The Mighty Boosh (BBC Three, 2004- ) is a British television series based on the stand-up comedy written and performed by comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. The series draws on surreal comedy and imagery, combining rear projection techniques with computer-generated effects and two-dimensional animation. Throughout the series, the protagonists Howard T.J. Moon (Barratt) and Vince Noir (Fielding) have failed in their attempts to become boxers, novelists, adventurers, and musicians. The protagonists make for an odd couple: Howard is from Leeds, loves jazz and considers himself to be incredibly intelligent, while Vince is from South London, loves electro and is a dedicated follower of fashion.
Vince is obsessed with his hair, and is often seen wearing make-up and a combination of men and women's clothing. His ambiguous status is constantly referred to within the show. He is often mistaken for a woman and is either the object of unwanted affection or assumed to be Howard's wife or girlfriend. He is continually assaulted with derogatory female terms, such as bitch, 'tramp with a fringe' and 'futuristic prostitute', or with labels meant to undermine his masculinity, such as 'French Duke', 'cockney bitch', 'rock ponce', 'electro ponce', and 'trendy modern wanker'. Vince himself makes mention of his confusing sexual identity. At Howard's birthday party, Howard tells Vince that after his continual failures with women he will 'go gay', assuring Vince that he does not fancy him. Vince responds with:
"Of course you do! All men do! I'm The Confuser. 'Is it a man, is it a woman, oh, I'm not sure I mind!' ('Party' 2007)."
In her brief analysis of 'the unruly woman' in the television sitcom, Jane Feuer makes note of the power of characters within a particular programme to transcend the constraints placed upon them by the narrative:
"If we merely look at the sitcom's 'narrative architecture', no sitcom can be transgressive because the episodic format forces us to return to the familiar status quo with which this week's episode began. In order to perceive subversion, we must look at something besides narrative closure...these are the moments that one remembers (Feuer in Creeber 2001, p.68)."
At the generic and narrative level, The Mighty Boosh has a firm place within the realm of the sitcom. Despite its storylines filled with surreal adventures and even stranger characters (mutant animals, demon grandmothers, half-man half-fish kidnappers, cockney monsters), the series still follows the 'narrative architecture' of 'familiar status quo, ritual error made, ritual lesson learned, familiar status quo' (Feuer in Creeber 2001, p.69), with each episode beginning and ending in one location, Howard and Vince's position in their world the same position as before. To find moments of subversion within the formulaic world of the sitcom we must look beyond the ways in which these elements are contained and constrained within the text.
Though many characters within the world of The Mighty Boosh present many interesting insights into the masculine (and feminine) world, it is the character of Vince Noir that appears to present a clear subversion masculinity, which presents a man characterised by his activity, strength and aggression. Film theories such as that of Laura Mulvey conceive masculinity as being aligned with the active subject who propels and directs the narrative (Mulvey in Thornham 1999, p.62), and femininity as being aligned with the passive object of male desire.
Vince's positioning as an object, as spectacle, within the series gives some voice to this notion mentioned above. Male characters within the show mistake him for a woman, with more than one viewing him as a sexual object. Vince continually places himself in a position to be looked at. In the episode 'Call of the Yeti', he parades the outfits he is taking on holiday for Bollo's approval. In 'The Priest and the Beast' he draws attention to himself and his body with a skintight jumpsuit which he calls 'the mirror-ball suit'. He wears this again in subsequent episodes, along with even more revealing suits. In 'Party', he declares the purpose of the party is for the crowd to 'bask in the glory of my outfit'. Vince himself is obsessed with his own image, confusing a man frozen under the ice with his own reflection ('Tundra' 2004), reflecting that it would not be a bad thing to be trapped in a world of mirrors ('Bollo' 2004), and becomes depressed when he discovers someone else is copying his style ('The Power of the Crimp' 2007).
To characterise Vince and indeed women in film and television in this way is problematic. Firstly, it negates the power of the woman or the feminine character to direct the male gaze, which Vince does on several occasions. In 'Bollo', as Howard begins his soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Vince directs the camera to him, assuring the audience that if the viewer tires of Howard's thoughts on life and death they can press the red button on their remote control to see Vince dancing to Bollywood music, dressed as a hedgehog. In 'Eels', Vince addresses the camera to reveal a plot device yet to be revealed to Howard. Secondly, it suggests that Vince is passive, which is not the case. He is often the masculine active subject, moving the narrative forward. On several occasions he must rescue Howard, making reference to this when he tells Byran Ferry he will probably have to go and save Howard, because 'pretty much every week he gets in danger, and I have to go and sort it out. that's how the show works' ('The Hitcher' 2004).
We can see that these binary conceptions of masculinity and femininity are limiting as they do not account for a multitude of representations of masculinity. A closer examination of the character of Vince Noir reveals his place within particular representations of masculinity. At various points within the series, Vince takes on the characteristics of subcultures that have historically emerged as a challenge to popular conceptions of masculinity, such as Mods, Goths and Punks. The representation he is most recognisably aligned with, however, is that of glam rock.
