t first listen, this seems to be a passable collection of childish pastiches of pop culture, which at times makes you laugh simply at its stupidity: it’s only really in the light of Adam and Joe’s oeuvre of intelligent and incisive dissection of the facade of pop culture that, for me at least, Song Wars Volume 2 becomes really enjoyable. Of course, no doubt the pranksters themselves would scoff at such at any sort of intelligent analysis of what is for the most part childish nonsense, without any pretence at real intelligent commentary. In this respect, one can draw the obvious comparison with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park: they just show that you don’t have to be Fry and Laurie to find humour in the rampant stupidity of modern life: you only need to walk around acting like a complete twat to bring out the inner moron in the great British public. For example Adam Buxton’s character Ken Corder, who in their TV show convinced members of the public that he was a record producer, or film director, and subsequently created a pop band in one series, and made a short film in another. Despite his acting like a complete arsehole to those involved, his artistes had complete faith in his talents (whereas in real life, it is Joe Cornish who has just directed his first feature film, ‘Attack the Block’, released next year).

So whilst, at least on the face of it, this is childish bollocks, I can enjoy SWV. 2 on the basis that I know to what extent they are playing characters when they sing lines like those in the Adam Buxton’s song ‘Nutty Room’, ‘Look at the jars, look at the jars, look at the things inside the jars/ I’ve got some fingers, there’s some hair and several winkies’. Perhaps unsurprisingly, their modus operandi is extremely similar to that of their childhood friend Louis Theroux (with whom they used to make home movies, and play the touching game, where you have to go up to strangers in the street and see how long you can touch them for, under the aegis of, for example, asking for directions): in both cases, the idea is to act like a simpleton in order to bring out the childish side of your victim, er, I mean interviewee. Except, on a CD, it’s a lot more difficult to subtlety bring out the idiot in your subject: in this respect at least, Count Cornulese trumps Bucky Balls. On SWV. 2 there are 3 cases where each of the duo has done a song on the same subject: The Quantum of Solace, Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, and Kate Nash, and in each case Joe’s slightly more subtle take on his own interpretation of the subjects definitely reaches the parts other parody can’t reach. On the other hand, Adam Buxton is the uncontested king of the absurd: songs like “Bob Dylan’s DVD box set”, in which a voice bearing absolutely no resemblance to Bob Dylan’s sings about the joy of receiving various DVD box sets as gifts, simply defy explanation, and are beautiful in their absurdity. The same goes for the duo’s alternative to ‘Happy Birthday’, ‘Birthday Time’: sung in a corny Californian accent, it’s pretty believable at points, and finishes with the immortal line ‘Birthday time, its birthday time/ why can’t we live forever?’