I suspect that like many others, I first took notice of this show from short clips shared on social media showing the titular presenter saying outrageous things. That she is so blatantly copying the style of BBC documentaries makes it hilarious. This parody series has an actress play a clueless presenter who takes us on a tour of human history, making a horrible mess of it. As full of errors as her deadpan delivery is, this mockumentary surprisingly does have some educational value. I wouldn’t care for too much of this so I don’t think I’ll be watching the second season, but this was good for some laughs for me.

Beginning from the earliest human settlements, investigative reporter Philomena Cunk purports to take the audience on a tour of the history of civilization on Earth. Across five short episodes, she travels to locations around the world to cover the development of agriculture and cities, the rise of religion, philosophy and the Renaissance, all the way up to the modern era with social media, smartphones and AI. She puts on period costumes to immerse viewers in the different eras, interviews domain experts for their opinions, all the usual things really in any documentary. Except that Cunk is a self-centered idiot who gets even the most basic facts wrong, believes in misinformation and is easily confused by similar sounding words. The questions she asks of the experts are so absurd and stupid that I wondered if they are real ones or just actors playing the part. It turns out that they are, so it’s astounding that they are even able to keep a straight face, never mind answer in a matter-of-fact manner. I suspect that at least one or two got seriously mad. Yet it makes for wonderful comedy. Not every joke lands for me but there are certainly more hits than misses. My favorite part is how she keeps inserting details of her personal life, her mother, her friend, her ex, even the places where she lives. So in order to illustrate the extent of the destruction from a nuclear bomb, she uses places in the UK that will be unfamiliar to almost everyone watching this.

Cunk is a fictional character of course played here by actress Diane Morgan and much of what she says was written by a team of writers. This show was created by Charlie Brooker who is well known as the mind behind the hit Black Mirror series. That might explain some of the plain weird affectations, such as how every single episode includes a snippet of the late-1980s dance number Pump Up the Jam. Is it to confuse the viewer, to wake them up in case they’re bored, some obscure hidden joke? Cunk is a brilliantly conceived character too. It’s not just that she’s wrong, she is often wrong in interesting ways, such as conflating Lenin for Lennon and referencing the song Imagine in her introduction to Communism. There’s an extended bit where she wears a period gown and verbally paints a picture of life in the court of a medieval king. It begins plausibly enough with a feast in the hall, guests, a jester, but then escalates to crazy stuff like an arrow shot into the hall that is revealed to be from Robin Hood and so on. It’s incongruous, utterly ridiculous and so wildly fun.

Each episode proceeds at a breakneck pace, segueing into new topics so quickly that I had troubling following Cunk’s narration. I suppose in comedy it’s useful to keep the gags coming so it doesn’t matter if some are duds but I prefer a little breathing room in between sequences. I also has a habit of letting Cunk have the last word in the interviews which feels cheap after a while. We know she’s really saying those outrageous things to shock and entertain us and not the interview subjects. It makes me feel kind of bad for those experts and really curious about what the production team actually told them. I suppose the exposure must be worthwhile for them as I believe a few at least return in Cunk on Life.

I really enjoyed this show and I’m amused by the thought that as dumb as Cunk pretends to be, she actually is teaching viewers something. At the same time, I’m glad that this is as short as it is. Cunk’s act is a shtick that only lasts so long and I fear that I may actually get infuriated if I watch too much of it. It’s amusing to mock the stupidity and ignorance on display here but the sad truth is that this is the state of too much of the world right now.