'Cunk on Earth' looks at history from the news desk

Granted, humor is subjective. Even more so when the humor is satire. More than that, when the satire rails against self-stuffy documentaries, history, chauvinism, ignorance, and asininity. Thus, you have the funniest satire on the airwaves in "Cunk on Earth," a partnership between the BBC and Netflix.

The games begin with Philomena Cunk's surname, which plays on a word Brits use universally for men and women, friends and enemies, but a word that Americans find rude. Clad in tweed blazer and TV-blue shirt, she presents the "story of the world we built together." She starts with the Pyramids, which are not at all mysterious, she avers: they are just squares in a triangle. Nor is fire a mystery -- it merely prolonged the "long, tedious" lives of the earliest cavers.

The five episodes of her earth-shattering study cover ancient to modern times. Episode 2 ("Faith/Off") asks which is better: the Bible, which Philomena pronounces "bibble" until corrected, or the Koran. Next, the Renaissance, starting with Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" on the half-shell. Philomena declares that sculptures like Michelangelo's "David" are 3-D paintings and that Christopher Colombo is the explorer/detective. 

Next up are the Industrial Revolution, Manifest Destiny, and America as the "land of the free," which, she says, "came as a surprise to the slaves." Last, Philomena addresses the "War(s) of the World(s)" including Sputnik and Elvis.

Throughout, the amazing Diane Morgan ("After Life") as Philomena never breaks stride -- although she does smash the fourth wall under the direction of Christian Watt. She produces every word and every phrase in the pedantic style of the "landmark documentary presenter." Those phrases and words were penned by a committee on which she sits with an octet of writers. Some of their lines are brilliant (in the British sense): "Sport is theater for stupid people." Some are sophomoric: "Greece -- the country, not the musical." Some, naughty. All are funny -- from giggles to knee-slappers. It helps to know Britishisms and history to get the jokes.

The whole crafty set-up is hysterical because it pits Philomena's deadly serious stupidity against doctors of music, expert Egyptologists, Biblical scholars, and art historians. The astonished looks on their faces!