People Just Do Nothing is a British television mockumentary sitcom, created and performed by Allan "Seapa" Mustafa, Steve Stamp, Asim Chaudhry and Hugo Chegwin.
The programme follows the lives of MC Grindah, DJ Beats and their friends, who run Kurupt FM, a pirate radio station broadcasting UK garage and drum and bass music from Brentford in West London.
The programme originally began as a series of online shorts that became popular enough that the group were asked to make a pilot episode for BBC3's Comedy Feeds.
The "documentary" follows the fortunes of "Kurupt FM", a pirate radio station broadcasting UK garage music from a flat in Brentford, West London.
"[6] The show plays off their stupidity; Rachel Aroesti of The Guardian has said, "Every character is really, quite comfortingly, dense, and their inability to read scenarios correctly is the source of nearly all the comedy.
You laugh at their failures, but it's a weird kind of schadenfreude because every character is so endearing you want them to succeed, not relentlessly embarrass themselves in front of a TV crew.
Chegwin and Mustafa began creating characters and filming them, and were further inspired when they watched the BBC documentary series Tower Block Dreams, about London and Essex's underground music scene, and found the participants amusing.
[10] The actors have named their primary influences as The Office, This Is Spinal Tap, Alan Partridge, Ali G, Laurel and Hardy, and Mike Leigh.
[10] Writing credits go to Allan Mustafa and Steve Stamp,[11] but the cast are given freedom to improvise their dialogue and sometimes film scenes spontaneously.
Chaudhry explained, "When you've been doing a character for six years, you can just snap into it – you know how they'd react in any situation", adding that he is continuously inspired by his father, "because he's like a real Chabuddy G, just not as ridiculous".
After the release of the first series, Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy called it "the best British comedy in years", and lamented that few people were aware of its "comedic genius".
"[6] Gerard O'Donovan of The Telegraph gave the pilot episode four stars out of five, and said, "Entertaining, and absolutely of its time, People Just Do Nothing certainly serves up some good laughs and I look forward to the next three parts.
"[13] For the second series, David Renshaw of The Guardian said it was "a welcome return from the gang", and commented "Despite its larger-than-life characters, People Just Do Nothing’s success lies in its believability ... You get the feeling that if you drove out to Brentford you might actually run in to them."
He especially praised the comedy provided by DJ Steves and Chabuddy G.[9] Rachel Aroesti, also of The Guardian, said "the episode where Grindah panics after taking a pill at his club night has good claim to be the comic highlight of 2015".
The final episode of this series offered fans a precious opportunity to laugh and cry at exactly the same time ... By making you care about the characters (even the monstrosity that is MC Grindah – a David Brent with malicious intent), viewers will now have two reasons for tuning in.
[28] In 2018, Amazon ordered a pilot episode for a U.S remake of the series, set in Las Vegas around a DJ crew called 'Whet Desert'[29] In 2020 it was announced that the project would not be going forward.
Kevin Maher of The Times gave the film 2/5 and was concerned about the Japanese stereotypes — "Eventually it starts to feel like lowest-common-denominator humour".
In May 2017, grime artist Grim Sickers released an 'All Star Remix' of his song "Kane", featuring guest verses from Kurupt FM, Jaykae, Funky Dee, President T and P Money.
On 17 November 2017, Kurupt FM released The Lost Tape on XL Recordings, a mixtape featuring the group performing over classic UK garage productions.
[42] The Lost Tape was also released with a companion mockumentary film on Vice, featuring guest appearances from Craig David, Mike Skinner and P Money.