to mind). I've got the first series/season on dvd (though alas no dvd player, such is the times). truly great show.

Chillingly, me and my friend watched this a couple of years ago, loved it. It was very chilling.

I love everything about the British. Their humor, music, the way they speak. It’s entertaining just to hear them speak

It is really sad that nothing like this can exist anymore.

Loved this show! At the time, I was working weird, irregular hours, so I lament missing large chunks of Series 2 & Series 3. Wish they'd release DVDs of those. "Mongrels" is another show that made me laugh myself inside-out, and that BBC3 gave up on far too soon.

"It makes South Park look like My Little Pony." ~2019 Cynical Reviews Also me: My, oh my, best quote I heard so far. 😀😁😂

Oooh, I loved it when I was wee lad. I was 14 I think. I'm now 27 and 4 years ago I rewatched all 3 seasons. Still remember, my favourite characters were : Clive Pringle London and Essex guys and Plutonium seller.

It's like a less musical, more British Metalocalypse (which you would love if you've never seen it).

Hey Cynical, I am very glad you made this video. I've seen this show for the very first time few years back when I heard Yahtzee and Gabe talking about it. I've sat down to watch it and I loved it. I couldn't stop watching at all. It's definitely one of my most favourite series ever if not the most favourite one. Thank you so much for spreading the word!

An absolutely brilliant series. Extremely intelligent, more hit than miss, and incomparably dark. Extremely visionary, very funny... and tragic.

One of my favorite shows. I wasn't in the country when it ran and can't even remember how I heard about it. The internet is an amazing thing.

I watched every episode of this programme as it came out. I was probably 11 or 12. It was always so funny to me, even as a young guy. I just got it. I wonder how much funnier it would have been seeing it as a 30 year old. Sad it can’t be bought.

Anyone else feel nostalgic about those BBC Three slugs? Or when it was actually on tv?

Thank you for calling my attention to this show, I am watching it now and it is bloody brilliant.

I don’t know, just looking at this show makes me uncomfortable. I can sense the cynicism oozing out of it like some dark aura. Though it’s probably just not for me. Though I like learning about other cultures, even the dark sides of them, so this review is still of interest to me.

I'm not a huge fan of the old "picks no sides, fires at everyone" mantra, as it's the common excuse of some of the most crap and lazy, edgy jokeless 'comedies' out there. However I did catch a bit of this one when it was on and it looked sorta interesting and seemed kinda funny, so it doesn't seem like one of those and I might give it a go. Cheers for reminding me of it. I also think the idea that ridiculous censorship is a new thing is a bit overblown. Wasn't that always a thing? Whenever people say "you couldn't make X these days" I kinda just simply have to call bollocks on that. Plenty of stuff gets made these days, of all the varieties. Maybe it's the difference of being on TV or not that they're talking about? Could be that, I haven't had a TV for years now, maybe TV's gone all turtle strategy in the midst of its decline I dunno. Far as I'm concerned, the excuses given for ridiculous censorship get shuffled around but the amount of it remains at a pretty even level in general. There always were self-interested idiots wanting things banned without good cause, and there always were genuine folks wanting things banned with good cause (even if banning's not usually the best actual strategy), and the one would always play on the sympathies garnered by the other like a parasite. It's got a lot more called-out these days (with likewise a big helping of similar self-interested idiots among the ones calling it out... bit like censorception), but it doesn't seem to have actually got worse. These people were around before and barring a giant cultural shift will still be around tomorrow. I mean if anything I enjoy the fact that people can swear on the youtubes. Because it doesn't get highlighted as special language any more, it's just normal speaking like it should be. And the youtubes are hardly the least unreasonably censored place on the internets, in fact probably one of the most. But that's a shift in targets I do enjoy, because that always felt so ridiculous to me. However yeah, now it's music copyrights meaning that nobody gets to see a cartoon series and that's a bunch of nonsense for sure. Somebody tell me again how my anti-copyright viewpoint is the one that's hurting artists, and not the other way around? No really. Copyright's a plague on creativity and needs to just be scrapped entirely. People forget that it isn't some thing that was always around forever, and that people made livings making art before it existed (probably a lot better livings than these days too). Fuck copyright.

Thank you so much for introducing me to this lol I don't even know how many times I've watched all 3 seasons in the past half a year, this is my bread and butter as well lol

This show looks hilarious. I love cynical and/or insane shows.

