Jam (2000) User Reviews

Comedic Art

[hrkepler · 9/10 · 17 June 2018]

Obscene, offensive, disturbing, nihilistic, crude - rarely can be these words said together while describing a comedy series. 'Jam' is one beautiful gem among the whole ocean of fart jokes and mildly humorous and warm sitcoms. I don't say that there aren't any 'fart jokes' is 'Jam', there are some, but they are presente in such a disturbing way in very inappropriate situations. Mentioning inappropriate situations, then the whole show is built up on very nasty and surreal situations. All the skits are sent by very moody and ambient electronic music that adds more to the unnerving feel, and even some horror film like atmoshpere.

Herewriter simply doesn't have much ability to describe 'Jam', but perhaps the easiest way would be - if Monty Python woul have been directed by David Lynch. Chris Morris is genius!

Dark, disturbing, often "unfunny"...yet consistently excellent.

[mkm-hermanjnr · 8/10 · 15 July 2014]

I have a unique relationship with Jam, as I'm sure many other viewers do too.

Never before Jam have I watched a comedy show which remains completely compelling even though I found that a good 70% of the sketches weren't conventionally "funny".

That's not to say the series isn't amusing: it is, frequently. A few sketches did have me laughing out loud. But more often than not it produces hushed, disquieted laughs that you almost feel ashamed for producing.

This is to the show's credit, since it deliberately possesses a uniquely weird and disturbing atmosphere. Sketches frequently take familiar situations or concepts and bury them under an insane haze that seems equal parts bad drug trip and delirious nightmare. The visuals and sound frequently distort, rendering even "simple" sketch setups creepy or unusual.

There is almost always an intelligent thought or meaning behind the bleak tone and disorientating effects. One of my favourite sketches features a well-to-do man narrating a story regarding a man's absurd suicide attempt and provides a surprisingly poignant satire of lacklustre mental health care and bystander apathy in society.

The cast is great - Mark Heap is one of my favourite actors/comics, and gives another splendid performance in his varied roles here. Morris' writing and performance is top notch, as is David Cann's and...well, pretty much everyone, really.

The intro clips also bear mention: each episode is opened with Morris performing a very dark and disjointed poetic monologue linking the (usually horrific) fates of several characters. The intros are universally fantastic and really show off the talent of Morris at his best.

The show does have disadvantages: chiefly, the sketch content sometimes goes over borders many viewers will be uncomfortable with. Indeed, sketches featuring disabled people and child abuse/death are quite common, and are universally shocking.

However, if you think you can stomach taboo humour and have a mind open to such an unusual programme, I highly recommend it. It's likely that in between the guilty laughs and shocked silences, you'll find you take away an appreciation for the atmosphere and some of the questions the pitch black humour poses.

David Lynch meets Monty Python

[SenjoorMutt · 9/10 · 11 November 2015]

Brilliant mix of horror and comedy, like David Lynch meets British humor. It's all very over the top and offensive and dark. Definitely not for everyone (not many people can laugh at jokes about dead babies and abortion or death in general). This show needs more, how to say this, an acquired taste and very very open mind. Like every other British sketch show 'Jams' roots lies in the absurd humor of Monty Python. Dark jokes are mixed with ambient music that creates nice horror film like vibe. The sketches sometimes make you think about what you just witnessed that you need to pause before you continue watching. They are actually more deep and philosophical than regular viewer might used to. Every episode starts with different intro where Chris Morris reads a poem and then welcomes us into 'Jam'. All these intros are pieces of pure art all by themselves.

And it's all as fantastic as if you die you want to come back as a snare drum.

"...and he's got tears in his eyes; like some sad-voiced freaky clown"

[HenryHextonEsq · 26 May 2000]

With Channel 4 bleak satire/comedy Jam, Chris Morris welds the Beckett-nihilism with the ability to capture in visuals a dreamlike quality of Bunuel or Lynch. Oh, and Burroughs' cut-up lyricism. The acting is never less than well-judged and occasionally downright superb, with David Cann creating many very engaging characterisations- his clinically sedate and perverted Doctor is so well done. Cann features in a sublime scene where a happy, middle-aged man wishes to be literally buried in his prime. The image of him jazzing in joy to Jackie Wilson's "The Sweetest Thing" while sitting in his coffin is priceless.

