Stupid

Stupid is Dean’s smash hit CBBC sketch show. It ran for 2 series, 20 episodes, and in series 1 the King was played by Marcus Brigestocke. In series 2 Phil Cornwell was crowned King. In both series Rusty Goffe played Goober the gremlin.

Half sketch show, half sitcom, Stupid revolved around the mythical god of mischief King Stupid who’s role it was to make humans behave irrationally and, well, stupidly. 

His love hate relationship with his annoying gremlin butler Goober was the sitcom part of the show and the King’s work on Earth gave us the sketch show part.

Read more in the Wikipedia entry for Stupid. You can also watch some excepts of Stupid below.

A BIT MORE INFO...

DEED MONARCHS

‘For every human emotion and trait there is a Deed Monarch controlling that characteristic. They have manipulated mankind since time began and will do so for eternity. So basically – get over it.’

In STUPID the central characters are King Stupid and Goober. The King is a mysterious and powerful creature, who looks human but isn’t, and has been making mankind, - especially kids - do completely random and daft things for thousands of years. Goober is his butler, a gremlin, and they have a love hate relationship with the wilier Goober often winning the day - but tricking the King into thinking that he has instead.

Every Deed Monarch has a gremlin butler. Gremlins are simple creatures who are easily led. When one becomes a butler of a Deed Monarch they become influenced in varying degrees by that particular Deed Monarch’s personality and job. This is why Goober, King Stupid’s butler, is quite childish and annoying.

COUNT CRUEL

A slimy, selfish and uncaring Deed Monarch. He brings out the slyer, vindictive side of humans. Cruel can make the nicest of mortals suddenly self-centred or callous for no apparent reason. He’s the one who makes you laugh at sick jokes, or smirk when you see a kiddie fall of a bike. If you’re ever secretly glad your best friend failed at something then it’s Count Cruel manipulating you. His speciality is sarcasm. (Interesting note : Cruel is Stupid’s twin brother.)

TYPICAL LINE: You’ve sometimes got to be cruel to be kind, but you can always be cruel to be cruel.

GREMLIN BUTLER: Reaks. This gremlin is a right royal pain in the bum as he never stops playing practical jokes on everyone. From putting cling film over the toilet bowl to putting salt in the sugar jar – even if he reduces you to tears he’ll hand you a hanky laced with sneezing powder. He never laughs at his own jokes though. He’s doggedly driven to upset people.

THE EARL OF SLOTH

Incredibly bone idle and lazy. He gets around in a motorized throne as he’s too lethargic to walk anywhere. He has a soporific affect on anyone in his presence and his constant yawning makes everyone else do it too, sapping any enthusiasm for anything. It’s his job to reduce human eagerness and interest in different degrees – depending on how much he can be bothered to. The Earl Of Sloth’s duty is to make your get up and go…. get up and go.

TYPICAL LINES: I really cannot be bottomed today. What’s the point in going on holiday, you only have to come back. Stay at home and save the bother.

GREMLIN BUTLER: Quiddle. A very untidy, scruffy and smelly little gremlin who never ever gets round to doing anything, including getting washed. He always puts things off until tomorrow (which never comes) and expends more energy making up excuses for NOT doing things than it would ever take just to DO the things. One of the finest procrastinators ever.

KING WONDERFUL

Wonderful makes humans feel wonderful, confident, happy and kind towards their fellow man. He emits good feelings ranging from just warm contentedness to wild euphoria. Ever felt a sudden pang of love or heart warming care for someone or something? Maybe you’ve suddenly felt like the greatest and most fabulous person on the planet and want to share that feeling? – well that’s King Wonderful doing that.

He’s a larger than life character (imagine Brian Blessed on Prozac) and never has a bad word to say about anyone or anything.

It’s worth noting that King Wonderful’s good nature spills out into the mortal world every December – where he is known as Santa, or Father Christmas.

TYPICAL LINES: Ah, I’ve just been told my good and dear friend Albaxor the dung troll is dead. How wonderful for him. He was dreading his mother in law coming to stay next week. Now he won’t have to bother even talking to her.

