Philomena Cunk Joins the ‘Black Mirror’ Universe

When we last saw fake British TV pundit Philomena Cunk, played by Diane Morgan, she was guiding us through all of human history in the legendarily hilarious multi-part series ‘Cunk On Earth.’ The show was the ultimate parody of prestige BBC and PBS documentary series, and also an absurdist takedown of every sacred cow imaginable.

Now Philomena Cunk is back, in ‘Cunk On Life,’ which, in 80 minutes, purports to be an examination of the deepest mysteries of the human experience: What is the meaning of life? How did we get here? Where are we going? But a lot of the special’s material feels like outtakes, albeit hilarious ones, from Cunk On Earth. There’s a long rant about Van Gogh, and a hilarious bit where Cunk asks a literary expert which Russian author he prefers, listing all the big names, plus “Turnover,” not understanding that “turnover” was an instruction to turn over her page of notes. It’s not exactly highbrow material, even though it’s on a highbrow topic, but it is hilarious.

A lot of the material in the special feels like classic Cunk. She asks physicist Brian Cox, who works on the Large Hadron Collider, if she can call him Brian or “if you prefer Cox.” The show makes repeated jokes about how the phrase “our souls” sounds like “arseholes.” She tells a long story about her much-beleaguered “my mate Paul” having sex with a grapefruit. And lovers of Cunk On Earth’s ‘Pump Up The Jam’ gag will like that it returns here in force.

But because ‘Cunk On Life’ is essentially just leftover material from ‘Cunk On Earth,’ creator Charlie Brooker has some other idea for the special. Philomena Cunk was the breakout character from an annual comic Year In Review series that Brooker did before he created the groundbreaking ‘Black Mirror.’ She was a dipshit talking head who, in a hilarious commentary on how the industry works, then became an elite TV presenter.

But, as it turns out, Cunk doesn’t exist in our reality. She exists in a side reality, much like Black Mirror, that is a dark reflection of who we are. In the special, she makes a promotional visit to the headquarters of Streamberry, which, as discerning Black Mirror fans know, is the name of the Netflix parody streaming service that destroyed the life of Annie Murphy in last season’s breakout episode, ‘Joan is Awful.‘ In Cunk’s Streamberry visit, she learns that the site has evolved to feature personalized streams to feed into a growing wave of low-key human misery. This includes an entire block of programming for people who are standing on a ledge about to jump. And a special block within that block for suicidal children. Then they show a song, ‘Don’t Jump,’ from one of those shows, which makes Avenue Q seem like family fare.

The most outrageous and longest scene in the most deeply satirical comedy of the year doesn’t even feature its main character. And, in fact, it exists in the universe of a completely different TV show that Philomena Cunk never mentions. Other moments of absolutely warped reality populate Cunk on Life, like when Philomena walks past a clone of herself. Or when she attempts to lead the audience in a guided mediation but her voice ends up becoming disassociated from her body and takes on a life of its own. After that, a voiceover informs us, the producers had to shoot it to put it out of its misery.

Cunk on Life represents either the work of one of the greatest comic geniuses of modern times, or just noodling around from someone who’s  bored with his own material. It contains deep dives into the realm of the Bandersnatch if you want to dive deep. Or you can just sit back and ponder, along with Philomena Cunk, about whether or not “arseholes go to heaven.”