Season 2, Episode 2: "Jeremy Makes It"

Mark is one uncomfortable Nazi

Jez almost gets paid for his work, while Mark makes friends with a racist.

Thoughts:

- I don't want to say this definitively, but this could be the best episode. Mark's racist friend, the lengths to which Jez goes to get his commission, the positive interplay between Mark and Jez, Sophie and Jeff shenanigans - even Super Hans - it all comes together for a very solid show.

- I think this is Tony's last appearance. It's a thankless, minor role, but in his own, understated way, the actor squeezed the most out of the material and made it work. I mean, so far as he could with a few background walk-bys and a line or two.

- Super Hans felt that sex with Toni was "spicy," whereas Jez found it "clinical, more like."

- Super Hans' doing crack shocks Mark and Jez. I'd always thought that he did crack (and more) anyway.

- Gog and his success thus-far (such as it is) underlines just how pathetic Jez is. The actor is good at playing a loser with a chip on his shoulder who's made it big; in spite of his successful business, he's still just a loser punching above his weight.

- The actor who plays Daryl is also in the Mitchell/Webb film, "Magicians." There are a few Peep Show guest actors who show up in that film - which I don't exactly recommend, I should say.

- Daryl is one of the more memorable guest characters. We really need to see more of him.

- Jez' first song that Gog listens to is awful. This continues the subtle running gag that Jez and Super Hans' band is unsuccessful because it's just terrible.

- This is the first episode where Johnson really does something as a boss, in this case investigating the "racial incident" with the sausage.

- Both Jez and Mark call Super Hans simply "Hans." One supposes that must be his real name after all.

- Jez' behaviour while placed in a position of authority (in the recording studio) is very amusing, particularly the way he loses it when it starts to go bad. This is a side of him we rarely see, as he never seems to have any real responsibility.

- The recording studio has the same blue "Fire door, keep closed" stickers found on all the doors at JLB, which leads one to wonder if they're not using the same location for both buildings.

- If even Jez thinks racism is wrong, it must be; though he is careful to allow an exception for "racist horseplay."

- It's interesting Mark knows the word for the pieces in Tetris, tetriminoes. A quick web search reveals that this is an actual mathematical term for them, rather than a jazzy, made-up marketing word, as I'd thought.

- "Political correctness gone mad" makes another appearance.

- How, exactly, does the Gog story end up? When we leave it, Jez and Super Hans are about to beat him up for money.

- One feels a bit sorry for Daryl as he's kicked out of JLB. Hopefully he finds some way to come back in the future.

WW2 references:
- Messing around at work, Mark pretends to be Barnes Wallis, while Daryl is the Ruhr. Sir Barnes Wallis invented the bouncing bomb that destroyed the Mohne and Eder dams, flooding the Ruhr valley. Mark is delighted that nobody has actually mentioned the film "The Dam Busters," which chronicles this event. A bit too on-the-nose for a man who wishes such information was common knowledge.
- Mark and Daryl being in-costume as Nazis at the WW2 re-enactment, of course.

UK references:
- Before smoking crack, Super Hans tells Jeremy to relax because it's not "Blue Peter," a children's show on the BBC.
- Daryl is a big fan of Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson seems to be a right-wing, almost libertarian, anti-EU, anti-government sort of fellow who hosts Top Gear, a TV show about cars, and seems to appeal to the common man. The closest analogue I can think of might be Don Cherry, yet I don't think that's entirely accurate or fair to Cherry. He's mentioned earlier, in the first season.
- A "cash point" seems to be the UK term for an ATM.
- Thierry Henry plays for the French national football (soccer?) team.
- "Savage" may be David Savage, an English footballer (as they say).
- Mark thinks that Daryl must play his cor anglais in the "BNP jazz combo." The British National Party, I take it, is sort of like the old Reform Party, only more honest about being racists.

Just a couple'a lads playin' baseball

Lines:
There are way too many great lines and exchanges in this one to catalogue, but here are a few (remember, I transcribe them because I love you):

- Jeremy: What have you got in there?
Superhans: It’s a bit of crack.
Jeremy: Crack? Crack, Superhans?
Superhans: Relax, it’s not Blue Peter. Just having a nice little relaxing smoke of crack.

