TV review: House of Fools, The Bobble Hat Affair
The recipe for a comedy Christmas special is a simple but effective one; pop your favorite, familiar characters into a festive setting, add a smattering of tinsel, and more often than not, a liberal glug of sentiment.
When Vic and Bob are involved, however, the recipe requires a few substitutions; a ridiculous song or two, a bizarre subversion of Yuletide tropes, some flagrant breaches of health and safety perhaps. Shake it up until it resembles the sort of crackpot, farcical nightmare that the duo are famous for, and that’s exactly what you get with House of Fools’ first festive special.
As usual under the Fools’ roof, things have gone pear-shaped, leading Vic, Bob, Bosh, Beef and Julie on an outlandish and dangerous quest to set things right.
This time, the gang are out to steal a “bawbol hat” from Phil Collins’ converted Happy Eater off the A19, in order to appease Bob’s maudlin son Erik and in turn, save Christmas.
The plot is, as always, a tree on which to hang the shows’ multitude of sight gags, extravagant slapstick, and gentle ribbing of the fourth wall. Broad cartoon violence is deftly paired with inexplicably hilarious turns of phrase, and a eye for preposterous detail.
With the special, the show continues to be stolen by its secondary characters, who are allowed to run awry with the most absurd, throwaway gags. Bosh has inexplicably turned into a camp, Seventies game-show host, while Beef is on typically seductive form as a “Santa for the now generation”. Former guest star Reece Shearsmith returns, this time as a petulant, bigoted Saint Nick, making larger-than-life his one-joke character.
Limitless, without reason and unapologetically silly, House of Fools continues to be a breath of fresh air in TV comedy. There is no why with House of Fools; it just is. And what it is, is boundlessly entertaining.
Oh, and if you’re a real stickler for that fuzzy Christmas feeling, they’ve managed to squeeze a bit of that in too. Which, to be fair, is exactly the sort of comfort you need when you’ve just discovered Santa is a massive racist.
House of Fools is back with a second series in 2015.
