Reception
Unsurprisingly for such an unconventional series, Jam received mixed reaction from reviewers, with views ranging from "the most radical and original television programme broadcast in years", to accusations of it being "adolescent" and "sick." and "self indulgent (yet) interesting and problematic". Despite its content, the broadcast attracted nowhere near the controversy that the following year's Brass Eye Special did.
The show is considered in some circles as much as a horror as it is a comedy, even coming in at number 26 on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Scary Moments, managing to beat other more famous horrors such as Carrie and The Silence of the Lambs. Despite this success, it is not generally held in as high esteem as Morris' earlier, satirical TV work. In an interview in 2008, Graham Linehan admitted to mixed feelings about contributing to the series: "Jam wouldn’t be my favourite thing of Chris’s, and it was the one where I didn’t really feel like we were contributing a lot. Its mood was so grim that I just found it difficult to join in. I think that Chris was just interested in tying people in moral knots – giving them a moral problem and then just twisting it so they have to do something awful to get out of the first moral problem. Although this is a secondary impulse for him, he’s also interested in pushing buttons that haven’t been pushed in comedy in people; making them laugh in a way that they’re not used to...Personally I just want to make people laugh."
Other comedians' high regard for Morris and his work saw Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish parody Jam on their Channel 4 show The Adam and Joe Show. Entitled "Goitre", the sketch saw the two make a very amateurish attempt at creating unsettling sketches. One such sketch involved a repair man who found a "dead baby" (actually a doll) behind a TV and insisted he would have to bugger it in order to fix the television. The sketch later appeared as an extra feature on the Jam DVD.
The show received a number of complaints when it was first broadcast in 2000, which were upheld in relation to three sketches: "Coffin Mistake", "Sex For Houses" and "Plumber Baby" as they were deemed insensitive to the bereaved and those with learning difficulties. The show was classified "18" by the BBFC for very strong language and sexual content (particularly the "Gush" sketch, which depicts a prosthetic erection and fake semen.)
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