Jam 1: Chemotherapy Wig

First there was Blue Jam, a Radio One show from Chris Morris designed to be shown at the nocturnal hours when the listeners were half tired from a night of clubbing, caught in a haze by the avant garde humour.

Jam the series was spun off from the radio show. An experimental sketch show that is challenging and provocative to the viewer. The sketches are shown in a distorted way accompanied with a gentle soundtrack to mask the subversive sketches which themselves are presented in hushed tones. You really have to turn the volume up.

The first episode has a mum and dad explaining to their son's godfather that they have been having sex with a pervert who might have a thing for their young son. The father having to bend over up to three times a day at weekends and is just too darn tired. They are hoping that the godfather will step in for a bit. Kevin Eldon steals that sketch with his reactions.

Another sketch involves a man describing what he saw. A man trying to kill himself by jumping off the first floor balcony of the apartment repeatedly, getting bloodier and bloodier at each attempt. He did not want to jump off from the top floor in case he changed his mind part of the way through. I actually laughed at the twisted humour.

The sketch involving a naked Robert Kilroy-Silk running amok in a shopping precinct was just bizarre.

I watched the first episode of Jam just as Morris intended. Late at night and shattered from a lack of sleep. It did not work for me. Then again Morris has always been challenging. He was only ever close to the mainstream in the BBC series The Day Today and his movie, Four Lions.