Julian Barratt makes self-importance funny by showing how much effort it takes to keep it up. His solemnity gives The Mighty Boosh much of its humour, and we recommend his partnership with Noel Fielding despite the occasional overextended joke.
Fi1m perspective
Howard Moon takes himself seriously even when The Mighty Boosh (2004) gives him little encouragement. Julian Barratt makes that effort visible, so the joke is often in how hard Howard works to retain his dignity. We laughed at his solemnity because maintaining it amid this nonsense looks like such exhausting work. Noel Fielding’s Vince Noir has a casual confidence that makes the strain funnier. Their partnership holds our attention even when the writing grows slack: neither performer needs to win every exchange.
Barratt and Fielding developed the programme through live shows and radio before bringing it to television. The fantasy and science fiction give them freedom, but their ease together keeps the strangeness welcoming. Barratt also wrote the music, and the confidence of his playing is part of the joke. It sounds carefully rehearsed even when the surrounding material is cheerfully refusing to make sense. We would miss something important by treating those tunes as a pause between the spoken jokes.
The difficulty is knowing when to stop, and Barratt’s writing sometimes prolongs a joke his performance has already delivered. He shares the writing credit with Fielding and Richard Ayoade, and weaker ideas receive as much patient attention as good ones. Editor Gary Dollner often cuts responsively to the performers, but a scene can carry on after the laughter has stopped. Howard’s seriousness has already made the point; another beat does not make it funnier. Affection for the cast gets us through these passages, though we would prefer a little less indulgence.
Later acting work includes Flowers (2016), alongside Olivia Colman. With Mindhorn (2017), co-written with Simon Farnaby, Barratt also took on Richard Thorncroft, continuing to find comedy in pomposity and sadness. That combination suits an actor who can make someone’s determination to be taken seriously both funny and worth caring about. We are interested in the embarrassment beneath his characters’ pretensions, and less persuaded when the writing treats oddness as enough of a joke. Start with The Mighty Boosh, and allow for the occasional scene that nobody has quite found the courage to end.
Biography
Julian Barratt is an English comedian, actor and musician. He is best known for his work with Noel Fielding as part of the comedy troupe The Mighty Boosh, in which he played Howard Moon and served as co-creator, writer and composer of the music.
Barratt was born on 4 May 1968 in Leeds and attended the University of Reading. The pair first performed together in the late 1990s, taking shows including The Mighty Boosh to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before the BBC radio and television series. He has also appeared in series including Nathan Barley (2005) and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004), and co-wrote and starred in the film Mindhorn (2016).
