Last night struggling to find anything to watch on TV, my wife and I plumped for ‘Cunk on Earth,’ a mockumentary or spook documentary series on the history of earth. Think of a history series like Simon Schama’s ‘A History of Britain’ with facts a minor consideration as in ‘1066 and all that.’ Now think of its presentation as in Borat where he interviews serious people, politicians in particular, and asks them stupid questions.
In Cunk on Earth, the presenter Philomena Cunk, for that is her name, asks senior academics these sorts of questions. Most keep a straight face but are clearly considering whether this is some sophisticated student wind-up. Priceless. Towards the end of episode one she interviews Dr. Nigel Spivey, Senior Lecturer in Classics at University of Cambridge, and asks him to say whether certain things were invented or perfected by the Romans.
She starts with underfloor heating, the calendar, roads, concrete, the alphabet and then asks about anal bleaching. At this moment Dr. Spivey looks around for support as he knows this must be a wind-up but as this is a Netflix documentary and he is probably being paid, he is in two minds as to what to do. The interview continues as follows:
‘I have no idea what they would have done,’ continues Dr. Spivey.
‘Go on, give it a go.’
‘I don’t even know what it is.’
‘It’s when they bleach your arse to lighten it up.’
‘Well, not round my way they don’t,’ Dr. Spivey said with some emphasis.
Goodness I always thought they were more progressive at Cambridge.