The "Mr Lizard" and "40-times from the first floor" sketches are perhaps my other two favourites. Morris himself makes an appearance at the start of each episode in the deranged intros- intoning dark tone poems over disturbed, frenzied visuals- and makes three effective appearances in sketches. Episode 4's intro was particularly brilliant. The music is brilliantly selected, with excellent use of Brian Eno's "Apollo" record, Beta Band and a striking use of Minnie Riperton's "Loving You" in the opening episode. The satire of Jam is perhaps an attempt to cope with painful subject matter by treating them as absurd. The emphasis on abortion and children is quite large. In a sense, Morris's comedy is a continuation of the great British absurdist tradition of Milligan, Sellers, Peter Cook (check out Morris' hilarious work with him from 1994, "Why Bother?") and Monty Python, only more dangerous and bleak. Jam's the sort of programme that can inspire endless interpretations, and even if you don't like it, it is undoubtedly thought-provoking about many aspects of life. It's a rare slice of intelligent TV in an age of largely formulaic, bland television. Not as immediate, hilarious as "The Day Today" or "BrassEye", but more entrancing. Morris's rare gift for language use is again on display, especially in the intros; he's light years ahead of the competition in the comedy field and also, perhaps tellingly, the "serious high-brow TV" category. It's loneliness in the modern world, dreams of the ill in a vacuum: welcome in Jam.

Brilliant, offencive, innovative, hilarious.

[Chenzino · 10/10 · 20 January 2007]

Brilliant, offencive, innovative, hilarious. Just four of the words I would use to describe a programme more surreal than Monty Python and The Mighty Boosh combined. Jam goes beyond the conventional thinking outside the box; it ambitiously and successfully thinks outside the storage depot. You'll find yourself whirling in a pool of confusion, not knowing whether to laugh or maintain the uncomfortable silence that the intro produces. The music score creates a ambiance that either reflects the scene perfectly, or creates a relaxing contrast to an awkward situation. If you're offended easily by taboo topics, then Jam isn't for you. If, however, your evening meal comprises of going to an Indian restaurant and attacking your friend because he broke the popodoms, then welcome in Jam.

You'll laugh, but not too loud in case anyone can hear.

[BlueJam · 10/10 · 28 March 2000]

Jam has been described as being the televisual version of the state of mind you're in when you've been awake for 3 days or sedated on strange mind-drugs. I'd go along with that. It also happens to be the best thing seen on TV for a long, long time. Visually, it is simply stunning. One sketch will be shot a grainy security camera, the next on high quality widescreen film, one might be in negative, while another would use stop-motion photography. The content is incredibly dark, in Chris Morris' bizarre other world where every seems right on the outside, but not far beneath the surface lurks something altogether wrong and loony. A demented mother asks a plumber to fix her dead baby, a man commits suicide by jumping off a first floor window 40 times in case he'd change his mind. Morris' script and the superb cast's acting makes you laugh all the way through, and that's the really scary bit.

Nothing else like it: Obscene and disturbing chaos - fantastic!

[sipodge · 9/10 · 22 March 2016]

I picked the DVD of this series up while working at my local Oxfam, initially mistaking it for a music DVD as it had been put amongst DVDs of obscure 80s acts. The lack of detail on the box intrigued me so I looked online for more information and the description had be sold. I bought it and took it home to watch, immediately becoming absorbed in the surreal, outrageous, highly amusing and sometimes disturbing skits. Honestly, few words could truly represent this work of art. In no other series would you find a little girl cutting up a murdered body or a mad old man urinating wildly in public, on shop windows and the environment around him. Pure gold. This is a series you must watch - even if you do not truly enjoy it or find it funny it is still an experience.

