My favorite iconic lines from Philomena Cunk
Philomena Cunk. A new name creating buzz and taking the internet by storm because of her weird and funny take on the history of humanity. But is she good enough to be true? Sadly, Philomena Cunk is a fictional character. Played by Diane Morgan, her performance is well-applauded as her deadpan and comedic timing is just pure brilliance. Morgan might not be recognizable internationally, but she is a well-known British actress and comedian.
Charlie Brooker, known for writing Black Mirror, originally introduced Philomena Cunk in his satirical television review program, Weekly Wipe. Cunk was a character in the show who gave a monotonous commentary with mispronunciations and some false information. This shows that she’s not really aware of what she is saying. That is what makes it really hilarious.
Spin-offs were made in BBC Two for Philomena Cunk, starting with Cunk on Britain (2016) and Cunk on Shakespeare (2018). Later on, she took on the world with Cunk on Earth which originally premiered on BBC Two in 2022. The technical facts provided by historians are indeed true. Well, sometimes information said by Cunk herself is also true, but we can detect if it’s purely satirical anyway. So be sure to binge-watch the mockumentary as she articulates more quirky and hilarious lines. Looking ahead to the future, it is foreseeable that its uniqueness will surely establish the show as a cult classic.
Here are some of the most iconic lines from Philomena Cunk herself:
“The Egyptians believe that the most significant thing you could do in your life was die.”
While tackling the history of Ancient Egypt, she explored the pyramids as well as the tombs of past pharaohs. While demonstrating, she tends to give raw and unfiltered statements and “facts”. What’s funnier about this is a clip of her rolling down the sand dunes was shown while giving a serious explanation.
“King Arthur came a lot, didn’t he?”
Dr. Laura Ashe, a real British historian of English medieval literature, was asked by Philomena Cunk about King Arthur. Instead of Camelot, the latter misunderstood it for “came a lot”. This was really amusing since Ashe managed to keep a straight face during the conversation. Cunk then followed up with a question about her thoughts. “But do we know if he came a lot? Like just the same as an average man, like about a tablespoon?”
“When a male scientist like Bruce Banner gets exposed to gamma radiation, he gets to be a superhero. Marie Curie just gets killed.”
Tackling radioactivity and Marie Curie, her curiosity then led to the unfair results between Curie and Banner’s discovery.
“I’m entering a cave, not by mistake or because I’m a wolf. “But because I’ve been specifically asked to come here by the producers, to look at cave art.”
Giving the audience a glimpse of the art that dates back to the Ice Age, she then ventured inside a cave. Cunk provided her own interpretation and stated that some of it was an ancient type of 2D motion picture.
“Galileo’s full name was Galileo Figaro Magnifico, wasn’t it?”
Confusing Galileo Galilei with the lyrics from Bohemian Rhapsody (one of Queen’s hits), she also referred to it as Dominican Rhapsody. Then later on she compared her name to the Italian astronomer. If that was Galileo Galilei, she thought that it must be like her being called Philomena Philameni.
The Big Question: Renaissance or Single Ladies?
“Which was more culturally significant, the Renaissance or Single Ladies by Beyoncé?”
This one is considered as one of her most hilarious lines in the show. She asked British art historian Prof. Martin John Kemp this really interesting question. Technically Beyonce also has an album named Renaissance, she was actually pertaining to the European period. Kemp stated that while she was rather fond of Beyoncé, the Renaissance actually meant to reform culture as a whole. This led Cunk to ask this follow-up question. “So what, the work of a few straight white men just blows Beyoncé out of the water? Is that what you are saying? On camera?”
“The Greeks had an empire and the Chinese had an empire. But when most of us think of the word empire, we think of the big ones. Star Wars, or Rome, and this is history so it’s Rome, I’m afraid.”
It’s really a mood that she prefers to discuss a galaxy far, far away rather than talk about history.
What’s funny and ironic about this whole mockumentary is that they got real doctors and historians from distinguished universities. According to Diane Morgan during an interview with Seth Meyers, the professionals don’t know the questions that would be asked. So what we got on screen was just pure genuine confusion and them trying to keep a straight face.
Seeing that Philomena Cunk always has something to say about history, trust us, there’s more to it than this. If you’re curious for more, you could watch her five-part mockumentary, now streaming on Netflix.
