As ingenious an idea asPeep Showis, before the TV series premiered on Britain’s Channel 4 in 2003, it was hard to imagine how this idea could be translated into a successful sitcom. The show is premised on viewing the world from inside the heads of two 30-something single men who share an apartment and certain misanthropic perspectives on life, while each leads a generally disappointing existence and harbors their own respective neuroses about it. At the time, theBritish version ofThe Officehad just become a sleeper hit, and sitcoms otherwise still promised warm and wholesome viewing.
For comedy fans who don’t want to hear canned audience responses, shared moments of laughter and love between characters, or happy endings, however,Peep Showis the zenith of anti-sitcom greatness. Whether it’s Mark Corrigan’smost cringeworthy moments inPeep Show, or the most awful thoughts and actions that his flatmate Jez Usborne shares with us, this series isthe perfect antidote to the tried-and-tested sitcom formulasof yesteryear.
Peep Show Is The Perfect Anti-Sitcom
It Breaks Every Sitcom Rule In The Book, Which Only Makes It Funnier
Across its nine seasons,Peep Showdelivered some of the best episodesof British comedy ever created, in part thanks to its wholesale rejection of sitcom norms. In general, nobody inPeep Showlaughs or manages to be funny on purpose in any way, andthe overall theme of the show is the excruciating pain of coexisting with others. If this description makes the series sound rather bleak, that’s exactly what it is, in all the most hilarious ways imaginable.
Peep Showdoesn’t even attempt to look on the bright side of life, as comedies are traditionally supposed to, but wallows in the misery of the human condition, withthe sense of shame and embarrassment you expect from a modern British institution. Old-school sitcom writers may well suggest that many of the show’s comedic beats are in the wrong places and written in the wrong way, but that’s precisely what makes it so brilliantly funny.
Mark and Jez are utterly clueless in their pursuit of self-improvement, andPeep Showpresents their idiotic naivety, warts and all. The off-kilter style and format of the series, and the way it presents the often callous and self-involved thoughts of its main characters to us, also make itmore relatable than the polished and heavily filtered comedic lenses of most TV comedies.
Peep Show Remains One Of The Most Influential Comedies Of The Past 20 Years
The Series Is Still Out On Its Own, But Its Enormous Influence On Other Shows Is Obvious
Over two decades after its debut,Peep Show’s use of internal narration and first-person POV camera angles still sets it apart from other sitcoms. At the same time, the show’s influence is clear to see in other seminal British comedies likeThe InbetweenersandFleabag, and stateside in fresh and innovative sitcoms likeMy Name Is EarlandEverybody Hates Chris.
It even set the tone for big-hitters likeHow I Met Your Mother, which features first-person POV narration throughout, and theUS version ofThe Office, which arguably tweaked the cringeworthy humor of its UK counterpart viaPeep Show. Anyone who loves TV comedy but hasn’t seen it yet should at least give the series a try.Peep Showisn’t for everyone, but that’s the whole point.
Peep Show
Cast
Peep Show is a British sitcom that premiered in 2003, following the lives of two dysfunctional roommates, Mark Corrigan and Jeremy “Jez” Usborne, played by David Mitchell and Robert Webb, respectively. The show explores their misadventures, relationships, and struggles in contemporary London.
