Dean as the Computer Wizard from episode 1 of series 2

On Set

Dean taking well earned break on set

Dermot Canterbury (on the right) Stupid's director

There’s some amazing new for all STUPID fans. Series 2 is now being filmed! Sadly we won’t be seeing Marcus Brigstocke reprise the role he brought so vividly to life. There’s a new King. It’s essentially the same character, but Deed Monarchs are mythical creatures and can change their appearance, much like Time Lords in Dr Who, but that’s not where we nicked the idea from. Honest. So, we have a new King....The Ether World's new King Stupid, is Mr Phil Cornwell.

The Essential Guide To The Ether World

Deed Monarchs

For every human emotion and trait there is a Deed Monarch controlling that characteristic. They have manipulated mankind since time began and will do so for eternity. So basically – get over it.

In STUPID the central characters are King Stupid and Goober. The King is a mysterious and powerful creature, who looks human but isn’t, and has been making mankind, - especially kids - do completely random and daft things for thousands of years. Goober is his butler, a gremlin, and they have a love hate relationship with the wilier Goober often winning the day - but tricking the King into thinking that he has instead. Every Deed Monarch has a gremlin butler. Gremlins are simple creatures who are easily led. When one becomes a butler of a Deed Monarch they become influenced in varying degrees by that particular Deed Monarch’s personality and job. This is why Goober, King Stupid’s butler, is quite childish and annoying.

COUNT CRUEL

A slimy, selfish and uncaring Deed Monarch. He brings out the slyer, vindictive side of humans. Cruel can make the nicest of mortals suddenly self-centred or callous for no apparent reason. He’s the one who makes you laugh at sick jokes, or smirk when you see a kiddie fall of a bike. If you’re ever secretly glad your best friend failed at something then it’s Count Cruel manipulating you. His speciality is sarcasm. (Interesting note : Cruel is Stupid’s twin brother.)
TYPICAL LINE : You’ve sometimes got to be cruel to be kind, but you can always be cruel to be cruel.
GREMLIN BUTLER : Reaks. This gremlin is a right royal pain in the bum as he never stops playing practical jokes on everyone. From putting cling film over the toilet bowl to putting salt in the sugar jar – even if he reduces you to tears he’ll hand you a hanky laced with sneezing powder. He never laughs at his own jokes though. He’s doggedly driven to upset people.

THE EARL OF SLOTH
So incredibly bone idle and lazy. He gets around in a motorized throne as he’s too lethargic to walk anywhere. He has a soporific affect on anyone in his presence and his constant yawning makes everyone else do it too, sapping any enthusiasm for anything. It’s his job to reduce human eagerness and interest in different degrees – depending on how much he can be bothered to. The Earl Of Sloth’s duty is to make your get up and go…. get up and go.
TYPICAL LINES : I really cannot be bottomed today. What’s the point in going on holiday, you only have to come back. Stay at home and save the bother. GREMLIN BUTLER : Quiddle. A very untidy, scruffy and smelly little gremlin who never ever gets round to doing anything, including getting washed. He always puts things off until tomorrow (which never comes) and expends more energy making up excuses for NOT doing things than it would ever take just to DO the things. One of the finest procrastinators ever.

KING WONDERFUL

Wonderful makes humans feel wonderful, confident, happy and kind towards their fellow man. He emits good feelings ranging from just warm contentedness to wild euphoria. Ever felt a sudden pang of love or heart warming care for someone or something? Maybe you’ve suddenly felt like the greatest and most fabulous person on the planet and want to share that feeling? – well that’s King Wonderful doing that. He’s a larger than life character (imagine Brian Blessed on Prozac) and never has a bad word to say about anyone or anything. It’s worth noting that King Wonderful’s good nature spills out into the mortal world every December – where he is known as Santa, or Father Christmas.
TYPICAL LINES : Ah, I’ve just been told my good and dear friend Albaxor the dung troll is dead. How wonderful for him. He was dreading his mother in law coming to stay next week. Now he won’t have to bother even talking to her.
GREMLIN BUTLER : Croodle. Very caring and giving, so much so no one has seen her in 1,200 years as she’s doing missionary work at the farthest reaches of the Ether World helping flightless fairies take hang-gliding lessons, undersized trolls use stilts, (poor things are only 9 foot tall) and swimming lessons for mermaids who are scared of water.

KING ANGRY
A fearsome character who is constantly either incensed with rage or just seething with subdued fury. Anything and anyone winds him up and he snaps with only the slightest provocation. He hurls things around, shouts, stamps his feet and throttles people. His butler, Suggill has a metal collar round his neck at all times in readiness for the many throttlings he’ll endure each day. Angry makes humans bad tempered, intolerant and violent. He thought up epidemics like Road Rage and Air Rage and is constantly inventing new ones, (his latest is Bath Rage – the fury you feel when someone’s used your flannel, or left a tide mark round the bath that you’ve just got in.)
TYPICAL LINES : Do you HAVE to breathe like that! It’s soooooooooooo annoying! It’s a nice day today – I HATE nice days!
GREMLIN BUTLER : Suggill. A thuggish and criminal brute of a gremlin. Always ready for a scrap, loves to pick fights and tends to deliberately break anything he touches.

