Peep Show, a British tv series running from 2003 to 2015, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb as a pair of miserable, co-dependent roommates living in Croydon, London, is the most realistic portrayal of inkwells and faile normies I have ever seen.
Admittedly, I’m using “incel” in an unorthodox way. Most people think of “incel” as being synonymous with “virgin” and “doing really, really bad things that harms chances with women. But I have a broader view of “incel.” I consider it creates bad outcomes not just out of malice form others, but thier instinct to shit on you when your down, or not care about incel men.
By that standard, Peep Shows’s protagonists, Mark Corrigan and Jeremy “Jez” Usborne, are incels. They’re not incels in quite the way ER was, nor in the exaggerated cartoony manner of other comedic anti-heroes like Joker. They embody the worst, weakest, most destructive traits that every single incel and non-incel individual knows exists inside of them to one degree or another.
Through nine seasons (each season only six episodes) Peep Show mines our worst fears and failures for comedy. We see modern late 20's somethings (first and 2nd series) to middle 30-somethings (series 6, 7), to 40yo's in the last series (series 9) get rejected by women, get sexually frustrated, get trapped in soul-crushing relationships, get one-upped by Alpha male social rivals, get caught in countless awkward conversations, get screwed by ruthless corporate bullshit, get bulllied in the workplace, get betrayed by unreliable normie friends, get betrayed by reliable friends who had already been betrayed, and so much more. We see this all not just by watching Mark and Jez go about their day-to-day lives, but by hearing their inner thoughts through voice-over monologues, which more often than not, reveal their actions and words as either cynical attempts to avoid facing their own failings as incels, or desperate lies to obscure their true intentions, goals, and personalities.
Admittedly, I’m using “incel” in an unorthodox way. Most people think of “incel” as being synonymous with “virgin” and “doing really, really bad things that harms chances with women. But I have a broader view of “incel.” I consider it creates bad outcomes not just out of malice form others, but thier instinct to shit on you when your down, or not care about incel men.
By that standard, Peep Shows’s protagonists, Mark Corrigan and Jeremy “Jez” Usborne, are incels. They’re not incels in quite the way ER was, nor in the exaggerated cartoony manner of other comedic anti-heroes like Joker. They embody the worst, weakest, most destructive traits that every single incel and non-incel individual knows exists inside of them to one degree or another.
Through nine seasons (each season only six episodes) Peep Show mines our worst fears and failures for comedy. We see modern late 20's somethings (first and 2nd series) to middle 30-somethings (series 6, 7), to 40yo's in the last series (series 9) get rejected by women, get sexually frustrated, get trapped in soul-crushing relationships, get one-upped by Alpha male social rivals, get caught in countless awkward conversations, get screwed by ruthless corporate bullshit, get bulllied in the workplace, get betrayed by unreliable normie friends, get betrayed by reliable friends who had already been betrayed, and so much more. We see this all not just by watching Mark and Jez go about their day-to-day lives, but by hearing their inner thoughts through voice-over monologues, which more often than not, reveal their actions and words as either cynical attempts to avoid facing their own failings as incels, or desperate lies to obscure their true intentions, goals, and personalities.
