Cultural commentator Philomena Cunk discusses evolution

February 21, 2015 • 2:35 pm

by Matthew Cobb

We can all learn something from this video:

[JAC: After some puzzlement and quizzing of Dr. Cobb, I found out that this is a spoof of Brian Cox’s television series “Wonders of Life,” and the presenter is the comedian Diane Morgan, who uses the name Philomena Cunk. It was created by satirist Charlie Brooker.  You can see another example of the series’s spoof videos here.

I absolutely love her accent, particularly the way she says “monkey.” I guessed it was Mancunian, and Matthew confirmed that I was nearly correct: it’s from Bolton, which is near Manchester. ]

 

54 thoughts on “Cultural commentator Philomena Cunk discusses evolution”

  2. Philomena Cunk is very funny, as is Barry Shitpeas, the other talking head on the Screenwipe series. Karl Pilkington-esque. I like Charlie Brooker(particularly because he used to be a PC Zone journo back in the day and is unapologetic about being interested in games) and Nathan Barley was underrated too.

  3. “Without him, none of us would be here today, except in the form of fossils or gibbons.” 🙂

    Loved it!

    2. She’s hilarious. I can see that her “interviews with the experts” have much in common with Colbert’s interviews.

  5. I live fairly close to Bolton and my accent isn’t dissimilar.

    You might like this quote from Wikipedia:

    According to a survey of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Boltonians are the friendliest people in Britain

    1. You’ve been asked to apologize for making the comment below, which is a Roolz violation and is extremely rude. You will either apologize to that reader immediately or you’ll be banned from this site permanently. And notapologies aren’t accepted. If this is an example of Boltonian behavior, it is not friendly:
      _________________

      Submitted on 2015/02/18 at 9:52 am | In reply to Mark Perew.
      My personal suspicion is that the killer’s internal justification included all of the possible motives.

      That’s why you would be an unsuitable candidate to sit on a grand jury. You are exactly the kind of knee-jerk idiot the system is designed to weed out.

  8. The opening quote is a thing of pure beauty.

    “its almost unbelievable that before Charles Darwin invented evolution in 1859, no one had ever evolved. Without him, none of us would be here today, except in the form of fossils or gibbons”

  9. I needed this refreshing and recharging trumor (my just made up word for truth/humor). Thank you. It’s been a hectic week arguing with theologians and their disciples on the inter-webs.

    Mike, faith-free.

  14. This sweet, relaxing treat is like desert and a little vacation break all at once — especially after a day like today. I’m now unabashedly hooked on the series! Thank you, Dr. Cobb!

  15. Excellent 🙂
    About the accent, usually, when talking to people from England, I need to guess most of what they say (English is not my mother tongue), but I had no problem understanding her.

  16. As someone said above, she does have Brian Cox down to a tee. Look, posture and intonation.

    Actually, when I first began watching the wonder series (planets and universe) which I have on DVD, his accent was sort of distracting. But once you get used to it, it’s actually okay. He does hang on the ‘g’ at the end of words(such as ‘hang’), and he emits the odd boyish laugh, but, hell, the series is very well done, entertaining and educational all at the same time (that is if you didnt know all that stuff already).

  17. I can appreciate comedy but it rarely actually makes me laugh. So I like cerebral comedy. You can smile but you’re not actually meant to laugh. It’s sort of clever funny rather than hilarious funny. I did finally get a laugh, though, when I watched her computer wonder video. Right at the very end when she said, while standing up and looking around her, “next time I’ll be asking where your lap goes when you stand up”. Unfortunately, I think she was joking.

    1. Apologies for being slightly off topic but I also loved the bit in Ep 4: Computers, when she is demonstrating the component parts of an early computer and says, “as you can see,it’s absolutely huge; and the mouse has gone missing, (pause, shake of head), but it must have been the size of a car!”. Classic!.

  18. It took me a few moments to figure out what the last word was:

    “So the monkeys that didn’t turn into humans — they must be gutted…”

    Apparently, “gutted” is a Britishism meaning “cause (someone) to feel extremely upset or disappointed”. Haven’t heard that before!

    2. I had to listen to that one again, too. Hadn’t known about “gutted”, but how awful not to have been a monkey lady-in-waiting!! LOL

  19. Back in the world of blocked Youtube and video, but

    “Bolton – I thought they still hung monkeys there?”

      1. There are a number of towns around Britain with that legend – IIRC the “Bloo Toon” (Peterhead – the only town named for a toilet cleaning product) and somewhere in the Lake District, to name but two.
        Having a number of friends in that general area, I see no reason to not unfairly spread the calumny. It could be worse – it could be a Vegemite sandwich.

  20. My daughters (raised in south Manchester) say “mon-keh” though nowhere near as strong. Nb her accent and Cox’s are not the same – to English ears (or at least to northern ones) they are clearly different. He’s from Oldham, which is east of Manchester while Bolton is N-W. Accents can change v quickly in UK. All the local towns around Manchester have different accents (though clearly clustered around the -eh sound for -y etc), and there’s a great 40 mile E-W cline between Manc and Scouse, with towns down the E Lancs Road showing gradations between the two. – MC

  21. I liked that the professor played along and said, “monkey-chimp.” Monkey is a funny word, and it’s use makes the point much more effectively than pedantry.

  23. There is also a funny video where she and Shitpeas discuss Brian Cox “Wonders of life”.

    My favorites are “die hard” and the “Harlem Shake”.

      1. If you like this, and you haven’t already done so, you might want to try Ricky Gervais’s ‘Guide To…’s. If Philomena Cunk were real, male and slightly less intellectually rigorous she would be Karl Pilkington. His ruminations on things like evolution, Cartesian dualism, infinity and the inner life of ladybirds are just brilliant. Ignore the An Idiot Abroad stuff – he’s at his best in his podcast material. And you’ll never learn more about monkeys and their craft ways.

  24. You can make a living from saying ‘monkey’ in a Lancashire accent. Here’s Johnny Vegas, from St. Helens (about 20 miles from Bolton), in 2001:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHw_wOlBzGQ
    and here he is years later – different product, but still saying ‘Munkeh’:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWQtX0-9aZ0

    Monkey (also known as The Monkey, ITV Digital Monkey or PG Tips Monkey, and often pronounced “Munkeh” in imitation of Johnny Vegas’ Lancashire accent), is an animated puppet advertising character in the form of a knitted sock monkey. He was first produced by The Jim Henson Company via their UK Creature Shop, puppeteered by Nigel Plaskitt and Susan Beattie and voiced by comedian Ben Miller.

    Monkey has appeared in advertising campaigns in the United Kingdom for both the television company ITV Digital (now defunct) and the tea brand PG Tips, as well as being occasionally featured in TV programmes. Monkey is notable as one of a small number of advertising characters to eclipse the popularity of the product they advertise and also to be reused to advertise a completely different product.[1]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_%28advertising_character%29

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