Peep Show: Mark and Jeremy’s eight most excruciatingly awkward moments so far

Channel 4’s cult sitcom is returning for one final series of hilarious misfortune
One last time: Mark and Jeremy are back in the final ever series of Peep Show
Channel 4
Ben Travis11 November 2015

Channel 4's dark point-of-view sitcom has gained a dedicated cult audience over 12 years thanks to the hilarious "adventures" (aka, sitting around in a dingy Croydon flat) of Mark and Jeremy - the former a deluded socially-inept nerd, the latter a deluded socially-extravagant rock star wannabe.

Brilliant as the show is, upon rewatching the entire series the thing that’s most apparent is just how excruciatingly, toe-curlingly, stomach-churningly awkward it can be.

With Mark’s largely pathetic attempts at impressing his office crush Sophie and Jeremy’s propensity to turn any situation into a ‘that escalated quickly’ nightmare, the two have had some jaw-droppingly cringworthy encounters through the show.

Here are some of the most memorable ones - best watched peeking through your fingers.

Warning: clips contain strong language

1) “Then I go and spoil it all…”

There’s a reason younger generations hate having to make phone calls. When the other person picks up, you end up talking over each other. When they don’t, you can accidentally end up singing the worst love song ever down the phone on voicemail. “It was the behaviour of an oddball,” Mark mourns.

2) “God, it’s so easy being a freak”

Mark’s love of Sophie leads him to some dark places, but few darker than the hippy ‘rainbow rhythms’ dance class he attends to impress her. Trouble is, once he really lets go and “opens the box”, Mark gives the most manic, least seductive dance of all time.

3) “I’m just down in Dartmouth at the moment with a lovely young student girl…”

Mark meets a Dartmouth University student in a shoe shop, falls head-over-heels for her, and pretends to be a student so that he can try and sleep with her. Thinking he’s in luck, he can’t resist a quick gloating call to Sophie’s voicemail, before finding out that nothing is going to happen that night.

4) “That’s great, help the muggers”

Getting mugged is clearly never a good experience, but has it ever been this downright awkward? Mark hands his phone across to a threatening guy in a dodgy underpass, and when asked if he has anything else of value he hands across his, erm, London travelcard.

Mitchell and Webb - in pictures

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5) “Is that normal pooing you’re doing?”

Jez’s plans for a magic mushroom party while Mark’s away on business go awry when Mark gets ill and can no longer go on his trip. After poisoning him with Lemsip, Jez locks Mark away so he doesn’t spoil the mood – but upon being rescued by his boss Johnson, Mark proceeds to relieve his bowels in devastatingly noisy style.

6) “It’s just turkey, look. Mmmm!”

Mark’s stag do goes from bad to oh-god-how-the-hell-did-we-get-here in spectacular fashion when Jeremy runs over the dog belonging to a nice girl he meets on a barge. Trying to burn the evidence doesn’t work, and when caught with the remains, Jez claims it’s barbecued turkey and nibbles at a leg. A new low for all involved.

7) The entire wedding

Mark’s absolute nadir of dignity comes when he finally realises his dream of marrying Sophie – except, he doesn’t really want to marry her in the end, and the ceremony (in which Jez wees himself in the church, Mark tries to hide, and Sophie cries) is almost too agonising to watch. Brilliantly awful.

8) “Is this the worst thing I’ve ever done? It might be”

Despite the disastrous wedding, an extra hook-up between Mark and Sophie leads to her getting pregnant. But when she’s giving birth, Mark does a runner and wanders off to eat a bucket of fried chicken and play arcade games.

Channel 4, 10pm

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