My favorite TV show ever

[peter_tracy_dan_ems · 10/10 · 9 November 2013]

This is my first IMDb review and I though what better way to start than with what I feel is the best thing to come from the idiot's lantern ever. However, don't let me fool you, this can be a hard watch at times as most other reviews have said, so if you're easily offended, this isn't the program for you to worship (although, if you are easily offended, why are you watching a Chris Morris TV show?). One of the best things about this show is how everyone seems to have differ net favourite sketches, for example, the first episode is the only one I don't consider worthy of a 10/10 because of about the first 3rd, which I think could put some people off as it didn't seem too funny to me e.g. the very first sketch, the small car one, and in fact most of them up to symptomless coma and man who married himself, after that it's great, but I have had some people describe these as some of their favourites, so who am I to judge? Despite getting off to, IMHO, a slow start, the rest is pretty much pure gold (albeit black gold, you'll understand after you've seen it) and even after seeing it all the way through several times, things like casual parents and cigarette armed robbery crack me up every time. Don't make this your first Morris watch, it's best to ween yourself on to Chris Morris with the Day Today (also a fantastic program), if you're not offended by that (and you probably shouldn't be), attempt Brass Eye (by many seen as the pinnacle of colourful career) if that doesn't offend you to the core either, then you are ready, then welcome...in...Jam

'.....In JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMM'

[ocosis · 10/10 · 23 November 2019]

If I fed my cat a heavy dose of Ketamine and made it watch Pingu, on loop, then you'd probably get a good idea of what Jam is.

Experimental, lo-fi and extremely nihilistic 'comedy' series

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 7 April 2016]

I remember when Jam first came out it did cause a bit of controversy. It wasn't the first TV show created by Chris Morris that had caused an uproar. His earlier series Brass Eye had made waves on a few occasions, most notably in an episode that focused on paedophilia; an instalment so controversial that its transmission was delayed several years and only was broadcast after Jam had already been televised. In the event, the storm that that Brass Eye episode caused was way greater than anything generated by Jam. The reason to a large extent was that while the content of Jam was consistently troublesome, as a whole the program was so experimental and avant-garde that far fewer people bothered to watch it. It is ostensibly a comedy program, although I couldn't honestly say I found myself laughing very often. It was made up by a selection of dark and disturbing sketches which focused for the most part on subjects rarely dealt with by TV comedy, i.e. things like rape, suicide, sexual abuse, cot death, child abduction, etc. Plus it made uncomfortable use of children in several sketches in ways that were pushing the envelope very far indeed. Jam was about busting taboos basically and making the audience confront things in ways they hadn't before.

While I can't say I found this to be particularly funny, it was still quite compulsively watchable mainly on account of it being so strange that you didn't quite know where it was going to go next. Although after a bit, you could sort of predict the sketches more, as they usually simply went for the most nihilistic pay-off the circumstance could lend itself to. I would say it was often more an intellectual exercise than really a comedy one though. Occasionally the ideas were very memorable, such as the dreamlike segment where a man commits suicide by jumping off a first story balcony forty times, taking this slow approach to allow him the option of changing his mind half-way through. Things like that though aren't really funny; at best humour of a pitch black variety but it was at least an original bit of thought. Some of the genuinely funny sketches aren't offensive at all, like the middle aged man who decided he was too old to find love and decided to marry himself.

But what adds to the discomfort of viewing Jam is the presentation itself. The visual style was swirling and dreamlike, with a jumpy almost slow-motion look like a bad connection from a streaming site. The accompanying audio was slightly distorted and the lines were additionally delivered in very deliberate excessively downbeat manner with very understated performances jarring with the shock material (it was based on a radio show and seemingly many of the sketches reused radio transmissions with the actors simply miming along to it in these TV sketches, needless to say this only adds to the general oddness). As if all of this wasn't alienating enough, each sketch seemed to be sound-tracked with ambient music which only added to the general disconnecting experience of watching the show. All this made Jam very confrontationally alienating viewing, with a very bleak vision of the world. My general feeling on this show is pretty mixed. I do find it quite fascinating viewing on account of its experimental and bold nature but it wasn't necessarily entertainment. It was all about discomforts. I'm not always that sure what it was trying to prove or that it was entirely successful but it certainly remains a definite one-off bizarre TV experiment.

