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Forward

The idea was born at the beginning of Summer 2020 in an attempt to bring some laughs to our friends during a rather depressing pandemic. When June came, Ireland suddenly emerged from a long period of isolation. Forbidden to see anyone other than our families, there was a ubiquitous craving for social interaction. And soon thereafter, a beautiful trend began to blossom: Getting as drunk as humanly possible in other people’s gardens.

On one such night, as the four of us debated the inner workings of the universe, it decided to rain. Desperate to keep easing the anxiety of an unknown global future, we promptly moved two pieces of garden furniture into the unused shed at the bottom of my garden.

The inspiration was instant. Looking back through the raised wall toward an outward facing couch surrounded by random pieces of junk, we all saw it at the same time, the uncanny resemblance to some kind of perfectly shit sitcom set.

Foreseeing nothing but a dull, house-bound Summer ahead, we thought: Wouldn’t it be funny to make a full season of a sitcom in here to share with our friends? The joke being that we’d actually take it seriously, that we’d actually do it. And so we did.

Over the following months, we wrote scripts, memorised lines, rehearsed blocking, created a title sequence, put out promotional trailers, cast our friends as guest stars, wrote a theme song, based the characters on heightened versions of ourselves, incorporated a stiff studio laugh track, released an episode every week at the same time — Essentially, we adopted every known trope of the sitcom genre to express our utter boredom and slow descent into post-lockdown insanity.

We wanted the concept itself to be the joke. The idea that some dumb, random, inside bit would actually manifest into a real thing, it’s actual existence, this was what we found so funny. The reaction of “What? Why?” This was what we set out to achieve.

A key part of this immediate and fully-formed idea was incorporating truth. No fake character names or backstories were ever even considered. We knew from the outset that this show needed to do what so many of the iconic sitcoms do, and that is, draw from elements of the real.

A commitment to the ridiculous, this has always been a vital thread woven into the fabric of our friendship. And from the outset, we understood that this show would be no different. In fact, we strived for it to be the magnum opus of our dumb inside jokes.

There’s a certain beauty in taking the absurd seriously, and when reflecting on a Summer that had initially promised nothing but mild alcoholism, we realise how weirdly incredible this time turned out to be. How one fleeting joke, when cared for, offered up so much more than just a laugh. We think of the unlikely friendships forged, the unforgettable memories made, the numerous laws almost definitely broken, and we thank God it rained that one drunken afternoon.