Looking back at Look Around You with Popper and Serafinowicz (bonus: Tarvu!)

The offbeat British comedy duo Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, creators of the absurdist fake-educational science show "Look Around You" and the faux religion known as Tarvuism, speak to BoingBoing.net's Xeni Jardin on the occasion of the US DVD release of their hit BBC show.
LOOK AROUND YOU on DVD: amzn.to/bDaJN2
More at Boing Boing:
www.boingboing....
Robert Popper: robertpopper.com
Peter Serafinowicz: peterserafinowi...
Tarvu: tarvu.com

[@Maccorcrain]

The fact that this look back at look around you is 12 years old makes me feel ancient.

[@uehreka]

Then you’re really not gonna like hearing that it’s 21 😉

[@ZeranZeran]

I just found this show a few years ago and I was crying from laughing. Same with "Markets of Britain"

[@n0denz]

Thanks, Robert and Peter. Throbeter.

[@medexamtoolscom]

Throbeter. I'll be sure to write that down in my copybook.

[@alexstorr5511]

I've never seen a double version, impressive

[@Lumibear.]

I’m always amazed when very specifically referential shows like this can travel, as to me, this is a parody of my youth in the 80s, being made to watch BBC TV For Schools, shown on TV at odd hours and recorded by your teacher on VHS, then they’d wheel into class the huge school TV and video player, which bear in mind very few people had back then, so it was a strange treat.

[@mordaciousfilms]

The funniest show almost nobody I've met in my life has ever heard of...

[@Just_lift_anyone]

Hebbo!

[@steerpike66]

You Around You was a gem. A simple surrealist pastiche done with perfect attention to detail.

[@iamdb1990]

took a break from watching the dvd right now to watch this, Thanks Robert and Peter, Throbertandpeter

[@martingardener]

This takes me back to school in the 80's. If you aren't of that age or from the UK you have no idea how accurate this is. The actual (beta max) school educational videos were exactly this style. Its great!

[@cartertheunstoppablefaxmac902]

The worrying thing is that I went to school in the 90s and they were still showing us these grimy old tapes. I swear they once showed us a sex ed tape that predated awareness of AIDs.

[@DavidEFarner]

I am developing a major crush on Peter Serafinowicz. He is adorable and hysterical! I love him!

[@benniejets874]

David Farner me too xd

[@bigol9223]

Gaybo

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

Funny thing is, I grew up in the USA, and this show was on TV when I moved back to England -- and they had very similar American educational programs on our Public Broadcasting System (PBS) stations, right down to the initial countdown clock. Genius!

[@steerpike66]

I never thought it was creepy or bleak. I thought it was charming.

[@Dorsidwarf]

Helvetica Scenario never forgets.

[@MatthewTaylor86]

In the first episode they have a conversation with Intelligent Calcium, then suffocate it and watch it's desperate, panicked attempts to communicate before it dies.

[@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113]

If you Divided the Height of The Helvetica Scenario, by the Width of an Intelligent Calcium. How Tall is "Imhotep."?

[@communistjesus]

It be FREAKING just capital A wesome if, Robert and Peter were to reunite once again to create more LOOK AROUND YOU episodes... They were capital H ilarious... Freaking BBC should have produced more of this great series

[@NateMillerErhu]

HAHAH OMG THE END WAS THE BEST. "Is there a spiritual lesson to be taken from Look Around You? " ... "Aboslutely Not"

[@pschroeter1]

When I saw Serafinowicz in John Wick II I thought he would make a great James Bond.

[@LootFragg]

Grond.

[@realMemberberries]

It sucks that you can't watch the full episodes online. We need full episodes now!

[@gorgolyt]

priestmunty at my local chabbernaggle AHHAHHAHAHHHHA

[@longclawson]

The U.S. and Look Around You?! The classic combination! Good luck! I'm rappin, I'm rappin'...I'm rap-rap-rappin...............

[@bennyshambles]

These guys are brilliant. Been turning people onto this show since 2007 or so.

[@troyboy7610]

Nice interview! Can't wait to get my DVDs of Look Around You!

[@ap327145]

Im starting to think that wasnt Roberts real hair in Look Around You series 2.

[@ladycheyne5607]

My son and I laughed so hard at this show!! We love it 😃

[@CPYRGTNME]

Larry, you have great taste in TV. Thanks for your videos. Thideos.