It's what nightmares are made of

[Colbridge · 7/10 · 25 November 2021]

I was first made aware of Jam after waking up in the middle of the night in a hot sweat at around 3am having left the radio on. There were strange noises coming out of it and in a blurry eyed half conscious state I was having trouble deciphering what exactly I was listening to. Chris Morris originally broadcast a series of twisted, dark and surreal sketches accompanied by ambient music under the name Blue Jam on BBC Radio 1 in the early hours of 1997. It was disturbing and unnerving with sounds of babies crying and a doctor's voice administering some sort of medication, among others. It was the audio equivalent of being in that weak, nauseous, helpless state just before you are about to faint.

Jam was made several years later in 2000 and is the visualisation of those surreal broadcasts, and it lives up to what you imagined was going on, in some cases the imagery is even more disturbing. For example sketches include a plumber trying to fix a dead baby as if it was a boiler, a porn star gushing to death as he climaxes and a man throwing himself into an industrial shredding machine to get back with his ex-wife. These are just a couple of the nightmarish delights Morris throws at you in a series of six episodes that will shock, disturb, get under your skin and make you laugh at things you shouldn't really be laughing at.

Jam is not for the faint hearted as it features perverse ideas featuring bizarre sex, horror and violence, sometimes happening just off camera so you can only imagine what's going on while at other times it's in your face. However the most disturbing and sinister moments are with Dr Perlin who features in every episode with his calm, methodical prognosis lulling you into a false sense of security as he offers inappropriate advice to the strains of unassuming, unconnected ambient music playing constantly in the background.

Chris Morris is a disrupter and likes to push the boundaries of comedy. Some consider him to be a genius while others are completely turned off by his juvenile shock tactics. He courts controversy and works on the fringes always challenging the viewer and the censors. Here he is given more or less free reign to bring his Blue Jam creation to life on Channel 4, a station that prides itself in pushing the envelope, so it's a good home for someone like Morris. However his other creation that aired on the channel called Brass Eye (1997) proved to be even more controversial than Jam, maybe because here you know you're in a surreal world but in Brass Eye Morris plays it straight like he's presenting a factual documentary.

Chris Morris's warped vision is ably brought to life by the actors he has assembled and whose conviction to each bizarre sketch, some featuring Morris himself, only helps to blur the line between reality and your deepest darkest nightmares.

Surreal nonsense, funny and demented.

[timothyhilditch · 5/10 · 2 October 2021]

This show is weird there's your warning. Imagine YouTube sketches with no filter, played one after each other. Most sketches leave you confused. Some are great comedy. But about half way through I saw the darkness of some of these sketches which switched off my funny bone, leaving only shock. Near the end the shock turned into wonder again, with the show turning into commentary of modern society. Pointing out the bureaucracy and lack of ethics today.

I'm left divided some of the sketches push boundaries that shouldn't be pushed, watch at your own risk prepare for your brain to be divided.

The most surreal programme ever created

[charlie-benjamin · 3 January 2006]

Jam, the television series, is a work of surrealist genius that is both hilarious and profoundly disturbing, turning on its head the familiar world in a way that Sigmund Freud would no doubt have relished when writing his essay 'The Uncanny', had Freud been alive today. One of the funniest examples of how Jam manages to make unfamiliar the familiar, is in the 'sketch' in which a man robs a convenience store, with gun in hand. He asks for the change, only for the owner to point out that with a gun, he doesn't need to pay for things or wait for the change. The stirring music that accompanies his realisation of the power he now has is both moving and funny. Adding to the strange narratives is a vivid aesthetic reminiscent of many modern art installations: we see this in the interesting use of editing in which collages of colour, unusual lighting,slow motion film, slow motion sound, and visual effects blend one scene into another, and further contribute to the uncanniness of Jam. Layered on top of the narrative and the aesthetic, is the extensive use of ambient music by Brian Eno and Aphex Twin. Jam almost defies definition and to simply call it a comedy is to mislead. All I can say is that for those who despair of the false laughter and intellectual vacuity of Friends, watch Jam. It is like nothing else you've ever seen, unless it's something else by Chris Morris.

