Ocelots were no match for Tommy. He was a great man. A powerful man. A handsome man.
In "Jungle", Dixon Bainbridge is threatening to sell the zoo. Howard feels down because he believes that this wouldn't be happening if Tommy Nooka, the zoo's old owner who died in a mysterious incident ten years ago, was still around. Howard insists that Tommy is still alive, and journeys into the zoo's Jungle Room with Vince to find him.Vince and Howard part ways in the jungle. Howard eventually finds Tommy, who has become one with cheese. Meanwhile Vince meets the Jazz-fusion philosopher Rudi van di Sarzio, and eventually finds his way to Howard with help from Rudi, a magic pipe, and a summoned locksmith.
Vince and Howard drag Tommy towards the exit, but they are accosted by Mod Wolves. Fortunately, Vince is King of the Mods, so they escape after a dance number, but Tommy can go no farther. But together, they hatch a plan to get the better of Dixon Bainbridge.
The Mighty Boosh episode "Jungle" contains these tropes:
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: In their hours-long trek through the jungle, Howard gets covered in leaves, dirt, and blood, while Vince's hair and spiffy suit remain perfectly pristine.
- Bigger on the Inside: The Jungle Room is a room in the zoo which seems like a medium-sized zoo enclosure but is so large that you can get lost for hours and a number of people have lived there for years without being noticed.
- Brick Joke: In the episode intro, which typically break the fourth wall and are ambiguously canon, Vince insists that Mick Jagger is a real hero. In the episode proper, Howard insists at the beginning that Tommy is a real hero, but much later in the episode, after dealing with some of Tommy's weird behavior he admits that maybe they would have been better off with Mick Jagger.
- Chekhov's Gag:
- Vince spends the first half constantly talking about how he's the King of the Mods. This pays off later on when they're surrounded by Mod Wolves with Tommy, a Rocker (and thus the enemy of the mods). Thanks to Vince's status, the party does a dance with the wolves instead of getting eaten.
- Rudi gives Vince a magic flute that can summon him with a sequence of notes. He dials the wrong sequence and summons a locksmith instead, who isn't much help finding Howard. But at the end of the episode, they've achieved all their goals but are locked into the Jungle Room. Guess who comes in handy?
- Community-Threatening Construction: Bainbridge mentions that he is selling the zoo so it can be bulldozed and a highway can be built over it. Howard is deeply saddened by this, and goes to find Tommy Nookah in order to stop this scheme.
- Credits Gag: A small one. Bob Fossil says "the show is over", to which Bainbridge replies, "But is it really o—" and is cut off by the credits rolling.
- Dance Party Ending: The Tag is a continuation of Howard and Vince dancing with the Mod Wolves.
- Delighting in Riddles: Tommy encourages Howard to question everything, and likes to reply to anything anyone says with "But is it really?". Vince, Howard, and eventually Dixon Bainbridge start doing the same thing.
- Eccentric Mentor: Howard considers Tommy his hero and mentor, but he's quite a strange guy. Tommy eats nothing but cheese, constantly asks meaningless fauxlosophical questions, and is quite bad at dancing.
- In the Hood: Howard first encounters Tommy as a mysterious figure in the jungle shrouded in a dark cloak that covers his face. This creates suspense about who he is, but also obscures Tommy's instantly recognizable, horrific cheese head.
- Menagerie of Misery: In the episode "Jungle", Howard tells Vince the zoo has been falling apart since the old manager, Tommy, went missing.
- Mercy Kill Arrangement: Tommy Nooka is dying, or something, and has Howard kill him with a cheese grater so that his body can be used against Bainbridge.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Wolves in the jungle, and no other jungle animals. They are Mod Wolves after all, perhaps their habitat is different.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Everyone knows Tommy died ten years ago in the ocelot pit, but they Never Found the Body and Howard insists he is still alive. It turns out he's been living in the Jungle Room, slowly going crazy, ever since.
- Scooter-Riding Mod: In this episode, Vince is "King of the Mods" and wears a neat blue suit with a psychedelic scarf. Eventually they meet a bunch of "Mod Wolves" that are dressed similarly, and do a dance number to 60's rock that features some of them riding scooters.
- Secret Test of Character:
- Vince asks Rudi for help finding Howard, but Rudi acts coy and wise and offers him a pipe instead of being useful. When Vince returns the pipe because he doesn't want it, Rudi tells him he has passed the test, and then actually helps him find Howard.
- Parodied shortly thereafter when Rudi asks Vince to kiss his balls, and Vince refuses for obvious reasons.Rudi: "You have passed the test. Most men would have kissed my balls."
- Thanatos Gambit: Tommy's gambit to defeat Dixon Bainbridge involves Howard killing him and feeding his cheesy body to Bainbridge. This seems to turn Bainbridge into Tommy, as he starts speaking in pointless questions and becomes completely useless, causing the deal to fail.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Vince accidentally butt-dials a locksmith with his magic flute, who's pretty useless in a jungle with no locks or buildings. But this ability to summon a locksmith becomes essential at the end of the episode, when Vince and Howard discover they've been locked into the Jungle Room.
- This Is as Far as I Go: On their journey out of the Jungle Room, Tommy, Howard's hero, collapses on the ground and insists he can go no farther. Howard and Vince try to drag him out, but he insists they give him a Mercy Kill right there.
- True Beauty Is on the Inside: Subverted. Tommy admits that with his giant cheese face he's not much to look at, but that true beauty is on the inside, and dancing allows his inner beauty to shine. He then does an awkward, shuffling dance, while tunelessly singing "Cheese is a kind of meat", which is anything but beautiful.
