A year ago, Netflix and the BBC gave us Cunk on Earth, a six-part mockumentary about the history of the world. I really liked the series and it did lead me down a path of searching for various clip featuring Diane Morgan playing the dim-witted Philomena Cunk interviewing actual experts of various fields and doing a bang-up job of getting even the simplest facts wrong in the most hilarious ways.

So, when Netflix and the BBC announced they were making a follow-up series, I actually did something I never do: activated the Remind Me option on my Netflix app to inform me when Cunk on Life was made available. Well, that time has passed and I did watch Cunk on Life and, well, while it was good, I can’t really say it was as good as her previous effort on Netflix.

Before I give my thoughts and explain why I said that, I will warn you that I will be making a lot of comparisons to Cunk on Earth. After all, that was the reason as to why I was excited to see this. That did color my reaction and feeling about Cunk on Life a whole lot.

Anyway, Cunk on Life once again casts Diane Morgan as Philomena Cunk and she still gets to go around interviewing well-known persons in different fields of expertise while asking some of the silliest questions possible. However, unlike Cunk on Earth, Cunk on Life isn’t all that long as the entire thing is just a little over an hour. Simply put, it’s much shorter than the six episode series that was Cunk on Earth. In fact, my first reaction when I saw its runtime was to let out an audible and disappointed “aww” to myself. I would go on to say that this is Cunk on Life’s biggest problem. You can’t go from a half hour, six episode miniseries mockumentary to a short mockumentary film as it comes off as a downgrade. Sequels are usually bigger and better, right?

Yet, despite its shorter length, Cunk on Life comes off as if it has a good amount of filler. I’m not really sure as to why they went this direction. After all, the entire thing was just a little over an hour. So, I can’t really see why they didn’t have enough actual content from the interviews to fill in the rest of the time. Additionally, I don’t really remember many, if at all, scripted moments in Cunk on Earth and I found that to be really amazing. The mere fact they had Philomena Cunk interview so many people and say so many absurd things while hardly doing any skits to fill time must’ve been an arduous task. But they did it in Cunk on Earth so I can’t figure out why they couldn’t this time around.

In Cunk on Life, there are a couple of obvious scripted interviews with fictional people and, honestly, that kind of took the wind out of the show’s sails. I mean, the best bits are Philomena Cunk saying stupid stuff and asking ridiculous questions to experts. So, when she interview someone who’s obviously an actor, it comes off as really out of place. Even with these overtly obvious scripted skits, there are some really funny cutaways in Cunk on Life. I will say I was quite miffed they really didn’t continue with the “Pump Up The Jam” segues from Cunk on Earth. But, thankfully, they also didn’t abandon the running joke to a degree here.

As good as some of these parts were, the best ones still involve the interviews with real experts. I can’t really see how these interviewees continue to keep a straight face during these moments, much less Diane Morgan who plays Philomena Cunk! There’s just something about her really sincere but dry delivery of some of the questions and talking points that really sneaks up on you as you don’t really know where the joke is going until you get to the punchline, which I did find very refreshing to the somewhat predictable humor of other mockumentaries.

Actually, I will also say that there were humorous moments I didn’t get because, well, I just didn’t notice it while I was watching. A good example of this would be Philomena Cunk talking about humanity and “our souls.” I honestly didn’t see anything particularly funny about this line of questioning until gathering clips to add to this post when I realized what Philomena Cunk was really referring to.

Overall, I will give a thumbs up to Cunk on Life as, objectively and taken on its own, it’s still a very humorous mockumentary and Philomena Cunk is such a brilliant character who just so happens to be interviewing some really serious people about really serious topics. However, if you did watch Cunk on Earth, you might find yourself wanting a whole lot more because of Cunk on Life’s much shorter runtime and the reliance on scripted segments does feel like they needed some filler because they ran out of material.

In a weird way, if you haven’t watched either, I actually say go see Cunk on Life first before moving on to Cunk on Earth. Sure, the Pump Up the Jam gag might not hit as hard… but it’s still a good gag on its own.

Have you seen Cunk on Life? What did you think of it? A better question may be is how do you think it stacks up to the previous entry, Cunk on Earth? Let me know in the comment section below!