[@bigol9223]

Thank you Peter for dressing up

[@SkellionPowalskiz]

I'm sad to say that I only brought myself to watch this stuff recently because Peter Serafinowicz is a voice-actor for Dark Souls II. I actually remember educational videos like this in school, and it's uncanny that these guys had the exact same reaction to them as I did.

[@MrLordofDub]

I'd love to know what synthesisers they used for the music.

[@paulprice1711]

Another Series of Look Around You

[@5ynthesizerpatel]

where's my cheque?

[@Chronos146]

5ynthesizerpatel it was stolen

[@PatrickByrne-e5v]

@@Chronos146 bloody crime

[@BobPapadopoulos]

Bring back Look Around You!

[@mikedonovan4768]

Correction. As this is 9 years ago it's "Looking back at Looking back at Look Around You". Very original comedy this - got the DVD somewhere.

[@boingboing]

@grecomic thants.

[@darthstructure7370]

Love from America!!! I fucking love ur show!!!!

[@holycow818181]

They mention that Look Around You is based on creepy old British educational videos. What are some good examples of the kind of things being parodied by Look Around You?

[@djsherz]

I think you'll find it's an old ITV Schools series from the 70s, called "Experiment". Looks spot on to me! kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKSWYmiLjKhli8U

[@warlocksarewatching]

Shit, wasn't Popper that rude tourist in that history walks episode of Peep Show? Woah now!

[@andypianoman2732]

Little mouse! Classic!!!

[@NxDoyle]

The answer to the question about Peter and Robert merging into a single comedy entity called Serafinowopper is, "It's coming soon. It hasn't had its life force fucked into it yet".

[@andypianoman2732]

Synthesizer Patel is my hero!

[@lucasheap]

I saw Peter in London last year and was too nervous to go up to him to get a photo🤣🤣 regret it now🤣🤣

[@Trawizz1]

You should have done it. I met him and Robert in Mermaid Theatre many years ago. They were so humble and fun both. Peter kept on grabbing my hand and shook it like 10 times. You can not meet a nicer man seriously 😄

[@HELLINA-HANDBASKET]

Who would have thought that after his Look Around You gig was finished Synthesiser Patel would move to Craiglang change his name to Navid Harrid and open up his own corner shop 🤣🤣

[@NxDoyle]

As much as I'm happy that Peter's doing The Tick and probably creating opportunities in America, I'm still hopeful that things like Tarvu and Radio Spiritworld aren't done and dusted.

[@JonBriggs626]

Xeni Jardin sounds like such a Look Around You name

[@ericjamieson]

"Sport" is still my favorite. The runner who ingests a chemical which lets her run at supersonic speeds, but also causes her to keep getting smaller, the family of clones on a quest to develop increasingly advanced footballs, the racehorse that builds an advanced computer out of dung, cast-off horseshoes, and garbage, it's all ridiculous, deadpan genius. Even the throwaway jokes are great. I mean, blink and you miss it, but because of that episode I'll always and forever think of the Phillie Phanatic as being called "Xythantiops."

[@forkittens]

mat ands trey parker, nick frost and simon peg, tim and eric, plus these guys... holy shit.

[@caramelrocket]

i used to show this to kids in school, they loved it!

[@HarrisJamesBen]

Is Robert Popper the guy that played Ricky's co-writer for his comedy show in Extras?

[@steerpike66]

Series 2 should have been a fake schools language programme like 'Rendez Vous Francais' with stupid mistranslations, fake vocab, wildly inaccurate cultural information and lots of cheap period stock footage.

[@summersalt3629]

i can't stop staring at peter's eyebrows

[@grecomic]

Thanks, Xeni. ...Thani!

[@acronus]

I'm running low on Bumcivilian.

[@communistjesus]

@SecretTimeWarp Thank you for the INFO.. Hopefully, I will be able to purchase the ENTIRE SERIES on Amazon.com

[@myke5000]

Ask Synthesiser Patel.

[@klatewilson5170]

Duran Duran reunion at 0:53

[@everybodysinshowbiz]

this was a great spoof show. Took me back to those weird shows I watched as a kid. TV was so different then they didn't have to exaggerate much .. they were pretty surreal in the first place

[@darrenvibelitethwaite1447]

Loved this show reminds me off the science programmes in schools

[@medexamtoolscom]

I actually found tarvuism on youtube because the amazing atheist favorited it or upvoted it or both, and then on seeing that, it recommended look around you videos and I didn't learn until a year later that the reason it recommended look around you was because it was made by the same guy as the say hebbo to tarvuism video.

