Television series
Catterick
Catterick is a bewildering sprint through the English Midlands where two estranged brothers reunite and immediately careen into chaos. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer riff like jazz musicians on dark, absurdist comedy—the plot is almost irrelevant. It's weird, funny, and demands you surrender to its logic. For people who love comedy that refuses to explain itself.
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The League of Gentlemen1999
British sketch comedy that shares Catterick's willingness to be genuinely unsettling beneath the laughs. Grotesque characters, dark edges, and a refusal to play it safe for comfort.
But Sketch shows can feel uneven, and some characters wear out their welcome. The humour is often cruel in ways that don't land every time.
Brass1983
Another Northern English comedy from the Eighties that blends surrealism with character work. It has that same anarchic energy and willingness to let scenes go weird without signposting the joke.
But The pacing feels ancient now, and it lacks the frenetic speed of modern comedy. You have to meet it on its own terms.
Jam2000
Chris Morris's sketch show operates in similar territory—absurdist comedy that's often uncomfortable to watch. Dark, inventive, and never lazy about its setups and payoffs.
But Some sketches collapse under their own weight. The darkness can feel like an end in itself rather than in service of anything.
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Puffball2007
Both films treat the arrival of chaos as comedy's starting gun rather than its punchline. Neither bothers to resolve anything sensibly. Both are local, weird, and deeply strange in specifically British ways.
Entirely forgotten English sci-fi comedy about a sentient sphere that arrives in a village and causes domestic mayhem. It has the same anarchic British sensibility, the same refusal to explain itself, the same deadpan tone amid absolute weirdness.
But It's genuinely obscure and looks every bit its age. The special effects are hilariously primitive and nothing really coheres—but that's kind of the point.
More like this (8)
I'm Alan Partridge1997
Steve Coogan's character comedy shares Catterick's regional British setting and its ability to find comedy in the specific texture of ordinary life gone slightly wrong.
But It's character-driven rather than plot-driven, which can feel slow if you're not invested in Alan's specific neuroses.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail1975
The closest film ancestor to Catterick's logic—comedic scenes that obey their own internal rules rather than narrative sense. Absurdist, silly, and surprisingly quotable.
But It's iconic, which means it can feel overfamiliar now. Some sketches have aged better than others.
After Hours1985
Scorsese's comedy-thriller about a man's increasingly surreal night in downtown Manhattan. It has Catterick's DNA: ordinary person, mounting chaos, tone that refuses to settle.
But It's genuinely claustrophobic and anxious in ways that aren't always funny. The mood can feel relentless.
The Ladykillers1955
Ealing comedy with a plot that gets increasingly tangled as characters sabotage each other. The setup-payoff structure and the British tone feel ancestral to Catterick's approach.
But It's very much a product of its era. The pacing and social assumptions feel dated even to modern period-comedy fans.
Nathan Barley2005
A comedy that feels like it's operating in real time, with characters who are consistently wrong about themselves. It shares Catterick's dark edge and refusal to make things easy on its protagonists.
But The satire of early-2000s media culture is so specific it can feel opaque now. The comedy often comes from second-hand embarrassment.
Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge1994
Radio comedy that predates Alan Partridge's TV series—chatshow format that's increasingly derailed by Partridge's inability to function. Inventive structure, consistently surprising.
But It's radio, so it requires active listening. And it works on chat-show conventions most young viewers won't be familiar with.
Synecdoche, New York2008
Catterick's three-hour reunion also operates in elastic, non-linear time where plot serves mood rather than vice versa. Both trust the audience to surrender to their internal logic rather than explain themselves. Both are formally inventive in the service of chaos.
Charlie Kaufman's spiral into surrealism about a theater director whose life and art collapse into each other. It's tragicomic, structurally daring, and creates its own logic that viewers have to surrender to completely.
But It's oblique and often bleak in ways that make it feel work-like rather than fun. The emotional weight can feel suffocating rather than entertaining.
Spaced1999
Both shows use a contained space and a short runtime to maximize creative chaos. Both prioritize comedy writing and visual invention over conventional narrative structure. Both feel like watching talented people riff rather than performing a script.
Sitcom that shares Catterick's willingness to let visual comedy and cultural riffing take priority over plot coherence. Fast, clever, funny, and genuinely anarchic—the closest thing to a modern mainstream equivalent.
But It's very London and very Nineties-specific. If you're not attuned to that register of cultural reference, scenes can feel self-indulgent.
