Review by Jason Stone

The Buffoons provide an astonishing whirlwind of taboo-busting comedy which couldn't tackle more controversial material if it tried. It's a quite brilliant exhibition of bad taste but despite its willingness to offend, it has its heart in the right place.

Early on, a spoof of the Jeremy Kyle Show sets the tone. The awful ITV programme is a soft target that has received its fair share of attention from comedians – but nothing quite like this. Kyle's programme has often been called 'a freak show' but no-one has been brave enough to illustrate this idea as vividly as this quartet. A fantastically exaggerated array of grotesques are paraded at rapid pace as Jeremy Kyle stands in the middle loudly declaring his superiority over the miscreants. The baseness of this is funny enough, but it was incredibly sharp to notice the full extent of Kyle's arrogance and make this the central feature of the sketch.

This astonishing directness is evident in all of the sketches and the impressive pace is unrelenting. The writing requires fully committed performances and these were certainly provided.

One particularly dangerous scene features the only female member of the troupe advancing across the stage in the style of a coquettish pre-teen while her thoughts are heard from off stage. It's an audacious attempt to portray a precocious tendency towards flirtation and the conflict created when this clashes with modern advice about 'stranger danger'. It doesn't come close to excusing any misinterpretation of this behaviour but even acknowledging its existence is fantastically brave.

A Crimestoppers spoof riffs playfully with the idea that the programme's presenters are voyeuristic about rape, with an endless stream of advice and pleas for people to get in touch with their own experiences. As with almost all the sketches, the sheer energy impresses as they explore every aspect of this idea without any apparent fear that the audience will worry that sexual assault is being condoned.

Other skits were just as inclined to risk offence but it wasn't all gynecology and scatology. One sequence has one of the group demonstrating that he's 'been there, done that and got the T-shirt' in every imaginable realm, and it contains a quite astonishing performance that rightly earns a huge response from the audience.

The Buffoons are perfectly in tune with their target audience, producing a great show for those who have the stomach for it. Just don't take your Gran or anyone who's ever read the Daily Mail without screaming.

Review date: 9 Aug 2010
Reviewed by: Jason Stone