Glam rock, according to Jon Stratton, was a period in which ' music was the site of performance, the moment of interaction between image and the individual, fantasy and the reality of everyday life' (Stratton, viewed 01 September 2008, http://humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/MCCA/ccs/AJCS_journal/J4V1/J4V1Why%20doesn,). Stratton goes on to note that glam rock's emphasis on performance and image became a site for the questioning of gender:
"...The assumed determination of the social and the sexual by gender was being called into question for males in a number of different ways. Roles were increasingly being recognised as socially constituted images and the male image and its associated sexuality were reciprocally being called into question. Glam rock condensed the problem of reality as image with the problem of sexual identity as image. It enabled to be acted out, as I have remarked before, a set of problems which were not class-based but were embodied in a more general cultural context. Glam rock was the first British subculture to be concerned principally with the problem of sexuality (Stratton, viewed 01 September ,http://humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/MCCA/ccs/AJCS_journal/J4V1/J4V1Why%20doesn)."
It can be argued, then, that glam rock allowed for a new representation of masculinity to emerge from a particular moment in society. The role of women was changing, forcing men to question masculinity and what it means to be male. Vince's allegiance to the world of glam rock can be seen in his appearance, his interest in fashion and his ambiguous sexual identity. Glam rock's focus on performance reveals the performative nature of masculinity and gender. That this representation is again taken up in the twenty-first century in the character of Vince Noir may reflect Western culture's awareness of the blurring of gender and its functions in contemporary society.
Andrew Spicer suggests that particular cultural types have meanings which change over time to suit the vision of 'masculinity that is most desirable or widely acceptable. To achieve hegemony, types need to readjust ceaselessly to changing conditions' (Spicer 2001, p.3). Spicer sees these cultural types as 'the staple representation of gender in popular fiction because they are easily recognisable and condense a range of important attitudes and values' (Spicer 2001, p.1):
[They] allow us to understand gender in Foucauldian terms, as a cultural 'performance', which does not reflect 'reality' but is a discursive construction, the product of variable and historically specific sets of relations within particular contexts, and with a complex relationship to social change (Spicer 2001, p.2).
These representations of masculinity can arise out of a dissatisfaction with previous representations as well as responding to a societal need. If contemporary Western culture is again unsure of the role of men in society, one answer may be to look to a representation of masculinity that has previously attempted to assuage this confusion. It may be working, as Vince's adoption of the glam rock aesthetic has earned his creator Noel Fielding the title of 'Sexiest Male' and 'Best Dressed' at the recent New Musical Express (NME) awards (NME, viewed 31 August 2008, http://www.nme.com/news/nme/34784).
In light of the examination of the changing nature of masculinity and its representation within popular culture, the character of Vince Noir can be viewed as much more than either a challenge or a reinforcement of normative notions of masculinity. Rather, he can be seen as an embodiment of the evolution of masculinity and the way in which representations within the culture, and cultural texts such as film and television, are readjusted according to a particular historical, social and cultural context. This can be seen in the relationship of Vince Noir to the subculture of glam rock, in which masculinity and sexual identity is questioned through performance. Vince can be seen to some extent as embodying Spicer's Rogue, a cultural type who is 'best placed to adjust to rapidly changing social conditions and 'get away with it' against various regulations, restrictions authoritarian institutions' (Spicer 2001, p.102). It may be Vince's role as the Rogue that allows him to get away with performing several masculine roles. This allows him to play the role of traditional hero, rescuing his 'damsel in distress' while indulging in the performance of an androgynous masculinity. It is this embodiment of multiple representations of masculinity that may allow Vince Noir to become a new representation, one which allows for an open interpretation of cultural expectations.
Bibliography
Books
Berger, M, Wallis, B & Watson, S (Eds) 1995, Constructing Masculinity, Routledge, New York.
Berger, M, Wallis, B & Watson, S (Eds) 1995, Constructing Masculinity, Routledge, New York.
Bennett, T, Boyd-Bowman, S, Mercer, C & Woollacott, J (Eds) 1981, Popular Television and Film, British Film Institute, London.
Cohan, S & Hark, IR (Eds) 1993, Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Cinema, Routledge, London.
Creeber, G (Ed) 2001, The Television Genre Book, British Film Institute, London.
Hartley, J 1992, Tele-ology: Studies In Television, Routledge, London.
Horrocks, R 1994, Masculinity in Crisis, The Macmillan Press, London.
Online sources
New Musical Express, 'Shockwaves NME Awards 2008: Noel Fielding voted Sexiest Man', NME, viewed 01 September 2008, http://www.nme.com/news/nme/34784.
Spicer, A 2001, 'Fools and Rogues', Typical Men: The Representation of Masculinity in Popular British Cinema, I.B. Tauris, viewed 31 August 2008, http://books.google.com.au/books?id=oOw0xU-1rNcC.
Stratton, J 1986, 'Why doesn't anybody write anything about Glam Rock?', Australian Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 4 no. 1, viewed 01 September 2008, http://humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/MCCA/ccs/AJCS_journal/J4V1/J4V1Why%20doesn.
Mills, B 2008, ' 'Paranoia, paranoia, everybody's coming to get me': Peep Show, sitcom, and the surveillance society', Screen, vol. 49, No. 1, pp.51-64, viewed 31 August 2008, Oxford Journals.
Television
The Mighty Boosh 2004-2007, television, British Broadcasting Company, London.
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