- Mark, on having to work the phones for a weekend at JLB: "Saturday shift. I thought we had people in Ireland to do this for us."

- Mark: What’s Hans doing?
Jeremy: He’s honking on his crack pipe.
Mark: Crack?! I’ve got company.
Jeremy: Oh relax. “Oh I’m Mark, I’m in the 80s, I’m dying of heroin in a puddle in the corner in an advert.” Drugs are fine Mark, everyone agrees now. Drugs are what happen to people. Shut up.

- Mark, unable to believe Jez' order: "Four naan, Jeremy? Four?! That's insane."

- Super Hans' idea for the Honda track: "What we have to do is create a powerful sense of dread."

- Jeremy (after his “band” has recorded an awful song for a commercial): Look, no, alright? That’s… not shit, but just… no. (Superhans lights up his pipe) Hans, you realize we’ve only got 39 minutes left.
Superhans: Oh, right, now we’re “working” it’s not okay for me to smoke my crack.
Jeremy: Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Superhans: What, so next you’re going to boot me out for not wearing a jacket and tie?

- (Mark and Daryl are posing as German troops at a War re-enactment)
Daryl: I mean, democracy’s all very well, but it’s weak and it’s decadent. You need a strong leader.
Mark: Uhh…
Daryl: I’m in character.
Mark: Oh, yes. Yes right. The… Fatherland needs the… Fuhrer. Oh god, I’m even boring when I’m a Nazi.
Daryl (after someone inspects their little War setup): Jesus. Classic rubbernecker. Absolutely no interest in military history. Might as well be checking out fucking sea drills down at farm museum (or something to that effect).
Mark: Still, it’s nice to get out of the city, isn’t it?
Daryl: Oh yes. It’s nice to get away from it all, isn’t it? The work, the smog, the graffiti.
Mark: Yeah, the traffic, the noise, the hassle.
Daryl: The car alarms, the cash points, the Blacks, the Pakis, the Jews.
Mark: Oh… yeah, yeah… I mean, that’s what we all want, a racially pure nation.
Daryl: Exactly. I mean, all we’re saying is "England for the English," right?
Mark: You mean… Germany for the Germans? You mean… this is a… are we…
Daryl: Rights for Whites. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
Mark: Is this… real now?
Daryl: We’re on the same wavelength, right? Everyone thinks it; the difference is we’re not afraid to say it.
Mark: Oh shit, oh bollocks, of course. I can’t just make a nice, normal friend. Oh no, that would be far too simple.
Daryl (to a guy who, presumably, runs the War re-enactment): Heil Hitler!
Mark: Uh, heil?
Guy: You’re not supposed to do that, Daryl. You know you’re not supposed to do that!

- Mark: Listen, I might just… pop down to the Chinky. You want anything?
Jeremy: From… uh… no, I’m alright, thanks.
Mark: What about from the Paki shop? You want anything from in there?
Jeremy: The Paki shop?
Mark: Yeah, I don’t normally go there. They’ve always got the Wop box on.
Jeremy: Mark, what the hell are you talking about?
Mark: Yeah… that’s not on, is it? What I said, it’s not alright, is it?
Jeremy: Well, no.
Mark: And, obviously you don’t think there’s a global Jewish conspiracy controlling everything.
Jeremy: What, you mean am I a racist?
Mark: Yeah. If you think that, and say those things, you’re a racist, aren’t you?
Jeremy: Well, yeah.
Mark: As it turns out, Daryl is a racist.
Jeremy: You sure he’s a proper… you know, it wasn’t just racist… horseplay?
Mark: No, because I was in the tent with him for ages and we talked for a long time and it was mostly on racial classifications; head measurements and so on.

- Jez, coming to Mark for a favour after blowing his commission: "I've basically been very, very foolish and have spent all of our advance on drugs and shoes, and I really need to borrow quite a lot of money..."

- Super Hans, feeling the shakes: "Crack, gimme crack... I'll suck for crack!"

- Says Super Hans in his shakedown of Gog, "Nice packet of Crunchy Nut you've got here. Pretty expensive, as I recall," before he pours it out on the floor.