The Oxford English Dictionary refers to Postmodernism as ‘a style and concept in the arts characterized by a distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions.’ Postmodernists claim that in a media – saturated world, where we are constantly immersed in media, 24/7, and on the move, at work, at home – the distinction between reality and the media representation of it becomes blurred or even entirely invisible to us. In other words, we no longer have a sense of the different between real things and images of them, or real experiences and simulations of them. Postmodern media rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgements are merely taste. Anything can be art, anything can deserve to reach an audience, and culture ‘eats itself’ as there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute.
Postmodernism means after Modernism. Modernism is a style which came just before postmodernism and means things just fulfilling their purpose, not being fancy and being practical. Post modernism is a theory in which nothing is absolute and nothing is completely right, a post modernist think would think about the grand narrative, and they would question it.
Post modernism isn’t modernism, but at the same time, it is following on from it. Many ideas have emerged from Postmodernism. An example of a Postmodernism building is the AT & T Tower in New Yorkwhich borrows elements and references from the past and reintroduces colour and symbolism to architecture. Another example of a postmodernism building would be the Manchester Trafford Centre Food Court. This is because there are lots of different elements and cultures in one place. For example, there is a Chinese quarter, a New Orleans quarter, Italian quarter and also Indian quarter. The State Gallery of Stuttgart is the epitome of Postmodernism. Built in the year 1984, it is described as a masterpiece of postmodern architecture.
The Mighty Boosh is an example of a Postmodern Text. The show is postmodern in many ways. It is completely based around fashion and the celebrity culture. Vince (one of the main characters) is very much postmodernism, even in the clothes he wears. A postmodern text is easily defined or rather identified by considering 9 factors or characteristics; these factors are Eclecticism, Intertextuality, Parody, Bricolage, Acts against Modernism, Nostalgic, Narcissistic, An Active Audience and Hyper Conscious. The Mighty Boosh demonstrates some of these 9 factors.
Eclecticism shines through the varied characters they portray and the range of music styles they adopt. You never know what you are going to get.
Intertextuality – The Mighty Boosh openly borrows, mimics and adopts traits of a multitude of styles, clichés and conventions that the knowing audience can directly relate to.
Parody – The Mighty Boosh is scattered with parodies from the generic musical or textual.
Bricolage – The Mighty Boosh can be viewed as a bricolage of many already tried and tested formulas.
Acts against modernism – The Boosh exhibits this at every given opportunity to articulate their idiosyncratic humour: a talking gorilla, a Mexican jazz-fusion guitarist with a door in his afro, a man made of cheese. You learn to accept the fact that there is no justification or reasoning behind actions or characters. They exist because they can exist; it is a celebration of the medium of television that allows The Boosh to pick and choose from a long history of tried and tested formulas. These familiar formulas ironically combine to create something that is an original breath of fresh air.
Hyper Conscious - The Mighty Boosh provides us with an effective framework for postmodernism deconstruction and is bursting with its characteristics from the costumes, characters, design, mise – en – scene and dialogue.
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