A little lunacy

[scobbah · 16 August 2005]

I'm not going to break the trend among the comments here, and I have to support those who claim that Chris Morris is disturbed, one way or another. The 'Jam' series though are probably about the most dark, black and weird comedy I've seen in years. And trust me, I'm a big fan of black comedy but this series has no worthy competitors. Some scenes were almost so weird that I barely understood'em, and yet some scenes were really superb and made me burst into laughing. I like the way Chris Morris plays and deranges everyday life happenings such as the visits at the doctor for example. To me, episode 4 was the best (with the lunatic women with no friends) but I recommend anyone to see the series in a chronological correct order.

Different...

[heywood100 · 24 April 2003]

Chris Morris is very likely disturbed. But in the way that people buy the paintings and doodlings of the clinically insane, Channel 4 has realised that he's disturbed in a way that makes compelling television - compelling in the sense that it's almost impossible to stop watching because you just have to see what's going to happen next. Maybe I've just lived a very sheltered life, but I had no idea that television could be this deranged or bleak. I'm not sure whether it's genius or pretensious planned lunacy, but I am sure that I'll be watching the rest of the series - though I may never be the same again by the end.

Is he laughing with us or at us?

[Wicker Man · 21 May 2000]

The man Morris is in the words of one of his numerous Websites, a one-off man mental. He invites us into the further recesses of his mind, a place where many fear to tread. This is not comedy as we know it, and indeed makes for uncomfortable viewing at times. A major aspect of Morris' comedy is the reliance on children as props. This is not a problem per se, however, we are left to ponder the significance of a 6 year-old girl portrayed as a 'fixer' after the scene of a crime, and an equally young child having had the genitalia of a man grafted on to her for mere cosmetic purposes. The 'comedy' is rarely graphic, but alluded to.

I watched this series independently of my friend and fellow Morris devotee, Kris, and when swapping notes after the last episode, we both concluded that the most downright surreal, bizarre, yet unbelievably funny portion of the series was in the final episode whenever a hunt was being conducted in the woods for a hidden body. Whereupon an opera singer and a man, in what can only be described, as a studded thong with a mini saxophone proceeded to find the body and attempt to resurrect him using he mini saxophone, all along to the backing tune of 'Manamanah.' Twisted brain wrong indeed. This series was an adaptation of the original 'Blue Jam' radio series, which was aired on BBC Radio 1 in early 1999. I was unsure then, how it would translate to screen, but only a man of Morris' vision, could have pulled his off. I worry that every appearance on TV of any of Chris Morris' material will signal its last, due to his reclusive nature. I fear that the material which he foisted upon the world over the last decade, has been a product of the sum total of his life up until this point, and that comedy is exorcism for Morris. I hope that he is not yet spent, and can continue to cast these demons out, and vent his spleen on us all. Jam, hopefully is the start of something new, not the end of the old order.

Morris needs barriers to push

[bob the moo · 16 May 2003]

Most people will tell you that Chris Morris is very much `love him or loathe him'. The majority of people have an image of an man who's humour is too `out there' for many people to find funny in any sense of the word. The press and moral pressure groups will call him sick and twisted and demand him hung etc etc.

However, for a lot of what he does this isn't the case to a point. His sense of humour in Brass Eye and The Day Today is clever and would probably appeal to a wide audience even if it wanders outside of the bounds of `normal' comedy for long periods. Likewise these programmes aren't twisted or perversely sick – although they will skate the edge of what many will consider good taste at times. But with Jam, I felt that Morris has been allowed to push through the boundaries within which he usually works and it is to the detriment of the comedy.

