Having started out as a columnist for a gaming magazine, Charlie Brooker’s now one of the most wanted comedians in Britain. Known for his ridiculous hyperbole, scathing with and snide, mean and exceptionally funny remarks about just about everything on TV, Brooker has created a real cult of personality.
This massive surge in the last few years has been fuelled by his ‘Wipe’ shows on BBC4. Hidden away on the digital channel, Brooker’s Screen Wipe and News Wipe were scathing and bizarre looks at the world of TV and current affairs. Full of venom and spite, Charlie Brooker simply says everything mean about all the TV you know and hate, though usually far wittier than you really think is possible in connection to clips of ‘Britannia High’.
He’s also found a home for his anarchic, media saturated sense of humour on Channel 4’s 10 O’clock Live (an attempt at a live news satire show) and his panel comedy show You Have Been Watching.
After the incredibly silly A Touch of Cloth aired last weekend on Sky 1, Charlie Brooker has once again put his unique and always odd creative stamp on TV. For once not appearing on camera to host the silliness, his writing is still the star.
A massive reference to classic spoof films like Airplane! And The Naked Gun, A Touch of Cloth was an unbridled gag fest, throwing so many jokes at the screen, at least one or two are going to make you laugh.
For anyone with a passing fancy of the cop show, it made for a stupidly fun lampooning of one of television’s constant fascinations.
Brooker’s not all about the silly gags though. He can get very, very dark indeed. Both the recent Black Mirror and 2008’s Dead Set were pitch black comedy dramas carrying Brooker’s trademark satirical edge.
Dead Set was an amalgam of two genres you would never have thought might ever go together; reality TV and zombies. Yep, the easy way to make Big Brother more interesting is to throw a whole bunch of the undead into. A five part that ran all the way through a week, Dead Set was a brilliant if troubled show.
While not the spectacular it could have been due to budget cuts, Dead Set was a really rare slice of horror on TV. It even had a zombiefied Davina McCall. What more could you want?
Black Mirror, which aired earlier this year, was just as dark but wore it’s satire on its sleeve. A series of three pitch black dramas, Black Mirror was absolutely compelling viewing. From a group of kidnappers forcing the Prime Minister to perform a lewd act with a farm animal on national television as a random to a horrific re-imagining of Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor, Black Mirror was morale sapping the very best way.
Be it comedy of drama though, Charlie Brooker is easily now easily one of the biggest names in British TV and the perfect commentator for a cynical age of comedy.
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