Garth Marenghi
Encyclopedia
Garth Marenghi is a fictional horror author
and actor, created by English
comedians Matthew Holness
and Richard Ayoade
, and played by Holness. To date, the character has appeared in two stage shows, the Perrier Award-nominated Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight
and Perrier Award-winning Garth Marenghi's Netherhead
, and the Channel 4
TV series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
and Man to Man with Dean Learner
.
After winning the Perrier Award, the creators confounded media sources by refusing to speak out of character, or give real names or backgrounds. As such, early reports speak of Garth Marenghi, and his publisher, Dean Learner
, in character.
pulp horror
author; his act, and his works are considered a parody of the horror genre. The name "Garth Marenghi" is an anagram of the phrase "argh nightmare."
The character is highly conceited, often describing himself through epithets such as "the dream weaver", "shaman", "titan of terror", "The One Man Fear Factory" and "master of the macabre." In interviews, he compares himself positively with James Joyce
, Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci
and Jesus
.
Despite this, Marenghi displays a general ignorance of many subjects of which he claims knowledge. He claims to be self-taught
, having left school young ("I knew by the age of eight that my education had finished"), and he rarely reads books. When he needs to learn about a subject, he will "hire someone to go and find out about it." In both stage shows, in the official website, and in numerous interviews he claims to have written more books than he has read.
Marenghi displays other negative traits including sexism
and xenophobia
. He is depicted as married with four daughters, though disappointed at not having a son. The Darkplace episode "Skipper the Eye Child" explains this, and references this in its plot with Marenghi's character Rick Dagless shown as having a deceased son who was half boy, half grasshopper.
horror show. Within this fictional context, 50 shows were created, but were never shown as they were suppressed by "MI-8" for being "too subversive, too dangerous, too damn scary."
Many jokes are based on the premise that Garth Marenghi not only created and wrote the series, but also plays the central character. As such, characters reflect Marenghi's world-view, and his own character — Doctor Rick Dagless, M.D. — exhibits many characteristics of a Mary Sue
.
's talk series, Man to Man with Dean Learner
, where he reveals that he lost an ear in an ambulance crash, has written a total of 436 books, and has filmed a new movie, War of the Wasps, featuring most the cast of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and actor, created by English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
comedians Matthew Holness
Matthew Holness
Matthew Holness is an English comedian and actor from Whitstable in Kent. He attended Chaucer Technology School in Canterbury and read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was vice-president of the Cambridge Footlights...
and Richard Ayoade
Richard Ayoade
Richard Ellef Ayoade is a British comedian, actor, writer and director best known for his role as Maurice Moss in The IT Crowd.Ayoade was born an only child to a Norwegian mother, Dagny , and a Nigerian father, Layide Ade Laditi Ayoade. Ayoade studied at St...
, and played by Holness. To date, the character has appeared in two stage shows, the Perrier Award-nominated Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight
Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight
Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight was a low-budget comedy horror stage show written by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade, and starring Holness, Ayoade and Alice Lowe...
and Perrier Award-winning Garth Marenghi's Netherhead
Garth Marenghi's Netherhead
Garth Marenghi's Netherhead was a low-budget comedy horror stage show written by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade, and starring Holness, Ayoade and Alice Lowe...
, and the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
TV series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is a British dark comedy show made for Channel 4 by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade. Following on from Garth Marenghi's Netherhead, which won the 2001 Perrier Awards, the show revolves around fictional horror author Garth Marenghi and his publisher Dean Learner...
and Man to Man with Dean Learner
Man to Man with Dean Learner
Man to Man with Dean Learner is a British comedy chat show that was first broadcast on Channel 4 on October 20, 2006 and released on DVD on September 3, 2007...
.
After winning the Perrier Award, the creators confounded media sources by refusing to speak out of character, or give real names or backgrounds. As such, early reports speak of Garth Marenghi, and his publisher, Dean Learner
Dean Learner
Dean Learner is a fictional character created and performed by British comedian Richard Ayoade in stage shows and television shows. Learner is a famous publisher, mostly of pornography, but also of the books of the fictional horror writer, Garth Marenghi .Ayoade first played Learner in the...
, in character.
Character
Garth Marenghi is a spoofParody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
pulp horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
author; his act, and his works are considered a parody of the horror genre. The name "Garth Marenghi" is an anagram of the phrase "argh nightmare."
The character is highly conceited, often describing himself through epithets such as "the dream weaver", "shaman", "titan of terror", "The One Man Fear Factory" and "master of the macabre." In interviews, he compares himself positively with James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
and Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
.
Despite this, Marenghi displays a general ignorance of many subjects of which he claims knowledge. He claims to be self-taught
Autodidacticism
Autodidacticism is self-education or self-directed learning. In a sense, autodidacticism is "learning on your own" or "by yourself", and an autodidact is a person who teaches him or herself something. The term has its roots in the Ancient Greek words αὐτός and διδακτικός...
, having left school young ("I knew by the age of eight that my education had finished"), and he rarely reads books. When he needs to learn about a subject, he will "hire someone to go and find out about it." In both stage shows, in the official website, and in numerous interviews he claims to have written more books than he has read.
Marenghi displays other negative traits including sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
and xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
. He is depicted as married with four daughters, though disappointed at not having a son. The Darkplace episode "Skipper the Eye Child" explains this, and references this in its plot with Marenghi's character Rick Dagless shown as having a deceased son who was half boy, half grasshopper.
Darkplace
The show Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is based on the premise that Garth Marenghi wrote and starred in a 1980s low-budget hospital-basedMedical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
horror show. Within this fictional context, 50 shows were created, but were never shown as they were suppressed by "MI-8" for being "too subversive, too dangerous, too damn scary."
Many jokes are based on the premise that Garth Marenghi not only created and wrote the series, but also plays the central character. As such, characters reflect Marenghi's world-view, and his own character — Doctor Rick Dagless, M.D. — exhibits many characteristics of a Mary Sue
Mary Sue
A Mary Sue , in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader...
.
Other television appearances
Marenghi also guests in the first episode of Dean LearnerDean Learner
Dean Learner is a fictional character created and performed by British comedian Richard Ayoade in stage shows and television shows. Learner is a famous publisher, mostly of pornography, but also of the books of the fictional horror writer, Garth Marenghi .Ayoade first played Learner in the...
's talk series, Man to Man with Dean Learner
Man to Man with Dean Learner
Man to Man with Dean Learner is a British comedy chat show that was first broadcast on Channel 4 on October 20, 2006 and released on DVD on September 3, 2007...
, where he reveals that he lost an ear in an ambulance crash, has written a total of 436 books, and has filmed a new movie, War of the Wasps, featuring most the cast of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.
External links
- Official website
- Save Darkplace - fansite
- "The Ooze: A Review" at The Fiction CircusThe Fiction CircusThe Fiction Circus is a Brooklyn-based online literary magazine that currently publishes short fiction and essays on the arts. The group also holds staged multimedia fiction readings accompanied by electronic music and incorporating visual art and theater as a frame narrative...
- O.S.T Show Matthew Holness as Garth Marenghi on Resonance FMResonance FMResonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective .The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.Until September 2007, ResonanceFM...
's OST Show