Indie sitcom M.U.F.F. set to premiere online

An idealistic intern starts work at a corrupt TV company run by a psychotic board of directors high on their own power, but his attempts to take a stand against their unscrupulous practices is more likely to result in the apocalypse than ethical broadcasting. 

Such is the premise of this new sitcom, self-made by a group of local comedy heroes sick of not being able to create their preferred kind of broadcast comedy for the usual TV networks. But don't think for a moment this is a bunch of disaffected misfits forced to go their own way, hell-bent on revenge because they couldn't get a TV deal. After all, co-creator Daniel Sloss is famous enough these days for the image of his face to glower down at Edinburgh residents from the side of Lothian Buses. No, it seems Sloss, Tom Stade, Charlie Parker and Joe McTernan came up with M.U.F.F. because they wanted to make something artistically true to themselves. 

As its trailer shows, M.U.F.F. is more than a potshot at TV today. It certainly looks set to be an eclectic show thanks to a plot featuring drugs, guns, blood, ball pits, Nazis, bananas, zombies and a strong female character.

Jojo Sutherland is the comedian playing that strong female character, and she smiles across the table in Pickle and Custard on Lothian Road as we ask, “Satire, parody, zombie apocalypse… what is M.U.F.F. Productions?”

However, our weak attempts to pigeonhole the sitcom aren't going to wash.

“I think it's at least all three,” she says, “It's not meant for a mainstream audience.”

After the moral panic that followed Russell Brand's lewd answerphone message to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs' granddaughter in 2008, broadcast comedy came under far greater scrutiny. For many, this is the root cause for much of the safe, no risk approach to TV commissioning today: “TV is eating itself," says Sutherland, "After Sachsgate no-one wants to make a difficult decision. But by trying to please everyone with a safe schedule, ultimately you please no-one. M.U.F.F. is something of a satire on this, but also has been created as a response to it."

This all leads to innovative comedy seeping in to other streams: "It's about giving content to people who don't want to be spoonfed. It's exciting to be in that change, where people get their content from different media.”

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There's certainly no danger of blandness when it comes to Sutherland's role. As she describes her character Hilary: “She's a no-nonsense, straight talking, blackmailing company director. She's vile with no moral compass and swears like a trooper.”

From the clips we've seen, The Skinny suspect this is just what her friends say about her.

Despite playing such an unfriendly character, Sutherland speaks fondly of the communal spirit between the cast and creators from when they started filming back in January: “We worked for 28 days solid – from 6am to 11pm. It was so much fun.”

Was this a bit like doing the two Fringes this year? 

"I think the Fringe is awesome, no other city has every nook and cranny taken over by comedy. It's like a massive party – things just happen in the moment. It's meant to be dangerous and fucked up. And, yes, M.U.F.F. has that spirit of imagination and improvisation to it."

And Sutherland promises that convivial atmosphere comes across in the series: “You can't laugh as much as we did on set without it transferring to the screen.”