Unnatural Acts (1998 TV Series)

Unnatural Acts
Also known as	'(Un)natural Acts'
Genre	Sketch comedy
Starring	Julian Barratt Seán Cullen Rich Easter Noel Fielding Rich Fulcher Jessica Hynes Mark Caven
Theme music composer	Julian Barratt
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producer(s)	Gary Reich
Running time	25 minutes
Release
Original network	Paramount Comedy
Original release	1998
Chronology
Related shows	The Mighty Boosh

Unnatural Acts (also spelt (Un)natural Acts) was a 1998 sketch comedy series written by Julian Barratt, Seán Cullen, Rich Easter, and Rich Fulcher on the Paramount Comedy Channel, now known as Comedy Central.

One of the recurring sketches shows Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding as zookeepers, having the same kind of wordy, bragging discussions that later became an integral part of The Mighty Boosh. Some of the topics from Unnatural Acts were kept in The Mighty Boosh, e.g. "don’t touch me", "never tremble with a newt" and "his eyes are like black holes", as well as the many threats of the nature "I'll come through your flesh like soft cheese", "I'll take your arms off gently, it will tickle, but then I'll punch your stumps" or "I'll get forty trained grasshoppers to kick your eyes out and replace them with wheat. You’ll be known as 'wheat eyes'".

The zookeepers are called Alan and George, but there are mentions of a person called Bob Fossil. Parts of Bob Fossil's traits in The Mighty Boosh can be spotted in some of Rich Fulcher’s characters in Unnatural Acts.

Another recurring sketch is a distinctively northern English crazy street vendor (Julian Barratt) who attempts to sell such things as chicken puppets, earrings and batman capes.

Another recurring sketch is two policemen who instead of focusing on the job flirt and/or have little relationship fights with each other.

An old man and a little boy get up to shenanigans in a lighthouse, such as playing hide-and-seek or opening the refrigerator door repeatedly. The "wind" joke from the Mighty Boosh series one episode "Charlie" originated in this sketch.

A husband (Julian Barratt) and wife attempt to do simple things (read a bus schedule, play Monopoly) but are hindered by their farsighted inability to read anything, and quickly give up, often muttering, "It's too hard."

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