GREMLIN BUTLER: Croodle. Very caring and giving, so much so no one has seen her in 1,200 years as she’s doing missionary work at the farthest reaches of the Ether World helping flightless fairies take hang-gliding lessons, undersized trolls use stilts, (poor things are only 9 foot tall) and swimming lessons for mermaids who are scared of water.

KING ANGRY

A fearsome character who is constantly either incensed with rage or just seething with subdued fury. Anything and anyone winds him up and he snaps with only the slightest provocation. He hurls things around, shouts, stamps his feet and throttles people. His butler, Suggill has a metal collar round his neck at all times in readiness for the many throttlings he’ll endure each day.

Angry makes humans bad tempered, intolerant and violent. He thought up epidemics like Road Rage and Air Rage and is constantly inventing new ones, (his latest is Bath Rage – the fury you feel when someone’s used your flannel, or left a tide mark round the bath that you’ve just got in.)

TYPICAL LINES: Do you HAVE to breathe like that! It’s soooooooooooo annoying! It’s a nice day today – I HATE nice days!

GREMLIN BUTLER: Suggill. A thuggish and criminal brute of a gremlin. Always ready for a scrap, loves to pick fights and tends to deliberately break anything he touches.

QUEEN SENSIBLE

The bane of Stupid’s life – even more annoying than Goober. Queen Sensible is so infuriatingly prudent and level-headed about each and every little thing she does. She is the exact opposite of King Stupid and they really do despise one another (or do they?) The Queen is the moral and wise side of human behaviour. It’s her influence that makes kids open a savings account, or take a spare pair of pants with them if they went far from home – the kind of things only boring adults should think about.

TYPICAL LINES: Chew every mouthful of food 27 times and brush your teeth after each meal. My teeth are my monoliths to healthy eating.

GREMLIN BUTLER: Lulibub. An extremely polite and nice little female gremlin who only speaks when spoken to. She has impeccable manners and is amazingly polite to everyone. She does everything she’s told to and never leaves a mess. And consequently, like Queen Sensible, has no friends.

ETHER SPEAK

Some phrases you might need…

DEED BACKS (slang)

Ether World Money. Notes or coins. Dargs, Rixles and Sofas. All Ether World money has a picture of a Deed Monarch, living or not quite so living, on the back of them, just like ours. In fact their money is quite similar to Brit money but it’s much more simple. 101 Dargs to 1 Rixle, both of which are smallish coins. Sofas, on the other hand are sofas. Large three seater settees. The Ether World Council decided so many Dargs and Rixles get lost down the backs of sofas they’d actually make Sofas currency. Sofas come in four values, 5 Rixle, 10 Rixle, 20 Rixle and 50 Rixle. As a consequence large scale monetary exchanges can be time consuming and back breaking. The current King Stupid’s picture is on the back of a 20 Rixle Sofa.

MUTTON TEA (beverage)

The most common beverage in the Ether World. Note we didn’t say popular! That’s because it’s horrible. Made from compressed, dead, elderly sheep. It has a foul salty, meaty taste to it which leave one even more thirsty. No one’s actually got round to inventing a nicer cup of tea out of anything like leaves or something, but they all live in hope. Also known by the slang names Ewe-Brew, Baa-Jeeling, and Hurl Grey.

PRINCE (slang / derogatory / taboo)

A racist and offensive name for a gremlin used by everyone because it’s so funny. It’s derived from ‘Purple Pain.’ It’s source stemming from the human song Purple Rain by tiny, knock kneed pillock Prince.

RORY GRUE (food)

A gremlin delicacy which looks like lumpy, grey porridge with a blob of lime jelly in it, but that’s where the similarity ends. It’s horrid! It contains griffin vomit and gangrene jelly, plus a few other additives like powdered dolphin, witches’ toe nail scrapings etc, and the secret ingredient only Goober’s family know about. A bit like Colonel Sanders told no-one the secret ingredient to his famous Unlucky Fried Kitten.