Cunk on Life: Asking all the wrong questions, perfectly!
POPPY KORNELL
A 2025 Emmy winner, Cunk on Life continues Diane Morgan’s reign as our queen of deadpan nonsense.
An oldie but a goodie. I think about the one-liners and can’t retell them without wheezing.
What is the meaning of life? And how do we measure the value of our souls?
Shot in glossy documentary style, with slow pans of landscapes and ruminating narration, Cunk on Life presents Diane Morgan’s Philomena Cunk ambushing experts in philosophy, religion, art, and science with her unabashed lack of common sense.
Morgan has perfected Cunk since her appearances on Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe in 2013, through Cunk on Britain (2018), Cunk on Earth (2022), and this special.
She interviews serious academics who wrestle with her absurd questions. Some chuckle knowingly when Philomena stares them down and asks “some of the most significant questions you can ask with a mouth.” Others almost puff out in indignation, defending logic.
Half the fun is trying to work out whether they are in on the joke, or offended. Such as King’s College London Prof Prokar Dasgupta as she insists only 40% of people have skeletons, or that knees are “a con”.
In Chapter Vll on Art, she narrates “some of the greatest artists in history have tried to express the agony of the human condition, and so have ones who could only paint as badly as this”. It’s The Scream, by Edward Munch!
“The first major existentialist statement to later become an emoji.”
Prof Richard Thomson of the University of Edinburgh tries to explain it. She cuts him off: “I’ve been on bridges and you don’t see me painting about it.”
Another quip that got me: “Howcome we can’t hear him, is he on mute?”
Also, this running gag: “Nietzche’s proclamation that God was dead caused an international firestorm, as writers and thinkers debated the decline of religious authority in an increasingly secularised world 107 years before the release of unrelated Belgian techno anthem Pump Up the Jam.”
I am deceased, cackling like a witch as the music video of neon ‘80s spandex pop stars plays with subtitles adding another layer to one of the greatest jokes of human history.
It is sharp, silly and oddly profound. Cunk on Life holds a perfect 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
5/5 POPS from this Kornell!
