I must admit to and throw my hands up and say that I have not seen prank phone call show Fonejacker prior to reviewing this title, but I had heard great things via word of mouth from family and friends. Here, Fonejacker creator Kayvan Novak makes the obvious transisition to new show Facejacker, a series where he brings popular characters like Terry Tibbs to life on screen.
Series One of the show was a huge hit on Channel 4 earlier this year, and now, just weeks after the five show season ended on the terristrial channel, we get it on DVD.
As I said, prior to recieving the DVD screener for review, I had not watched one frame or heard anything about the show or creator Novak, but I was wonderfully surprised.
The show adopts the same type of pranking style seen in the likes of Borat and Bruno and it works just as well. It borrows a lot from Sacha Baron Cohen’s early work (which also started at Channel 4) and Novak has clearly created some equally brilliant characters. Leading the piece is the super Terry Tibbs, a second hand car dealer that is a cross between Frank Butcher, Kojak and Dave Courtney. I also really enjoyed watching Brian Badonde, a rather eccentric art dealer with some form of tourettes. It’s almost excruciating to watch in places, but you’ll find yourself laughing out loud at the silliness from Badonde who seemingly borrowed his hairstyle from Jimmy Saville. Also along for the ride is scammer Augustus Kwembe, Iraq TV reporter Aziz Azizzi who like to un abbreviate his abbreviations (eg. F.A. Cup is pronoucned FA-Cup, or fuckup) and then there’s the downright weird Dufrais Constantinople, a blogger who interviews bands on video shoots, like the N-DubZ who feature in episode three.
It’s all harmless fun with Novak pranking the public like it all has indeed been done before, but his characters are unique and mostly likeable and fans of the likes of the aforementioned work of Sacha Baron Cohen and even Trigger Happy TV will find a new love for this.
Rocking in at 120 minutes, plus another 40 minutes of bonus material, the DVD is great value too. We get behind the scenes extras including the making of the Terry Tibb used car ad, the making of the headcasts, bloopers, some promo trailers and tons more. All are entertaining.
We recommend Facejacker. A cross between Borat, Trigger Happy TV, Beadles About and Bo Selecta! Frankly we love it. You probably will too.
The Grades
DVD Feature: B+
Extras: B-
Facejacker is out on DVD now.