[@medexamtoolscom]

By the way, I thought iron was the best one. That was just the most surreal, the one that knocked it up the most notches. The giant pair of scissors floating in the air above the laboratory, I just don't think they topped that elsewhere in the series.

[@Winteruk1]

Aaah 'Little Mouse'. Really takes one back.

[@benniejets874]

Peter is so cute

[@voorface]

Nice to see Peter being born through a t-shirt

[@hoarp001]

Ive seen pages from ceefax on our skyguide, I never watched it, I always thought it actually was pages from feefax...

[@badjemima]

I want that gold/strawberry/mentally sub-normal woman thing, dammit!

[@communistjesus]

Look Around You.. One more show that went off the air too soon.. I do not know how many shows they made of this GREAT SHOW, However, here in the states I've only seen but a handful.. But if TV PRODUCERS IN THE U.K., are as brain dead as they are in the STATES, I would not be surprised if they did NOT capitalize on this great show.. Remember, Freaks and Geeks and Dead like me???.. Shows that died way before their time.. However, sadly S hit like WINGS had a longggggggg run.. it is UNFAIR,,

[@YoshsWorld]

Can I be an invisible extra in the reboot? In America we call it the retrunk.

[@TheJohnRowley]

Fantastic series. Xeni Jardin on the other hand makes me wretch

[@bunk95]

I didnt look around you. My roommate had been touching ghost.

[@holiciomes]

Still wondering what are birds. We just don't know.

[@paulectro2510]

Absolute genius.

[@louiseevans3510]

She's in love.

[@Dev1nci]

I don’t find it creepy at all, it feels totally nostalgic to me.

[@x2f01mick]

Terrifying, bleak and surreal is how I'd describe the Uncanny Valley.

[@BrokenBaculum]

Is that Wayne Rooney at 4:25?

[@arthurhiroa4238]

Is that DUane Benzie?

[@eclipse5eddy]

@DeviousTelevision I think the point is, he hasn't... At all.

[@ursie1986]

xeni has come as a robot, she is obviously a big fan of the old days.

[@philjones45]

Is this interview satirical too, can't quite work it out.

[@shakypam]

every single time i see a blackbird in my backyard i think "backskipper"

[@jackspringheel9963]

But how do birds work?

[@mng4643]

Comedic Hauntology

[@scottptolomey3498]

Peter is turning into Simon Le Bon

[@DokkaChapman]

Am I the only one who preferred series 2?

[@hedrinklz]

Computer Jones

[@tagindrag]

Get in touch with Robert Popper about doing Stephen Miller impersonation work. I know it's insulting but the resemblance...

[@woodfox8803]

Isn't about time they got on with some more underground monkey businesses

[@SecretTimeWarp]

@communistjesus I think they made ten or eleven of the "instructional video" episodes, and six of the "Seventies science magazine show" episodes.

[@takineko]

ugh, they're so cute

[@isbestlizard]

But what are birds?

[@rockandstroll]

Peter looks like Harold Steptoe.

[@cbmtrx]

chabbernacle

[@boingboing]

@wormbaby79 hebbo.

[@thedudelebowski7618]

I joined Tarvuism!!! Life is sooo good now!!! Tarvu!!!!!!!!!#

[@bicolouredprawn]

Let's leave the pea be.

[@ritchyfox]

make way for the prince and the palace

[@IamPangurBan]

gods... gods among men...

[@jamessmethurst3537]

Write that down. Now.

[@MrDavey2010]

Hilarious show!

[@NonnyMus1]

*sulphagne

[@chickenbento]

I love that these guys love the old weed. Complete heads. Late night, Open University, on the old “rock-n-roll”, skin-up. vibes.

[@BassBeatsBanter]

sulphane

[@sbarnes2011]

*sigh* Robert Popper should always wear a wig. It ups his dreaminess factor exponentially.

[@GSXbuickGNX]

I love these guys, they're the best. I almost cried...no homo.

[@dufric88]

"absolutely not!" hahahah

[@stevolution666]

@hpotter4getbac will you come to my party

[@Scripture-Man]

Quiet, please.

[@MsMorbeg]

@boingboingvideo blants.