Educational TV parody: Look Around You

Look Around You is a BBC program that parodies educational TV from the 70s and 80s. This episode about the brain is especially funny.

The brain is basically a wrinkled bag of skin, filled with warm water, veins, and thought muscles. Think of it as a kind of modified heart, only with a mind, or brain.

Link (Via Eye of the Goof)

[#1 posted by phasor3000 , October 1, 2007 3:31 PM]

"Using a hand drill, a small hole is formed at the base of Nigel's skull..."

Shades of Bloodsucking Freaks!

Great retro-synth soundtrack, too.

[#2 posted by maryr , October 1, 2007 3:40 PM]

A friend introduced me to these this spring. The episode on water is a favorite of mine, mainly for the experimenter repeatedly reaching in to the boiling water and subsequent hand makeup.

[#3 posted by stinkyweezleteet , October 1, 2007 3:45 PM]

More specifically, this is a parody of the popular BBC show 'Tomorrows World', staple Thursday night viewing in the 80's...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow's_World

[#4 posted by maryr , October 1, 2007 3:47 PM]

PS: Sorry, should have included link in my previous post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LqYBncyKpM

[#5 posted by changescat , October 1, 2007 3:49 PM]

My favourite has got to be the one on maths--that is, Mathmatical Anti-Telharsic Septomin Harfatum.

Loved the water one too...

[#6 posted by stinkyweezleteet , October 1, 2007 4:10 PM]

Correction to my previous post, the second series is the parody I was thinking of. The first series was much more general.

[#7 posted by nick , October 1, 2007 4:28 PM]

ha! i submitted this to you last year and it never got posted. sad!

[#8 posted by Mark Frauenfelder , October 1, 2007 4:37 PM]

Sorry for missing it, Nick. I really try to go through all the submissions, but sometimes I fall behind. Please don't become discouraged.

[#9 posted by James Cx , October 1, 2007 4:45 PM]

If series one is by far funnier than series two and series two is at most worth a few chuckles, what is the height of Imhotep?

[#10 posted by Stefan Jones , October 1, 2007 4:45 PM]

The Look Around You parodies manage to be funny even if you've never seen the original program. Uh, programmes.

[#11 posted by Ian Holmes , October 1, 2007 4:51 PM]

Nick @7: heh... I mentioned "Look Around You" in the comments thread to Cory's IT Crowd post yesterday... but I think you trumped me with your one-year-old scoop...

Mark @8: now let's see how long it takes you guys to discover "The Mighty Boosh". Or "The Day Today". Or "Snuff Box", "Jam", "Spaced" ... ;-)

[#12 posted by Silva , October 1, 2007 5:15 PM]

This stuff is excelent. I had written a text about deep sea fishes I've meant to "webisode" for months, and this have given me the inspiration I needed.

[#13 posted by Angstrom , October 1, 2007 5:52 PM]

Factoids :
Peter Serafinowicz, of Look Around You has a new series starting on BBC on Thursday.
Or you can watch it now online, via this weird myspace tie-in. Ugh.
http://creative.myspace.com/uk/bbc2comedy/bbc2popup.htm

I have one hair.

[#14 posted by Kurt McAllister , October 1, 2007 6:08 PM]

I've always loved these, ever since my friend introduced them to me, along with Darkplace and Spaced. And the fact that that was Edgar Wright with the second experiment made me happy.

[#15 posted by dculberson , October 1, 2007 7:30 PM]

Oh dear god my life has improved immeasurably.

[#16 posted by CountD , October 1, 2007 7:42 PM]

I preferred season 1 (which was the more uniform school education parody), though my favorite moment came from the food episode of the second season. The "Slimby scariest picture possible" has been my default user picture/avatar for every website for the past year or so.

Also, Imhotep is invisible.

[#17 posted by Absent , October 2, 2007 12:15 AM]

The episode with "Synthesizer Patel" was my favourite.

[#18 posted by Absent , October 2, 2007 12:16 AM]

Oops, here the link to a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cv1_Bw_sBo

[#19 posted by Simon Greenwood , October 2, 2007 3:32 AM]

The DVD is an absolute joy - loads of extra features that would mean nothing unless you were ever off ill from school in the UK in the late 1970s. The format is Programmes for Schools and Colleges which were shown by both the BBC and ITV in the morning (now on BBC2 and Channel 4). There is a whole section of CEEFAX, the text information system that used to take up a fair part of daytime programming, and an option to turn off the dialogue, leaving only the lovely synth soundtrack. Look up the 'module' for Music and revel in the creation of 'Little Mouse' by Jack Morgan BSc (Hons). The programme's brown decored website is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/lookaroundyou/ .

[#20 posted by cha0tic , October 2, 2007 8:58 AM]

They are works of Genius. When I saw my first episode I flashed back to being at school in the 70's. My favourite is 'music' ( http://tinyurl.com/39ae7m ) because of the 'boite diabolique' & the 19 forbidden notes.

[#21 posted by nick , October 2, 2007 7:20 PM]

"ha! i submitted this to you last year and it never got posted. sad!"

Just for the record, the Nick who posted the above is not me. (There are two Nicks now, I guess.)

BTW: where have the post numbers gone?

[#22 posted by nick , October 2, 2007 7:22 PM]

Oops. There they are (the post numbers). My bad.