Superb. Still the best comedy this 65 year old has ever seen. Excellent show, great critique shame 2 and 3 not available. Grab it wherever you can.

I binge watched 3 series of this show once and it left me in a funk that I couldn't shake for 2 weeks. 10/10

This show is truly an underrated gem. Sadly it's a footnote in the creator's legacy.

This was a fantastic show, whenever someone claims I don't like comedy I point them in the direction of Monkey Dust, that opening scene of God employing a PR company to help make him more popular. It was fantastic!

Monkey Dust was a work of absolute genius! You can see it today in the works of MeatCanyon and other great animators still churning out dark material like this. Nothing holds a candle to Monkey Dust though.

The closest thing I can think of in terms of humour is the work of Chris Morris with Brass Eye, Jam & Four Lions. They're equally as dark in tone at times and not afraid to poke fun at taboo subjects with a British approach.

You’re right about Spitting Image. Watch Season 1 and play a game of “Who’s dead?”

Thank you for letting me know this exists! I've never heard of it but I gotta find out more.

Excellent video! Monkey dust is my favourite TV show ever! I own all 18 episodes of this masterpiece

Got the first season on dvd due to your recommendation and because of the few clips I could fine on YT. Great stuff! I'd love to see season 2 and 3 get a home release too. But I can't imagine the BBC would be too eager to give it a go. Even with the expired licenced music swapped out. An absolute shame tbh.

i loved monkey dust. love it even more for being such a product of its time. we don't live in the early naughties any more. things have moved on.

We need this show now more than ever

My parents used to watch this show and I remember it well. It's such a shame the 2nd and 3rd season aren't available anymore! It's so fucking funny!

watched it all in two days, one of the best shows ive seen in ages. thanks so much!

I wish they'd revive this show. They could do so much with the mess in our society now with the huge political divides and extremes, PC culture gone mad, twitter etc. Of course the BBC would never have the balls to air something like this now.

I'm Kelly... I'm on work experience...

Why does every adult cartoon need to have *god awful* art style?

Wow. Off to the pirate bay!

I remember catching this show randomly years ago & bloody loving it. Wonder if you can get it on DVD.

And of course whenever edgy or dark comedy is even mentioned, there're always insufferable edgelords who think it's not real comedy unless it hurts someone and bashes them for being hurt.

i actually started watching Monkey Dust because of your review. Its really good. The first episode initially turned me off, but after watching more i really like it.

So... it's a TV series in the style of every fringe youtube animator? Dude I'm in.

i have NO idea how I saw this in America (Bravo? BBC America? No way) but I was fascinated and couldn't describe it to anyone to explain what I saw! Searching for the name of this show has haunted me for all this time, so that you for celebrating the original comedy and giving a name for some weird faces a long time ago.

Although this series seems to have a very smart, it doesn't seem to be my thing. I don't have very good experiences with foreign comedies that rely too much on a culture that I don't know, even the occasional american joke of "That person is like X celebrity" makes me go "Who is that?" and I never hear about X celebrity ever again. Now, this doesn't mean I can't found fun it, but it just doesn't seem my cup of tea. Great video nonetheless, CJ.

Where to watch

Loved the video. Love MONKEY DUST. Even watched the narration by Pye and Thompson over the entire series. At the start you said recomend anything that is close to Monkey Dust and I got to say a RU-vid channel called Meat Canyon is pretty damn close.

I cannot express how happy I was to see something related to Monkey Dust in my feed - even better when I saw it was you!

There was a show called Trip Tank that ran for a while that is very similar.

Loved this show back on bbc3 after a long days work. The mental chess always got me.

Monkey Dust introduced me to the band "The Eels" I've been a fan ever since.

Me: "Have you ever seen Monkey Dust?" Them: "Monkey what?" Me: (Grins)

15:00 Four Lions is a movie with 4 terrorists who are incapable of doing attacks. it is pretty funny

The fact that you used Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines music for this bit, just kicks it up a notch.

I saw many episodes here in Chile in minor cable channel. They were mesmerizing, but since it was many years ago, I hsd forgotten the name. Thanks for making me remember it

This show was like a 24-carrat, dystopian, anarchic, punk-rock Monty Python, folks!!! Take it from someone who watched & wholeheartedly LOVED this series from it's very first airing!