QUEEN SENSIBLE

The bane of Stupid’s life – even more annoying than Goober. Queen Sensible is so infuriatingly prudent and level-headed about each and every little thing she does. She is the exact opposite of King Stupid and they really do despise one another (or do they?) The Queen is the moral and wise side of human behaviour. It’s her influence that makes kids open a savings account, or take a spare pair of pants with them if they went far from home – the kind of things only boring adults should think about.
TYPICAL LINES : Chew every mouthful of food 27 times and brush your teeth after each meal. My teeth are my monoliths to healthy eating.
GREMLIN BUTLER : Lulibub. An extremely polite and nice little female gremlin who only speaks when spoken to. She has impeccable manners and is amazingly polite to everyone. She does everything she’s told to and never leaves a mess. And consequently, like Queen Sensible, has no friends.

LADY STRANGE

A mysterious and soft spoken woman who moves very slowly, seemingly pondering ever action – however trivial. She’s quite infuriating because she never seems to be 100% listening to you – her attention is somewhere else and always gives a smug, knowing look as if to say she knows a lot more than he’s letting on. Strange is an elusive Deed Monarch who rarely puts in an appearance – and her work reflects this. She makes humans suddenly feel odd, out of place and weird.
TYPICAL LINES : I’m feeling mysterious today. Have you ever wondered if your insides actually like each other.
GREMLIN BUTLER : Beatnik. A hippy, flower power gremlin. Very very laid back and wise (well, he thinks he, but he’s bleeding not!) If you ask him the time he’d answer with some hippy claptrap like, ‘Hey man, why ask the time, time aint never asked anything of you has it? Chill.’ Beatnik says chill a lot, usually when putting flowers in people’s pockets.

Some others...
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY LUCK
Gremlin Butler : Freebie

KING GREEDY
Gremlin Butler : Snaffles

QUEEN QUARRELSOME
Gremlin Butler : Brangling

TSAR STUBBORN
Gremlin Butler : Starky

QUEEN SHY
Gremlin Butler : Fubber

PRINCESS PASSION
Gremlin Butler : Whimbrell

THE VISCOUNT VALIANT
Gremlin Butler : Gallant

QUEEN CURIOUS
Gremlin Butler : Nosey

ETHER SPEAK :

some phrases you might need...

DEED BACKS (slang)
Ether World Money. Notes or coins. Dargs, Rixles and Sofas. All Ether World money has a picture of a Deed Monarch, living or not quite so living, on the back of them, just like ours. In fact their money is quite similar to Brit money but it’s much more simple. 101 Dargs to 1 Rixle, both of which are smallish coins. Sofas, on the other hand are sofas. Large three seater settees. The Ether World Council decided so many Dargs and Rixles get lost down the backs of sofas they’d actually make Sofas currency. Sofas come in four values, 5 Rixle, 10 Rixle, 20 Rixle and 50 Rixle. As a consequence large scale monetary exchanges can be time consuming and back breaking. The current King Stupid’s picture is on the back of a 20 Rixle Sofa.
MUTTON TEA (beverage)
The most common beverage in the Ether World. Note we didn’t say popular! That’s because it’s horrible. Made from compressed, dead, elderly sheep. It has a foul salty, meaty taste to it which leave one even more thirsty. No one’s actually got round to inventing a nicer cup of tea out of anything like leaves or something, but they all live in hope. Also known by the slang names Ewe-Brew, Baa-Jeeling, and Hurl Grey.
PRINCE (slang / derogatory / taboo)
A racist and offensive name for a gremlin used by everyone because it’s so funny. It’s derived from ‘Purple Pain.’ It’s source stemming from the human song Purple Rain by tiny, knock kneed pillock Prince.
RORY GRUE (food)
A gremlin delicacy which looks like lumpy, grey porridge with a blob of lime jelly in it, but that’s where the similarity ends. It’s horrid! It contains griffin vomit and gangrene jelly, plus a few other additives like powdered dolphin, witches’ toe nail scrapings etc, and the secret ingredient only Goober’s family know about. A bit like Colonel Sanders told no-one the secret ingredient to his famous Unlucky Fried Kitten.

Stupid Merchandise

(only available in the Ether World)

T-shirts : sizes and prices
XSmall (pixy) – 1 Darg
Small – 5 Dargs
Medium – 1 Rixle, 30 Dargs
Large - 6 Rixles, 40 Dargs
XLarge – 10 Rixles
XXLarge (troll) –20 Rixle Sofa

Foam DEVIL FINGER

The prod rod from Hell! Hours of annoying fun. 6 Dargs each

Book shelf

Road Rage, And How To Do it Properly by King Angry

How To Get A Day’s Work Out Of Your Gremlin

by Magrathea Sterntask.

Top tips for getting your purple servant actually doing stuff! Magrathea has been training gremlins for ten thousand years and runs her own employment agency for mythical creatures, the Job Centaur.

All Books Are 4 Rixles Each But Can Be Stolen For Much Less From Any Public Library

Incredible Edibles!

Fairy Rings -

Gently hacked from the finest, plumpest Alpine fairies. 5 Rixle Sofas each. Worth that little bit extra.

RORY GRUE

Goober’s own recipe!

Only 15 Dargs a jar!
Special offer – 2 for 30 Dargs.

DRINK MUTTON TEA

Now available in bags!

Freshly baked

road-kill hedgehog pizza
30 dargs / stuffed crust 40 dargs
You can taste the tyre marks!