Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy

Noel Fielding's new sketch show has been publicised widely - there's not a bus shelter in my hometown of Stockton without a poster of Fielding in some bizarre costume.

When you watch the show it gets even weirder. Fielding is living in a treehouse in a jungle, with an aardvark butler (played by Noel's brother Michael) and with Andy Warhol (Tom Meeten) as his cleaner. Then there are other characters played by Fielding, including a New York cop with a talking knife wound, a lion in a zoo going slowly insane, and a games teacher with shell shock - who is also a chocolate finger.

Normally I like it when comedians push at the extremes, whether it's in terms of language, situation or realism/surrealism. However, Luxury Comedy appears to be one of those rather rare cases of going too far instead of not far enough. His earlier work, The Mighty Boosh, was itself bizarre and wonderfully funny, but also had the added advantage of Julian Barratt keeping things in control and from going too off the wall. This show is just bizarre, though - all surrealism and seemingly without comedy.

For me the best bit was seemingly the sanest, which was Fielding's drawing of Pele holding a china cup and kicking what was either a ball or the saucer for the cup. I think it worked because at least you can connect the show with something that exists in the real world. The same is true with the 'Warhol' character.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy is too far disconnected from anything recognisable to make it funny. A good piece of art perhaps - totally maverick - but that's about it.

Number of members of interminably crap indie band Kasabian who contribute to the music: 1

Number of references to eating rainbows: 1

Number of references to eating rainbows that make you want to punch your television: 1

Number of former Mighty Boosh employees involved: 4

Number of cheese tanks: 1

Number of cheese tanks that make you want to travel back in time and kill Salvador Dali: 1

Number of people who sat blank-faced at the television while it was on: 422,000

Number of blinding on-screen colours: 3,455

Number of drug-dealing flies called Figo: 1

Number of drug-dealing flies called Figo that make you want to go and nail-bomb the whole of Camden: 1

Number of jokes: 0

Number of people called Julian Barrett who appear to have carried Noel Fielding up to this point in his career: 1

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy is cheap, messy, energetic and... eventually... funny. You may begin thinking it's just garish self-indulgence, but then, after you've been breathing the atmosphere of the planet he lives on for a while, you get a bit giddy and start to giggle. Characters include Sergeant Raymond Boombox, a New York detective with a garrulous knife wound on his arm. If you haven't come out in a rash after reading that, it may be safe for you to watch.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy review

Some scenes don't work as well as others and if you're not a fan of The Mighty Boosh, this definitely won't be for you. However, if Fielding's aim was to create something in the spirit of the notoriously surreal Spike Milligan, I think he's achieved it.

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy: Charming chaos

Crammed into a short space of time, they sketches provide us with twenty-three minutes and thirty-three seconds of charming and potentially addictive chaos. Those who long for The Boosh to return will be happily sated in the meantime.

There's an intriguing twilight zone between hipster music and comedy in which only a few dare to dwell - Look Around You and Jam belong to this rarefied tradition. Here, Noel Fielding, a jollier but no less effective master of the genre, returns with his latest show, a neo-psychedelic riot of mirth that regurgitates decades of memories of broad, Technicolor TV entertainment from The Banana Splits onwards. Tonight's luridly droll cornucopia sees two French chefs take a trip to the moon, a New York cop going undercover in Miami and Noel attempting to create a felt-tip masterpiece.

Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding: 'I'm a bit like a child'

Noel Fielding talks about his surreal new E4 series Luxury Comedy, the future of The Mighty Boosh, and a baffling box of toast.

I would love to take a holiday in Noel Fielding's imagination - a psychedelic menagerie of custard and spandex, designed by preschoolers on a sugar rush.

His new sketch show sees him cut loose from Mighty Boosh partner Julian Barratt. It's as though someone snapped the string on a helium balloon, leaving him free to bob around in his own little universe.

Part wonky animation, part live action, the first half, which includes a sketch combining Ready Steady Cook and a space launch, is just the wrong side of random to gel.

But in part two, the weirdness pays off when we meet the optimistic Dandelion - a man in a cheap lion suit showing us around his home at the zoo.

Another new character, Roy Circles, comes into his own. Roy is a PE teacher, widow and war hero. He also just happens to be a chocolate finger. Deal with it.

Beyond the Boosh: Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy

The Mighty Boosh is on hiatus, and Never Mind The Buzzcocks is hardly ever on. Are you missing your fix of Noel Fielding's bizarre and wonderful comedy? Don't worry E4 are here to sort you out...

Video: Noel Fielding says music tour would be challenge

Noel Fielding has admitted his new comedy show is difficult to describe due to the many different styles in it.

Fielding worked with Sergio Pizzorno from Kasabian on music for the show and together formed a band called The Loose Tapestries.

The band will release an album following the television series but Fielding admits taking the show on tour would be a challenge.