Is it just me or do you see Jam as a resolute effort on Morris' behalf to produce work that will please his hardcore of fans but infuriate and offend the vast majority of us. Happily this show seems to have been obscure enough to not have attracted the media spotlight in the same way as his most recent Brass Eye special did. Regardless of this the main question is – is it funny?

I have to say that personally I didn't laugh very much at all during the episodes I have seen. Did I find it clever? Yes. I felt that Morris' imagination had just been allowed to run riot and he does produce some stuff that is so very weird and different that one simply can't help but watch. Was I offended? No. However I did find some of his stuff in poor taste, but I did try to look beyond the surface issue of the `more difficult' sketches to see what it was he was mocking. In one sketch where a pair of relaxed and self focused parents fail to look after their child only to have him abducted. When they ring the school to find out where he is the police tell them that weeks ago he had been abducted and `repeatedly b*ggered and strangled'. This is quite poor taste but the mocking is aimed at parents who are relaxed and self focused in this way when the child is around (but then would become very involved if it was taken away!). It's an interesting point but it is poor taste. A further sketch about a mentally ill woman being used for depraved sexual acts is also in poor taste. I think the fact that I wasn't laughing took away from these and others – if it's funny I care less about the moral compass of the sketch.

The whole series is soaked is weirdness – almost self consciously so. Sketches are shot in a sort of swirling film which leaves images slightly blurred, like they are occurring in some terrible dream-like state. Likewise the constant musak music is numbing. I'm not disputing that this series is clever or imaginative. My issue is that Morris suffers when let totally off his lease. With Brass Eye and The Day Today his humour was contained within a quite traditional spoof news programme format. This allowed his imagination and edgy wit to enhance the format. Here he is seems content to push barriers and try to offend that he is to entertain but challenge. Worth watching to experience it but his more structured stuff is no less clever but a lot more entertaining.

mmmm...astonishing sod-ache

[MPJSC · 16 July 2000]

I used to go to sleep to episodes of 'Blue Jam' on the radio due to its laid-back style- I challenge anyone to do this with the TV version! The sketches that are shocking or disturbing equal those that are funny in number, the opening of episode four in particular being the ultimate bad trip. Some sketches do push the limits of acceptability, e.g. the rape sketch and the various abortion/cot-death sketches. However, the writing, acting and direction are first-rate, and anyone who is interested in experimental television would do well to see this.

To be seen to be believed

[petebeale · 15 May 2000]

Say what you like about this sketch show but it's definitely original. Some of the sketches are disturbing such as the ongoing series of cot death scenes. But what makes it appealing is the creepy nature in which the sketches are staged, such as distorting the actor's voices and the bizarre camera angles. The last episode contained one of the most bizarre pieces of television I have ever seen.

Prozac On Acid

[Theo Robertson · 7 May 2003]

How do I even begin to describe JAM ? I could say that it`s like MONTY PYTHON on acid but that wouldn`t do it justice . In fact if someone read my review and tuned in expecting to see something that was written by Cleese , Palin , Jones et al they might be shocked and upset enough to issue a fatwa against me so I`ll repeat that it`s not like MONTY PYTHON on acid it`s like...it`s like... it`s like prozac on acid .

Many of the sketches are fairly inoffensive premise wise , things like visiting a doctor , a woman bringing down the value of houses in the district and TV presenter Robert Kilroy Silk going insane , but the recurring sketch of people visiting the doctor usually involves the doctor telling the patient to drop their pants and wave their dangly bits about , or that the woman decides to bring down the house prices in her district by selling cooked human excrement from a vending stall outside a tube station , while Robert Kilroy Silk`s breakdown involves full frontal male nudity and urinating onto the TV screen . And I haven`t even mentioned a penis and testicles being grafted onto a young girl , a woman taking her decomposing dog for a walk , or ejaculating porn stars ! And every scene is shot in a surreal manner with muzak in the background

All this might have been funny to a certain degree but Chris Morris has shot himself in the foot in order to court controversy . I can imagine he expected Channel 4 to have been drowned in a tidal wave of complaints from viewers but it seems no one has bothered to rise to his bait . That`s nice to know