Here’s part 3 of Philomena’s “Cunk on Earth” series, this one called “The Renaissance will not be televised.”
Here we see La Cunk encounter the printing press, Renaissance painting, sculpture (“look at his ass”, she says, referring to Michelangelo’s David), and drawing (she’s obsessed with the “bits” of Leonardo’s drawings). She also takes up exploration (“Christopher Columbo”), science, impugning Galileo for his “useless” telescope and for having two nearly-identical names, and philosophy (her take on “I think, therefore I am” is quite good). She winds up with her take on the American and French revolution, with some lagniappe involving Beethoven (Philomena asks a music expert, “Is it true that in the later part of his life, Beethoven was profoundly dead?”).
Once again techno-pop makes its appearance in a music video of “Pump up the jam,” which doesn’t seem to be an ad, but a bizarre intrusion into the mockumentary.
The fourth and penultimate segment will be on the Industrial Revolution.
I think Pump up the Jam is meant to be some sort of running joke. It’ll probably become clear in the last episode.
(Spoiler) Philomena makes reference to it in her bit about The Renaissance and the Enlightenment’s great thinkers: their works “expanded humankind’s horizons in a manner that would go unmatched until the 1989 release of Belgian techno-anthem ‘Pump Up the Jam”’. Hilariously absurd.
Spoiler alert: it doesn’t get any clearer.
In this series, nothing could be more appropriate than sudden Techno intrusions, complete with hilarious captions.
Yes. I love the part about the free horse.
I’ve just watched episode 4 and it is the best by miles. I was totally blindsided by Philomena’s reaction when she found out that there are still nuclear weapons.
A painting of the Last Supper so realistic “You almost feel like you could crawl inside it and betray Jesus yourself.”
“Look at his ass”? No, I heard “Look at his abs”. Not that it matters. The whole thing is extremely funny. And I’m starting to believe, which I didn’t in the first episode, that the expert interviewees were not in on the joke.
She does say look at his abs, it’s true. But there’s also a monologue on why he didn’t have a bumhole. “Maybe the model had to go home early that day”.
A recent lengthy interview with Diane Morgan: https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/tv/features/diane-morgan-comedian-cunk-on-earth-interview-22849/ A bit more about her other TV roles (Motherland; Mandy) than about Cunk; but interesting all the same.
One of her books shown has some nice piscine woodcuts: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/rondelet-s-libri-de-piscibus-marinis%E2%80%9D-a-book-about-science-sea-monks-and-sea-bishops-queensland-museum-network/-wXxc3wJ1r7cIg?hl=en
“Fish authorities consider Rondelet’s book the beginning of scientific ichthyology.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ-5eOD57Ss
1/2 hour interview with 3 of the main people on the show